January 22, 2008 Focus Session Summary
General Education Focus Session
Suite Boxes: Where Does Your Discipline Fit?
Wednesday, January 22, 2008
9:30 – 10:30 am, Riverview Room, UCEN
Facilitated by Carolyn Gillespie
Attendance: 5
Carolyn Gillespie distributed a handout to those in attendance and asked participants to designate which boxes the disciplines belonged in. It was agreed that some disciplines at the potential to cross many boxes, while others fit appropriately in one box.
A second handout was distributed that separated the boxes. With this option, students may have a more difficult time making connections than in the first option. In option #2, it is unclear as to what point courses would become suited.
The following suggestions were made:
· We need as a campus to decide what every UM-Flint student needs exposure to and develop a curriculum around that.
· Courses should be assigned a designator such as social science, fine arts, natural science so that courses could cut across the boxes. For example, a suite could have both a fine arts course and a technology course and fit in the Humanities, Society, Culture and Fine Arts box and the Science & Technology box.
· Existing courses may need little modification to meet goals established in writing, ethics, diversity – we just need to clarify what level we want students to be proficient in such goals.
· Ground suites in clearly defined learning outcomes.
· Better, more intrusive advising is needed.