ASCRC Minutes 12/6/05

 

Members Present: J. Campana, S. Derry J. Eglin, C. Healow, V. Hedquist C. Henderson, C. Johnston, J. Luckowski, D. McCormick, V. Pavlish D. Potts, M. Roscoe, A Szalda-Petree, H. Thompson, R. Welsh

Members Absent/Excused: L. Carlyon, A. Szalda-Petree

Ex-Officio Present: M. Hoell, A.Walker-Andrews

 

Chair Luckowski called the meeting to order at 2:13p.m.

 

The minutes from 11/29/05 were approved.

 

Communication:

  • By email communication, Associate Registrar Carlyon provided the committee with the following information regarding use of governing catalog for the fall 2005 baccalaureate candidates.  There are 427 candidates.

371 chose the same catalog for both general university requirements and major requirements. (294 of these 371 chose the catalog they matriculated under)

 

39 chose an earlier catalog for general university requirements than for their major. (24 of these 39 chose the catalog they matriculated under for the general university requirements)

 

17 chose an earlier catalog for their major than for their general university requirements. (9 of these 17 chose the catalog they matriculated under for their major requirements)

 

  • The Carlyon memo concerning dormant courses was distributed to ASCRC members electronically.  The policy of ASCRC is to delete from the catalog courses that have not been offered for three or more years unless the department verifies they will be offered within the next year.  If they wish to keep the course but cannot offer it within the next year, they must offer their reasons in writing.  These reasons are to be reviewed by a subcommittee of ASCRC.  Chair Luckowski asked for subcommittee volunteers to review department justifications.  Chris Healow, Valerie Hedquist, Craig Johnston, and Jean Luckowski volunteered.

 

 

 

New Business

Writing course review

Writing Committee Chair Hedquist explained the committee’s review of courses that qualify as General Education writing courses.  Many required follow-up with instructors but all who requested continuation as a W course met the current criteria.  Several departments requested the W designation be dropped from upper-division courses.  Courses approved for inclusion on the December 8 faculty Senate consent agenda are listed below.

 

The committee has concerns that the current courses will not meet criteria proposed by the Provost’s Writing Committee. The committee will have an open discussion on writing at its first meeting in the spring (second Wednesday in February).

Associate Provost Arlene Walker Andrews announced that the ‘best of the best’ UDWPA essays are now available for viewing on the UDWPA web site.

Approved writing courses

Anthropology 340H, 359, 450

Art 203L, 303L, 367H, 368H, 384H, 389H, 403L, 484H, 485H, 486H, 487H

Biology 405

Chemistry 334

Chinese 313L, 314L, 432

Communications 115, 210E

Computer Science 415E

Computer Technology 122E

Curriculum and Instruction 187 (now 287), 318

Dance 334H, 494

Drama 320, 321

Economics 350, 440

English  

English  120L, 121L, 223L, 224L, 225L,301, 320, 321, 322, 323, 325, 331, 335, 336, 337, 353, 355, 371, 372, 373

Environmental Studies 302, 305L, 367, 373A, 427E

Forestry 220, 340, 489E

Geography 333S, 335, 499

Geology 320N, 499

German 303H, 304H

Health and Human Performance 340, 450

History 107H, 108H, 300, 400, 401, 437, 446, 467, 470, 471, 478

Honors College 121L

Information Systems 448

Japanese 210H, 311L, 312L, 431L

Journalism 270, 331, 333, 415, 489

Liberal Studies 151L, 152L

Management 348, 444, 445, 446

Marketing 461

Mathematical Sciences 406

Microbiology418, 420

Modern and Classical Literatures 315L, 365E

Music 325H, 420, 421,422, 423, 424, 425

Native American Studies 200, 202L, 329, 410L, 494

Pharmacy 550

Philosophy 300E, 453, 461, 463

Psychology 320, 400

Radio-Television 280, 360, 361, 494

Recreation Management 451, 482

Russian 301

Social Work 310

University College 270

Wildlife Biology 245

 

Delete courses from writing course list
(by department’s request)

 

Curriculum and Instruction 452E

English 338L, 351, 352
Forestry 342
French 301, 311L, 312L, 408 (writing is in French)

Health and Human Performance 330

Health Sciences 440E

History 385, 485

Microbiology 419, 421

Pharmacy 412

Philosophy 327E

Religious Studies 252L, 260H, 276

Spanish 301, 311L, 312L, 408(writing is in Spanish)

Liberal Studies 350E, 351L

 

Old Business:

Curriculum follow-up: Humanities
Humanities and Cultural Studies Subcommittee Chair McCormick presented the Women’s Studies revised program modification and it was approved.  He informed the committee that Philosophy withdrew its proposal for PHIL 330 and will submit something next year that is more generalized and could be taught by several faculty in the department.

Curriculum follow-up: Biomedical Science

Biomedical Science Subcommittee Chair Johnston reported a verbal commitment from the College of Technology to fund the 1 credit chemistry lab for the Nursing program.  No action was taken as the chair of chemistry has not yet signed off on the program modification. 

 

Internships
There are numerous x98 in departments with repeatability ranging from R-3 to R-15.  Rob Welsh put together a list of these courses, both undergraduate and graduate.  The Cooperative Education Experience title has been around for quite some time.  However, Internship Services seems to be encouraging departments to use other titles. This will need to be discussed when Associate Registrar Carlyon is in attendance.   The committee considered whether a limit should be set for the number of x98 credits that could count toward graduation and also whether x98 credits should be offered only for credit/no credit. Professor Potts pointed out the university limit of 18 credits taken for credit/no credit. Associate Provost Arlene Walker Andrews provided the following written comment to the committee:

 

I would like to make a proposal to the ASCRC for dealing with “extraneous” internship credits. Given that from FY2003-FY2205 only 20 students completed 4 or more internships (averaging 12, 10.7, and 13.7 credits for 4, 5, and 6 internships, respectively), and that 48 students completed 3 internships (for 7.5 credits), taking too many internship credits appears to be fairly rare. Draconian measures seem overly prescriptive. In addition, we have heard that particular majors may have different requirements and preferences regarding internships experiences. We want to respect those.

 

The proposal is simply that a student may enroll for 298 (or 398) twice only. Should the student decide to take another internship, he/she must enroll for 498, which would automatically flag the student’s record and trigger a conversation with the student’s advisor. The student already needs the instructor’s permission, but by reserving 498 for repeated internships, the instructor would also know that the student had enrolled for internship credits twice before.

 

[Scenario:  Student in Business signs up for an internship, the first time something fairly generic, the second time in banking (what he/she thinks is a true vocation). The banking internship isn’t very exciting, the student decides to major in Forensic Anthropology instead, but (because of the past internships) is not given an opportunity to examine the second major in the same way.]


The committee considered possible issues with a credit/no credit policy.  It could discourage students from participating in internships and thus create a problem in department’s relationships with the community. However, there could also be an incentive for taking the internship for credit/no credit due to an otherwise academic rigorous schedule.   After additional deliberation the motion made by Chris Healow to adopt a credit/no credit policy for x98 courses was withdrawn.  Departments should be informed of the committee’s consideration of the issue and invited to comment and/or attend the meeting.  Chair Luckowski will draft a communication for departments and the issue will be on the agenda at the first meeting in the spring.

 

The committee should also take a closer look at the working agreement and instructions provided by Internship Services.  Professor Eglin was reminded that he had volunteered at a previous meeting to do this.

 

Declaration of Major
By means of a memo forwarded by Faculty Senate Chair Crepeau to ASCRC November 28, the deans recommend a change in policy to require students to declare a major at 30 credits (or after two semesters) rather than 60 credits.  The committee discussed the recommendation.  There is data that shows a correlation between students’ involvement with faculty or sense of belonging and retention.  The deans believe that declaring a major and encountering faculty as advisors earlier will result in better retention of students.  This change will increase faculty advising loads, but not uniformly across campus.  It may not be accurate to assume that faculty are better at advising than peers or staff members.  Vinnie Pavlish notes that students don’t necessarily connect with advisors.  They are more interested in getting the advising number so they can register. According to Melanie Hoell, 75% of undeclared majors have special circumstances.  Would there be an enforcement mechanism or penalty? And who would monitor? There could also be financial aid implications.  Chair Luckowski asked the committee to think about requiring students to declare a major at 45 credits or three semesters.  The issue will be discussed next semester.   

 

Committee Reports:

The General Education Committee has work groups refining three alternative models: tentatively the Citizenship Model, the Tweak Model, and the Montana Cultural Model.  These models focus on competencies, perspectives and requirements.  The hope is to have something to ASCRC early in the spring. 

 

The first meeting of the spring semester will be January 31st.

 

The committee was adjourned at 4:00 PM.