Metro State will receive a “focused site visit” from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) next week, concentrated on the revised General Studies Program.

Randy Hyman of the University of Minnesota-Duluth and Elizabeth Dunn from Indiana University at South Bend will be representing the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) for the site visit on the revision of the General Studies program. They will be on campus Sunday evening, Oct. 17 through Tuesday morning, Oct. 19.

An open faculty meeting is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 18, 3-3:45 p.m. in CN 301.

The call for this focused site visit began on May 26, 2009, when the HLC charged the College with revising its General Studies Program. Specifically, the HLC asked for a “solid, revised program of general studies” that included student learning outcomes that can be assessed to create the mechanism for continuous improvement. A taskforce was charged with this revision at the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year.

The taskforce pledged to not increase the number of hours in the General Studies program and worked hard at facilitating open discussions with the faculty throughout the College, an effort that paid off with faculty approval for the revised structure of the program. First, the faculty approved three proposed goals and student learning outcomes during the week of March 15-18, 2010.

A second vote the week of April 19-22 determined that the global diversity goal, Understand the global interconnectedness of diverse individuals, communities, and societies, would not be its own course category but would be met by courses in other categories. From these two votes, the taskforce developed the structure of the program (number of credit hours in each of the eight course categories), which was approved in a May 3-6 faculty vote.

The summer was productive for faculty and taskforce members working on the General Studies Program, according to Taskforce Chair and Letters, Arts and Sciences Dean Joan Laura Foster. Faculty committees developed the criteria that General Studies courses must meet for each of the eight course categories, and the General Studies taskforce wrote both a program assessment plan and an implementation plan.

The forms for course submission in each course category have been developed, Foster says. The curriculum forms are also on the “u drive” (aka libra), in the Curriculum folder, and on the General Studies website.

“The revised General Studies program will be implemented in the 2012-2013 academic year to allow sufficient time for the curriculum process,” Foster says. “This will be a phase-in process in that students from previous catalog years will be following the current General Studies Program.”

Foster says she hopes “that curriculum packages will be submitted this year as well as next, so that we avoid a curriculum bottleneck. Proposed curriculum packages are being developed which, although not yet approved, can serve as a model for faculty planning course submissions. These model curriculum packages are being presented at the General Studies Curriculum workshops being held in October and again later this semester and several times spring semester.”

The October General Studies Curriculum Preparation Workshop schedule is as follows: