ASCRC Minutes 2/6/07

 

Members Present: B. Bach I. Crummy, L. Economides, J. Eglin, V. Hedquist, C. Henderson J. Graham, J. Luckowski, P. Silverman, A. Szalda-Petree, H. Thompson

Members Absent/Excused: D. Duncan, R. Nalty, A. Tabibnejad

 

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


Guest: Associate Dean Tompkins

 

Chair Szalda-Petree called the meeting to order at 2:15 p.m.

 

The minutes from 1/23/06 were approved.    

 

Communication
 

·        Professor Tangedahl was welcomed to the committee and members introduced themselves.

·        Chair Szalda-Petree explained the outcome of his meeting with ECOS.  ECOS would like ASCRC to meet with representatives from the sciences and professional schools.  DBS, Chemistry, Business, Pharmacy, Music, Education, and Forestry have been asked to conduct a student impact analysis to share with ASCRC.  Guests from these programs will be invited to the committee to explain the impact of the changes on their students. It was suggested that Physics also be included.

·        Members on the general education review of perspective 1 and 2 are as follows 

Expressive Arts Subcommittee

Literary & Artistic Studies Subcommittee

Wendy Stark, Drama
Paul Silverman, Psyc (Chair)
Stephen Kalm, Music
Beth Lo, Art

Ione Crummy, MCLL (Chair)
Louise Economides, English
Paul Dietrich, LS
Mark Medvetz, Writing Studies

·        The review materials are available at:  http://www.umt.edu/facultysenate/ascrc/gened_review.htm
Most of the forms have been submitted. There are 2 pending for expressive arts and 5 for Literary and Artistic Studies.  

·        The online committee will start its meetings this week.  It will be meeting every other Wednesday at 10:30 in Continuing Education.  Sally Brewer agreed to chair the committee.

 

Unfinished Business

 

·        The chair explained the work involved in chairing ASCRC.  The time commitment averages about 3 hours a week including the meeting. The chair is also on the graduation appeals committee and receives emails and occasional calls.  The business of the committee is on your mind a lot, but most of the coordination is done by the Camie. There were still no volunteers. Next week a list of eligible members will be distributed.

·        Curriculum follow-up

Science –The field ecology option and associated courses in DBS along with the rubric change for Geosciences were approved.

Business & Journalism –The Title and prerequisite change for JOUR 417 was approved
 

·        After deliberations the Writing Committee agreed that ENEX 200 will serve as a lower-division writing course and language in the catalog will remain the same in terms of placement option.  The use of ENEX both as a placement option and a writing course requires further consideration after the committee has completed its comprehensive review of the writing program.  The Composition program was asked by Dean Fetz to pilot a program using ENEX 200 as a placement option for better writers.  It has worked well, however there are still some issues to work through. 

New Business

·        Professor Crummy agreed to serve as the ASCRC liaison on the Writing Subcommittee.  Professor Hedquist has a time conflict with the meeting time.

·        Chair Szalda-Petree asked the committee for input regarding a situation on the Graduation Appeals Committee.  A faculty member states on his syllabus that he is submitting the forms necessary for the course to be considered for the Ethics designation.  His students have successfully appealed to sever years, so there is an expectation. However, the faculty member has yet to submit the paperwork and according to his chair has been given release time to do so.  ASCRC recommends that the chair send a letter to the faculty member’s dean describing the situation.

·        The issue of the retake fee was revisited. The practice disadvantages students that do not have resources. There was a suggestion that ASCRC pass a resolution to either not have multiple charges to repeat the same course or to remove the fee all together. The committee would like to see the data on how many students are repeating courses and how many are paying to have the course removed from their GPA.  Has it shown to be effective in deterring students from needing to retake courses?  The committee would also like to know whether the fee exists on other MUS campuses.

 

·        Professor Hedquist asked for the committees’ input regarding the catalog language pertaining to minors.  The Art department would like the studio art majors to be able to get a minor in art history.  ASCRC agreed that this would be an acceptable practice and is willing to review the proposal.   

 

The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 p.m.