Core Education Committee

Oregon State University Faculty Senate

Meeting of the Core Education Committee
April 30, 2025
10:00-11:45 A.m.
Zoom

Minutes

 

Committee members present: Kelsey Emard (Co-chair), Daniel Faltesek (Co-chair), Andrea Allan, Aidas Banaitis, Abigail Crowell, Liz Delf, Matthew Kennedy, Lori McGraw, Brian Mills, Holly Mitchell, Kari-Lyn Sakuma, Dave Stemper, Paula Weiss

Committee members absent: Vipin Arora

Ex-officio members present: Stephanie Baugh (Curriculum Management), Heath Henry (General Education Assessment), McKenzie Huber (Core Education Director), Kali Furman (Difference, Power & Oppression Director), Karen Watte (Ecampus), Ashley Holmes (WIC)

Visitors and staff present: Caitlin Calascibetta (Faculty Senate Office), Andrew Valls (Faculty Senate President), Troy Hall, Michael Jefferis, Kristin Nagy Katz

 

New Business & Information Items

The co-chairs called the meeting to order. There was no new business or informational items.

 

Course Reviews

The committee reviewed and discussed the following Core Education proposals.

• BI 204 Introductory Biology I (co-chair update and vote)
  • The originators worked on it and it is now internally equivalent to the other BI series; it now needs to be the same number of credits. Only one course is being approved, not the series.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 9 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 2 abstentions.

• ES 270 Making Alliances and Solidarities (4th review)
  • They now have an activity tied to the visit to the Career Services Office.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 11 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• H 476 Planning and Evaluating Public Health Programs
  • Learning Outcomes (LOs) and criteria are clearly met.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 11 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• HEST 310 Transdisciplinary Community-Engaged Design (2nd review)
  • Improvements have been made but there are still some issues with the course. One reviewer felt that the problem students were meant to solve was not well defined and unclear. The course is also relying heavily on outsider lecturers to cover course topics, which goes against policy. Another reviewer mentioned that the Learning Outcomes, Criteria and Rationale (LOCR) Report did not specify that Seeking Solutions did not need to focus on one specific issue and the course focuses on multiple community-based problems and solutions. It has a strong focus on teamwork, and they have tried to clarify that whatever problem is chosen, they must focus on a global aspect of it. However, the topics are incredibly broad and many of the scopes of problems may not be able to be defined in a global context.

Action: Motion to rollback to provide more clarity/narrower scope on what the global problem is that will be addressed through the community projects in the class; seconded. The motion passed with 8 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 3 abstentions.

• WSE 392 Bamboolooza: The Fascinating World of Bamboo (3rd review)
  • They have updated their description, but the context of the course has not been updated. The updated description does not follow catalog guidelines.

Action: Motion to roll back with a note that it will be Science, Technology & Society (STS) for the next year and it is well on its way for seeking solutions but needs a little more work; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• REL 467 Decolonizing the Canon (2nd review)
  • The first reviewer felt that improvements have been made but they do not describe how they meet LO2 and how they meet LO3 could be explained in more detail. The second reviewer felt differently in that each LO had been well met and that there were good examples on how they were met. Most of the examples are tied up in the readings so it may not be explicit in the syllabus. The Difference, Power & Oppression (DPO) ex-officio agreed with the second reviewer and felt that course was a good option for the category and could be approved.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 11 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• ES 460 Ethnicity and Social Justice (2nd review)
  • Meets the minimum requirements for the category. Some of the connections are a little unclear. The DPO ex-officio did feel that the course was a fit for the category and could be approved.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• WGSS 223 Intro to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (2nd review)
  • Sent back on several issues but much more detail has been provided with the resubmission. The only remaining issue is that the matrices between the two syllabi do not match.

Action: Motion to conditionally approve with a note to clean up both syllabi and make them consistent; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• ANTH 283 Introduction to Medical Anthropology
  • Great course. It just needs an Ecampus redevelopment proposal.

Action: Motion to conditionally approve pending an Ecampus redevelopment proposal; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• AG 250 Advancement & Consumption of Ag & Nat Res Media
  • The course needs an Ecampus redevelopment proposal. It is unclear how a synchronous multimedia presentation will be constructed online. Faculty in the School of Communications are concerned that this is a narrowly focused course rather than one that would appeal to a broad range of Core Education students. It is unclear if the essential assignment for LO3 is a speech.

Action: Motion to rollback: clarify that at least one of the speeches in Ecampus is asynchronous; and clarify that the essential assignment for LO3 is a speech; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• COMM 222 Small Group Communication
  • Does not meet adequately or clearly meet any of the LOs. An Ecampus redevelopment proposal is missing.

Action: Motion to rollback with notes: provide additional details through CIM and syllabi to clarify how the course meets the LOs and criteria. Specifically consider the following: #1 How do students study media in the context of groups and group theory for LO1 and LO2; #2 what diverse audiences are addressed in LO2?; #3 What is the societal phenomena studied?; #4 clarify how the Ecampus version includes at least one synchronous speech; #5 what communication theory is used in LO3; #6 submission of an Ecampus proposal; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• KIN 280 Patient & Client Centered Communication (3rd review)
  • Meets the minimum requirements for the category.

Action: Motion to approve with a note that the name does not reflect the content of the course; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 2 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• WLC 232 Traditional Chinese Culture
  • Both WLC 232 and 233 are well done. The syllabi have more detail than CIM. However, the essential assignment (EA) for LO2 for WLC 232 – it is unclear if the quiz meets the LO. The research paper may be a better option for the EA. Overall, it looks like both courses meet the category. Academic Assessment did confirm the quizzes are short answer. WLC 233 needs an Ecampus redevelopment proposal.

Action: Motion to approve WLC 232 and conditionally approve WLC 233 pending an Ecampus redevelopment proposal; The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• WLC 233 Modern Chinese Culture
  • Voted on with WLC 232.
• GEOG 242 Urban Aqua Networks: Ancient to Modern (2nd review)
  • They made the argument that it is a social science and identified Urban Studies as the subfield of social science that they will be focusing on. CLO 1 and 3; they do meet the LOs. CLO2 is sufficient. Needs an Ecampus redevelopment proposal. No descriptions of course content or assignments.

Action: Motion to conditionally approve pending an Ecampus redevelopment proposal; seconded. The motion passed with 9 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 3 abstentions.

• AEC 251 Intro to Agricultural and Food Economics
  • Great course.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 11 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• HDFS 260 Emotional Well-Being: Tools for Positive Mental Health (2nd review)
  • They identified the field of social science as Human Development and Family Sciences but it is unclear in the schedule when they introduce the field. It does look like the requested changes were made. The name of the course does not make it feel like an introduction to the field.

Action: Motion to approve with a note that the name of the course is not reflective of the social science content; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• AG 221 Women in Agriculture (2nd review)
  • The field of social science is identified as rural sociology but the course is still about women in agriculture, which is a much narrower focus. On a closer look, it does look like gender might be used as a lens through which to look at sociological context in rural areas. Would it be more relevant for DPO-Foundations? The course is currently in the STS category in the Baccalaureate Core .

Action: Motion to approve for STS for the next year and consider it further for next year; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• WSE 240 Fungal Decay in your World
  • Great Ecampus science course.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• GEO 351 Saving Planet Earth: Reducing Carbon Emissions
  • Good course but it is unclear how they will ensure interdisciplinary members in groups. It might be a little too heavy on natural science content and may need to add more social science content.

Action: Motion to rollback with notes: 1) social science content is not clear in the syllabus and course schedule; 2) clarify how the instructor will create interdisciplinary groups; and 3) clarify how teamwork skills will be assessed outside of a group presentation; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• ED 311 Seeking Solutions to Disrupted Learning in K-12 Education (2nd review)
  • Revisions were made and the course looks great.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

 

Adjournment

With no further discussion or business before the committee, the co-chairs adjourned the meeting.