ACADEMIC POLICIES COMMITTEE
MINUTES

Meeting Time: 8:00 am Jan. 30, 2002
Meeting Place: KU 253
Presiding: James Dunne
Senators Present: Biers, Dunne, Hallinan, Hartley, Johnson, Pedrotti, Sargent

Handouts: James Dunne provided a document entitled “Proposed APC Plan of Action – General Education Program”.

1.  The minutes of the January 16, 2002 meeting of the APC were approved.

2.   Discussion of the proposed plan of action regarding the review of general education.

Jim Dunne presented the APC with his proposed plan of action regarding the review of the general education program. The specific recommendations he proposed were detailed in the handout entitled “Proposed APC Plan of Action – General Education Program”. His recommendations are summarized below.

1. Appoint a subcommittee charged with a review of the goal description in the general education policy document.
2. Request that the GECC develop a proposed updated language describing the domains of knowledge and the humanities base.
3. Request that Pat Palermo, Pat Johnson, and Jim Dunne develop a proposed redefinition of the administrative responsibilities for the general education program. The draft proposal should be coordinated with the Provost and the Academic Deans.
4. The APC would review and if need be revise the draft revisions developed by the groups mentioned in actions 1, 2, and, 3 above.
5. The APC would prepare two documents for the Academic Senate meeting scheduled for April 19. The first would be a short report in which the APC approves the conclusions of the GECC final review report. Senate approval of the APC short report would be sought. The second document would be a proposed revision to the GE policy as a result of the revisions developed in the actions 1-4 listed above. Senate approval of the modifications would be sought.

Jim Dunne noted that the Provost’s Council discussed the issues related to action 3 above and had agreed with the GECC recommendation that responsibility for the administration of the general education program be moved from the Provost’s office to the office of the College Associate Dean for Connected Learning, but that oversight of the General Education policy should remain the responsibility of the Provost’s office. Action 3 above would be to draft a new detailing of specific responsibilities for policy oversight and administration of general education policy. This new list would replace the list in the current general education policy document. Gordon Sargent suggested that the minutes of the Provost’s Council meeting at which this topic was discussed would be useful in forming a draft of new responsibilities. Pat Johnson noted that the new general education policy document should refer to the competency requirements and documents. The proposed actions would be carried out this term and a fuller review of the cluster requirement would be carried out after the 2002-2003 academic year.

Lively discussion ensued. Dave Biers suggested that it might make sense to delay a revision of the description of domains of knowledge and the humanities base until the review of the cluster requirement takes place. After obfuscation caused by the author of these minutes, Gordon Sargent noted that we should not wait too long to revise the goals of general education.

A consensus emerged that action 3 should definitely be carried out this term and the general education policy document be revised to reflect the new description of the administrative and oversight responsibility for the general education program. This proposed revision should be brought before the full Senate for approval at the April 19^th meeting. The APC agreed that action 2 listed above (a review of the domains of knowledge and knowledge base descriptions) should be delayed and done in concert with the review of the cluster requirement to be carried out after the 2002-2003 academic year. The APC tentatively agreed that action 1 (a subcommittee formed to review the goals statement for general educations) should be done this term and if that subcommittee and the APC could agree on a new goals statement, that new statement should be part of the proposed revision of general education policy to be put before the full Senate at the April 19^th meeting.

3. It was agreed that a meeting would be scheduled for Feb. 6 at 8:00 am.

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 am.