GEGB Meeting January 14, 2016

Meeting Details

Attendance: Brenda Helmbrecht, Helen Bailey, Bruno Giberti, Clare Battista, Jack Phelan (guest, University/GE Assessment), Tal Scriven, Katherine O'Claire, Gary Laver, Gregg Fiegel, Mary Pedersen, Denise Isom (guest, Chair USCP committee)
Time: 9:10 to 10:00 am
Place: 01-301

Debra Humphreys: AAC&U Vice President for Policy and Public Engagement She has quite a bit of experience integrating diversity and inclusivity into the curriculum.
Debra David: Student Engagement and Academic Initiatives and Partnerships
California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor. Her experience is in CSU GE Programs.
Rick Vaz: Dean, Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His experience is with the integration of GE/Liberal Education in Engineering/Learn by Doing Programs.
Andrew Schaffner: Professor, Cal Poly Statistics Department. His previous experience is as Academic Senate Curriculum Committee Chair.

Evaluating the size and complexity of the GE Program
Is Cal Poly's GE program more prescriptive than other GE CSU programs?
Are there more boxes to check?
Are there ideas for streamlining?
CSU Template (EO 1100) Cal Poly GE areas are different than the CSU areas in ASSIST. Students sometimes take the wrong classes at the community college when they use ASSIST on their own.
Diversity and Inclusivity
How is diversity and inclusivity woven through GE? Should USCP be handled by the GEGB? Should we make recommendations?
Assessment: How can we connect better with faculty? Are the writing-intensive GE courses doing what they should be doing? What are the recommendations for a GE course renewal process?

This should be a university issue, not just a GE issue.
This should be a challenge for every college and every program - to incorporate diversity in the curriculum.
It is a shared responsibility across campus, similar to faculty who teach writing-intensive courses.
There is lack of training in diversity across campus, and faculty do not always feel comfortable teaching this is the curriculum.
How do we build diversity into the campus culture?
USCP encompasses 100 courses across many disciplines. About 75% are GE.
How do we move forward matching our current USCP courses with our Diversity Learning Objectives (DLOs)?
What is the GEGB's role in this challenge?
Diversity could also be addressed in Program Review.

What are the conditions or renewals that are available to sunset courses? Sunset courses have not been taught for several years, so they are removed from the catalog. When faculty want the courses to be taught again, GE cannot ask for an updated proposal. Should this policy be looked into further?

Do we need a Dean of GE vs. a Chair of GE? This would make GE a college-level program. GE could discuss issues with other deans.
Some CSU's do have this model. This control of resources could be a major undertaking for the campus.
Gary Laver/Academic Senate Chair: Currently, there is no GE Director. No one resides over all GE areas. The delivery of GE is compulsory by some departments (example: ENGL, MATH). This is different in Area F as there are many different disciplines that deliver GE. He would recommend "voicing" this administrative issue in the GE self study/site visit.
Mary Pedersen/Vice Provost: Currently, there is shared governance with the GEGB and Academic Programs and Planning (APP). For instance, APP is now analyzing specific enrollment management issues that affect GE. In terms of resources, CLA and CSM are allocated more GE funds (for faculty and classes). Is there a better budget model? Should funding be linked to Program Review? Currently, there is not a model linked to SCUs.
Brenda Helmbrecht/GE Chair: Would linking SCUs increase caps on classes to go up? Would that increase the size of classes?