General Education Committee
I. FUNCTION
A. To periodically review and update the philosophy statement of the General Education program.
B. To formulate, review and maintain policies and procedures to operate the General Education program.
C. To formulate, maintain and review policies, procedures and objectives for the evaluation and selection of proposed and existing courses for the General Education program.
D. To review each existing course in the General Education Program regularly following a 5 year cycle, to determine if these courses should remain within the program, and to certify newly proposed courses for the General Education Program.
E. To review the operation of the General Education program and make recommendations when appropriate.
II. POSITION IN THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Reports to the Faculty Senate. Each proposal for a revised or new General Education course must be presented by departments, colleges, or interdisciplinary teams to the FS General Education Committee through the normal departmental and college curricular review process. The FS General Education Committee then acts on the proposal in its relationship to General Education and forwards its recommendations for course additions, deletions, and revisions to the FS University Curriculum Committee for its review and for processing for inclusion in the General Catalog. If there is a substantive change by the FS University Curriculum Committee in proposals passed by the FS General Education Committee, then the FS University Curriculum Committee shall return the amended proposals to the FS General Education Committee once for final revision. In no case shall the FS University Curriculum Committee approve any course for inclusion in the General Education Program that does not conform with the guidelines and policies of the FS General Education Committee.
III. MEMBERSHIP
A. Composition (9 members)
1. Five members, one from each college and L/AE
2. Three General Education faculty (defined in section B.2.) elected at-large by the University Faculty.
3. One student representative.
4. The designated administrator from the Office of the Provost shall serve as an ex-officio member (voting only in case of a tie.)
5. The Chair or designees of the Faculty Senate University Curriculum Committee and the University Assessment Council shall serve as an ex officio, non-voting member.
B. Selection
1. Faculty elected from each college and L/AE.
2. General Education Faculty elected at-large by the University Faculty. General Education faculty are those full-time faculty who are currently teaching or who have taught within the past two years at least one University Studies/General Education course.
3. Student selected by SGA.
4. No more than one member shall be elected from any one department. Election by college shall take precedence over election by GE Faculty in the event that two faculty are elected from the same department.
C. Selection of Chair
The Committee shall select a chair from its faculty members.
D. Term of Service
1. Representatives of units and General Education faculty shall be elected to three-year terms on a staggered replacement basis. Each year, three members will rotate off with no more than two being at-large members. When a committee member leaves prior to the expiration of his or her term, elections will be held for a replacement to fill the unexpired portion of his or her term.
2. The student representative's term of service will be one year.
3. No elected member or student may serve more than two consecutive terms.
4. If a college representative anticipates being unable to attend more than half of the scheduled meetings in a given semester, the chair of the committee shall notify the chair of the Faculty Senate Committee on Committees who will convene a caucus of the faculty senators from that college to appoint an alternate representative to serve until the end of the semester.
5. If an at-large representative anticipates being unable to attend more than half of the scheduled meetings in a given semester, the chair of the committee will notify the FS Committee on Committees. An interim or permanent representative will be elected.
IV. COMMENTS
The Committee will develop and maintain a matrix of courses that identifies where in the curriculum the competencies of the General Education Program are taught and assessed. The committee will use the matrix to ensure sufficient coverage of all General Education competencies.
The committee chair is responsible for creating and maintaining a Procedures Manual (including Procedures, a Recertification Timeline, and Examples of Questionnaires and responses), a copy to be kept in the Faculty Senate Office.
In exercising its curricular responsibilities, the committee shall be guided in action by concerns for the spirit of the General Education document and for the proper relationship of the committee to the University, colleges, departments and students. The committee shall be primarily concerned with the appropriateness of courses to the General Education program. In addition to these curricular concerns the committee shall promote the development of interdisciplinary courses which fulfill the spirit of the General Education program.
The GE Committee shall provide a liaison to the FS Assessment Council.
Secretarial support will be provided by the Vice Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment.
This committee also meets in summer.
REV 2/06,REV 2010; REV 4/2011; REV12/2011