University Curriculum Committee Minutes 2012-01-26

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by John Swinton at 8:30 a.m., in Arts & Sciences Room 315.

Attendance

Members Present: Martha Allen, Scott Butler, Kevin Crabb, Esther Lopez, Mary Magoulick, Stephanie McClure, John Swinton, Caralyn Zender, and Kay Anderson
Regrets: Cara Meade

Action Item

GC2Y 2000 Issues in International Business as an Area B2 Section
After discussion, the committee asked for revisions in the course outcomes to facilitate future assessment, including: changing the wording of the outcome statements to emphasize actions such as “demonstrate understanding of” or “explain how” rather than “becoming knowledgeable”; rewriting the global and writing overlays to emphasize outcomes rather than class activities to ensure that the proposal is flexible enough for a variety of instructors to teach this course; emphasize whether the beyond the classroom activity is the interview activities or research; and including the signature sheet. The proposal will be approved as soon as these edits are completed. John Swinton offered to serve as a point of contact between the committee and submitter to discuss concerns.

Discussion Items

Kay Anderson presented data on GC1Y and GC2Y courses scheduled for Fall 2012 and Spring 2013. We need significantly more sections of both courses for Fall and Spring, and we need to have many more GC2Y courses submitted for review. This information was shared with the deans on January 25.

John Swinton discussed the committee’s role in the SACS review process. This committee has been assigned the sections of the SACS report that address the core curriculum and assessment of the core curriculum. This means that we need to begin to collect assessment items from GC1Y and GC2Y classes, and later write this portion of the SACS reaccreditation report. Other committees will be responsible for collecting evidence related to the other areas of the core curriculum. The committee discussed circulating a short questionnaire to each of the faculty who have taught or are currently teaching GC1Y courses asking about their experiences and examples of how they met the GC1Y outcomes. The committee also brainstormed the possibility of having a forum over lunch that would allow the faculty to come together to respond to these questions and help us better understand what they’ve learned while teaching this first round of GC1Y courses. Stephanie McClure volunteered to draft a questionnaire. Kay Anderson will identify possible dates for early to mid-February.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be either February 2 or February 9, at 8:30 am, depending on the submissions the committee receives this week.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 a.m.