TO:                       The Faculty

FROM:                 Beth Haines and Jerry Seaman

REGARDING:      Important Reminders about competency and diversity
                              requirements


We thought a few reminders regarding the general education requirements
might be useful to you as you finish your preparations for Term II
classes. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

1.) THE APPROVAL PROCESS: Courses must be approved by the Committee on
Instruction in order to be designated as meeting one of the competency
or diversity requirements. See the following link for the committee's
interpretation of the criteria:

        http://www.lawrence.edu/oncampus/committee/instruction/minutes/

To have a course approved, please complete the appropriate form
(available at http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/faculty_dean/ger/). Once
approved, instructors decide whether a particular offering of the course
should have the competency or diversity designator. For example, an
instructor whose course has been approved as either writing or speaking
intensive, could decide to offer it in fall term as speaking intensive
and in spring term as writing intensive. Similarly, an instructor could
decide to remove the writing intensive designator from a particular
offering of the course, but this must be done PRIOR to the first
printing of the schedule of classes.

2.) STAFF COURSES: Some GER courses have been approved as taught by
"staff," that is, any instructor of the course may put the approved
designator on the course. See the relevant web page for information on
whether a course has been approved for an individual instructor or for
staff (http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/registrar/
div%20and%20competencies.xls). Department or program chairs should
ensure that courses approved as "staff" have the appropriate designators
on them. Course instructors should familiarize themselves with the
criteria for competency courses and commit to meeting the criteria
before putting the designator on the course
(http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/faculty_dean/ger/criteria.shtml ).

3.) COUNTING RULES: Students may count a single course as fulfilling a
distribution and competency requirement, or a diversity and competency
requirement. However, a single course may not be counted as fulfilling
both a distribution and diversity requirement. Similarly, a student may
not count a single course as fulfilling more than one competency
requirement or both diversity requirements.

4.) CHECKING OR ADDING DESIGNATORS: Please review your own courses and
your department's courses to see whether all courses have appropriate
designators.

We would ask that you take particular care to verify that all of your
dimensions of diversity or global diversity courses are designated as
such (please consult the list available at
http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/faculty_dean/ger/criteria.shtml ) If you
need to have additional courses approved, please fill out the
appropriate forms (http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/faculty_dean/ger/).

Also, please ensure that courses designated as speaking, writing, or
quantitative intensive meet the competency criteria.
(http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/faculty_dean/ger/criteria.shtml). It is
advantageous if your syllabus specifies which competency and/or
diversity requirement the course meets.

5.) QUESTIONS ABOUT THE GERs: If you have any questions about the
general education requirements, please contact Beth Haines (x6708,
hainesb@lawrence.edu ). If you would like a speaking tutor for your
course or help in developing the speaking and communication requirements
in your course, please contact Monica Rico (x6725, ricom@lawrence.edu
). If you would like a writing or quantitative tutor, or help in
developing the writing components of your course, please contact Geoff
Gajewski (x6530, gajewskg@lawrence.edu ) or Rex Myers (x7050,
myersre@lawrence.edu). Ed Clemons (x6275, clemonse@lawrence.edu) joined
us in November as a quantitative consultant and is offering a variety of
quantitative workshops for students (e.g., on algebra, statistical
analysis) and is available to consult with faculty who are developing
the quantitative components of their courses.

Competency & Diversity Criteria:
            http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/faculty_dean/ger/criteria.shtml

Committee on Instruction's interpretation of the criteria
            http://www.lawrence.edu/oncampus/committee/instruction/minutes/

Course Approval Forms:
            http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/faculty_dean/ger/

List of Approved Courses (includes approved instructors)
            http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/registrar/div%20and%20competencies.xls