Minutes

Core Committee

October 30, 2007

Members Present: Alfhild Ingberg, Doug Anderson, David Sandgren, Gregg Muilenburg, Madelyn Burchill, Sara Schwartz, Paul Fretham

After receiving a memo from the Dean, the Core Committee considered ways in which the Exploration course-approval process could be modified to extend into the future when courses initially approved on the short form would be due for consideration on the standard form, rather than having all of those that had passed on the short form in Spring 2007 due on the standard form by January 15, 2008, as officially announced. The Dean’s memo follows from a number of faculty expressing concern to him about the pace of change and the amount of required work coming due on the campus as a whole, affecting the ability of those faculty to meet the January 15 deadline.

We discussed whether this should affect our developed timeline for Exploration course considerations on the standard form. Is it beneficial to finish this round of standard forms this academic year with this experienced cohort of Core Committee members who have received course release/compensation to serve on the committee? How will the delay/elimination of this phase affect our ability to handle other issues that have been tabled to this point? Should we make the deadline optional by sending department chairs a note allowing them to claim hardship due to time constraints and other overburdening commitments? If we do so should those courses get a temporary bye, or should they be removed from the list of approved Exploration courses? How will the accounting process of these decisions be carried out?

Following this discussion, a majority of the members of the committee agreed that all courses already passed on the short form should really be considered passed in general, and there will be no second round required on the standard form by January 15, 2008. Instead, it was recommended that a 4-7 year rotation of all Exploration courses should be set up to spread out when individual courses need to come before the Core Committee again for review, once those courses have been passed on either the short form or the standard form. Details will have to be worked out.

What does the committee have to do now?

1. Set up a rotation cycle for Exploration courses, establishing a process and timeline for re-approval of courses.
2. Discuss how to monitor Inquiry Seminars as part of the first-year experience, develop a form for new Inquiry Seminar course proposals.
3. Discuss how to incorporate Religion 100 and Religion II into committee deliberations.
4. Meet with a representative from the Counseling Center concerning some recent student appeals.
5. Discuss committee structure; is there redundancy between Core and Curriculum? Should Religion have a specific spot on the committee?
6. Discuss Capstone, assuming its unveiling.

The next meeting will be after advising, Tuesday November 13.

Respectfully submitted,

Doug Anderson