ASCRC Minutes 2/19/08

Members Present: J. Blunt, I. Crummy, J. Graham, S. Lodmell, P. Muench J. Luckowski, M. Nielsen, L. Tangedahl, H. Thompson, G. Weix

Members Absent/Excused: E. Henderson, P. Silverman

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

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

The minutes from 2/5/08 and 2/12/08 were approved.

Communications:

Faculty Senate Meeting Update

· Chair Thompson provided an update from the Faculty Senate meeting. The Curriculum Consent Agenda, Certificate Guidelines, Principles for Quality Online Courses, and Service Learning Designation were approved with little discussion. It was questioned whether the intent was to add a service learning requirement to general education.

Repeat Fee Resolution
There was considerable discussion regarding the repeat resolution. It was finally approved with the removal of the specifications (Use only the most recent grade of a repeated course to calculate the cumulative GPA; and Show all grades on the transcript). There was strong sentiment not to allow students to remove the first grade from the GPA calculation – the transcript should be a record of performance and the grades should be averaged. The Senate would like ASCRC to review the issue. It is apparent that the President will not support the removal of the fee. Chair Thompson asked the committee how it would like to proceed.

It was agreed that the committee should draft a report outlining the various aspects of the issue. Some Universities do not provide state support for students to retake courses. Data should be gathered from the other MUS campuses and UM’s peers. The report should include an analysis of the impact on students from diverse backgrounds. Financial Aid should be consulted as well. Melanie Hoell was nominated to work on the report.

New Course Policy Revision

· Grad council "was opposed to the last sentence [Although course content....or grading methods]." ASCRC discussion centered on the responsibility of ASCRC subcommittees to evaluate texts/assignments/grading in course proposals, which is more limited than grad council evaluation of the graduate component of UG courses. Further discussion was postponed to get input from grad council.

Business Items:

Service learning deadline memo

· The committee reviewed, amended, and approved the service learning deadline memo. It will be sent out to all faculty latter this week. Camie will contact members of the Service Learning Advisory Board to see whether they will serve on the review subcommittee.

Curriculum follow-up

· Action on EVST 494 was postponed. Although the form was received it did not include catalog language. Camie will follow-up with the department.

· The cross-listing of ENLT 320 with ENFM 320 was approved with a slight modification to the catalog language.

· Increasing the repeatability for NAS 195 to 9 credits was approved. This adjustment was made to accommodate students taking Blackfeet language classes at Blackfeet Community College. An agreement was established in 2002 to allow the Beginning Blackfeet language sequence to be accepted at UM to meet the general education foreign language requirement. UM students are taking the sequence via a telecommunication link to the Blackfeet Community College and receive credit for NAS 195 special topics. It is anticipated that 15 students will complete the language sequence this academic year and this change will prevent them from having to go through the appeals process.

· The request to extend NRG 295 for another year was approved.

Three-year review of new programs

· ECOS suggests that new programs be reviewed after three-years and created an outline for the review. Procedures will need to be added to clarify how programs are identified for review and who would request the materials and complete the review. Some new programs are just added to the schedule for departmental review every seven years. So depending the time to review depends on when the department has been scheduled.

Ideal attributes of the CAS Dean

· Chair Thompson asked whether the committee would like to submit a statement to the search committee. The attributes forwarded by the committee should be related to the committees’ charge and facilitating an open trusting relationship. It was suggested that the candidate should have experience with faculty evaluation, fiscal accountability, and base decisions on data analysis. Chair Thompson will draft something for the committee to consider next week.

· Policy revision was postponed.

· The Upper-division workgroup is looking into the ratio of upper-division and lower-division credits at other universities.

· There was discussion on the qualitative differences between upper and lower- division courses. Registrar Micus offered to survey the catalog to identify some of the common descriptors. Lower division courses are introductory and descriptive. Upper division courses involve analysis, synthesis and integration and have more sophisticated expectations of students topics are more focused. Professor Nielsen is currently preparing for an accreditation visit and is required to make a distinction between the learning outcomes of the 100 and 200 level courses. She will share the table with the committee.

Good and Welfare

· The General Education Committee is going to meet the first week in March to go over the criteria drafts. Professor Weix reviewed fall general education course enrollment with the committee. Enrollment varies widely from 1 to 464. She hopes that courses can be reviewed for fall 2009 implementation. Professors teaching Ethics courses will be meeting on Friday to discuss the implications of the revised criteria and strategies to keep the breadth of offerings.

The committee will need to meet with chairs of the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Fine Arts to encourage departments to collectively rethink general education courses to be introductory and foundational and agree on course offerings. Courses should be streamlined with more coordination, oversight and unit responsibility for general education courses.

· Chair Thompson thanked the administration for sending out the Early Alert Flyer. It was very helpful.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.