WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE

AGENDA

MEETING NOTICE: Monday, February 8, 1999

Room 107 CH 3:30 p.m.

ORDER OF BUSINESS:

I. Call of the Meeting to Order

II. Informal Statements and Proposals

III. Approval of the Minutes

IV. President's Report

V. Committee Reports

VI. Old Business

VII. New Business

A. General Education Committee proposal - Delores Craig-Morland, Chair, Russ Widener, Coordinator (pink attachment) ** follows this agenda on Web page.

VIII. As May Arise

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Elmer Hoyer President 6314 Box 44

JoLynne Campbell Vice President 5653 Box 43

Nan Myers Secretary 5138 Box 68

A. J. Mandt President Elect 3375 Box 102

William Terrell Past President 3220 Box 78

ELECTED BY THE SENATE

Deborah Baxter 3103 Box 53

Dwight Murphey 3219 Box 77

APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT

Barbara Hodson 3240 Box 75

GUIDELINES FOR FURTHER STUDIES COURSES

• The primary basis for designating a course as a "Further Studies Course" is that it serves the goals and objectives of the General Education Program.



• For each Further Studies course, departments must specify the Introductory course or courses that it follows.



• All Further Studies courses must earn at least 3 hours of credit.



• Prerequisites for Further Studies courses should not include courses outside the General Education Program.



• Designated Further Studies courses must be offered at least once every three years.



• Departments should make every effort to make the scheduling of Further Studies courses predictable, the Schedule of Courses will indicate the next semester in which Further Studies courses will be offered to assist students and advisors in planning a course of studies.

NOTES:

Guideline 1: While every upper division course offers greater depth in a field than introductory courses, not every one of them is suitable for "general " studies. Departments need to identify the courses that will best meet the goals of General Education.

Guideline 2: The program design is based on the relationship between Introductory and Further Studies courses. The relationship should be clear. The committee will begin publishing information on these connections to aid students and advisors in building coherent plans of study.

Guideline 4: Some designated Further Studies courses have "hidden" prerequisites - students enrolling learn only when class begins that if they lack certain courses they should drop. In the first place, this poses a "truth in advertising" problem, and for General Education purposes, it is not appropriate that a student need course work outside the general education curriculum to complete work in that curriculum.

Guidelines 5 & 6: Since the program requires students to take certain sequences of courses (Introductory/Further Studies) it must offer the courses it requires. Students should know when they take an Introductory course that they can complete the sequence they have begun within a reasonable time. Students and advisors need good information if they are to plan a coherent course of study. The availability of General Education courses should be regular and predictable. When departments cannot make this level of commitment to offering a course, they are really saying that it is primarily an elective course, not a required one. That decision is the department's business, but the availability of courses required by the General Education program is not only the departments's business. Quite simply, courses that cannot be offered regularly should not be designated as Further Studies courses, whatever