Lawrence University
Office of the Dean of the Faculty
MEMORANDUM
TO: The Faculty
FROM: Gerald Seaman and Beth Haines
DATE: May 19, 2003
RE: GER Competency and Diversity Offerings: Proposing Courses and Scheduling Classes
We write today to clarify two items relating to general education competency and diversity offerings. The first relates to the process involved in proposing a course to fulfill one of these GER's; the second concerns the scheduling of such a class.
To propose adding a competency or diversity designator to an existing course, please complete the appropriate form and submit it to the Committee on Instruction, care of the Associate Dean of the Faculty. You may propose adding a competency or diversity designator to a course at any time prior to the first meeting of the course. The form and the criteria for each kind of course are available on the Dean of the Faculty website at the following link:
http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/faculty_dean/ger/You may also find the forms and criteria and, perhaps equally useful, Instruction's interpretation of these criteria, on the Minutes portion of the committee's website at this link:
http://www.lawrence.edu/oncampus/committee/instruction/minutes/On scheduling: Once a course has been approved by Instruction, it may be offered to fulfill a given general education competency or diversity requirement, at the instructor's discretion. To be offered in this way, a course must display the appropriate GER designation in the class schedule. Instructors usually make these designations through their department chairs as part of the class scheduling process. However, if a designator was inadvertently omitted from the class schedule, you may instruct the Registrar directly to add the designator now and the course will count toward your students' GERs. Only classes displayed with the appropriate markers will be counted as fulfilling a general education competency or diversity requirement.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. In the meantime, thank you for your cooperation.