MINUTES                                           Academic Affairs Committee                                           27 Sept 2000

 

The Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) was called to order by Chair Wherland at 3:20 p.m., Wednesday, 27 Sept, in Lighty 405.

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Baker (for Bataille), Bitter (for Guzman), Brown (for Jamison), Couture, Craft, Folwell, Fowler, Kilgore (for Law), Struckmeyer, and Wherland.

MEMBERS ABSENT: Reed, Vreeland, and Warner.

VISITORS:  Linda Schoepflin, Summer Session Director, and Jane Sherman, Associate Vice Provost.

 

The minutes of the 20 September 2000 meeting were approved, with the correction that Lowinger was not present.

 

Confirmation of Liaison Membership:  Rebecca Craft will be the liaison for the Extended University Affairs committee.

 

Committee Reports

Academic Program Review:  Struckmeyer reported that the newly formed Academic Program Review committee, which he will chair, met to discuss how it will proceed to carry out its charge.  He will suggest that the committee have a process that is modeled after the General Education Program review, which was very successful.  Should the committee take that approach, members would meet with departmental chairs and college deans to set priorities and goals for the review; the members will also collect data from programs that are undergoing an accreditation review in order to determine if there is commonality with what the external reviews require; and the committee will identify three programs for study in spring during tenure review.  Struckmeyer asked members for their input and commented that one of the committee’s goals will be to meet the aims of the academic program review without creating review redundancy.

Catalog Subcommittee:  Folwell reported that the Catalog Subcommittee will be reviewing a proposal for the Math Department to create a new course, Math 99, to replace Math 101.

American Diversity Subcommittee:  Kilgore noted that the American Diversity Subcommittee has approved forty-four diversity courses.  She said that class size continues to be an issue, as American Diversity courses are ideally suited for smaller groups of students.

 

Undergraduate and Professional Major Change Bulletin No. 1

Members approved Undergraduate and Professional Major Change Bulletin No. 1 with minor revisions.    Members did note that the senate might take issue with the MIS courses in this bulletin since they are vocational and don’t apply toward the business degree.

 

Undergraduate Certificates and Co-Curricular Transcripts

Members continued their discussion from the prior academic year on the topic of Undergraduate Certificates.  Wherland said that there is some confusion about the difference between a certificate and a minor and that there is a lot of variety in the way that other universities define certificates.  Member Baker reported that the Extended Degree Program has identified a strong demand for certificates by its students.  He noted that EDP envisions the certificate programs being comprised of coherent groups of academic classes and that these courses may give students exposure to certain types of course experiences that cross disciplinary boundaries.  Member Couture said that the deans see the need for the certificates that currently exist to be reviewed.  They also want students to have some assurance that a certificate that is

 

AAC Minutes

27 September 2000

 page 2

 

advertised will continue to be offered.  Couture said that while there is too much ad hoc certification, a formal certification process should leave room for the informal certificates to be allowed.  The benefit of the formal certificates is that they will appear on the transcript.  One member expressed concern about having two types of certificates and suggested that there be some way to distinguish between the two.  Another member expressed concern about the level of quality of some of the graduate certificates, where the required coursework was at the undergraduate level.

Members agreed that Muriel Oaks, EDP, and Gary Brown, CTLT, should attend AAC to discuss their vision for undergraduate certificates.  Members noted that they also wanted academic deans and branch campus deans to be asked for a list of the informal and professional certificates that are offered through their colleges.

 

Grade Appeals Process

Member Struckmeyer handed out information on the grade appeals process at three other universities.  He noted that he had spoken with Karen DePauw, Graduate School Dean, who said that a grade appeals process should apply to graduate student graded coursework.  Struckmeyer asked committee members to identify which models they liked best, and then he said that he would submit a draft of a grade appeals process for the committee’s consideration. 

 

Meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

 

 

 

Becky Bitter, Secretary Pro Tem

27 September 2000