Multidisciplinary Task Force Minutes
March 13, 2001

jvettel@andrew.cmu.edu Posted March 14, 2001
Administrative Details
  Attendance
  • Present: Indira Nair, Jean Vettel, Kenya Dworkin, Scott Sandage, Erika Linke, Kristina Straub, Janet Stocks, Mark Egerman, Ashley Deal, Denise Wittkofski, and Tiffany Chang
  • Absent: Laura Lee, Susan Ambrose, Claudia Kirkpatrick

    Fall 2000 Meeting Times
  • Thursday, October 13 Minutes
  • Thursday, November 9 Minutes
  • Thursday, December 7 Minutes

    Spring 2001 Meeting Times
  • Wednesday, February 14 Minutes
  • Tuesday, March 13 Minutes


  • Expected time for next meeting: beginning of Spring Break Week
    General Education courses should breakdown disciplinary chauvinism
      Concerns about GenEd conceptualization
  • GenEd allows students to explore a range of disciplines, learning about the variety of methods and objects of study in different disciplinary domains ... must stress this point in our proposal
  • we don't have a way to crack open the disciplinary requirements (thus ensuring that adequate units will/can be dedicated to GenEd courses); however, our goal is to make the GenEd curriculum an attractive offer. If the community sees the GenEd courses as beneficial academic opportunities, the departments and/or students will branch out and explore on their own initiative/determination. Our goal is not implementation as much as subtle persuasion...
  • need to make a distinct attempt to show how the GenEd reframing fits into the hourglass model... ensure committee work seems cohesive to the outside
  • we need to continually ask ourselves: what are we doing to make the breadth known?
  • Assorted 'Goodies' from the Meeting
     
  • "the only thing that bridges two disciplines is language"
  • most closed curriculum is drama with only 2 electives, while most open has been CIT since 1991
  • drama students do take history, but it is taught within the dept.. viewed as a way to provide a skill to the students. Similar courses offered in history dept are not seen as this skill acquisition and therefore not endorsed
  • 98% of design classes are design students... 97% of design students coursework is in the design department
  • teaching students for two consecutive semesters is like watching gravy.. just foggy water until the 5th month when the gravy forms
  • 76-101 and its treacherous political waters... should teach a skill, namely how to approach the writing process from draft to final revisions... it is the first exposure non-H&SS freshman have to the humanities and the current experience is, well, not known to be a positive one... perhaps fund an experimental design..
  • most competitive schools to ours, like MIT, Stanford, Columbia, have 3 english requirements.. not just one course to do it all in a mere semester
  • H&SS freshman seminars are a good model for bringing diverse majors together to explore disciplines
  • General Plan of Action for Committee
      Items
  • send any thoughts about strategic action to Indira
  • produce the necessary materials to present work to the UEC in April, as well as the campus community soon -- I believe the brunt of this work is for Indira and me..

  • Last Updated: March 14, 2001 12:45