MINUTES                                           Academic Affairs Committee                               4 October 2000

 

The Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) was called to order by Chair Wherland at 3:20 p.m., Wednesday, 4 October, in Lighty 405.

 

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

MEMBERS ABSENT:  Couture and Vreeland.

VISITORS:  Gary Brown, Director for the Center for Teaching and Learning and Technology, Muriel Oaks, Interim Vice President for Extended University Affairs, and Jane Sherman, Associate Vice Provost.

 

The minutes of the 27 September 2000 meeting were approved, with the notation that Undergraduate and Professional Major Change Bulletin No. 1 will include CAC 105 and W St 105 as new crosslisted courses with Crm J 105. 

 

Committee Reports

Catalog Subcommittee:  Folwell reported that the Math Department’s proposal to revise Math 101 was passed by Catalog.  He explained that Math 101 would be replaced by two new courses, Math 100 and 103.  Math 100 would be a non-credit modular class taken by students who placed in the lowest 20% on the math placement exam.  It would be offered for two credits over a six-week period.  Students would also enroll in Math 103, which would incorporate college-level math and count toward graduation credit and financial aid, during the remaining nine weeks of the term.  This three-credit class would also be offered as a semester-long class for the 80% of students who were not placed in Math 103.  Folwell said that the Chair of the Mathematics Department, Alan Genz, spoke to the committee about the proposal and reported that this strategy would increase student motivation to complete the Math 100 course successfully so that they could transition into the college-level Math 103 course.  The Math 103 course would serve as the prerequisite course for many of the math proficiency courses, including Math 205, 210, etc.  Genz told CSC that offering Math 100 and 103 in the same semester would allow students to enroll in a course that would apply toward their financial aid, which has long been a troublesome issue.  Further, Genz said that the revised curricula would better prepare students for the skills required in the math proficiency courses.

One member wanted to know how this new model would affect transfer students who come to WSU with the equivalent of Math 101.  Jane Sherman from the Provost’s Office said that her understanding was that these students would get credit for Math 103.

Budget Committee:  Reed reported that the Budget Committee will be meeting to discuss Doctor of Design (not PhD) proposal for the Spokane campus.

Academic Program Review:  Struckmeyer reported that the APR committee will be reviewing the committee’s charge to discuss how its goals could be accomplished and to identify departments that are scheduled to be reviewed this next year.

 

Undergraduate Certificates and Co-Curricular Transcripts

Muriel Oaks, Interim Vice President for Extended University Affairs, and Gary Brown, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and Technology, spoke with committee members about the possibilities of offering official undergraduate certificates.  Oaks noted that the aim of an undergraduate certificate is to allow students to demonstrate a level of expertise and to gain formal a recognition for achieving a degree of competence in a particular area.  Oaks and Brown said that formal certificates could be designed as stepping stone into departmental majors.  Brown went on to say that certificates might also be a way to identify needs that should be met through developing complete programs/majors; similarly, certificates

 

AAC Minutes

4 October 2000

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could help to establish and justify a faculty base in particular areas.  Brown commented that market analysis was critical in order to determine the need for such certificates, but noted that the demand for certificates is on the rise.  There was agreement that certificates should not supplant degrees, but fulfill student need for showing competence in particular areas and introduce students to majors/degrees. 

A member asked how many students participate in the current informal certificates.  Oaks and Brown said that this information would need to be solicited from the colleges.  Oaks said that she believes certificate requirements should be somewhat flexible, with a minimum of credits required, but no uniform credit hour requirement.  Brown said that another model might allow students who are peer facilitators, for example, to garner a certificate that was comprised of focused academic credit along with their student leadership experience.  Coursework, then, would be coupled with activities of academic rigor to show an area of competence on the transcript.  A member noted that WSU might not want to get into the business of putting non-graded, non-academic activities on the transcript, particularly since there might be no limit to what the institution should track and transcript for a student. 

One member wondered about parallel that might exist between certificates and the proposal for international global competencies that are being discussed by the deans.  Members noted that there might need to be some validation of student success for particular certificates when grading in the requisite coursework was insufficient to determine competency.   A member also noted that undergraduate certificates guidelines may need to be more prescribed than the graduate certificate guidelines since there is less assurance that undergraduates would already be at a certain academic level.  Finally, members said that existing certificates should go through a review process. 

Members agreed to postpone their discussion until Rebecca Craft’s draft of guidelines would be available for their review.  Members also agreed to review any alternative proposal from Gary Brown.  Wherland said that he would also provide the committee with the list of certificates that were compiled by EDP last year.  Bitter noted that the Registrar should be invited to attend the discussion so that some sense regarding implementation.

 

Other Business

Members were given a draft of the University Grade Appeals process by member Struckmeyer.  He suggested that AAC review the draft and, when satisfied, forward it to the Graduate Studies Committee and to the Provost’s Office for their approval before deliberation by the Faculty Senate.  Struckmeyer asked for comments to be sent to him via email in preparation for another draft. 

 

Chair Wherland reported that the General Education Review would be coming to AAC for consideration.  AAC will discuss the recommendations and evaluate the work in progress on meeting these recommendations and report to the senate.

 

Meeting adjourned at 5:05 p.m.

 

 

 

Becky Bitter, Secretary Pro Tem

4 October 2000