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Final Report: "Creating a Community of Learning;" See discussion>>
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By Christine Davis Mantai
Update January 30, 2012
Feb. 20th at 4 p.m. in Jewett 101: Special Senate Meeting to discuss the Baccalaureate Goals and the Strategic Plan
The Task Force on Baccalaureate Goals has submitted its report entitled "Creating a Community of Learning" to President Hefner and the Cabinet. As a result of its research and feedback from the SUNY Fredonia community, it identifed emerging themes, narrow those to areas of emphasis, and finally, identify learning goals.
The Task Force recommends that SUNY Fredonia refocus its mission to ensure that all Fredonia students will be:
- Skilled (develop Critical Skills, Competencies and Literacies),
- Connected (engage Community, Diversity, Local Stewardship, Global Citizenship),
- Creative (demonstrate Innovation, Scholarship, Artistry, Leadership), and
- Responsible (incorporate Sustainability, Ethics, Professionalism).
Update Dec. 7
The work of the Task Force on Baccalaureate Goals thus far reveals several overlapping areas of emphasis or themes for the recommendations it will make.
Check them out here and give your input to the task force:
These categories are not conclusive, but they reflect most of the comments forums and discussions over the years, as well as the most recent research in a number of areas (see the history of our development process as well as our research for specifics).
TheTask Force on Baccalaureate Goals seeks campus input as it moves to the next phase of our process of improving the coherence of the educational experiences of Fredonia students.
Update: Nov. 18:
Campus Community,
The Task Force on Baccalaureate Goals is getting closer to writing a set of draft recommendations and your ongoing feedback is now critical.
Please visit our website https://www.fredonia.edu/president/baccgoals over the break period and see the themes that are emerging in our work, some of the models we're excited about, and acquaint yourself with some of the many national conversations that we are trying to synthesize. While we will continue to post research, models and links so that the campus can follow our process, your input to our questions this week and next will truly help us in our effort. If you've already responded to a previous question, thank you! There are new questions and your ongoing responses are encouraged!
Published Nov. 7:
Beginning today, ideas and suggestions from the SUNY Fredonia campus community are being sought by the newly formed Task Force on Baccalaureate Goals whose goal is to achieve greater coherence to the educational experiences of students.
A series of questions will be posed each week to students, faculty and staff by the eight-member committee to gather information leading to establishing campus-wide goals – or graduation outcomes -- through an organized framework that encompasses students’ individual work in their major/minor, studies in general education and co-curricular experiences.
“Recognition that the learning happening outside the classroom -- through internships, study abroad, student organizations and other campus life experiences -- is fundamentally linked to the learning that goes on in courses in Gen-Ed and in the major, will help students better understand how their knowledge, skills and experiences reinforce each other,” said task force member Jeanette McVicker.
The task force will pose weekly questions on the website to help the campus “break down” the rather abstract idea of “baccalaureate goals.” This week’s questions are: “What makes a Fredonia education unique? What’s distinctive about Fredonia?”
It’s the committee’s desire that these opening questions will help the campus begin to engage with the task force by leaving comments on Facebook or the discussion board, McVicker said.
Over the next several weeks, the task force will invite both general and specific feedback from all areas of the campus in order to draft a set of goals for campus-wide discussion.
“It’s a daunting timeline,” McVicker acknowledged, “but we are confident that this work will build on the years of conversations about general education, ideas brought forth in strategic planning, and the best of the conversations that have emerged nationally on these issues.”
The spring 2012 semester will provide the framework for revision and final adoption of baccalaureate goals for the campus, dovetailing with revision to the general education program and the campus’s strategic plan.
A website which contains links to a discussion board and a Facebook site has been created by task force member Marissa Cope with the help of webmaster Jonathan Woolson, so that all campus members can feel connected to the task’s force’s work: https://www.fredonia.edu/president/baccgoals.
Members of the task force, formed by President Dennis Hefner, include faculty and professionals who bring a wealth of perspectives, pertinent experience, relevant connections and enthusiasm to this project. They include Gary Bice, Juan de Urda, Michael Jabot, Sherri Mason, Todd Proffitt, and Richard Reddy, McVicker and Cope.
