**To contact any of the Community Members listed below, just click on the underlined name.**
Melanie Brimer, Department of Special Education & Communication Disorders: I have my Ph.D. in speech-language pathology specializing in people who have severe communication problems requiring augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), such as computers with voice output. I spent one year doing a post-doctoral experience to earn my clinical certification, and this is my third year of teaching at SIUE. I am interested informing a diverse team representing people from a wide variety of fields and backgrounds. I am also interested in involving students as well. I have someVicki Daggett, School of Dental Medicine: I hold a Master's Degree in Educational Psychology and Counselor Education with an emphasis in Pupil Personnel Services (College Counseling Center). Among other graduate classes I took was a Philosophy of Education class and you seem to be dealing with many of the same issues. I thought it was interesting.
Susan Fanetti, Department of English Language & Literature: My professional background: I have a PhD in American literature; my "minor field" is rhetoric and composition theory and pedagogy. I also have an MAT. I joined SIUE in January 2004 as an English education specialist. I teach English methods, American literature, women's studies, and composition courses at all levels. My scholarly interests are the same as my teaching interests, and these converge in my overarching interest in the cultural contexts of language and literacy. Philosophically, my interest in revamping general education is to create a program of study that really helps students become fully vested and engaged members of society--good citizens, with real understanding of how they exist in and influence their community/ies. Practically, I am specifically interested in bolstering students' communication skills, with a deepened and expanded compostion program, more emphasis on critical thinking, and a more comprehensive and organized program from writing across the curriculum.
Charlotte Johnson, User Services, Lovejoy Library: M.A. Library Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1975;
B.S. Art Education and Integrated Liberal Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1974. In the 1970s, I participated in the UW-Madison's new Integrated Liberal Studies Program. Approximately
300 freshmen and sophomores studied, lived and socialized, as a subgroup of the 30,000+ student body,
with about a dozen faculty members who team-taught classes in a wide array of disciplines. The
active-learning, often community-based assignments required us to integrate what we were learning in all of
the Program's courses. It was a great experience and provided a strong foundation for our upper-level and
graduate work. The students, many of whom are now leaders in their chosen professions, regularly get back
together for reunions, and often discuss the value of the Program and how it prepared them for the rest of
their student work and their careers. I would like to see SIUE offer a General Education program that
would provide a similar experience.
Ellen Lavelle, Department of Educational Leadership: Ph.D., Educational Psychology, Southern Illinois University; M.S. Ed., Higher Education, Southern Illinois University; B.A., Sociology, Southern Illinois University. "Bridges Within" -- My perspective on General Education is focused on how it is that students learn, and how it is that faculty might best foster a rich and meaningful learning experience in the General Education Program. The design process might include assessing student needs, and then designining an integrated, and perhaps interdisciplinary, experience, a kind of Bridges Within. This might include consideration of real world problems as addressed from a range of disciplinary perspectives. The approach would be instructional in that it would consider both learning and teaching processes as linked to relevance.
Sharon James McGee, Department of English Language & Literature: I'm interested in being part of the BRIDGE design team because I am eager to explore innovative ways to reshape/re-envision general education at SIUE. I have a Ph.D. in English (Rhetoric and Composition) and have interest in, knowledge of, and investment in the teaching of writing both in English and across the curriculum. I am also Co-Director of Expository Writing at SIUE.
Kim Poteet, Department of Instructional Services: I have a M.Ed. in adult education with additional graduate work in teaching English composition, and I teach developmental reading in Instructional Services. I believe that general education requirements should provide exposure to the breathtaking diversity that is our world, challenge students’ assumptions, teach them to think critically and support their arguments well, and provide them with opportunities to take their learning out into the community via meaningful volunteer or other experiential opportunities.
Ann Riley, Technical and Access Services, Lovejoy Library: Any general education program should form the core of a student's undergraduate experience. A coherent program should focus on skills such as communication, higher order thinking, information literacy and quantitative reasoning in balance with knowledge areas such as social and behavioral sciences, humanities and fine arts, life and physical sciences as well as enabling the formation of ethical values in a diverse society. Possibly a matrixed approach to course classifications for gen ed as well as interdisciplinary foundation courses might result from skill and knowledge-based approaches. I have an MA in English, and MS in Library Science, am ABD in English and taught mainly writing for over 20 years at public and private, large and small institutions in four states. I have experience working with assessment and accreditation, and would like to work on a design team.
Robert Ware, Department of Philosophy: I have a D.Phil. with a dissertation on Hegel's philosophy. My research has focused upon Hegel, as well as the politics, religion, and ethnography of the North Caucasus region. I also have teaching and research interests in the philosophy of science. At the core of the Gen Ed program, I favor the model in place at campuses such as U.C. San Diego. The model is centered around a large lecture Western Civ sequence of two or three semesters. Students are divided among small discussion groups (capped at 12), meeting at least twice per week, and working intensively upon composition and argumentation (minimum of five substantive papers per term). Academic standards are very high (nearly all students receive D's or F's on their first papers), and all students are required to work up to those standards, which then become the base for sustaining high standards throughout all other programs at the university. Such a program is interdisciplinary in that it encompasses participating faculty from multiple departments, and it focuses upon critical thinking skills through the instruction of writing and argumentation. I favor the elimination of our current Interdisciplinary Studies courses and our Critical Thinking courses from the Gen Ed program. We should continue to offer team taught interdisciplinary courses, and we should continue to offer Critical Thinking courses, but not as components of Gen Ed. I believe that all graduating students should be numerate, and that all should have an exposure to science. I favor a no-nonsense approach to the basics of our civilization, supported by high academic standards.