ASCRC Minutes 1/29/08

 

Members Present: H. Bruce, I. Crummy, E. Henderson, S. Lodmell, J. Luckowski, P. Muench, K. Nalty, P. Silverman, L. Tangedahl, H. Thompson, G. Weix

Members Absent/Excused: J. Graham, M. Nielsen

 

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

Guest: Associate Dean Tompkins

Chair Thompson called the meeting to order at 2:15 p.m.

 

The minutes from 12/4/07 and 1/23/08 were approved with amendments.

 

Communications:

 

·         Chair Thompson provided an update of the issues discussed at the recent ECOS meeting.

Repeat fee resolution
The President is not in favor of eliminating the repeat fee.  He would like it applied uniformly as a disincentive to a cavalier approach to courses.  The Provost would like to work with faculty governance to come up with a better solution to the problem.  He suggests that financial assistance be made available to students that demonstrate a hardship.  Another suggestion was for a graduated fee.  ECOS will reconsider the issue this week.

There might be some misunderstanding about why students retake courses.  Although some students approach courses with a cavalier attitude, many students need to retake courses because they lack adequate preparation, or are incorrectly advised on course selection, or are nontraditional students who are returning to school after a long absence, or for other legitimate reasons.  

Non-tenure track faculty proposing courses
ECOS discussed ASCRC’s concerns regarding non-tenure track faculty creating new courses with the Provost.  The role of ASCRC is to determine whether the course is academically appropriate and should be based on the  academic quality of the course and how it will serve the department and campus.  The approval signature is the oversight for big picture, resource issues. A possible solution would be to improve ASCRC’s policies and procedures.  The language on the course form should be made more explicit in terms of how to justify the need for a course.  New courses should serve the intellectual needs of the students.

There are several places where course proposal information is available (policies, procedures, and curriculum form instructions).  These should be revised for consistency.  Professor Luckowski will work on revisions.

 


Context for baccalaureate degree
The Provost asked ECOS about the appropriate venue for discussions on a cohesive context for the baccalaureate. He will pursue informal discussions this semester to get faculty interested in his idea and will appoint a task force.  

 

·         Uniform course numbering- Helena meeting
The Board of Regents adopted policy 301.5.5 Common Course Identification and Numbering at the December meeting.  There was a meeting last week to discuss a uniform number system for courses that are frequently transferred.  Faculty members from each campus in Psychology, Economics, Philosophy and Chemistry met to talk about common objectives, numbers, and titles. This committee was put together by the Commissioner’s Office and is chaired by Roger Barber.  OCHE hired Bill McGreggor to work on transferability issues.  He started by looking at courses within the Montana University System to determine whether there should be agreement on learning outcomes.

According to Associate Provost Walker-Andrews the first meeting involved faculty teaching Mathematics, English (Composition), Anatomy and Physiology, and Accounting.  Many universities are doing something similar.  It is unclear whether courses can list the common course prefix, number and title as a cross listing or whether the policy actually requires changes in the course prefix, number, and title.   Faculty are concerned about whether this will extend to 200 and 300 level courses.

There are current articulation agreements between the schools in Montana and equivalencies are easily accessed via the admissions website.  It seems that this information is not widely known.

 

 

Business Items:

 

·         Grading options for developmental courses
Chair Thompson received a request from Professor Hill, Chair of the Applied Arts and Science program to consider extending the No Credit  (NC) grading option, currently available for composition courses, to the developmental courses (WTS 100d, 101d, MAT 002, 005, and 100d.  Associate Dean Tomkins will draft catalog language for next week’s meeting.

 

·         Catalog language will also need to be revised pertaining to the composition program related to actions taken by the Board of Regents.  Associate Dean Tomkins will coordinate with the Writing Committee. 

 

 

Good and Welfare

 

The General Education Mathematics Subcommittee will also discuss mechanisms to assure students complete the mathematics literacy requirement early.   The First-year Implementation Committee is also discussing the issue.

 

The General Education Committee is meeting on February 15th in UC 329 from 1-3.  The Ethics Subcommittee will be meeting with faculty who teach ethics courses that same day.

Catalog language will need to be updated to be consistant with the new general education program and there is concern about the deadline.  Registrar Micus is reconsidering the way the printed catalog, CD, and online catalog are processed.   Updates to the CD can be made in July.

 

Professor Weix requested the deadline for the 2008-2009 catalog. The deadline for the paper copy is early march and the CD copy is in June.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:40 p.m.