Untitled Document
GEAC Minutes
September 8, 2008
Prepared by Jennifer Koosed
Attendance: Jennifer Koosed, Dan Falabella, Fouad Kalouche, Kennon Rice, Joe Thomas, Irene Langran, Al Cacicedo, Melissa Nicolas
I. Discussion of the Proposal to Replace English 102 with the Freshman Seminar
The measure was passed by the EPC on September 2 but another discussion in the English department raised serious questions about the proposal. The English Department would prefer to retain English 102 as a part of the General Studies curriculum.
Other options for reducing the number of General Education courses: reduce Foreign Language requirements, reduce Humanities requirements.
The rationale for reducing the Humanities requirement: 1) the seminar is “humanities-based” in terms of emphasizing reading and writing rather than other more social-scientific or scientific research methods, regardless of the subject matter; 2) our current GE program is humanities heavy.
Questions arose concerning the interconnections between English 101, 102, and the Seminar.
Questions arose over whether or not to still require English 101 for everyone (GEAC’s original proposal) or to keep the status quo. The members of GEAC express differences of opinion, but ultimately there are logistical issues involved in requiring 101, 102 and a Freshman Seminar for all in-coming students. This is an issue that the English Department along with the director of the Writing Program may want to revisit at a future date.
What makes the freshman seminar unique, not just another course?
Ideas expressed include: small, ways of knowing, introduction to college life, different types of topics, introduction to academic life, a deliberate presentation of skills, this course is not content driven or coverage driven but is a course about the intellectual process of discovery.
Dan pointed out that we will continue to revise and refine the seminar as time goes on. The seminar is flexible and will grow and change. We just need to get something up and running; it does not have to reflect our full vision right now.
What are we going to present to the faculty? A proposal to the EPC was drafted:
- Eliminate Freshman Forum
- Maintain the status quo with English 101 and 102
- Introduce a Freshman seminar to be taken in the first year (either fall or spring)
- Reduce the current Humanities requirement from 4 to 3
Jennifer will write this proposal up and submit it to the EPC.
II. Updates on Workshops
The first workshop will be in the faculty club, but the October and November workshop will be in Kline Lecture Hall.
Deadlines for the materials were established: the materials for the October meeting should be presented to the committee by September 25; for the November meeting by October 27.
III. Review of Fall Planning Schedule
Reviewed the plan of topics for GEAC meetings during the Fall semester.
We decided that we do need to look at Steve Mech’s document that links requirements with goals.
We also decided to switch the discussion of the clusters with the second-year seminar for two reasons: 1) the conceptualization of the foundations is linked to the conceptualization of the clusters; and 2) whereas the goals of the second-year seminar need to be retained, with the retention of Eng 102, a second-year seminar is not currently feasible.
IV. Discussion of the Revised Seminar Description
Tabled until the next meeting.
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