Standard 4:  General Education
Action Plan 

The NEASC Subcommittee for General Education has met once.  The meeting was oriented toward informing all members of the timeline and objectives of the self study and formulating some initial action stops to meet the objectives.  In the first meeting, we were not able to establish a detailed plan for the next year and a half, as we anticipate that our initial review and data gathering on the program will uncover further resources and questions that will subsequently need to be pursued. 

The Subcommittee elected to use the end of the semester and early summer to initiate a data gathering process.  Although the immediate task is to create a description of the current program (followed by the appraisal and the projection), the data gathering process need not be so segmented, and material for all three parts may be collected as we work toward the description of the current program.  Within the Subcommittee, all members will review and comment on drafts, but two or three members will be assigned to produce the initial draft of each part.

The initial action steps to be completed by August:

            1.  Conduct a focus group with students.  The Subcommittee deemed that it was important to consider the student point of view on General Education.  The focus group interview needs to be conducted prior to end of the semester in May.  A planning meeting for the interviews will occur before the end of the month.

            2. Conduct interviews with faculty, including Chris Pudlinski (he was the Chair of a Subcommittee to review General Education as part of the previous Strategic Plan), Bruce Day (previous Chair of the General Education Subcommittee of the Curriculum Committee), Paul Petterson (previous Chair of the General Education Subcommittee of the Curriculum Committee, who presided through the transition to the current General Education program), Meg Leake (Director of the Learning Center), Kris Larsen (Director of the Honors Program), and others as needed.   The goal is to have these interviews completed prior to the end of June.  The completion of the interviews will likely require three or four meetings between the middle of May and the end of June.

            3. Collect documentation and additional materials on General Education.  Duties will need to be assigned as needed.

            4.  Develop questions for university-wide campus survey by June 11. 

            5.  Assign two members to complete a draft of the description of the General Education program by the middle of July.

            6.  Subcommittee reviews draft for submission prior to August 31.

            7.  Subcommittee develops plan for appraisal and projection by August 31.