APC Meeting 1-17-08—Approved minutes

 

 

1.                     Call to Order

 

2.                     Roll Call

                       

                        Present: Cook, Darrow (chair), Diestelkamp, Duncan, Eggemeier, Frasca, Jipson, Larson, O’Gorman, Patterson, Penno,

 

                        Excused: Benson, Bickford, Bowman, Clark, Saliba, Sielestad

 

3.                     Approval of minutes from meeting of 7 November.

 

                        Minutes approved with no changes.

 

4.                     Announcements

 

Based on the review of submitted availability sheets, the APC will meet every other week on Thursdays at 10:00.  The first meeting will take place on Thursday 17 January on the POL conference room (SJ 227).  The April 3 meeting will also take place in this venue.  The remaining meetings will take place in KU 211.

 

5.                     Old Business

 

Report from CAP Subcommittee

 

The CAP Subcommittee is now meeting for 90 minutes once per week discussing materials on the Quick Place site.  The APC asked that the subcommittee provide greater detail in its report in a fortnight’s time.

 

6.                     New Business

 

The 2009-2010 Academic Calendar

 

The committee took up each of the issues associated with the calendar.  In the matter of “start date,” the chair explained why a number of constituencies prefer a Monday start date.  The committee generally agreed with these arguments (need to ensure sufficient number of Mondays for grad classes and labs, etc.), but remained concerned that the proposed calendar had not allowed enough time for orientation and convocation (and that orientation should not infringe on classes in such a way as to create “calendar adjustments).

 

After much discussion, the majority of the committee supported the TH-F midterm break option over the M-T option, largely in the interest of preserving Mondays.  With this accomplished, discussion proceeded to the question of final exam week and study days.  Both options of the proposal called for three study days prior to a full week of exams.  The chair reminded the committee that, in the past, the committee had supported at least one study day in the middle of the exam week, a position which the committee’s student member argued was important.  In the end, the committee supported the proposed exam schedule with the front-loaded study days.  There was also a consensus that, if the schedule needed to be adjusted to accommodate a study day in the middle of exam week, that perhaps the only way to accomplish this would be to have Saturday exams.

 

The discussion of the W2010 proposed calendar was brief, and will continue at the next meeting on the 31st.  There was a strong consensus in the committee that a start date of January 11 was preferable to a start date of January 4, and that having to hold graduation on Mother’s Day should not stand in the way of making this happen.  The chair agreed to put together a proposal along these lines for consideration at the next meeting.

                       

7.                     Adjournment

 

                        Meeting adjourned at 10:50.