ACADEMIC POLICIES COMMITTEE MINUTES

Meeting Time: 8:00 am Oct 16, 2002

Meeting Place: Room next to KU 211

Presiding: James Dunne

Senators Present: Aitken, Biers, Dunne, Hartley, Johnson, Pedrotti, Saliba, Sargent,

Ex Officio Member Present: Palermo

1. The minutes of the Sept. 11, 2002 meeting of the APC were approved.

2. Status of work of the Gen Ed Subcommittee

Dave Biers reported that the GE 2002 Subcommittee tasked with a review of the Rationale and Goals portion of the General Education Policy is in the process of developing a first draft of a proposed revision. The subcommittee plans to have a proposed revision ready to bring before the APC in a month or so.

3. Status of the Quantitative Reasoning Competency

Joe Saliba, chair of the subcommittee tasked with studying the proposal to revise the Quantitative Reasoning Competency (QRC) reported that the membership of that committee was finalized. The membership is as listed in the minutes of the Sept. 11, 2002 meeting of the APC with the exception that George Doyle agreed to step down from the subcommittee and to act as a resource for the subcommittee. Joe Saliba reported that, at the last subcommittee meeting, George Doyle had made a presentation in favor of the senate-approved QRC document. An outcome of the meeting was that the membership of the subcommittee was to meet with representatives from their respective units to begin the consultation process. Joe Saliba estimated the chances of bringing a proposed revision of the QRC policy to the full senate at the Dec. meeting to be “50/50”. He noted that if the revised policy is to be accepted, the mathematics department would need to be prepared to deal with the significant number of retakes of the entry level math courses necessitated by the proposed competency requirement that students receive at least a C- in these courses.

4. Residency Requirements

The proposal to change the requirement in the bulletin that a certain number of credits need to be taken “at” UD to a requirement that the certain number of credits be taken “from” UD was discussed. It was decided that a letter explaining the proposed change in the wording of the residency requirements should be sent from the APC to the academic units explaining the need for the change. The letter would request that units voice any possible difficulties with the change of wording. No members of the APC present at the meeting foresaw any problems.

5. Calendar Issues

Linda Hartley, the APC representative on the university Calendar Committee, noted that there seemed to be just one formal meeting each year of the calendar committee. She stated that this meeting is typically held in February. Jim Dunne noted the responsibility of the APC is to oversee the calendar formation process and in particular to ensure that the calendar does include, at least, the minimum number of class days agreed to by the senate. It was noted that the calendars for the current and upcoming year are posted on the web. Linda Hartley said that she would keep the other APC members informed as calendar decisions are made. Joe Saliba reiterated the difficulty caused to the civil engineering department by no longer having three full weeks after the end of the second summer term before the start of the fall term. This period is when civil engineering would like its students to take a surveying class. The lack of the three week period forces the class to be taken in the spring during the rainy season.

6. Senior Grades

It was agreed that the sentiment of the full senate during the October meeting seemed to be that requiring that senior grades be turned in early in order to allow diplomas to be handed out at graduation was an acceptable, though not ideal, situation. The APC would continue to monitor the issue.

7. The meeting adjourned at 9:00 am.

Wearily submitted by Leno Pedrotti.