April 15, 2019 General Education Council Meeting Minutes 1

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

General Education Council

Minutes for April 15, 2019

PRESENT: Scott Besley (Chair), Bill Haley (BCS), James Hatten (COED), Ivonne Hernandez (CON),

Joni Jones (COB), Babu Joseph (COE), Rebecca Lutz (CON), Cynthia Patterson (CAS), Marc Powers

(COTA), Aurora Sanchez-Anguiano (COPH), LeEtta Schmidt (LIB), Zhimin Shi (CAS), Barbara

Shircliffe (COEDU), Samantha Thomas (BCS),Wally Wilson (COTA)

ABSENT: Andrew Berish (CAS), Marie Bourgeois (COPH), Tapas Das (COEN), Matt Knight (LIB)

(on leave), Alex Levine (CAS), Jason Nethercut (CAS), Joshua Rayman (CAS), Razvan Teodorescu

(CAS)

GUESTS/EX-OFFICIO: Kyna Betancourt (UGS), Cynthia Brown-Hernandez (ODS), Lynn Chisholm

(OICR), Allison Cleveland-Roberts (CAS), Christopher Combie (ODS), Louis Gray (RO), Fai Howard

(UGS), Bob Potter (CAS), Michael Wrona (ODS)

Meeting started at 3:04 pm

1. Approval of Minutes from March 18, 2019—Approve

2. Announcements

a. Council Chair up for election at next meeting. Let Kyna Betancourt know if you are

interested in being Chair prior to May 6th meeting.

b. Council members are appointed for two consecutive terms. Council members should let

their College know whether they wish to be re-appointed if their membership is expiring.

Scott Besley identified members whose term was expiring:

i. Scott Besley

ii. Ivonne Hernandez

iii. Zhimin Shi

iv. Barbara Shircliffe

v. Wally Wilson

3. Old Business

a. Enhanced Gen Ed program – transfer credits. Fai Howard (UGS) reviewed information

from the handout provided at the April 1, 2019 meeting (see attached). Dr. Howard

explained there is no current process for course equivalency for Enhanced General

Education credit for transfer students without an AA degree. She indicated that the Office

of Undergraduate Studies is offering its services to formalize and track the process.

b. Questions asked (and Fai Howard response – unless otherwise indicated):

i. What is the difference between “final approval authority” and “final decision

authority?” See 3rd page of attachment under “Responsibilities. (There is no

difference).

ii. What does EGE mean? (It is Enhanced General Education.)

iii. Is there a difference in process for GEC vs UGC? (This proposal only addresses GEC

and the Enhanced General Education attributes.)

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iv. For international students, how does a course without a SBGI code impact the

student? See second page of attachment under International, Office of the Registrar.

(Louis Gray responded that the Registrar’s Office attempts to accommodate those

students if documentation can be provided).

v. Has this proposed process been vetted by the College Deans/Associate Deans? (Not at

this point as the process has not been formalized. The goal is for GEC to approve

moving forward.)

vi. The SCNS looks for 80 percent similarities between courses to establish

equivalencies. Will this process do the same? (This will be part of the process.)

vii. If a course from another institution has a Gen Ed attribute, will that attribute carry

over to USF? (This was discussed at the April 1st meeting. It was established that the

course’s SLOs needed to match USF’s Gen Ed requirements for that attribute.)

viii. Who owns the process? (The process starts with the advisors and/or the college.

Review for equivalency would be done by a faculty member and not a staff person, as

the faculty member is more familiar with the SLOs.)

ix. Question about valuing the amount of work involved with approval flow and tracking.

(Workload should decrease as a repository of course equivalencies is built. The work

would initially require technical support and resources.)

x. Question on the magnitude of students involved and the possibility of excess hours.

(Council members suggested opening up the moratorium on courses and the number

of courses per college that could be in Intellectual & Practical Skills tier; currently

three per college per attribute area in the tier. Also suggested that for the HIP

equivalencies, a portfolio from the transfer course be reviewed for possible SLOs

equivalency. Another suggestion was to develop a check-list that could be reviewed

for each area within the tier for TGEC, TGEI, or TGED equivalency.

c. Suggested a pseudo course be set up to add to transcript for transfer student representing

the attribute. This had been discussed in past years, and was not feasible. The goal is to

set up a repository of accepted courses from other institutions for each attribute.

d. Cynthia Brown Hernandez, ODS System Academic Planning, raised questions and

issues for the GEC and Undergraduate Council to consider while the proposed

procedures are finalized.

e. GEC approved – UGS (Fai Howard and Kyna Betancourt) can look at transfer courses

that meet Enhanced General Education requirements for non-AA transfer students.

f. ACTION ITEMS: Fai Howard and Kyna Betancourt – 1. Go back and coordinate with

advisors. 2. Revised the plan and bring back to GEC for review. 3. Provide evidence for

HIP equivalencies.

4. New Business

a. Field study courses – HIP/ERCE tiers. Cynthia Patterson gave a PowerPoint

presentation regarding this topic (see attached). In the past, the concern was the

distinction between Community Engaged Learning (CEL) and a Field Study attribute.

Dr. Patterson indicated the Field Study attribute is a conceptual process embraced by

NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) for the HIP attribute. She explained

that many community activities do not fit clearly into the CEL attribute, but do fit the

Field Study attribute and proposes it be added as a seventh HIP option.

b. ACTION ITEMS: Cynthia Patterson to write a proposal for the Field Study attribute

for the May 6th meeting. Scott Besley offered to help. The proposal would detail what

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courses could be assigned the attribute, what would be the criteria for the designation,

time allotment, etc. Discussion regarding the need to have the Field Study account for

20-25% of grade (or 12-15 hours of the total course time). Proposal needs to

demonstrate academic rigor.

5. New Proposal Reviews (course reviews attached)

a. ERCE proposals

b. HIP proposals

Revise & Resubmit ART 4940 Extended Studies Proposed

title: Art & Art History

Internship

Jones, Joseph

Revise & Resubmit MUE 4940 Internship: Music Education Berish, Rayman

c. GCP proposals

Approve CLA 4501 Women in Antiquity Haley, Hernandez Approve with Revisions LDR 4204 Ethics and Power in

Leadership

Levine, Shi

Approve MAN 3025 Principles of Management Hatten, Wilson

6. Resubmitted Proposals

a. ERCE proposals

Approve PAD 3003 Introduction to Public

Administration

Bourgeois, Shircliffe

Approve SPA 3470 Culture and Diversity in CSD Besley, Teodorescu

c. HIP proposals

Table CRW 3321 Poetry II Lutz, Shircliffe Approve NOTE: not on

agenda. Added at

meeting.

MUE 4936 Senior Seminar in Music

Education

Besley

Adjourned at 4:34 pm

Next Meeting:

May 6, 2019

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DRAFT DOCUMENT

Transfer Credit Evaluation Guide for Enhanced General Education (EGE)

Transfer courses may only be accepted for Knowledge and Intellectual & Practical Skills areas of the

EGE. These are the bottom two tiers as detailed below. These guidelines have been created for the

following transfer populations:

out of state (public and private)

private institutions

non-AA students (Florida public)

international

Evaluation for knowledge courses (i.e. discipline specific)

Standard line by line equivalencies to include prefix and course number

Evaluation of intellectual & practical skills

Advisor does first review and sends all materials to applicable faculty chairperson(s) for final

review and evaluation

o Syllabus and course description will be included for faculty review

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DRAFT DOCUMENT

International

Admissions

o The Office of Admissions conductions the first review of international transfer courses

and enters in Banner

o They check for either accreditation or recognition from the Ministry of Education. If

there are no course prefixes on the transcript they will use what is most applicable.

Office of the Registrar

o The transfer articulation team works with transfer courses which are under

consideration as a part of a Transfer Articulation Agreement with an international

institutions

o Please note: Unless the international institution has a distinct SBGI code established,

Registrar is unable to create transfer equivalencies (i.e. All Col SBGI)

General Information

Recommended credit hour practice: multiply 4 quarter hours by .67% (2.86 credits) to convert

from quarter to semester

All transfer courses must have a final grade of C- or higher

75% match to course competencies/SLOs

Use of upper-level (3000/4000) - EGE Committee Will Determine

Responsibilities

Admissions

o Completes the transfer equivalencies for the Knowledge area of EGE

Colleges (i.e. advisors)

o Identify courses that meet the EGE for bottom tiers

o Organize and collect information for faculty review

o Work with faculty chairpersons on approval of courses

Faculty

o Final approval authority for all courses

Students

o Provide course description and syllabus

Undergraduate Studies

o Final decision authority based on faculty recommendation

o Track all approved/denied equivalences

o Consult with Colleges as necessary

o Review/assess process

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DRAFT DOCUMENT

Technical (Banner, Degree Works, Transcript, etc.)

Present practice

o If a course is not within the table, the advisor must do a manual override for the EGE

requirement to show as met

In progress

o Working with IT to have every Gen Ed equivalent within the Banner transfer tables

assigned the correct attribute and any course already within the tables will articulate

automatically

************************************************************************************* EGE Committee Considerations for Approval

Use of transfer credit for two lower tiers: a) intellectual & practical skills and b) knowledge

Use of transfer credit for top tiers by exception only

Use of upper-level transfer credit for EGE Areas we need your direction/collaboration

Process for EGE transfer articulation Feedback received

Concerns regarding time to decision from Chairs/faculty

Need a process which clearly integrates faculty into the transfer evaluation process that allows advisors to meet their deadlines

General Transfer Data - Students admitted between Spring 2016 and Fall 2018*

Tampa o AA = 61% o Non-AA = 39%

St Pete o AA = 67% o Non-AA = 33%

Sarasota o AA = 62% o Non-AA = 38%

Averages*

o Tampa AA-Transfer admits from 201601-201808: 3,632/year

o St Pete AA-Transfer admits from 201601-201808: 632/year

o Sarasota AA-Transfer admits from 201601-201808: 366/year

*Please note this is not official data provided by the office of decision support

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Field Study PowerPoint Slides

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