Saint Mary's College General Education

Present: Chris Cobb, Janet Fore, Kitty Green, Joe Incandela, Nancy Nekvasil, Daniel Party, Charlie Peltier, Patti Sayre

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Announcements:

Dean Jill Vihtelic would like a panel from the committee to present to the Committee on Education of the Board of Trustees at their Thurs, February 22, 8:30-11 meeting. Volunteers, next meeting.

Site for meetings with faculty will all be in the parlor to the left in Holy Cross.

There are a few scheduling problems with some departments. Joe and Celia are working on it. Would it help to have “left over departments” on another day of the week if a Friday is the problem for some departments?

Discussion on the role of the committee member when meeting with their department. Suggestion to take both roles—wear both hats.

Thanks to Chris for the minutes from the previous meeting, January 26. We may want to discuss more about the issue of Integration.

There are new links on the Blog for the Carnegie Report and 4 essays on Assessment, Pedagogy, Curriculum and Faculty Development. Another part of the report goes through 10 exemplary institutions.

The new gen ed curriculum efforts for Harvard has been abandoned. They now have back in place a course discipline distribution, 3 broad areas, 3 courses each with a large number of courses to choose from. (Internet Search +Harvard +”gen ed”)

Main Task for today’s meeting is to make progress on goals statement from the notes from the Faculty Development Day (FDD) and the collection of SMC statements.

*For discussion at next meeting, please take what we did last time and today’s discussion and each person write up their gen ed plan for the college. More in terms of structure. (A paragraph on “Here’s why we are doing it.” A paragraph on “Here’s what we’re doing.”) Aim for 1-2 pages goals and structure e.g., for the catalog. E-mail them to Joe or to all. Bring copies to next meeting if you haven’t already sent to the whole group ahead of time.

We will take a couple of goals statements and structure packages to the department discussions.


Goals Statement:

From the FDD discussions, the most votes went to the “Hybrid” model. 19 dots, 17 green and 2 red.

Discussion about how to tie this statement to the Mission Statement and how much should the goals be measurable. The connection should be in the “Preamble” [Chris’ notes and revision inserted here.] Should the structure mimic the categories of the Mission Statement?

“Hybrid Preamble," revised 2/2/07 by Cris C.:

Saint Mary’s College offers an education in the distinctive traditions of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. At Saint Mary’s, women are encouraged to develop a strong self, the capacity for openness to and dialogue with others, and readiness for action in the world.

The general education program and the student’s major are vital, complementary parts of a student’s preparation for an active and meaningful life. The general education program establishes a foundation of skills and knowledge necessary for further learning trains the mind in a variety of ways of thinking provides a space for reflection and integration challenges students to learn and act outside the defined framework of the classroom develops the personal resources necessary for taking joy in learning and in life”

How much should this be a Gen Ed Mission Statement and how much should it be a Vision Statement?

Mission is what your institution is about and vision is what would be accomplished if that mission were realized. Perhaps the preamble is more of a vision statement leading into goals as to how the mission could be realized.

“Self, Dialogue, Action” were discussed as a way to map to the four categories in the Mission statement—“intellectual vigor, aesthetic sensibilities…”

Discussion about the purpose of gen ed—to “support the major” or “to get a job?” or to be complementary to the major or prepare to live a rich and satisfying life?

Next part of the statement might be structured by:
It develops the self by…It trains in dialog by …. It readies for action by ….

Discussion about assessibility of the goals and where the wording occurs that reflects measurability in a qualitative way.

Further discussion of the pro’s and con’s of portfolios (“e” or not) as a space for reflection, integration. Creating “learning communities” in the fist year and reconvene again in the third year for sharing their reflections. The portfolios could be a way of integrating gen ed and the major in the reflections.