Faculty Senate

ASCRC Minutes 3/24/09

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Members Present: K. Barhaugh, J. Bergman, T. Brockman, J. Dempersmier S. Lodmell, J. Luckowski M. Nielsen, S. Smillie, H. Thompson, K. Unger, R. Vanita, G. Weix, D. Zolnikov

Members Absent/Excused: I. Crummy, P. Silverman, E. Uchimoto, K. Zoellner

Ex-Officio Present: E. Johnson, S. O'Hare, A. Walker-Andrews

Guest: N. Hinman - Writing Committee Chair

Chair Weix called the meeting to order at 2:10 p.m.

The minutes from 3/17/09 were amended and approved.

Communication

 

• The Interim Registrar Ed Johnson was welcomed to the committee.

• The Transferability Implementation Team met March 17^th. The common course numbering conversion is proceeding for the first cohort of disciplines.

• The General Education Committee will be meeting April 13^th to address changes to UM general education courses that satisfy the MUS core curriculum. Professor Samson is a member of the Board of Regents General Education Council that is charged with periodic review of the MUS Core, and approving the general education courses from each campus that satisfy the MUS Core.

• Chair Weix has heard from several departments that did not receive catalog copy in order to make editorial changes.

Business Items:

• The Writing Committee met yesterday and approved additional writing courses - ASCRC concurs (list appended below). The courses not approved are pending follow-up information. The Committee will meet again on April 6^th to finalize the list of approved courses. These will be presented to ASCRC on April 7^th and go to the Senate on April 9^th.
  
  The Writing committee is requesting a transition year (see memo appended below). Professor Zoellner is not in favor of the transition year and provided written comments (appended below). A transition year may prevent the need for appeals to the Graduation Appeals Committee.
  
  There was concern that previous writing courses may have changed and no longer meet the previous writing course criteria. Programs likely decided not to submit courses on purpose. It was recommended that the Writing Committee contact departments and inquire whether courses not submitted for the current writing designation will be taught using the syllabus that was previously approved. If not the courses will not be included on the list. If the course(s) will still meet the old writing course guidelines then it will be included in the writing course lists with an asterisk indicating valid for one year only.
• Draft procedures for appeals and justification for consideration of late curriculum items were not yet available. An excerpt from the 2/14/02 Faculty Senate minutes indicated that " ASCRC is considering a timing change for the submission of curriculum items that require approval by the Board of Regents. The current submission date of early in the fall semester does not provide sufficient time for campus review prior to the Regents' submission deadline. ASCRC is considering a spring submission deadline for only those level I and II items that require approval by the Regents." So spring review has been a previous consideration. Chair Weix will work with Professor Bergmann and the Chair of Graduate Council on draft guidelines.
  
  There seems to be confusion regarding the procedures for appeal and late curriculum submission. These should be clarified for consistency. Some members view the subcommittees' role in curriculum review as a mentoring process to help programs improve proposals so that they will meet with ASCRC standards and be approved, while others would rather reject proposals and require a year waiting period for re-submission. It is important that this be clarified so that departments are aware of the expectations when proposals are not approved. Historically programs have been able to request a meeting with ASCRC to appeal a decision.

• Chair Weix clarified that Dean Comer has not requested ASCRC to change its review structure. He shared the way curriculum review was conducted at his previous institution. The College of Arts and Sciences may initiate an internal review process that is more inclusive.

• There was a brief discussion regarding the courses listed under the Undergraduate Advising Center in the catalog. The rubric for these courses is UNC representing the old name of University College. The courses should be reviewed to determine the appropriate academic home. Another concern is students receiving academic credit for peer advising in independent studies (X96) courses.

Good and Welfare

• Chair Weix will be meeting with the Department of Geography to clarify ASCRC curriculum review procedures.
• Chair Weix thanked the students for their discussion with the Governor.
• The general education brochure will be helpful.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:40.

Writing Courses approved at the 3/23/09 Writing Committee Meeting

Writing Courses

English	ENLT 121L	Introduction to Poetry
English	ENLT 217L	British Literature: Medieval through Early Modern
English	ENLT 218L	Enlightenment to Romantics
English	ENLT 219L	British Literature: Victorian to Contemporary
English	ENLT 224L	American Literature to 1865
English	ENLT 225L	American Literature: 1865 to Present
Honors College	HC 121	Ways of Knowing
Liberal Studies	LS 151L/152L	Introduction to the Humanities
MCLL	MCLG 251L	The Epic
Music	MUS 325H	History of Music II
Native American Studies	NAS 202X	Oral and Written Traditions of Native America
Radio TV	RTV 280	Reporting for Broadcast
Writing Studies	WTS 121L	Introduction to Poetry

Courses previously approved that have been withdrawn by department

Writing Studies	WTS 184A	Beginning Creative Writing: Multiple Genre
Writing Studies	WTS 186A	Beginning Creative Writing: Poetry

Also withdrawn

Writing Studies

WTS 185A

Beginning Creative Writing: Fiction

Upper-Division Writing Requirement Courses

Biology		Distributed model
Economics	ECON 488-489	Research Method & Thesis Design / Senior Thesis capstone
English	ENLT 301	Applied Literary Criticism
English	ENLT 322	Studies in Literary History
English	ENLT 325	Studies in Literature and Other Disciplines: The Bible as Literature
English	ENLT 334	Postwar Poetry
Environmental Studies	EVST 367	Environmental Politics and Policy
Forestry	RECM 451	Tourism and Sustainability
Forestry		Distributed
Geography	GEOG 499	Undergraduate Thesis
Information Systems	IS 448	Management Game
Management	MGMT 444	Management Communications
Management	MGMT 445	Small Business Management and Strategic Planning
Management	MGMT 446	Strategic management
Philosophy	PHIL 480	Senior Seminar
Recreation Mngt		Distributed
Resource Conservation		Distributed
Wildlife Restoration		Distributed

Pending:

Writing Courses

Art	ART 303L	Contemporary Art and Art Criticism (clarification pending)
Drama	DRAM 320	Theatre History (missing from summary)
MCLL	MCLG/ENG/LS 338	Survey of French Cinema  (additional information pending)

Upper- Division Writing

Anthropology	ANTH 431	Ethnographic Field Methods
CSD	CSD 430 & CSD 440	Senior Capstone I and II (follow-up received 3/24)
Drama	DRAM 321	Theatre History II (follow-up received 3/24)
Forestry	RECM 482	Wilderness and Protected Area Management (additional information requested 3/23)
Geosciences	GEOS other
English	ENLT 333	Modern Poetry (additional information requested 3/23)
Political Science	PSC 400	Advanced Writing in Political Sciences (additional information pending)
Sociology	SOC 488	Religion and Political Movements  (additional information pending)

______________________________________________________________________

Date:   March 19, 2009

To:       G.G. Weix, Chair, ASCRC

            ASCRC

CC:      Andrew Ware, Chair, ECOS

            Writing Committee Members

Re:       Transition year for Writing courses and Upper-division Writing Expectation

The Writing Committee is formally recommending a transition year during AY0910 for Writing course and Upper-division Writing Expectation in the major (UDWE) requirements for current students. During this year, we recommend that current students be allowed to continue to use courses approved for W or UDWE in the major, either those listed in the 2008-09 catalog or those approved at the 11/13/08 Faculty Senate meeting, to fulfill the writing requirements listed in catalogs in effect prior to 2009-2010. We use the following reasons to justify this request:

1)                  unlike changes to the other General Education requirements, W courses and the UDWE in the major affect junior and senior students to a greater extent - GenEd requirements are usually met in the first couple of year whereas the UDWE is usually met in the last two years and, in fact, should not be met prior to that time;

2)                  in past years, changes to the list of approved courses and expectations result from changes to the course content, writing expectation, and or syllabus, and not, as in this case, to changes in the requirements themselves;

3)                  this removes the need for appeals to obviate the problem; any reduction in the number of appeals is desirable as it retains control of curriculum in the purview of the Faculty rather than transferring it to Administration;

4)                  this likely affects a small number of students but the negative consequences of dropping those courses with respect to student dissatisfaction, retention, and graduation far outweighs the few negative impacts of allowing flexibility during this transition.

From discussions with faculty, it appears that there is some misunderstanding about the expiration of the W courses and UDWE requirements listed in prior catalogs. Normally, courses and UDWE requirements are transferred forward to the following catalog unless action is taken to remove them during the review process; the exceptions are one-time designated W courses. The current change in guidelines is an unprecedented shift in that the catalog language, as applied to this case, would completely remove ALL courses and UDWE requirements. We contend that the current catalog language is appropriately applied to the normal procedure of adding and removing courses from approved GenEd lists but is inappropriate for a sweeping change such as a shift in guidelines. 

RECOMMENDATION:  We recommend that a separate list of W courses from the 2008-09 catalog and the new courses approved at the 11/13/08 Faculty Senate meeting be linked to the online catalog for use by students who chose to use an older catalog for the 2009-2010 academic year.

____________________________________________________________________

Comments from Professor Zoellner

Based on the data available to me (i.e., catalog from 08-09, writing classes submitted this year), I do not think a transition year is necessary. I think that the number of writing classes we have approved this year will meet students' needs. And, I think that for the small amount of students the change may effect, the students' departments should be responsible for making exceptions and adjustments.

The campus has been aware of the changing writing guidelines as they have been of the General Education changes. The Writing Committee's memo soliciting courses for writing designation, dated December 5, clearly stated that "Writing course forms for courses to be considered for general education writing courses and upper-division writing requirement must be submitted to the Faculty Senate Office, UH 221 by Friday February 6, 2009.  Current writing courses that do not apply for writing status under the new guidelines will lose their designation." Based on the large number of proposals the Writing Committee received this spring, I think that faculty understood this to be so. I think we should adhere to what we said.

There will always be some confusion among the UM community regarding curriculum changes, but I do not think we should halt our movements forward because of this, I think we should continue to have high expectations of faculty and students in terms of their responsibility to be aware of the guidelines and options.

The main challenges moving forward are advising and updating the catalog. Advising for students that this will most likely affect (juniors and seniors) will be done within the students' departments. Now that we have compiled (table sent out by Camie today) the current catalog language in regards to the upper-division writing expectation we could send this out to all departments to update.

The proposal for the transition year states the majority of the Writing Committee's view (all but me) on the need for a transition year. Nancy and Siri will no doubt well represent the proposal at the meeting today.