Submitted by Linda Cox, Chair
The Committee has had a productive semester and we want to thank the hard-working staff in the GenEd office for their tireless service. Final decisions have been made on GenEd courses for the spring. Statistics on the decisions will be posted on the website soon. Enough seats across campus to meet the needs of students do exist. However, students in some majors are still forced to go outside of their major to get courses to meet specific requirements. For example, while the expectation was that E and O requirements would be satisfied by courses in the major, some departments do not provide sufficient E and O courses to meet the needs of their majors.
We have made great strides in articulation over the past year. A multilateral Foundations agreement has been reached and a System-wide Foundations Committee that included the UHM Foundations Board Chair Todd Sammons has been established. We have approved the Foundations portfolios submitted by KCC and HCC.
Assessment has been a priority area for us this semester, particularly in light of the WASC report. We are holding a meeting on assessment December 15 to finalize an assessment proposal for Diversifications courses. The various Boards have also been working in this area. From the students' point-of-view, advisors tell us that students are very happy with the flexibility of the program.
We are also looking into mentoring for students who have not formally chosen a major because this type of mentoring is included in the GenEd Program as adopted by the UHM Faculty Senate. We expect to issue a report in the spring.
We are also looking and into the teaching of information accessing and information processing methods used for the various majors. This is also a GenEd Program requirement and we will issue a report in the spring.
The biggest challenge facing the General Education Committee is finding faculty willing to serve on the various Boards. The Committee on Faculty Service is finding it particularly difficult to fill vacancies on the Boards. For example, the HAP Board had one vacancy that was unfilled much of the semester. The Board has a large workload this year and is raising standards. Given their workload, they are challenged to find the time necessary to educate the faculty about their expectations and conduct assessment activities. Given the large workload of our Boards, we want to stress the need for experienced faculty to volunteer to provide this service.
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