Faculty Senate

ASCRCWriting Subcommittee Minutes, 3/9/09 

Members Present: K. Kuipers, M. Medvetz, M. Semanoff, S. Smillie, K. Zoellner

Members Excused/Absent: H. Bruce, N. Hinman, J. Carter

Ex-Officio Present:  K. Peterson, K. Ryan

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

The minutes from 3/3/09 were approved.

Communications:

• Chair Hinman is out sick.  Professor Medvetz agreed to chair the meeting.
• Professor Zoellner volunteered to attend the advising retreat.
• Chair Hinman sent out follow-up requests for AAS 372, NAS 202, MGMT 444-446 on Sunday.  Other follow-up correspondence is pending.  Camie will go through the messages sent and send reminders to those who have not responded.
• The committee briefly discussed the various email correspondence related to the general education transition issue.  The process for students has not changed in terms of enrolling in general education courses and graduation appeals. The Committee would like ASCRC to clarify how the appeals process will work for transition issues. Should the Writing Committee have any roll in appeals to meet the writing requirement?
• Writing courses submitted to ASCRC by 3/24 should make next year's catalog.

Business Items:

• The groups presented additional courses for approval (see list below).
• The WPA passing rates remain around 80%.  A member of ECOS is concerned that this does not reflect the current state of students' ability to write. 

After the review of writing courses is complete the committee should discuss various issues related to the exam.  Director Peterson will summarize her concerns. The exam should be faculty owned and designed and not associated with the Writing Center.  The Petition and Appeals process needs to be revisited as well.

• ENEX 200 is both a writing course and composition course.  Students who test into ENEX 200 are advised that the course can meet both requirements.
• Form interpretation issues include whether the intent of the statement "opportunity to revise" implies students must revise papers based on feedback or just given the opportunity.  Some instructors addressed information literacy by indicating the class participated in a library session.  This indicates a lack of understanding. 

Good and Welfare

• Professor Kuipers' daughter has been awarded a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford.  She also had a book accepted.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:58 pm.

Writing Courses approved at the 3/9/09 Writing Committee Meeting

Writing Courses

Upper-Division Writing Requirement Courses