Subcommittee on Core Curriculum Minutes 2015-08-28

Call to Order

The Subcommittee on Core Curriculum was called to order by Mary Magoulick at 1:00 p.m. in Arts & Sciences 2-51.

Attendance

Voting Members Present: Nancy Beasley, Roberta Gorham, Mary Magoulick, Cara Meade Smith, Brandon Samples, Dana Wood
Non-Voting Member Present: Kay Anderson
Regrets: Ruth Carter, Kristi Papailler, Noland White, Stephen Wills
Absent: Doug Goings
Guests: Jamie Addy, Kasey Karen, Stephanie Opperman

Agenda

The agenda was approved as distributed.

Minutes

The minutes from the August 21st meeting were approved with two corrections.

Announcements

Mary announced that Brandon Samples has agreed to serve as our webmaster.

Liberal Arts Renewal Project

Cara Smith presented some introductory information about the Liberal Arts Renewal Project. This project is the result of several campus conversations that have occurred over the past few years. Some of these conversations suggested that we might be drifting from – or perhaps never fully realized – our liberal arts mission, which we have now had for twenty years. Some of our assessment data, particularly from last year’s core survey, also suggests that we may not be fully integrating the liberal arts in our core curriculum or general education program. The results of that survey also indicated that most faculty do not believe we have achieved a distinctiveness that many on our campus desire and associate with liberal arts colleges.

Over the summer, a group of faculty attended an AAC&U six-day workshop to begin working on a campus-wide, faculty-led, grassroots initiative to revitalize our liberal arts mission, particularly within the realm of general education. The result is the Liberal Arts Renewal Project (LARP). This concept has been endorsed by Dr. Dorman and the President’s Cabinet. It has a website at https://gcsu.wordpress.com/

The LARP kickoff event was held on August 11, and featured a guest lecture by Dr. Lee Knefelkamp, senior AAC&U fellow. In her discussion, she noted the importance of a strong liberal arts program having a strong general education (not exclusively core) component, and also observed that students are often collecting dots as they make their way through a curriculum, rather than connecting dots.

One of the primary focuses for this year will be a year-long discussion series for faculty and staff to begin exploring these ideas related to liberal education at Georgia College. Cara invited all SoCC members to sign up to be a part of the discussion group, and also asked the committee to consider volunteering as substitute discussion leaders because most SoCC members already have some expertise in this area. She also asked SoCC to continue helping the campus distinguish between core curriculum and general education and to periodically review the information, data, and ideas that LARP shares.

Next Meeting

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Friday, September 4, 2015, at 1:00 p.m. in A&S 2-51. Because this meeting is on the Friday before Labor Day, it will be cancelled if there is no pressing business.

Adjournment

The committee adjourned at 2:00 p.m.