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Annual Report on the General Education Requirements

Report to the University Academic Planning Council
December 19, 2002

Recap of the General Education Requirements to Date: The UW-Madison campus-wide General Education requirements were adopted by the Faculty Senate in 1994 and became effective in 1996. The requirements consist of two levels of communication courses (Comm A and Comm B); two levels of quantitative reasoning courses (QR A and QR B); breadth requirements and the ethnic studies requirement. The requirements are intended to enhance the undergraduate learning experience by fostering the development of reasoning and communication skills, and providing students with a broad perspective on their undergraduate education.
At its meeting of November 21, 1996, the University Academic Planning Council assigned the overall academic administration of the General Education requirements to the College of Letters and Science to act as trustee on behalf of all schools and colleges. In carrying out this role, the College has appointed an Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education (Nancy Westphal-Johnson) to serve both College needs and the broader needs of general education on campus, and also formed the Letters and Science General Education Committee to provide guidance on policy questions and issues. Beginning in 2002-03, representation on the Committee was broadened to include representatives beyond Letters and Science as well as student representatives, and the Committee has also been asked to take up some broader issues in the area of general education.

At its meeting of December 18, 1997, the University Academic Planning Council affirmed that the College of Letters and Science would submit an annual report on the General Education requirements.

Policy Items for the Council

Information Item--List of New General Education Courses: See attached list.note

Action Item: Report of the Ethnic Studies Requirement Review Committee: The report of the review committee appointed by Dean Phillip Certain at the request of Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows is submitted to the University Academic Planning Council as a part of this annual report. NOTE: At the request of the Provost, the General Education Committee has not reviewed the report. The University Academic Planning Council needs to review and act on the recommendations in the report.

Action Item: Request that the Communication Liaison and the Quantitative Reasoning Liaison, respectively, be designated as the permanent authorities on campus for Communication and Quantitative Reasoning exceptions and exemptions: The General Education Committee requests that Council designate the Communication Liaison (currently Professor Sherry Reames) and the Quantitative Reasoning Liaison (currently Professor Richard
Brualdi), respectively, as the permanent authorities on campus for Communication and Quantitative Reasoning exceptions and exemptions.

Reporting on a one-year pilot program, Professor Reames provided the General Education Committee at its December 3, 2001 meeting with an overview of exceptions made with regard to Comm A and Comm B. For Comm A, exceptions were made for ten students. Three of these students thought they had graduated, only to discover they were lacking Comm A. Over half of the students had entered with AP credits which they or their freshman-year adviser had misinterpreted as satisfying the Comm A requirement. Most of the students had strong academic records overall, with high grades in speaking and writing-intensive courses. For 13 students, all of whom were seniors, Professor Reames recommended allowing other coursework (usually two or more Writing-Intensive courses that included oral and research components) to substitute for the Comm B requirement. Virtually all these students were Humanities majors with high GPAs who had spent a year abroad and were doing double or triple majors in departments that have no standard, required Comm B course taken by most students. For several additional students, Professor Reames recommended that Comm B credit in a Comm B course be denied because the students had not fulfilled the writing requirements.

Only a very small number of exceptions related to the Quantitative Reasoning requirement have come forward and these have been considered by Professor Brualdi. At its meeting of December 3, 2002, the General Education Committee clarified its initial policy and affirmed that the Communication Liaison and the Quantitative Reasoning Liaison were the appropriate loci on campus for such appeals to be considered.

Status and Progress Reports

Report of the General Education Subcommittee on Communication B Assessment: During the 2001-02 academic year, the General Education Committee reviewed the policy recommendations presented by the Verbal Assessment Committee in conjunction with their report on the Comm-B assessment study. After full discussion by the whole Committee, a subcommittee was asked to synthesize and formalize the recommendations of the full Committee. This final report was presented to Dean Certain on October 31, 2002. Due to time constraints and pending issues at today’s meeting, this report will be submitted to the University Academic Planning Council for consideration next semester.

Assessment of General Education: Beginning with the 2003-04 funding cycle, the General Education Committee has been charged by the Provost with considering and recommending priorities for the assessment of general education. The Committee will be working on development of a comprehensive plan in this area during the current academic year.

International Baccalaureate Credit and Use of APIEL Test: At his request, the Committee met with Dr. Rob Seltzer, Director of Admissions, to provide guidance on admissions policies related to International Baccalaureate (IB) credit and UW-Madison use of the APIEL (Advanced Placement International English Language) Test. After reviewing extensive material provided by Dr. Seltzer and discussing these issues
with him at length, the Committee concluded that our policy for granting credit based on the IB was already somewhat more liberal than the majority of peer institutions in the CIC and other UW System institutions. The Committee formally endorsed the current policy which does not allow credit for the IB “standard” level and has communicated that to Dr. Seltzer. The Committee sought the advice of the ESL Program and its Director, Dr. Sandra Arfa, about the desirability of adopting the APIEL for admission purposes at this time. Dr. Arfa
informed us that the College Board is no longer administering the APIEL and that it is given only once a year and only in a few countries. Additionally, it may not be appropriate for graduate level students. The Committee’s consensus was that, at this point, it is not advisable to add the APIEL to our admissions options and will communicate that to Dr. Seltzer.

Submitted by:

Phillip R. Certain, Dean, College of Letters and Science
Nancy Westphal-Johnson, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, College of Letters and Science

Members of the General Education Committee
Nancy Westphal-Johnson, Letters and Science Administration, Chair

Term Members:
James Anderson, Philosophy
Ann Burgess, BioCore (2001-02)
Judith Burstyn, Chemistry
Dennis Friedichsen, Student Member (2002-03)
Sabine Gross, German
Camille Guerin-Gonzalez, Chicana/o Studies Program (2002-03)
Chuck Halaby, Sociology
Liane Kosaki, Political Science (2002-03)
Jonathan Martin, AOS
Pamela Potter, Music and German
Christine Schindler, Economics (2001-02)
Susan Smith, Nutritional Sciences, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (2002-03)
Jacob Strand, Student Member (2002-03)
Michael Subkoviak, Educational Psychology, School of Education (2002-03)
Robert Wardrop, Statistics (2001-02)
Lydia Zepeda, Consumer Science, School of Human Ecology (2002-03)

Ex Officio Members:
Richard Brualdi, Mathematics
Brad Hughes, Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum
Elaine Klein, L&S Administration
Abbie Loomis, Library and Information Literacy Program
Michael Pflieger, L&S Student Academic Affairs
Sherry Reames, English
Joel Robbin, Mathematics
Gina Sapiro, Vice Chancellor and Political Science (2002-03)
Bob Skloot, Vice Chancellor and Theatre and Drama (2001-02)
Denise Solomon, Communication Arts
Tim Walsh, Cross College Advising Service

Coordinator for Quantitative Reasoning:
Richard Brualdi, Mathematics

Coordinator for Communication Courses:
Sherry Reames, English

Ad Hoc Committee to Review Comm B Criteria (2002-03):
Brad Hughes, Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum
Sherry Reames, English, Chair
Susan Smith, Nutritional Sciences
Denise Solomon, Communication Arts

* Not attached in this on-line presentation.