Present—Hardy, Krumpe, McKnight, Nelms, Spencer, White-Carter, Katz; Pat McClellan, visiting

1. Forums—The Faculty Forum on General Education is scheduled for Friday, 8 November. The team suggested that the venue be shifted from Laurel Forum to OCC, because the forum last year was so well attended that some people could not get into the room. The Office for Academic Affairs has agreed to fund refreshments. Dr Padilla, VCAA, has agreed to start the event with some remarks about the importance of the general education revision and how Academic Affairs plans to support it.

The Student Forum on General Education is being scheduled. It will be held either the week of 11 November or 18 November. We will follow the format of the listening project so that we have a base-line for understanding how the perspectives of students differ from those of faculty. OCC might be the best venue for this forum, too.

2. Meeting with Dr Padilla, VCAA—Dr Katz is meeting next Wednesday with Mark Padilla. He plans on discussing the forums a bit and also the design process in detail. Team members suggested that Katz also discuss in more detail what sorts of things Dr Padilla might say to faculty about his support of general education, particularly in terms of policy development.

3. Meeting with Dr Dwight Mullen, Director for the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs—Dr Katz spoke with Dr Dwight Mullen about diversity in the curriculum. Dr Mullen has expressed interest in providing additional diversity materials for the website. In addition, Dr Mullen is interested in co-sponsoring a faculty forum on diversity in the curriculum, with GERTF, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and APC. He and Katz will meet with the other parties to discuss this possibility.

4. Freshman Seminar Pilot—Pat McClellan, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, reported to the team about a pilot program for freshman seminars. She is particularly interested in using the seminar to combine the freshman advising and FYE components, while maintaining a strong intellectual and academic focus. She is in the process of resource development for the pilot program. In addition, she is eager to find ways to dovetail her efforts on this pilot with those of the GERTF and requests that the team offer any ideas for these seminar courses or the program as a whole that may contribute to its success.

5. Design Process—As we move into the design phase, team members will work in pairs to develop curriculum architecture models that conform to the principles we have established. In this way, we may be able to maximize our groups creativity and insight.

6. Statements of Principle: Diversity—The team discussed and drafted a Statement of Principle on diversity in the curriculum, beginning with a statement crafted by Dr Konz. Members of the team will email Katz their views about whether there is any need for additional principle statements. If there are not, or if additional principles may be drafted via email, Katz will schedule a meeting of the full GERTF for a date soon after our return from break. Once the draft of the Principles are complete (with the exception of review by the faculty during the first forum), then the team will move on to the design phase.

7. Next meeting—The next meeting will be Wednesday, 16 October, at 4:30 pm, at a location to be determined. It will either be a Design Team meeting or a meeting of the GERTF as a whole, depending on the status of the draft of the Statements of Principle for the Design.