From: "Maureen Sevigny" (sevignym@oit.edu)
To: (gilkey@darkwing.uoregon.edu)
Subject: Comment received on transfer module

Hi Peter,

I am forwarding an e-mail I received from Maureen O'Connor who attended the Town Hall meeting at PSU. (SHe has given me her permission to send this to you.).

Thanks for the AMAZING job you have done in organizing and compiling all the GETM involvement and comments.

Maureen

HI Maureen:

I wanted to get you some feedback on the transfer module before too long. I attended the meeting at PSU on October 28 and have had a chance to speak to some faculty here.

In general, the concept has been received with a lukewarm reception. The advising community here at PSU is concerned that the transfer module doesn't really address anything -- BA/BS requirements exceed this module and, of course, major requirements are not addressed.

The intention to better serve undecided students is a good one, but all undecided students will inevitably be decided students, and I am concerned that they will feel misled or betrayed when they discover that they may need to go back and do "general education" courseowrk that is specific to the major. This really affects the business student, but also any student in hard sciences, math, engineering, computer sciences or art. These students will all end up taking more courses than they would have if they had been "decided" from the start. This is the inevitable result of indecision, and traditional students face it just as readily as transfer students do. I can't help but think that the problem we are trying to solve is one that can be best solved through intensive career counseling and assessment, uisng inventory tools that can help a student better understand their strengths and weaknesses and choose the right path. I of course never did that, and ended up in a major that was okay, but had more to do with figuring out which major I was closest to earning by my junior year.

There is also a concern about "creep." Some faculty are concerned that an overmephasis on the trasnfer module will create pressure to waive major requirements or collapse the major in some way (not sure how). There is also a pretty strong sense among faculty that last time they looked, they were in charge of the curriculum.

My parting thought is "be careful." There are no guarantees, and this module isn't one either. Maureen