Oakland University Senate
Thursday, 8 December 1983
3:10 p.m.
128, 129, 130 Oakland Center
AGENDA
Respectfully submitted by Keith R. Kleckner for the Steering Committee
A. Old Business:
None
B. New Business;
1. Election to fill a Steering Committee vacancy (Mr. Witt, Elections Committee Chair)
Comment: Mr. Windeknecht has resigned from the Steering Committee as of 24 October 1983. His place for the duration of the 1983-85 term must now be filled through a special election. Senators are reminded that Article IV, ix. of the Constitution of the Oakland University Senate stipulates that "No more than two seats shall be held by Senators from any one faculty." With Mr. Downing and Ms. Eberwein now serving, therefore, nominees for this Steering Committee seat must come from outside the College of Arts and Sciences. Other members of the current Steering Committee are Ms. Boulos (Nursing), Mr. Hough (Economics and Management), and Mr. Splete (Human and Educational Services).
2. Motion from the Committee on General Education to establish a new University-wide General Education program (Ms. Tripp):
MOVED that all undergraduate students be required to complete at least 32 credits in General Education with at least one course taken in each of eight field categories; and that the following stipulations apply:
a. that the field categories be specified as:
1. Arts
2. Literature
3. Language
4. Western Civilization
5. International Studies
6. Social Science
7. Mathematics, Logic, and Computer Science
8. Natural Science and Technology;
b. that each field category contain a limited number of courses to be approved by the University Committee on General Education;
c. that the 32 credits of General Education be considered a minimum credit requirement which academic units may increase for their own students;
d. that this requirement be binding on all incoming students starting in the fall semester of 1985; except
e. that students from Michigan community colleges who enroll there before the fall of 1984 and enroll at Oakland University before the fall of 1986 with more than 30 accepted transfer credits be allowed to choose to meet the earlier General Education requirement as presented in the 1984-85 Undergraduate Catalog.
Comment: This recommendation follows upon Senate action (3 June 1982) declaring the University's placement of high priority on a strong component of General Education that would be common to every undergraduate program, establishing a minimum of 36 credits of General Education for every baccalaureate, and calling for the establishment of a university-wide committee to design and administer this program. At its meeting of 14 October 1982, the Senate established the Committee on General Education on 9 December of the same year appointed its first members. That Committee now brings to this body a detailed "Report of the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education. (attached).
Although authorized to recommend a 36-credit minimum program, including Rhetoric courses, the Committee has chosen to distinguish between the existing university writing proficiency requirement that may be satisfied in several ways other than the usual two-course Rhetoric sequence and actual General Education as represented in the eight specified field categories. Many students will need to take 40 credits of course-work to satisfy both these requirements.
Catalog entries introducing the General Education program and describing its categories are offered on pages 3-5 of the Committee's report. Guidelines for course approval appear on pages 6-8.
The Steering Committee and the Committee on General Education recommend a year's interval before implementation to allow such schools as feel pressure for curricular space as a result of this action to review their curricula, making suitable modifications and, if necessary, petitioning their Assemblies, the Senate and the Board for authority to increase credit requirements for graduation. The year's interval also allows time fort the General Education Committee to review course proposals and prepare detailed catalog copy.
First reading: Debatable, amendable but not eligible for final vote at this meeting.
3. Concurrent motion from the Steering Committee to modify graduate requirements (Ms. Boulos):
MOVED that the requirement that every student must present at least eight credits of genuinely free electives as a condition for graduation be repealed.
Comment: This requirement, dating back to the early days of Oakland University, was intended to preserve a student's curricular freedom against encroachments both from extensive General Education requirements and from increasingly heavy major and co requisite requirements in technical and pre-professional programs.. In recent years, it has not been honored by several professional schools and has even been silently dropped from the catalog as unenforceable. Many students are now using up these credits on prerequisites or major requirements. Although the Steering Committee values curricular freedom and encourages academic units to provide for such electives, it recommends foregoing this tradition in order that the professional schools may combine General Education with major requirements without unduly prolonging a students' undergraduate career.
First reading: Debatable, amendable,. but not eligible for final vote at this meeting
C. Good and Welfare:
Private Resolutions
D. Information Items: