Summary of Meeting
Units not in a College
May 1, 2003

1. Introduction - Dr. Linda Goldberg - Dr. Linda Goldberg began the meeting by welcoming members of units not in a college to the meeting. Committee members were then introduced.

  • Dr. Goldberg indicated that the meeting would be taped in order to provide feedback to the committee.
  • Dr. Goldberg outlined the process for the review of general education.
  • Dr. Goldberg indicated that the committee is discussing the possibility of having brown bag lunch sessions in the fall to meet with members of the college community relative to general education issues.
  • Dr. Goldberg indicated that the provosts and presidents in the SSHE system are currently discussing the possibility of trying to change the 40% rule in general education.
  • General Education Mission Statement - Dr. Brian Wlazelek

2. Dr. Wlazelek distributed copies of the Mission Statement for General Education at Kutztown University. He read the mission statement and the floor was opened for discussion.

  • Comments relative to the mission statement included the following:
    • The mission statement is broad and is timeless in that it will be applicable for years to come.
    • "carefully selected set of questions" needs to be defined.
    • How will items contained in the mission statement be accomplished?
    • The mission statement is good for the students in that it gives better reasoning as to why students need to take general education courses.

3. Discussion of General Education Issues.

  • Dr. Goldberg and members of the committee answered questions relative to various general education issues.
  • Comments/questions relative to general education issues included:
    • Can there be different models for BA degrees, BS degrees, and professional degrees?
    • Committee needs to be cognizant of our feeder schools relative to transfer credits and relative to the general education programs at these feeder schools.
    • Committee needs to keep in mind concept of some commonality for students who change majors so these students do not lose credits.
    • The committee needs to be real clear in advance how the referendum will work. It’s possible that if the structure of the referendum is real clear that maybe the buy-in will be easier.
    • The committee needs to keep in mind implementation of a model. The concept needs to be translated into a clear operating procedure and there needs to be a clear way of tracking the changes.
    • Many of the presidential candidates who came to campus noted that we seem to have a lot of courses but that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of direction for those courses and that many of the courses are outdated.
    • Does the committee have any themes in mind and is the committee looking at particular national trends relative to general education?
    • Does the committee have a sense as to if the total number of credits in general education will change?