Members present: Dr. Abebe, Dr. Addison, Dr. Bock, Mr. Brinkmeyer, Dr. Cosbey, Dr. T. Mason,

Member absent: Dr. Methven.

Staff present: Ms. Herrington-Perry, Mrs. Chancellor, Academic Affairs.

Guests Present: L. Bates, E. Karbassioon, M. Wohlrabe, S. Gustafson, R. Benedict, B. Kuykendall,

W. Weber, J. Lynch, B. Irwin, Dean Wall, M. May, B. Gage, and E. Corley

I. Minutes.

1. Executive Action (2-9-00) from the College of Arts and Humanities.
2. Letter from Andrew McNitt, regarding Transfer Credit for Internet Courses.
3. Executive Action (2-24-00) from the College of Sciences.

III. Agenda items 00-05 and 00-06.

The motion to suspend the rules and act on agenda items 00-05 and 00-06 passed unanimously.

IV. Agenda items 00-08 and 00-09.

V. Agenda items 00-07, 00-10 and 00-12.

The Council decided to change the order of the Agenda to accommodate the guests.

6. New Course Proposal, CTE 3100, Instructional Technology in Career and Technical Education, 00-04. Dr. Campanis and Dr. Greathouse, Family and Consumer Sciences and Business Education, presented the proposal and answered questions of the Council. The motion to approve the proposal passed with the vote as follows:

Yes: Dr. Addison, Dr. Bock, Dr. Cosbey, Dr. T. Mason,

VII. New Course Proposal, ECN 4689, Theory and Research, 00-01.

Yes: Dr. Addison, Dr. Bock, Dr. Cosbey, Dr. T. Mason,

This action approves the following to become effective Fall 2000.

Dr. Abebe, Dr. Addison, and Dr. Obia exited the meeting at this point.

VIII. Senior Seminar Mission Statement, 00-05.

The Senior Seminar at Eastern Illinois University is designed to be a cross-disciplinary culminating experience that will provide students with an opportunity to apply concepts and use skills developed in both their general education and major courses. Information about topics of major importance (e.g. the Holocaust, Social Movements, Women in Science, Technology, Controversies in Education, Sociobiology, etc.) will be read, analyzed, discussed, and written about in a three semester-hour seminar led by a faculty member of a discipline different from those of the students. To allow ample time for writing and discussion, senior seminars will be limited to a maximum of 25 students. As an element of the general education curriculum, each senior seminar shall focus on some aspect of citizenship.

The purpose of Senior Seminar is to broaden the educational experience for seniors using a cross-disciplinary, synthesizing approach. Under the guidance of a faculty member from a department other than their own, students of various majors will come together to read, discuss, and write about the topic of the individual seminar.

This experience will afford an ideal opportunity for students to reflect on their particular education in the light of a range of cross-disciplinary concerns which will be available in senior seminars each semester. The exposure to another discipline’s viewpoint on an issue as provided by the faculty member, coupled with the cross-disciplinary flavor provided by the mixture of students from different disciplines, should create an ideal atmosphere for broadening views and judging the applicability as well as the limits of one’s training toward the understanding and resolving of problems which are truly cross-disciplinary in scope.

The senior seminar should give students experiences in synthesizing, analyzing, and refining ideas/concepts while practicing oral and written communication. To this end, students will

• have the opportunity to obtain information on a topic from a variety of written sources, some including quantitative data.
• demonstrate their critical thinking skills by processing information from diverse sources.
• practice their ability to conduct a rational dialogue with others on topics generated by course materials and outside research.
• express in written and oral forms their synthesis of a topic and a reasoned defense of conclusions flowing from the synthesis.
• bring the skills and viewpoints acquired in their major curricula to bear on problems/situations not directly studied in their major field.
• find links between their formal course work and contemporary problems/events.
• learn to analyze their own views in light of readings and discussions in order to make informed, responsible, and ethical civic and personal decisions.

By recommendation of the Assessment Plan Task Force, the Council on Academic Affairs, and the Senior Seminar Advisory Committee, the revised Senior Seminar has been increased from two to three hours. There are three major reasons for this change: to stress to students its importance as an intellectually rigorous course, to enable faculty to design a challenging course whose credit hours parallel other senior-level offerings, and to facilitate senior-level assessment of general education.

In senior seminar, at least three activities will assess student learning throughout the general education curriculum. TASKS, a standardized instrument designed to measure critical thinking, will be given in all senior seminars in week 12 (or its equivalent in summer sessions). A written assignment will be submitted for the students’ electronic writing portfolio. In addition, instructors will assess students’ oral communication proficiency. Each new or revised senior seminar must include evidence of assessment and cover all three areas of the general education mission—literacy, critical thinking, citizenship—must be addressed in each new or revised senior seminar.

Assessment of an individual senior seminar course is the responsibility of the instructor and should be based on the instructor’s established learning objectives for the course.

IX. New Course Proposal, EIU, 4100G, Folklore, Culture, and Society, 00-06.

The meeting adjourned at 3:52 p.m. Kathy Chancellor, Recording Secretary.

Agenda:

7. New Course Proposal, ENG 3705, American Multicultural Literatures.

10. New Course Proposal, EIU 1111, University Foundations.
11. Proposed Revision of CDS Honors Program.

On the Agenda for March 23, 2000:

7. New Course Proposal, Art 3681, Contemporary Art.
8. Proposed Art History Option.

The following item were approved by Executive Action to become effective immediately.

PHY 1000 -- Add to the course description: "Audit only."

The following item were approved by Executive Action to become effective Fall 2000.

Pending Executive Action Items: