Academic Policies Committee

February 6, 2003

Minutes

In attendance: Dave Biers, Paul Eloe, Tom Lasley, Pat Palermo, John Rapp

The meeting was called to order at 1:30 p.m. by John Rapp, committee chair.

1. Final report on quantitative reasoning skills document

John Rapp and Paul Eloe reported on two open sessions held on February 7 and February 13 to field questions about the document. About twenty faculty and staff attended, and one faculty member argued against passing the document. Other attendees asked questions about implementation, but no other serious objections were presented. The document proceeds to the full senate for a vote on February 14, 2003.

2. Report on general education rationale and goals revisions

Dave Biers presented his subcommittee’s recommendations on revisions to the rationale and goals section of the general education policy. It was agreed that this document be circulated to the general education committee and to the deans’ offices. Comments, to be sent to Dave, are due March 14. After that, the document will be discussed in the APC and ultimately sent to the senate for approval.

3. Consultation procedures for curriculum change

Pat Palermo reported on the procedures for curriculum change, requiring consultation among associate deans for curricular changes impacting more than one academic unit. At present there are no such changes being proposed.

4. Request for review of on-line registration procedures

The APC received a request from George Doyle to review issues and problems associated with the new on-line registration process. His request detailed a number of issues raised by faculty as to how the procedure works and how it could be improved. The APC learned that a new procedure is to be put in place this summer and next fall–perhaps with a test group or perhaps with the whole undergraduate program. A group, the Student Information Systems Steering Committee, is working on the new program which is named “web advisor.” The APC felt that a review should wait until the new system is in place. It may be that we are about to trade in a set of known problems for a set of new and unknown problems! It was agreed that George’s concerns be forwarded to Tom Danford, CIO, in hopes that the new system will address some of the problems with the current system.

5. Request for review of schedule adjustment days and other calendar issues

Joe Saliba earlier requested that the APC review the problems associated with the schedule adjustment days and formulate some recommendation as to how these problems might be minimized. The committee believes that this issue is best answered by looking at the whole academic calendar–since the schedule adjustment days cannot be divorced from the rest of the calendar. The committee further believes that looking at the whole calendar should not simply involve tweaking the calendar, but that there needs to be some goals for the academic calendar that reflect the kind of academic life the faculty wants to see. Perhaps the senate or he provost’s council should form a group, and provide a charge to such a group, to look at the whole calendar. The procedure for this will be discussed at the February 14 senate meeting.

6. Further general education reviews.

A brief discussion was held on reviewing thematic clusters and graduation competencies. The committee decided to wait until additional information is forthcoming on these matters.

JR

2/7/03