General Education Review Committee
Meeting, 27 March 2000
Red Oak Room, RL, 4:30-5:30 pm


Minutes

Present: Bruce, Friedenberg, Hardy, Konz, Moseley, Nelms, Pons, Rizzo, Ruiz, White-Carter, Katz

1. The conference trip to Charleston to attend the AAC&U program on "Science Literacy and Diversity in the Age of Specialization" has been cancelled because of difficulties faculty had scheduling travel time during Science Day weekend. Thanks go to Rebecca Bruce who was all set to go, notwithstanding how busy it is late in the semester. 

2. The Ashevlle Institute-UNCA's proposal to the Institute has been accepted and we are going to send a team. The team will be Elaine Fox (Dir., Special Programs), Heon Lee (Sociology), Charles McKnight (Music), Mike Ruiz (Physics), and Edward Katz (Literature). In addition, Tom Cochran (Dean of Faculty) will sit in as an observer and additional participant. The Institute will be held on our campus, 3-7 June 2000.

3. Scott Lee's visit-We discussed Lee's visit and noted that, after we moved past his introduction to the AALE and into his interview of our committee members, the session was very informative. Mike Ruiz is going to look over the historical details of the last general education review in terms of the science requirements and email to Lee corrections to the profile. Lisa Friedenberg, Linda Nelms, and Merritt Moseley also offered to look over the general historical information and to make corrections. Katz will distribute this corrected material and Lee's responses to the committee via his email distribution list. Katz also reported that Lee is beginning to send some empirical data from his study which respond to the questions raised during Lee's visit. He will also begin forwarding this material in the near future.

4. Discussion: UNCA Mission Statement, rev. version-We began our discussion of the revised mission statement and its implications for our general education program. At first we discussed the problem of assessment, observing that as stated the mission's objectives would be difficult to measure. It was observed by several of us that assessment should not drive curricular development.

The committee began to raise and discuss more general, philosophical questions: What do we want our students to be like? What would be the best ways to get them there? How is general education different from the education gotten through the major? What in UNCA's curriculum ought to be common to all students who graduate from our program?

Among the many comments that we made in discussing the above questions, it was observed that a general education should motivate students to be lifelong learners. Also, we discussed the idea that there are differences between the knowledge of experts and of non-experts: several of us contended that general education should allow students to feel intellectually capable of thinking critically beyond the boundaries of the major. It was observed that this sort of non-expert knowledge and thinking is part of being an informed citizen. General education reinforces the idea that one can go out and learn in ways not defined by professional expertise and then use that knowledge as a platform for action, civic engagement, and so on

We began to discuss areas of competence that might guide our thinking as we review our general education program (I want to thank Cathy Pons for taking such helpful notes on this part of our conversation). By the end of our hour, we formulated the following (i.e., that a UNCA grad should be able to perform in the ways outlined below).

    SKILLS (a UNCA graduate….)
        -- communicates effectively ...
        --orally (persuasively, in discussion) in writing (in both expository and analytical modes)
        -- thinks critically about various positions, including his/her own
        -- can represent alternative perspectives fairly and accurately, seeing beyond his/her own frame of reference
        -- has information-finding or research skills (learns how to learn)
        -- can read and communicate in a foreign language

    KNOWLEDGE
        -- knows how a scientist/social scientist/humanist thinks and works on problems

    CHARACTERISTICS
        -- appreciates/is sensitive to differences
        -- functions as an active citizen/member of a community
        -- has life-long learning as a goal

Of course, these notes are only a beginning. We will continue our conversation in future meetings.


5. Next meetings

    --W 4/5, 4:30-5:30pm, Red Oak Rm.
    --M 4/17, 4:30-5:30pm, Red Oak Rm.
    --W 5/3, 4:30-5:30pm, Red Oak Rm.