Dr. Rickie Moore began his discussion by giving a brief overview of the review process that Lee undergoes every ten years in order to maintain accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The review process contains several components, but two components hold the most weight. The first is the document of compliance, which provides a list of standards that Lee has to meet. The standards may include budgetary processes, administrative processes, library resources, etc. The second major component, and the most important, is the Quality Enhancement Plan (henceforth QEP). The QEP goes beyond a list of standards in order to demonstrate that Lee is continually trying to improve the quality of learning …show more content…
It was determined that most of the Lee students were engaging in the various areas of campus life, but they were experiencing them in isolation rather than as an integrated whole. To solve this, Lee produced a QEP titled “Integrated Learning: Pathways to Faith and Vocation.” The plan had three major projects. The first project centered on the 1st year program. The goal was to merge three different courses (Gateway, Benevolence and Global Perspectives) into a single curriculum in courses titled Lee 101 and Lee 102. Additionally, this project sought to create a cohort of students who would remain together throughout the first year program in order to create a bond of community. The second project is the most difficult because it focuses on the requirements for the general education courses and major courses in order to connect the lessons learned in the first year program to the lessons that would be learned in the capstone class. The third project focuses on revamping the capstone course. For the School of Religion, this entails creating a capstone course for all majors where no capstone course previously …show more content…
Having gone through Lee without an emphasis on integration of learning, I can relate to the notion that the Lee experience is often compartmentalized without any connections between areas being made. For example, my courses in the School of Religion have taught me, among others things, how to engage in conversations with people over spiritual matters (aka evangelism or discipleship). In Global Perspectives, I learned how to relate to other cultures and be amongst a group of people on their own terms. Benevolence taught me to engage in a lifestyle of self-sacrifice towards others. It would seem as though all of these experience could easily be integrated, but when I traveled to Israel for my cross-cultural trip, there was little to no integration between the subjects. Rather than experiencing the culture, serving others, or ministering to people, the trip was primarily a sight-seeing adventure. While a trip to Israel may not reflect the Lee experience as a whole, the general tendencies are present on Lee’s campus. This is not to say that integration could not or did not occur prior to the implementation of this QEP, but integration was left to the students. Dr. Moore is right to say that integration is the hardest part and should therefore not be left up to the student to figure out. Removing some of the pressure from the students, however, and teaching students how