Faculty Senate members discussed forming a task force to re-evaluate NIU’s baccalaureate and general education goals.

The task force will be comprised of about 25 people, and is being formed to conduct a campus-wide review of baccalaureate goals by gathering feedback from both on- and off-campus sources, Vice Provost Earl Seaver said.

“We’re seeking not only faculty, but professional and operating staff members and students to participate [in the task force],” he said.

NIU President John Peters alluded to a “review and overhaul” of the baccalaureate program and core curriculum in his State of the University Address Thursday, with the task force being an important part of the process, Seaver said.

Before evaluating the university’s general education goals, it’s necessary to first evaluate its baccalaureate goals in order to form a comparison, Seaver said. NIU has not done so since the early ’80s, he said.

“Over the last couple of years we’ve been talking more and more about the general education goals,” Seaver said. “We had a few members of our committee go out to various meetings to learn about general education gaols and to get a feel for what was going on nationally as related to general education.”

After a number of NIU representatives attended a summer session at the Association of American Colleges and Universities in Minneapolis, they were able to form a plan to review NIU’s academic goals, Seaver said.

“We came back from that meeting with the decision to talk to the general education committee and others about doing a campus-wide review of our baccalaureate goals,” he said.

Seaver stressed that people on the task force will not only be faculty members, but people from professional and operating staff, as well as students.

The task force will report its findings to the Faculty Senate upon completing its research, he said.