Present: Faculty—Bruce, Dohse, Friedenberg, Hardy, Konz, McKnight, Moseley, Nelms, Rizzo, Katz; Alumni—Perry; Student--Spencer

Our final meeting of the 2001-2002 academic year was kept brief, so that GERTF members could attend the Faculty Forum on diversity. We covered the following matters:

1. Long-range Strategic Planning Retreat—Dr Katz reported on several prioritized items, each relating in some way to the work of GERTF, that came out of the Planning Retreat. These include faculty, administrative, and student interest in linkages between general education courses and the major, and between general education courses themselves, possibly through linked courses or learning communities; in diversity on campus, in matters of recruitment and retention (faculty, staff, students) and in curricular development; in promoting Undergraduate Research, Service Learning, and/or Internships for a greater number of students (or possibly for all students); in enhanced connections between Academic Programs and Co-curricular Programs; and in redoubling our efforts to acquire special funding status in the UNC-system. Each of these areas of interest has potential ramifications for our work in the next year. Our aim should be to see that, if the above elements are incorporated into a new general education design, it is done in a way that is effective and that improves student learning.

2. Listening Project analysis—Drs Katz and Bruce will work on the analysis of the Listening Project. Katz will discuss the analysis with Dr. Mark West, who does the Asheville- Buncombe Survey. Dr West has expressed an interest in this project.

3. Asheville Institute on General Education—Katz has talked with Dr Peg Downes about the possibility of GERTF members attending plenary sessions at the AIGE. [She is in the process of working out the details of this on behalf of the GERTF, and will let us know soon about attendance.] Dr Moseley noted that there are 7 sessions devoted to the assessment of general education curricula. This will be an important part of our work as we pursue our design.

4. Teams and summer/fall assignments—Katz distributed the work that the three teams (Research—Curriculum, Research—Resources, and Design) should begin pursuing this summer, so that we will maintain momentum going into the fall. Team leaders (Moseley, Friedenberg, Katz) may delegate work to team members. Teams may decide that other tasks are preliminary to those identified on the Assignment Sheet; this is fine, but teams are encouraged to report additional assignments to Katz, so that he can stay on top of what the teams are doing.

5. GERTF Meeting Schedule for 2002-2003: Our next meeting will be in August (date to be determined), at 4:30 pm, in a location to be announced (Katz will try to schedule the Red Oak Room again). Also, remember to keep the Wednesday, 4:30-5:30 pm timeslot clear throughout this semester and next year; this will facilitate scheduling of both smaller team meetings and the meetings of the Task Force as a whole.