LAGER Committee Minutes 3/22/16

by Drew Haysin Curriculum Revisionon Posted on

LAGER Committee Minutes 3/22/16

Present: Kyle(chair), Lavon, Jennie, Damon (recording), Suzanne, Stephanie, Melanie, Drew, and Dale

Regrets:, Caleb

  1. Meeting opened with a moment of silence  
  2. Minutes of 8 March meeting not yet available; approval deferred until 29 March.
  3. Review of past action items
    1. The one-page document for the Summer Institute (due end of day 28 March — Monday) will be shared via Google Drive by Friday for committee’s review.
    2. It appears that we will be given 5 minutes at the 30 March faculty meeting, but the final agenda has not yet been finalized. With that time, we will announce that the podcasts are available, describe the work we have done (department / programs we’ve met with, administration / community members with whom we have met, the summer institute we will be attending, and plans for future conversations — if those are available at that time). If we are not given time, this will become a silent announcement. The podcasts will be shared with LAGER (for review) by Friday.
  4. New topics
    1. Division meetings (23 March) — Drew is on the agenda for Arts; Damon is on the agenda for Humanities; Kyle will attend both Social Science and Business; Melanie has time on Natural Science and Math; Lavon at the BPS meeting. Jennie will visit Arts and Humanities. Not sharing any new specific information yet.
    2. LAGER and January Term – discussion over ways in which J-term (in its current or dramatically revised form) might be useful for our curriculum. In short — sense was that we want the time more so than the curricular experience. LAGER will continue to consider options and ideas. ACTION ITEM: Approval deferred until 29 March meeting.  
    3. Roger Degerman, Vice President of Marketing – discussion of potential ways that we can work together to ensure that the curriculum and the marketing / branding efforts point to similar sets of student experiences and campus culture. Roger pointed to the concerns that students and parents bring with them: Do you have my program? Will I fit in? Will I like it? Can I afford it? Is it safe? Is there an intentional / organized path through the four years?
      1. The general gist of the conversation was that this isn’t about marketing GE. This is about marketing student experiences. Art & Science has been working with those who know what we are doing in LAGER, including Dave Dobson (and Stephanie), so he feels that they are capturing much of the issues that are resonating through the curriculum effort and testing it.
      2. He suggested we think about Gen Z, and pointed us to some marketing work done by Sparks + Honey.
      3. He also suggested that the three principles he is currently using to guide the marketing efforts resonate well with our efforts: Purpose, Preparation, and Payoff.
  5. Future topics we know we need to schedule in the weeks ahead (time as available)
    1. We should share our availability for focus team goals and schedule (March-May)
  6. Meeting closed with a moment of silence