Board Members
- Chadly Stern, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chair (Senate Ed Policy Liaison)
- Ann Abbott, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Rachel Adler, School of Information Sciences
- Crystal Allen, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
- Laurie Andrews, College of Education
- Katie Ansell, The Grainger College of Engineering
- Justin Aronoff, College of Applied Health Sciences
- Eric Chitambar, The Grainger College of Engineering
- Jessie Choate, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Stefan Djordjevic, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Vlad Dolgopolov, Gies College of Business
- Bryan Dunne, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Donna Gallo, College of Fine and Applied Arts
- Holly Golecki, The Grainger College of Engineering
- Renee Hendricks, School of Information Sciences
- Jacob Henschen, The Grainger College of Engineering
- Josh Heuman, College of Media
- Joe Hinchliffe, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Jennifer Johnson, Gies College of Business
- Jennifer Jones Barbour, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Heejin Kim, Gies College of Business
- Yannick Kluch, College of Applied Health Sciences
- Daniel Maroun, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Peter Mortensen, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Margaret Ng, College of Media
- Michael Nowak, The Grainger College of Engineering
- Eunjung Grace Oh, College of Education
- Kevin Richards, College of Applied Health Sciences
- Nicole Riemer, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Eman Saadah, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Cory Suski, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
- Nicole Turner, College of Fine and Applied Arts
- Dora Watkins, School of Social Work
- Carol Wilson-Smith, School of Social Work
- Yilan Xu, College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
- Mike Yao, College of Media
- Fiona Campbell, undergraduate student
- Obinna Egbuchiri, undergraduate student
- Patrick Holt, undergraduate student
- Kathy Martensen, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost, ex officio
- Manny Rodriguez, Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning, ex officio
- Melissa Steinkoenig, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost, ex officio
- Carolyn Wisniewski, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, ex officio
Charge Letter
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for your willingness to serve, or to continue to serve, on the General Education Board in 2025-2026. I am pleased that Chadly Stern has agreed to another year as chair of the Board and will continue his work related to general education. I welcome Katie Ansell, Margaret Ng, Michael Nowak, Dora Watkins, and Yilan Xu as new members of the General Education Board. I also welcome Fiona Campbell, Obinna Egbuchiri, and Patrick Holt, and thank them for representing undergraduate students.
In May 1989, the Urbana Senate established the General Education Board to “ensure, as much as possible, that general education courses will be valuable intellectual experiences.” Since then, the Board has defined the categories of general education requirements for the campus and the criteria for approval of courses within these categories. The Board also reviews individual course proposals, and on a staggered schedule reviews and recertifies all courses approved for general education credit.
The Board will continue the dual-wing structure. We have intentionally added members from all undergraduate-serving academic units to facilitate each wing’s work and ensure representation from all colleges and schools in the Board’s activities. A majority of the membership will comprise a wing that will review courses, including both those proposals for courses new to General Education and those due for recertification. Review work will be done in subgroups, with materials provided by our office to members, and votes taken at full Board meetings.
The second wing, a policy wing comprised of the other members of the Board, will focus efforts on ongoing policy issues that relate to and impact the general education program on our campus. For the current academic year, there are four policy areas that will be examined:
- A subgroup of this year’s policy wing will focus on formalizing rules and procedures for Board meetings. Consistent with the practices of campus committees, General Education Board meetings operate under procedures drawn from Robert’s Rules of Order. However, these rules do not comment on all aspects of committee meetings. Expressing guidelines in writing will clarify occasional points of ambiguity and strengthen shared norms of decorum, collegiality, and governance on the Board. This subgroup will also consider the role of generative AI in the creation and review of (re)certification applications.
- A second subgroup of this year’s policy wing will focus on General Education writing and Advanced Composition. The goals of this subgroup include continuing to explore recommendations made by the Advanced Composition subgroups in the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years as well as providing guidance on the “Substantial writing” requirement for the Humanities & the Arts category. Forming provisional guidelines that address these points will provide critical clarity to both sponsors and Board members.
- The third subgroup of the policy wing will work toward better integration and assessment of general education learning outcomes. In previous years there was a separate campus committee focused on assessment of general education courses. That committee completed its work and came to an end with the close of the Spring 2025 semester. Having a subcommittee on the Board focused on assessment will ensure that all aspects of General Education are connected under the umbrella of the Board, fostering cross-pollination of ideas and more efficient collaboration.
- A fourth subgroup of the policy wing will discuss the application of existing General Education policy to different instructional formats and course modalities (e.g., online and/or asynchronous courses, large lectures, etc.), with a focus on optimal instructor-to-student ratios, course capacities, and related topics. This group will also consider how recommendations for General Education courses across modalities might also meaningfully differ across course categories (e.g., Advanced Composition versus different categories).
This Board structure necessitates active membership and strong leadership. We are fortunate that Chadly Stern has both prior experience as a GEB chair and the knowledge he garnered through the Provost’s Fellowship. In their ex-officio roles, Kathy Martensen and Melissa Steinkoenig will support the Board on behalf of the Provost’s office, Manny Rodriguez will provide support on behalf of the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning, and Kalista Watson will provide additional administrative support.
At the conclusion of the Board’s work and for the purposes of our institutional records, please be sure to provide access to a member of the Provost’s office (Melissa Steinkoenig) to any committee materials/documents that were stored outside of our shared General Education Board Members Box folder. The Office of the Provost staff will work with the Board Chair to prepare agendas and take notes.
Again, thank you for your willingness to serve on the General Education Board. I appreciate the time and effort you devote to the crucial role the Board plays in ensuring a high-quality undergraduate experience at Illinois.
Sincerely,
Kevin Jackson
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education