Faculty Senate

ASCRC Minutes 10/7/08

Members Present: J. Bergman, T. Brockman, I. Crummy, J. Dempersmier, S. Gauthier, J. Luckowski, D. MacDonald, M. Nielsen, H. Thompson, E. Uchimoto, K. Unger, R. Vanita, G. Weix, K. Zoellner

Members Absent/Excused: S. Lodmell

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

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

The minutes from 9/30/08 were approved.

Communication

• ASUM rejected the proposed repeat fee proposal. ASUM's resolution opposing the proposal was shared with the committee. It objected to the timing, the fee, and the loss of choice.
• ECOS recommends that ASCRC address the academic policy issue. It is not likely that there will be consensus from the students regarding the fee. Fees are not determined by the Faculty Senate, so this is an issue the administration will need to negotiate with the students.
• Last year's chair of the Service Learning Subcommittee declined to serve this year. Other members of the subcommittee have been contacted to see if they are willing to serve as chair.

Business Items:

• The Social Science Subcommittee met on Monday and approved several curriculum items, new courses will be reviewed next week. Chair Weix presented the recommendations of the subcommittee. The items listed on the appended summary were approved. Follow-up is needed regarding the title change for AASC 100 and the online certificate in Nonprofit Administration. The certificate proposal should specify how the Political Science faculty will oversee the program given that ASCRC's certificate guidelines specify that certificates be directed by a tenure-track faculty member or administrator. Although the Climate Change minor was approved by the subcommittee, it is interdisciplinary and will also be reviewed by the Science and Forestry & Biomedical Subcommittees. The Social Science Subcommittee will meet again next week to review the remaining items.
  
  One of the new courses, ANTH 242 Beginning Arapaho does not following the same number sequence as other Modern and Classical Courses. The subcommittee will need to consider whether this is appropriate. ASCRC asked to hear from the instructor on this subject.
• The committee discussed GPA calculation options. Currently grades are averaged unless students pay the $100 fee to remove the preceding grade(s) of a repeated course from the GPA. The committee should consider the integrity of the transcript and whether students learn the material. Financial aid is also a factor - if students drop below 12 credits they lose their financial aid. If the goal is for students to master the material and all grades are shown on the transcript but only the last grade is used to calculate the GPA then is academic integrity maintained? It was suggested that if all grades are averaged then the withdraw policy needs to be more lenient.

Registrar Micus will provide data on other Universities' withdrawal policies.  The committee should review the material and be prepared to make a decision next week.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.