A total of $40,000 in grants has been awarded faculty to assist with general education curriculum development.

Appalachian’s General Education Task Force awarded 20 summer faculty grants, valued at $2,000, to professors proposing to develop new courses or make significant revisions to their existing courses.

The new or revised courses will provide models for the entire campus in course development and assessment methods for the new general education curriculum.

Grant recipients are Tiffany Christian (sociology); Shawn Arthur (philosophy and religion); Derek Davidson, Karla McGinnis and Andrea Roller (English); Sue Williams (theatre and dance); Susan Staub (English); Elicka Peterson (political science and criminal justice); Terri Mitchell (curriculum and instruction); Anna Ward (theatre and dance); Carol Soule (family and consumer sciences); Johnny Waters (geology); Kathleen Schroeder (geography); Michael Windelspecht (biology); William Anderson (geology) and Kristan Cockerill (sustainable development); Patrick Rardin (philosophy and religion), Jeffery Bortz (history) and Gayle Weitz (art); Kim Hall (philosophy and religion); Jill Ehnenn (English); Eric Marland, Katherine Mawhinney and Hutch Sprunt (mathematics); Jay Wentworth and Joseph Gonzalez (interdisciplinary studies); Andrew Koch (political science and criminal justice); and Tim Huelsman and Sandy Gagnon (psychology).

Courses developed by these individual faculty members and faculty teams will be offered during the 2007-08 academic year. While the courses are intended to meet the goals and learning outcomes of the proposed new general education program, they will also fulfill core curriculum requirements for current students.

“These course proposals show that many faculty members are eager to explore new, exciting, and often interdisciplinary ways to provide our students with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind they will need in our rapidly changing world,” said Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Dave Haney.