Core Education Committee

Oregon State University Faculty Senate

Meeting of the Core Education Committee
February 7, 2025
11:30-1:30 p.m.
Zoom

MINUTES

Committee members present: Kelsey Emard (Co-chair), Daniel Faltesek (Co-chair), Andrea Allan, Aidas Banaitis, Abigail Crowell, Lori McGraw, Brian Mills, Holly Mitchell, Kari-Lyn Sakuma
Committee members absent: Vipin Arora, Liz Delf, Matthew Kennedy, Dave Stemper, Paula Weiss
Ex-officio members present: Stephanie Baugh (Curriculum Management), Heath Henry (General Education Assessment), Karen Watte (Ecampus)
Visitors and staff present: Caitlin Calascibetta (Faculty Senate Office), Andrew Valls (Executive Committee Liaison), Troy Hall, Michael Jefferis, 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.

• ENGR 110 Transitions - Specialized proposal
  • Credits are a range from 0-2. Needs to be two before the Learning Outcome, Criteria & Rationale (LOCR) document. Course cap is not specified.  Range of co-requisites. Hard to tell if they had changed of the centrally developed content. Learning Outcome (LO) 2 – analysis in 110 as opposed to 310 discusses social justice and engineering. Central materials do not seem appropriate for the topic. Assignment to connect with a community or campus support resource could be reconsidered but does not necessarily need to be sent back – there is a general concern that these resources could be overwhelmed by students and the usage of the word ‘connect’ is very general and vague. Are the students communicating with the community? Building connections?

Action: Motion to approve both ENGR 110 and 310; seconded. The motion passed with 9 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• ENGR 310 Transitions - Specialized proposal
  • Voted on in conjunction with ENGR 110.

• ED 424 Teacher as Reflective Practitioner             
  • Ecampus proposal requested but it is unclear if it was submitted. The hybrid format has not been addressed. Appropriate pre-requisites but it is unclear if it is appropriate for it to be a 400-level course. Otherwise, a great course.

Action: Motion to conditionally approve, pending clarification of hybrid status; seconded. The motion passed with 9 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions. The motion passed with 8 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 1 abstention.

• PPOL 415 Professional and Career Development Skills
  • The proposal looks great except for one typo that can easily be fixed without rolling the course back.

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

• PHL 477 Psychedelics, Spirituality, and Healing (second review)
  • Effort was made to address the committee’s concerns that the course did not meet the category. Despite the revisions, there is still some concerns that the course still does not fit the category, so the reviewers suggest sending it back with a direct question about how the problem is a relevant global issue that warrants a transdisciplinary approach and consideration. The committee would also like clarification on how it has societal, global relevance. It is unclear how the assignment for LO 4 is going to be evaluated.

Action: Motion to rollback to request revision of the central problem of the course to be reimagined as a global and multifaceted problem that has many potential solutions; show that the impacts are wide reaching, globally relevant, and impact diverse groups globally; revise assignments to show how individual teamwork skills can be assessed; seconded. The motion passed with 9 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• GEOG 350 Geographies of Risk, Vulnerability, and Resilience
  • It is a good fit for the category. Previously a Contemporary Global Issues course in the Baccalaureate Core.

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

• ANTH 352 Anthropology, Health, and the Environment  
  • Does the use of office hours meet the requirement of 30 minutes of mentoring? Unclear of assessment method of LO4. Academic Assessment noted they will be using a reflection. Missing the Ecampus redevelopment proposal. The Ecampus syllabus is not clear about whether students are meeting synchronously or not.

Action: Motion to rollback to clarify how teamwork is assessed and how the pieces work together as a whole, Submission of Ecampus redevelopment proposal; seconded. The motion passed with 9 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 1 abstention.

• ENG 104Z Introduction to Fiction              
  • It has some minor issues that need fixing but the course meets the category.

Action: Motion to conditionally approve pending syllabus cleanup of language differentiating Ecampus and face-to-face; seconded. The motion passed with 8 votes in favor, 1 vote in opposition and 1 abstention.

• WLC 241 Grimm's Fairy Tales     
  • Great proposal.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• PHL 160 World Religions              
  • Great proposal.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• ANTH 210 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology              
  • Unclear if it fits the category as the descriptions are very broad and too general. Exhibits are Native American, Hawaiian and Chicano so it is largely US-focused course and its global focus is unclear. Points and percentages do not match on assignments.

Action: Motion to rollback: 1) how does this course fit the global category?; 2) how does it compare historical contexts; 3) how does it evaluate global inequities/unequal relations; 4) correct the points/percentages and typos in the syllabi; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• ANTH 215 Peoples and Cultures of Africa              
  • Exemplary proposal but needs an Ecampus redevelopment proposal.

Action: Motion to conditionally approve pending an Ecampus redevelopment proposal; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• CH 201 General chemistry for Engineering Applications  
  • 201 and 204 both individually met their criteria. The matrix could be clearer. The Cascades syllabus has a typo that needs fixing.

Action: Motion to approve CH 201 and CH 204 with a note to fix the typo on the CH 201 Cascades syllabus; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• CH 204 Chemistry for Engineering Applications Lab I        
  • Voted on in conjunction with CH 201.
• CH 221Z General Chemistry I      
  • This course has gone through many rounds of conversation before being submitted to CIM. It falls into alignment with common course numbering. CH 227Z cannot be offered on Ecampus due to accreditation issues but CH 221Z is being offered as a compromise. There are concerns about there being confusion for Ecampus students and the potential for students to be misled, but it is written in the course description and advisors have been informed that CH 227Z cannot be offered for Core credit on Ecampus. It was noted that there are alternative options for Ecampus chemistry labs. The hours per week for the course on the Ecampus syllabus for 221Z seems too high. It is unclear what assignments are satisfying which LOs and if they are being assessed in lecture or lab. Still references the ‘template’ quite a bit on the document. CH 271 is another lab that fulfils the lab requirement for this lecture course. The committee opted to hold both of these course until CH 271 could be reviewed.
  • Hold until CH 271 arrives. Most likely will be rolled back for syllabus edits: clarify the LO table for consistency across the lecture/lab; remove references to "templates" in the Corvallis syllabus; and fix the "and" to "or" in the 221 Corvallis/Ecampus typo under "minimum grade required".
• CH 227Z General Chemistry I Lab              
  • Tabled until CH 271 arrives.
• KIN 280 Patient & Client Centered Communication (second review)         
  • The proposer did not make many changes, and disagreed with the committee’s recommendations. As it currently exists, the committee does not believe the course a good fit for the category. Persuasive argument still focuses on healthcare and is not shown in a broader way.
  • Held until next week.
• COMM 114 Argument and Critical Discourse (third review)          
  • Held until next week.
• GEOG 202 Maps, Media & Communication (second review)         
  • Held until next week.
• GEOG 242 Urban Aqua Networks: Ancient to Modern     
  • Held until next week.
• BA 251 Managing Organizations
  • Held until next week.

Adjournment

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