ASCRC Minutes 4/7/09

Members Present: K. Barhaugh, J. Bergman, T. Brockman, I. Crummy S. Lodmell, J. Luckowski, S. Smillie, H. Thompson, K. Unger, R. Vanita, G. Weix, K. Zoellner,

Members Absent/Excused: J. Dempersmier, Nielsen, P. Silverman, E. Uchimoto, D. Zolnikov

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

Guest: A. Ware - Faculty Senate Chair, N. Hinman - Writing Committee Chair

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

The minutes from 3/24/09 were amended and approved.

Communication

• There is an all faculty College of Arts and Sciences meeting today at 3:00. ASCRC will adjourn early to allow CAS faculty to attend the meeting.
• ECOS did not agree with ASCRC's decision to include old writing courses on the revised course list with an asterisk indicating valid for one-year only. It suggests the catalog include a link to the list of old courses that will meet the old guidelines. The following catalog language was drafted:

*Note: Students planning to graduate by satisfying general education requirements under previous catalogs may use this list (link) for academic year 2009-2010 only to satisfy the Writing requirement, in addition to any courses in the preceding list.

The Writing Committee Chair communicated to programs regarding courses not submitted for review (see below #2). The following courses will meet the old guidelines.  Response is still pending from History.

In response to inconsistent interpretation of writing course guidelines, the Writing Committee made revisions for clarification (appended below).  The intention is for the feedback to come from the faculty member not peer review. 

A communication was also sent out requesting departments think about the accuracy of their catalog language describing the upper-division writing requirement by the major (see below- #3). 

• The advising retreat was earlier today. The guide created by the Office of Student Success has been vetted by the Registrar's Office and should be used as the resource document for advising. Errors continue to be found as the information is distributed across campus. It was noted that one of the ethics and human values courses on the approved list has an incorrect courses number. MGMT 440 Business Ethics was submitted as MGMT 320. It will be changed to 440 in the catalog as that is how it currently exists and the department will be informed to submit a course form to change the number if that is the intent.
  
  It was suggested that the matrix that lists courses that meet more than one general education requirement not be advertised to students because the goal of general education is to expose students to as many diverse courses as possible. The matrix should be sent to advisors to use for mediating credit limitations.

Business Items:

• The Writing Committee met yesterday and approved additional writing courses - ASCRC concurs (list appended below #4). There is one course pending follow-up and one course was not approved.
• The Literary and Artistic Subcommittee of the General Education Committee reviewed at approved HC 121L Ways of Knowing. This late submission was allowed to avoid the need for numerous appeals. ASCRC approved the designation
• The Social Science subcommittee met and discussed the two late proposals. Although the subcommittee voted there are still questions that need to be answered with regard to the proposed 2 + 2 program in Social Work.
  
  The subcommittee suggested that the proposed Major in Central and Southwest Asia develop a more cohesive upper division core. It made some adjustments that were communicated to the subcommittee and read by Chair Weix. An additional letter of support was received by History Professor Greene as well. It was questioned why courses in Geology, Geography, Economics and Political Science were not included in the proposal. Guests will be invited next week to discuss the proposal.

Good and Welfare - none

The meeting was adjourned at 3:03.

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#1

In our review of Writing Courses and the Upper-division Writing Requirement in the major (see attached list of approved courses), the Writing Committee and ASCRC have observed that there are courses from your program that have not been submitted for review under the New Guidelines. Of course, this is a departmental decision, but we are concerned that there may be students in your major who have intended to use these courses to fulfill their General Education Writing Requirements. As a consequence, we have voted to extend the approval of such courses for one year to avoid any inconvenience to students, particularly graduating seniors. Yet, in so doing, we are operating under the assumption that such courses will continue to be taught using the old, approved syllabus, which adheres to the 2008-09 writing course requirements.
 
If the course remains the same, then students will be allowed to use it to fulfill the Writing Course or Upper Division Writing Requirement in their major. The courses will be in the 2009-10 writing course list with an asterisk indicating that they are valid for one-year only. If the course changes substantially with respect to the writing outcomes, assignments, and goals, then it will not be listed.
 
Please poll the faculty member teaching XXXX to determine whether the courses will still fulfill the 2008-09 writing course requirements.  Will the course(s) be taught in 2009-10 with the same syllabus and, therefore, fulfill the writing course requirement under the old guidelines?  
 
We would like to make this information available for pre-registration. Please have the instructors respond to Camie Foos (camie.foos@umontana.edu) and to me

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#2

Revised Guideline Language

2.  Requirements for Approved Writing Courses*
            Instructors must:

• Limit enrollment to 25 students per instructor or grader (FAQ 8)
• Identify course outcomes in the syllabus
• Provide students with detailed written instructions, including criteria for evaluation, for all formal writing assignments (FAQ 3)
• Provide adequate instruction and require students to write frequently for specified audiences, purposes, and genres
  • Formal or informal
  • Graded or ungraded
  • In-class or out-of-class
• Provide feedback on students' writing and give students the opportunity require students to revise and resubmit at least one formal writing assignment (FAQ 3)
• Require each student individually to compose at least 16 pages ofwriting for assessment(FAQ 5/6) over the course of the semester
• Base a significant portion (at least 50% of a 3 credit course or equivalent hours) of the course grade on student performance on writing assignments (FAQ2)
• Incorporate information literacy into learning outcomes, instruction, and assignments

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#3

Department Chairs,

I sincerely hope this is the final query that I need to make of you regarding the Writing Requirements. Is the current catalog language for the writing requirement in your program accurate for your Upper-division Writing Requirement? It may or may not be, depending on any changes that your program has made. If so, please reply that it is accurate. If not, would you please modify it to accurately reflect what the requirement is? Please reply to me (nancy.hinman@umontana.edu) and Camie (camie.foos@umontana.edu) by 4/15/09.

Note that the 2009-10 catalog will contain a list of courses that fulfill the Upper-division Writing Requirement in a program. Because each department is expected to define its own Upper-division Writing Requirement, this list will not be published in future catalogs. The Upper-division Writing Requirement will need to be defined in the section of the catalog in which the requirements for the major are defined. If your program has used the list in the past, you may want to consider making that change now as the change will be required in Autumn 2010.

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#4

Approved Writing Courses                                         4/6/09 Writing Committee Meeting

Writing Courses

Upper-Division Writing Expectation

Not approved

Pending