Academic Policies Committee

August 28, 2003

Minutes

In attendance: Deb Bickford, Dave Biers, Paul Eloe, Heidi Gauder, Kevin Hallinan, Linda Hartley, Pat Johnson, John Rapp, Gordon Sargent, Jim Farrelly (representing the Faculty Board)

The meeting was called to order at 12:00 p.m. by John Rapp, committee chair.

1.__Graduate degree program in financial mathematics

A discussion was held regarding the proposed graduate degree program in financial mathematics. Paul Eloe explained that, in addition to the five page version of the proposal, there is a 30+ page version of a report and proposal to the Sloan Foundation which provides considerably more detail. No serious objections were voiced, and the proposal was unanimously approved. It will be placed on the agenda for the September 12 senate meeting.

2.__Select calendar committee

John Rapp provided a brief update on the work of the select calendar committee. The first discussion concerned the proposal to have a “real” final exam week. This would involving having study days before exam week, and eliminating the necessity of reporting grades for graduating seniors early. This would mean that at commencements following exam week, graduating seniors would not be certified as to having completed all degree requirements. There are various ways of dealing with this—e.g. giving “fake” diplomas at the ceremony, giving only the diploma case, giving real diplomas but a disclaimer indicating that the degree is conferred by the transcript. The committee seemed pleased with this general approach.

The second discussion centered around reclaiming Fridays. This might involve a substantial change in the academic calendar, such as one being considered by Syracuse University which moves the common campus meeting time from Fridays to Wednesdays. This will subsequently involve major campus discussions over the course of this academic year.

3.__Revised general education goals statement

Dave Biers reported that this project will be complete as soon as the engineering school approves of the changes.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:05 p.m.

JR

9/2/03