Senate Educational Policy
Committee Minutes
December
4, 2003
Members
present:
B.
Abbott, M. Codispoti, S. Hannah, P. McLaughlin, D.
Oberstar, G. Schmelzle, J. Tankel
Members
absent:
J. Purse‑Wiedenhoeft
Guests
present:
P. Ashton, K. McDonald, J. Clausen
1. Our next meeting is scheduled for
December 18th at
1:30 pm in NF 355.
2. The minutes of the November 30th meeting were accepted as distributed.
3. Susan Hannah updated the committee on
the academic advising survey. It is now
in the hands of the new Academic Advising Council, which is acting as a pilot
for the survey. The intention is to send it out in January.
4. The proposed diversity requirement for
General Education was discussed.
Representatives of the General Education Subcommittee attended to
provide context for the proposal and answer any questions.
Pat
Ashton gave a short presentation of "factual points about our
society" which noted that our society is becoming increasingly diverse and
that, consequently, employers are increasingly looking for employees who are
well‑equipped to deal with individuals from diverse cultures. In addition, he noted that, with respect to
our campus, the North‑Central strategic plan requires that we accommodate
a "diverse community of learners."
Jonathan
Tankel, who serves on the Gen. Ed. subcommittee as
well as on this committee, stated that he had voted against the proposal
because he felt that it marginalizes diversity by making it something students
simply can check off as completed. David Oberstar countered that it does offer
a start and that, with time, diversity will eventually permeate the
curriculum. Meanwhile, we need to have a
mechanism in place to satisfy North‑Central. Kim McDonald indicated that there had been
some concern within the Gen. Ed. Subcommittee that the proposal was redundant
as diversity is already addressed within Area 3 of the general education
requirements. However, it was concluded
that this coverage was insufficient. Jonathan Tankel
suggested that eventually, each major may be required to demonstrate how it
will meet the diversity requirement.
Bruce Abbott noted that in certain majors (Mechanical Engineering or
Physics, for example), courses may not lend themselves to addressing diversity
requirements and in those cases, it may be more
practical to meet those requirements via General Education courses.
Respectfully
submitted,
Bruce
Abbott, Chair
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Senate Educational Policy
Committee Minutes
November
20, 2003
Members
present:
B.
Abbott, M. Codispoti, S. Hannah, P. McLaughlin, D.
Oberstar, J. Purse‑Wiedenhoeft, G. Schmelzle
Members
absent:
J. Tankel
1. Our next meeting is scheduled for
Thursday, December 4th at 1:30 pm in NF 355 (Business conference
room).
2. The minutes of the October 30th
meeting were approved as written.
3. Susan Hannah passed out a draft of an
academic advising survey questionnaire and solicited suggestions for
improvement. Several changes were
recommended. Susan will send out the
revised questionnaire to selected units for piloting.
4. Bruce Abbott noted that some students
he has advised appeared not to know about the IPFW Bulletin. Susan Hannah indicated that students do
receive a copy of it and also that it is available to them on line. This discussion prompted the question of why
the Bulletin is called the "Bulletin" when a more appropriate title
would be "Course Catalog."
5. Susan Hannah distributed criteria for
service learning courses and a memo from the Service Learning Advisory Council
concerning the designation of service learning courses. This was done to provide a "heads
up" to the committee.
6. Bruce Abbott distributed documents from
the General Education Subcommittee concerning a diversity requirement for
general education, and concerns about that requirement sent to EPC from the
History and Political Science departments.
Because of the lateness of the hour it was decided to postpone
discussion of these until the next meeting, and to invite Beverly Parks, chair
of the General Education Subcommittee, to attend that meeting.
Respectfully
submitted
Bruce
Abbott, Chair
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Senate Educational Policy Committee Minutes
October
30, 2003
Members
present
B.
Abbott, M. Codispoti, S. Hannah, G. Schmelzle, J. Tankel, P.
McLaughlin, D. Oberstar, J. Purse‑Wiedenhoeft
1. Our next meeting is scheduled for
Thursday, November 20th at 1:30 pm in NF 355. (Please note the change
of room!)
2. The minutes of the October 16th
meeting were approved after correction.
3. Susan Hannah stated that she will get
the "for information only" repeat policy document into proper format
for submission to the senate.
4. The information literacy proposal from
the Library Subcommittee was discussed. Susan Hannah noted that if the Library
Subcommittee wants information literacy to be a requirement, they will
have to go to General Education and propose a requirement.
5. The Executive Committee’s request that EPC investigate
"the nature of student advising on campus" engendered some
discussion. As the Academic Advising
Subcommittee under EPC has been eliminated, it would seem that the proper group
to take up such an investigation would be the new IPFW Advising Council. Also, we were unclear as to the type of data
that would satisfy the Executive Committee’s request. Would an email survey of advisors, asking how
they do their advising, do? Would a
report about how each department on campus does its advising be a step toward
answering the Executive Committee’s questions?
EPC decided to ask the Executive Committee for guidance on this
matter. Meanwhile, Susan Hannah will
collect information about how each department handles advising.
6. Patrick McLaughlin gave a "heads
up" to the committee that the Calendar Committee is reviewing the summer
calendar.
Respectfully
Submitted
Bruce
Abbott, Chair
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Senate
Educational Policy Committee Minutes
October
16, 2003
Members
present
B.
Abbott, M. Codispoti, S. Hannah, G. Schmelzle, J. Tankel, P.
McLaughlin, D. Oberstar, J. Purse‑Wiedenhoeft
1. Our next meeting is scheduled for
Thursday, October 29th at 1:30 pm in KT 101.
2. The minutes of the September 30th meeting were approved after a minor rewording
of one item.
3. Patrick McLaughlin reported on his
research into the IU "extended X" policy in which the grade obtained
in a course has an "X" appended to it if the student repeats the
course and X‑appended grades are not counted toward the student’s grade‑point
average. IU restricts the number of
repeats allowed to ten credit hours. We
can follow our own (IPFW) repeat policy and allow unlimited repeats for both IU‑affiliated
and PU‑affiliated students. We have not allowed unlimited repeats for IU‑affiliated
students in the past. Susan Hannah
suggested that we need to help the Registrar by sending a statement to the
Faculty Senate "for information only" as follows: "EPC wants to
publicly clarify that the IPFW course repeat policy applies to all
students on campus, both IU and PU affiliated." (The policy is stated in the IPFW Academic
Regulations as item 6.6.3 and appears in the 2002‑2004 Bulletin under
"Academic Regulations" at the end of point 11 on page 282.) Susan
noted that we need to specify when this policy will be in effect and asked
Patrick to have it in place by the end of the current semester if
possible. Susan will "spread the
word" via the Senate, AOC, Registrar’s mailing list, and the Academic
Advising Council.
Patrick
noted that as Registrar, he can "X" an IPFW grade appearing on an IU
transcript, but does not have the authority to "X" an IU grade taken
at another campus, even though the student may have repeated at IPFW a course
originally taken at IU.
4. Patrick McLaughlin brought up a problem
regarding our "academic renewal" policy (page 289 on the current IPFW
Bulletin), which allows former IPFW students who have re‑entered to
exclude from their GPA’s grades that are not considered "passing" on
condition that they are reentering through a school or division that allows
this and have not registered for classes at IPFW or any other campus of
IU or PU for at least five years. The
problem is that it is not being fairly applied as some advisors do not apply it
as rigorously as others do. Susan
suggested that the time‑limit may be too long, but that there needs to be
some time to allow the student to do some "soul
searching." Patrick was asked to
research the renewal policies of other systems for comparison and report back.
5. A proposal to update Academic
Regulation 10.2, Requirements for Degrees, was discussed. The change is necessary in order to close a
loophole that allowed students entering a pre‑major program to escape
from having to fulfill the most current degree requirements at the time of
entry or re‑entry into the program.
The Committee approved the proposed changes and drafted language
("whereas" etc.) for inclusion in the Senate document.
6. Patrick McLaughlin raised the issue of
changing Academic Regulation 6.4 to include grades of "PI" and
"SI" for incomplete grades of Purdue students, in order to satisfy
Purdue grade‑posting requirements.. It was decided that problem can be handled
adequately through logistical/administrative means and therefore does not
necessitate a change in the regulations.
Respectfully
submitted,
Bruce Abbott, Chair
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Senate
Educational Policy Committee Minutes Members
present B.
Abbott, M. Codispoti, S. Hannah, G. Schmelzle, J. Tankel, P.
McLaughlin, D. Oberstar Members
absent J. Purse‑Wiedenhoeft 1. Our next meeting is scheduled for
Thursday, October 16th at 2. Susan Hannah informed the committee
that the "laptop best practices" discussed at our last meeting
concerning the use of laptop computers in the classroom by students will be
handled as follows: Jeanette Clausen will fold them into the model syllabus
she is preparing. 3. With respect to the issue of faculty
making appropriate accommodations for student religious observances (Item 4
in Sept. 24th minutes), Susan Hannah noted that we really
do not know whether there has been a problem on this campus in the past. She will do a little further research and
report back. 4. Margit Codispoti discussed the information literacy goal
statement that was produced by the Library Subcommittee and forwarded to
URPC, who forwarded it to us. As the
document seems to relate more to educational policy
that to university resources, she felt that it would be appropriate to bring
the document to EPC. After some
discussion about what it would mean for the faculty Senate to, in the words
of the document, "adopt the information literacy
competencies," the committee decided to return the document to the
Library Subcommittee with suggested rewording (replacing "adopt"
with "recognize the importance of," among other suggested
changes). It was also noted that the
document needs to have the Library Subcommittee’s votes on the document
added. 5. The Honors Program Council sent a
document with proposed rewording. As
the original wording was not included, it was decided to return the document
to the Council to have the original wording included in strike‑out and
new wording rendered in bold. 6. Patrick McLaughlin discussed the IU
"extended X" policy, according to which any grade with an
"X" appended to it does not count in the student’s grade‑point
average. This aligns with IPFW’s " repeat"
policy in which a new grade "replaces" the old when a course is
repeated. Patrick suggested that the
policy needs to come through EPC to adopt.
Susan Hannah stated that we don’t need to do anything to adopt
extended X since it is in effect already IPFW policy. However, there is a problem in that IU students
must request the substitution whereas for PU students it is automatic. This potentially creates a difference
between an IU student’s IPFW and IU transcript GPAs. The committee agreed that the IPFW
Registrar should be empowered to go into the student’s IU transcript and make
the change, guaranteeing that the two transcripts are the same. Respectfully
submitted, Bruce Abbott, Chair Senate
Educational Policy Committee Minutes Members present B. Abbott, M. Codispoti, S.
Hannah, G. Schmelzle, J. Tankel Members absent P. McLaughlin, D. Oberstar, J. Purse‑Wiedenhoeft 1. Meeting times were discussed. It was decided to hold the next meeting on
Tuesday, September 30th at 2. A document forwarded to EPC from the Academic Advising
Subcommittee and recommending that the Academic Advising Subcommittee be
disbanded was discussed, voted on, and approved. The document, with the
result of the EPC vote appended, will be forwarded to the Faculty Senate for
action. 3. Susan Hannah discussed the need for faculty to have a
policy regarding the use of laptop computers in the classroom and to convey
this policy to students at the beginning of the semester. The Committee decided that it would be best
to include this reminder as part of a list of "best practice"
reminders to faculty. Susan agreed to
craft the note. 4. Susan Hannah circulated an 5. Margit Codispoti
was charged with checking up on the library’s information literacy goal and
reporting at the next meeting. 6. The Committee will take up revision of the honors program
goals and mission at the next meeting. Respectfully submitted, Bruce Abbott, Chair Return
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