RIT Digital Media Library

Policies D18.0 and D18.2 (Endorsed by AS 5-10-2018)Academic Senat

Johnston, Joe (Director, Center for Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution)

Policies D18.0 and D18.2 (Endorsed by AS 5-10-2018)

Policy C13.0 - Service Animal, Assistance Animal and Pet Policy (Document, PPt) Endorsed 3/8/2018Academic Senat

Ackerman, Susan

Thompson, Evan

Policy C13.0 - Service Animal, Assistance Animal and Pet Policy (Document, PPt) Endorsed 3/8/2018

AAC Report - Charges 4-7 (PPt)  4-5-2018Academic Senat

Lanzafame (AAC Chair), Joseph

Nickisher, Heidi

AAC Report - Charges 4-7 (PPt)  4-5-2018

Middleton (GEC Chair), Bill

GEC Final Report 
AY 2017-2018 
 
 
Members of the Committee: 
 
Amanda Bao, Charles Border, Leah Bradley, Linda M Bryant, Elizabeth Hane, 
Andrew Herbert, Myrtle Jones, Vincent Landers, Matthew Marshall, William 
Middleton, Helen Timberlake, Sarah Thompson, Kristen Waterstram-Rich, Michael 
Yacci 
 
Regular Committee Work: 
 
The Committee scheduled regular weekly meetings, but only met when there 
was actual business to conduct. In all, the committee met 19 times during the 
2017-2018 academic year, plus several subcommittee meetings on its charges 
and other more specialized matters.  
 
The committee approved GE status or Perspective designation to 35 courses, 
and approved changes to four immersions. 
 
Very few courses were rejected for GE status or Perspective designation. One 
immersion from SOIS has been held up since it is a single, nine credit course and 
policy will need to be changed to accommodate it. It has been temporarily 
approved by the provost. A possible charge for the committee next year could 
be to review and revise the policy on immersions so that such a course could 
constitute an immersion. 
 
Charges: 
 
The Committee started the year with two charges: 
 
General Education Committee Charges for 2017-18 
 
GEC 1 Audit General Education courses campus wide, to assess whether i) 
Perspective courses include assignments/activities by which faculty can 
assess respective student learning outcomes, ii) whether General 
Education courses include assignments/activities by which faculty can 
assess student learning outcomes in Communication, and Critical Thinking, 
and iii) whether general education courses have registration restrictions. 
 
GEC 2 Determine whether it would be beneficial to have a protocol for 
awarding a variance to courses that are ill-suited to assessment of the 
student learning outcomes listed in the Essential Elements category (such 
courses might include large-enrollment courses in chemistry and biology), 
and if so, design and adopt such a protocol 
 
In the fall the committee picked up a third charge, revising the GE Framework to 
accommodate a proposed Bachelor of Architecture degree. The GEC 
recommended the following changes to the GE Framework to the senate to 
accommodate the new degree and any others that might come along in the 
future (and they were passed by the Senate 16 November): 
 
General Education 
Framework 
BS BFA AAS AS All Other 
Baccalaureate 
Degrees 
First-Year Writing 3 3 3 3 3 
Perspectives 24 15 15 15 15 
Immersion 9 9 0 0 9 
General Education 
Electives* 
24 3 6 12 3 
Minimum Total 60 30 24** 30 30 
 
Charge 2: After considerable discussion on the subject, the committee came up 
with the following protocol for waiving assessment of one of the two Essential 
Elements of the GE SLOs. This was presented to the Academic Senate in April. 
 
ESSENTIAL ELEMENT EXEMPTION PROTOCOL 
 
Step 1: Departments Request Exemption 
Departments can request in writing an exemption from one category of the 
Essential Elements (Communication OR Critical Thinking.) The request should 
outline the rationale for an exemption. The exemption applies only to the 
Essential Element Student Learning Outcomes and not to Perspective Student 
Learning Outcomes.  
 
Step 2: Exemption Approval 
GEC will review and approve, if applicable, an Essential Element Exemption in 
conjunction with the normal general education course approval process.  
 
The following criteria will not be considered as a factor in the exemption of a 
general education course from the Essential Elements:  
 Course or section size 
 Anything related to individual faculty (workload, teaching or assessment 
methods) 
 Mode of instruction 
 
Charge 3: We are still in the process of completing our third charge, and it will 
not be finally completed until the Fall. We have decided to start with a pilot 
study using only one department (CLA-Sociology and Anthropology) to work out 
any kinks in the process. 
 
GEC Charge, The GE SLO Course “Audit” Pilot  
 
Step 1: Data Collection 
 
GEC works with the registrar to get a list of all GE courses offered by SOCI/ANTH 
department 
GEC works with registrar to determine the best method for obtaining this 
information for all RIT departments offering GE courses  
GEC works with the registrar to obtain date which further defines the scope of 
the problem: 
 The number/percentage of courses which are not aligned to the current 
framework (not mapped to at least one of each Essential Elements 
outcomes) 
 The number/percentage of GE courses which are aligned to more than 5 
GE SLOs 
 The number/percentage of GE courses which are aligned to GE SLOs 
which have been removed from the framework 
Timeline- April 2018 
 
Step 2: Pilot with SOCI/ANTH Department 
 
GEC meets with SOCI/ANTH to determine the following: 
 Overall Course List: Does SOCI/ANTH agree with the list of GE courses? Are 
there courses which are not being offered?  
 Essential Elements Mapping: Focus will be placed on review of Essential 
Elements outcome mappings. At this time the department can elect to 
make changes to the Essential Elements mappings, determining which 
outcomes fit best with the course curriculum and remove alignments that 
do not make sense. If courses exist without essential element mapping, 
mapping will be completed.  
 Mapping to outcomes which no longer exist in the framework will be 
removed 
 
*The SOC/ANTH department will have resources available as they complete this 
work including a list of current course mapping to GE SLOs , GE SLO Rubrics, the 
ability to consult with GEC, and the Office of Educational Effectiveness 
Assessment.  
 
GEC works with registrar to make requested changes to SOCI/ANTH GE SLO 
courses  
 
Timeline- May 2018 
 
Step 3: Develop Process and Implementation Plan 
 
After the pilot, GEC will prepare instructions/guidelines so each department can 
go through the process.  GEC will develop a project timeline and make 
recommendations for the best way to complete the work based on an estimate 
of how long it will take departments to do this work, what other information or 
resources might be needed, and what the consequences of changes will entail 
for departments and the university. 
 
Timeline- Fall 2018 
 
Possible Charges for AY 2018-2019: 
 
Given that the General Education Committee’s principal work is the review of 
new or revised courses seeking General Education status, Perspective 
designation and new or revised immersions, and that the workload can be quite 
heavy at times, the committee is reluctant to take on too much additional work. 
However, there are at least two charges that we can suggest.  
 
The first would be the completion of the General Education audit. This is already 
underway and has been pending for the past two years. If the committee can 
keep to it’s proposed schedule, the audit should be complete by the end of fall 
semester 2018. 
 
The second charge could be a review of policy regarding immersions, to 
determine if policy should be changed to support the inclusion on non-three-
credit courses, such as the nine credit, SOIS course/immersion.
Appendix I: Revision of the GE Framework to accommodate a proposed 
Bachelor of Architecture degree 
 
D01.4 General Education Framework 
 
I. Overview 
 
The General Education Framework includes aspects that provide breadth and 
depth of study, and because communication and critical thinking skills are 
essential to the education of every student at RIT, opportunities for students to 
demonstrate achievement in these domains will pervade the General 
Education curriculum. 
 
Breadth in the General Education curriculum is achieved through seven 
Perspective categories that promote different ways of knowing about the world.  
Courses in these categories will introduce students to fundamentals of liberal arts 
and sciences (methods, concepts, and theories) while emphasizing general 
education student learning outcomes.  Students achieve deeper learning in a 
focus area by completing an Immersion, a set of three related general 
education courses in a theme or discipline. 
 
II. Policy Statement on Requirements 
 
In accordance with RIT Policies and Procedures Section D1, courses considered 
for general education standing will be evaluated using the criteria set forth by 
the RIT General Education Student Learning Outcomes and the NYSED Office of 
College and University Evaluation Policy Statement on Liberal Arts and Sciences.  
In particular, all general education courses will provide learning experiences 
designed to achieve at least one student learning outcome in both 
Communication and Critical Thinking, as described in the General Education 
Framework. 
 
Each type of degree award requires a different number of general education 
credits as mandated by NYSED.  When providing guidance, NYSED uses the term 
“liberal arts and sciences” to refer to general education.  In accordance with 
NYSED’s guidelines students must complete, at a minimum, the number of 
credits indicated in each category, as illustrated in Table 1. 
 
Table 1. The table below shows the minimum number of semester credit hours (sch) required in 
each category.  Details regarding the general education framework can be found on RIT’s 
General Education website. 
 
General Education Framework BS BFA AAS AS All Other 
Baccalaureate 
Degrees 
First-Year Writing 3 3 3 3 3 
Perspectives 24 15 15 15 15 
Immersion 9 9 0 0 9 
General Education Electives* 24 3 6 12 3 
Minimum Total 60 30 24** 30 30 
 
* Elective course credits plus other category credits must equal the minimum required 
** NYSED requires 20; RIT framework exceeds the minimum requirement 
Appendix II: Waiver for assessment of the General Education Essential Outcomes 
 
BACKGROUND 
Communication and Critical Thinking are essential to the general education 
experience of every student at RIT, and every general education course 
provides learning experiences with both of these skills. As such, all general 
education courses are aligned to at least one Communication and one Critical 
Thinking Student Learning Outcome, thereby ensuring that these elements 
(known as the Essential Elements of General Education) are embedded 
throughout the general education curriculum.  However, some general 
education courses may be ill-suited to the assessment of the Essential Elements.  
RESPONSE   
GEC has made the following determinations: 
 1) GEC recognizes that certain courses may not have sufficient time to assess 
both Essential Elements of General Education, but do provide a significant 
general education experience for our students. Therefore, an “Essential Element 
Exemption” may be granted in the case that a course meets the traditional 
definition of general education (see NYSED guidelines) but constraints related to 
curricular opportunity make assessment of one of the Essential Elements 
problematic.  
2) The following criteria will not be considered as a factor in the exemption of a 
general education course from the Essential Elements:  
 Course or section size 
 Anything related to individual faculty (workload, teaching or assessment methods) 
 Mode of instruction 
ESSENTIAL ELEMENT EXEMPTION PROTOCOL  
Step 1: Departments Request Exemption 
Departments can request in writing an exemption from one category of the 
Essential Elements (Communication OR Critical Thinking.) The request should 
outline the rationale for an exemption. The exemption applies only to the 
Essential Element Student Learning Outcomes and not to Perspective Student 
Learning Outcomes.  
Step 2: Exemption Approval 
GEC will review and approve, if applicable, an Essential Element Exemption in 
conjunction with the normal general education course approval process.  
Appendix III: General Education Audit 
 
GEC Charge, The GE SLO Course “Audit” Pilot  
 
Step 1: Data Collection 
GEC works with the registrar to get a list of all GE courses offered by SOCI/ANTH 
department 
GEC works with registrar to determine the best method for obtaining this 
information for all RIT departments offering GE courses  
GEC works with the registrar to obtain date which further defines the scope of 
the problem: 
 The number/percentage of courses which are not aligned to the current framework (not 
mapped to at least one of each Essential Elements outcomes) 
 The number/percentage of GE courses which are aligned to more than 5 GE SLOs 
 The number/percentage of GE courses which are aligned to GE SLOs which have been removed 
from the framework 
Timeline- April 2018 
Step 2: Pilot with SOCI/ANTH Department 
GEC meets with SOCI/ANTH to determine the following: 
 Overall Course List: Does SOCI/ANTH agree with the list of GE courses? Are there courses which 
are not being offered?  
 Essential Elements Mapping: Focus will be placed on review of Essential Elements outcome 
mappings. At this time the department can elect to make changes to the Essential Elements 
mappings, determining which outcomes fit best with the course curriculum and remove 
alignments that do not make sense. If courses exist without essential element mapping, 
mapping will be completed.  
 Mapping to outcomes which no longer exist in the framework will be removed 
*The SOC/ANTH department will have resources available as the complete this 
work including a list of current course mapping to GE SLOs , GE SLO Rubrics, the 
ability to consult with GEC, and the Office of Educational Effectiveness 
Assessment.  
 
GEC works with registrar to make requested changes to SOCI/ANTH GE SLO 
courses  
Timeline- May 2018 
 
Step 3: Develop Process and Implementation Plan 
After the pilot, GEC will prepare instructions/guidelines so each department can 
go through the process.  GEC will develop a project timeline and make 
recommendations for the best way to complete the work based on an estimate 
of how long  it will take departments to do this work, what other information or 
resources might be needed, and what the consequences of changes will entail 
for departments and the university.  
Timeline- Fall 2018 
 
Foreseeable Challenges, Roadblocks, Resistance:  
 When/how/or will departments need to modify course outlines? 
 Registrars data- how to update 
 Time- this could take departments a long time!  
 Communication- how do we share this with departments?  


GEC Final Report AY2017-18

Brick City Homecoming Update (10-04-2018)Academic Senat

Rowoth, Lynn (AVP, Community & Gov't)

Brick City Homecoming Update (10-04-2018)

SG Resolution - Establishment of a Socially Responsible Investment Advisory Committee (Endorsed by AS 3-22-2018)Academic Senat

Barquet (SG President), Farid

Zachary (SG Member), Evan

SG Resolution - Establishment of a Socially Responsible Investment Advisory Committee (Endorsed by AS 3-22-2018)

GEC Interim Report for AY 2017 and PPt (and supporting documents) 4-05-2018Academic Senat

Middleton (GEC Chair), William

GEC Interim Report for AY 2017 and PPt (and supporting documents) 4-05-2018