Core Education Committee

Oregon State University Faculty Senate

Meeting of the Core Education Committee
February 21, 2025
11:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Zoom

MINUTES

Committee members present: Kelsey Emard (Co-chair), Daniel Faltesek (Co-chair), Andrea Allan, Vipin Arora, Aidas Banaitis, Liz Delf, Matthew Kennedy, Brian Mills, Holly Mitchell, Kari-Lyn Sakuma, Dave Stemper, Paula Weiss
Committee members absent: Abigail Crowell, Lori McGraw
Ex-officio members present: Stephanie Baugh (Curriculum Management), Kali Furman (Difference, Power & Oppression), Heath Henry (General Education Assessment), Ashley Holmes (WIC Director), McKenzie Huber (Core Education Director), Karen Watte (Ecampus)
Visitors and staff present: Caitlin Calascibetta (Faculty Senate Office), Andrew Valls (Executive Committee Liaison), Troy Hall, Michael Jefferis, Kristin Nagy Katz, Caryn Stoess

New Business & Informational 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.

• ANTH 455 Reproductive Justice: A Service Learning Course
  • Hit all the Learning Outcomes (LO). Reviewers recommend approval but some minor syllabus edits could be made based off comments from the Difference, Power & Oppression (DPO) office.

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

• COMM 432 Gender and Communication
  • LO3 – comparing approaches for dismantling racism and other systems of oppression, the assignment seemed to be to do one or the other, rather than addressing both. The course needs more focus on intersectionality. Should be restricted to upper division. LO2 lacks a focus on race which is required for LO2 and LO3. Essential assignment (EA) is optional.

Action: Motion to rollback COMM 432 to 1) include more attention to racism and intersectionality especially in the syllabus; 2) the essential assignment must be required not optional in the syllabus; 3) attention to race needs to be in LO2 and LO3; and 4) LO1 assignments need to have students situate themselves in relation to systems of power; seconded. The motion passed with 9 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 2 abstentions.

• ES 460 Ethnicity and Social Justice
  • Overall, the course seems great, but it was difficult to determine whether they were assessing and addressing the LOs. Course content lacks focus on the field of ethnic studies and focuses on the individual. For LO2, it is unclear what they do with historical quotes and how they bring it up to modern times. Liaison comments would like more details on the essential assignments. They put the quizzes into a collection, which works for LO1 and 2 but not for LO3.

Action: Motion to rollback ES 460: looks like an excellent DPO-Advanced course, but the assessment methods (especially the essential assignments) need to be more explicitly linked to the LOs, showing how exactly they assess the LOs; LO1 - include focus on systemic dimensions and the field of study beyond individual experiences; LO2 - how do they actually analyze and connect historical constructions of racism to the current moment; and LO3 - how do students evaluate this related to the field of ethnic studies? how do they compare across approaches?; seconded. The motion passed with 11 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 0 abstentions.

• ED 455 Intersection of Marginalized Identities
  • The course title is not descriptive of the course content. The primary purpose of the course is for use in a master’s program, which is stated in their proposal. LO1 not position for relations to systems. LO3 does not address much beyond accessibility and not does include approaches for dismantling racism.

Action: Motion to rollback ED 455: 1) redesign the course with the Core Education DPO goals at the center, rather than the professionalization dimensions ; 2) course title needs to change to better reflect what this course is doing; 3) course needs to critically reflect on systems of power within the field of education; 4) assignments needs to more explicitly link to the LOs; 5) LO1 does not adequately address systems; 6) LO2 needs to require attention to intersectionality; 7) LO3 needs to focus beyond accessibility to compare a wide range of dismantling including racism; and 8) build into the course content, syllabus, and CIM answers how students are situating themselves/considering their positionality in relation to the systems of oppression; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 1 abstention.

• BA 396 Markets as Social Status Systems
  • Exemplary.

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

• ED 350 Literature from Marginalized Communities: Classroom Discussion Methods
  • Needs more details around LO1. The assignment is relevant but there are better suited assignments. The same essential assignment is used for LO2 but it does not address the LO as well.  Does not talk about intersectionality. LO3 also has the same essential assignment but needs to talk more about racism. Being designed for K-12 teachers to teach ethnic studies standards.

Action: Motion to rollback: 1) more clarification needed on how the essential assignment assesses each different LO; 2) needs to show how students examine systems of power and oppression within the field of education; and 3) more explanation of how the K-12 standards taught in this course connect to the LOs. Also, for your consideration, have you considered the sexual harassment concerns with one of the primary authors you use? will you provide students opportunities to discuss how the author's context may or may not be relevant to the class?; seconded. The motion passed with 11 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 1 abstention.

• SPAN 456 Spanish in the US
  • One reviewer agreed with the DPO director’s comments and
    suggestions in CIM about having to look at historic constructions.
    Also, there is need for a plan for outcomes 2,3 for how reflective
    assignments could be used for assessment purposes. The EA for LO3 brings in a tool for students to use to determine their social identity and engage in a dialogue.

Action: Motion to rollback: 1) LO2 assessment needs to more clearly examine structural systems beyond individual identities; 2) a written reflection seems necessary for the essential assignment assessment of LO2 and LO3 to confirm that students are actually achieving these LOs in their dialogue - this should be a reflection on the power systems discussion (not reporting their actual identities); and 3) LO3 essential assignment should clearly show how they are comparing approaches to dismantling racism and other forms of oppression; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 0 abstentions.

• BI 346 Ocean Justice (second review)
  • Unclear if the originator responded to committee questions as needed as several issues still remain. The community benefits plan got closer to what was needed but the budget proposal might still cause issues. How they addressed dismantling racism was also done poorly. Overall, the committee still has several questions and concerns about course content.

Action: Motion to rollback BI 346: 1) LO1 is still weak on describing positionality/self-situation; 2) LO2 is improved but the issue of acknowledge power dimensions of a US funding budget has not been adequately addressed; 3) LO3 is still not adequately addressing different approaches to dismantling racism and other global inequities in ocean justice (racism has to be addressed in this LO, it can't be one option of many); and 4) LO3 assignments must require comparing different approaches outside of a budget, that can't be one option of many, as required by the LO. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 0 abstentions.

• GER 430 Discourses of Otherness (second review)
  • They did a great job based on the feedback.

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

• AHE 210 Higher Ed goes Hollywood: Racial Narratives and Student Experiences
  • Good class for the category without serious issues.

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

• HST 265 Race and Reproduction in US History
  • Great job. Content focuses on history but also relates to issues happening currently. One reviewer noted that there is a discussion around pregnancy that may feel a bit intrusive to students.

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

• GEOG 104 It's a Disaster: Natural Hazards and Risk Reduction
  • Exemplary.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 11 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 1 abstention.

• ES 211 Intro to LatinX/A/O-ChicanX/A/O Studies
  • Light on contemporary examples. LO2 and LO3 uses discussion boards but it is unclear what students are posting about. They claim to use only OER but both campuses use three books and each have costs. How the course covers the essential assignment needs to be covered. The EA for LO 1 is a paper/project but only the Corvallis version of the project fits the LO. The Cascades version of the project does not fit the LO due to the number of options available.

Action: Motion to rollback ES 211 for 1) more contemporary examples; 2) LO2 and LO3 the assessment discussion and essential assignments need to be clarified and more detail provided of how they link to the LOs; 3) Cascades essential assignment for LO1 needs to change to actually assess the LO; 4) Open Educational Resource needs to be updated in CIM; and 5) methods of inclusive pedagogy need to be clarified; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 0 abstentions.

• GEOG 100 Climate Justice (second review)
  • Previously sent back for: how do students connect their own experiences to systems of oppression and not just to experiences of climate change; more description of how the essential assignment meets the Core Ed Learning Outcome 2; additional examples of how intersecting systems of oppression are addressed for Learning Outcome 2; and a description of how the course is U.S. focused. Needs more detail on intersectionality in LO2, but resolved the US-focused issue.

Action: Motion to rollback on GEOG 100: Three of our previous requests were addressed; the remaining issue is how intersectionality is addressed in LO2; add more detail showing how the course foregrounds concepts of class, gender, ability, etc. in relation to race in climate injustice; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 2 abstentions.

• BA 297 Disruptive Discourse: Commerce, Crises & Civic Disobedience (second review)
  • Connection to business is still a little vague but other issues have been well addressed. Ecampus redevelopment proposal has been submitted. 12, 0, 0.

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

• WR 224 Introduction to Fiction Writing
  • Great course for the category. Minor note for Cascades syllabus: notes that the textbook is available at The Valley Library on the main campus.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 11 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 1 abstention.

• PHL 251 Knowers, Knowing, and the Known
  • Fits the category but there are some minor concerns. Syllabus does not include the # of credit hours. Description of LO2 focuses almost entirely on AI.

Action: Motion to conditionally approve pending adjusting of credit hours; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 0 abstentions.

• ES 270 Making Alliances and Solidarities
  • There is some unclear language regarding zero-credit assignments at the beginning of the syllabus. Unclear what they’re doing to assess the LOs. The EA for each LO is to go to the Career Development Center, which could place a burden on the center.

Action: Motion to rollback: 1) essential assignments have to be identifiable; 2) beyond assignments have to be worth enough that students will be motivated to do them; 3) the assessment methods have to fully assess each different Beyond LO (more detail needed to see how this happens); and 4) Career Development Center is mistitled in the syllabus; 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
  • Liaison comment mentions that the course seems geared toward education majors. Some Human Development & Family Science students might be interested in the course but it’s hard to see how other majors might be interested in it. The proposer does list how it might be useful for other majors, but it is not explained in the syllabus. Contact hours does not seem to work out well.

Action: Motion to rollback for 1) additional course content on the natural science dimensions; 2) clearing the liaison comments about seeking neuroscience input from the psychological science department; and 3) revise to show how this is a problem of global relevance beyond the U.S. and relevant to disciplines beyond education; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition, and 1 abstention.

• PHL 481 Peace Literacy Solutions for Polarized Science Policy
  • Held for next week.

Adjournment

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