WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

ACADEMIC COORDINATING COMMISSION MINUTES

Regular Meeting

November 30, 2004

Chair Tom Downing called the meeting of the Academic Coordinating Commission to order on November 30, 2004, in OM340 at 4:03 p.m.   There were fourteen (14) members present, the Registrar (1), recorder (1), and two (2) guests, for a total of eighteen (18).  (See attached roster).

Approval of ACC minutes

Members approved the minutes of November 16, 2004 with minor revisions. 

Announcements and Reports

Chair Downing urged the Commission to come to closure on recent topics such as FIGs and General Studies major.

Ad Hoc Committee on the Assessment and Evaluation of the FIGs Program - Draft

Ø      Commissioners reviewed a draft membership and charge to the Ad Hoc Committee on FIGs, which was presented to them by Chair Downing.

Ø      Commissioners recommended a simpler charge that would allow the Ad Hoc Committee members broader scope in assessing and evaluating the FIGs, rather than confining their review to specific questions in a “laundry list” format. 

Ø      Questions included whether FIGs would be folded into the First Year Experience offerings, and whether there would be two programs or only one after the review. 

Ø      Commissioners asked if there are data on demonstrable benefit to students as a result of the FIGs program. 

Ø      Members recommended open-ended questions on broad areas, and some members, including Marie Eaton and David Curley will reconsider the question portion of the charge.  Provost Bodman recommended looking at a few broad areas for the committee to look at, such as program cost, benefits, and mechanics, rather than asking specific questions.

Ø      Members will forward ideas to the Executive Committee.  Downing would like to assemble the charge and then select the committee members at the next meeting.

AGENDA ITEMS - Action Items

Reading of College Curricular Committee Minutes.  The following minutes came before the Commissioners:

College of Humanities and Social Sciences, 11/4/04, 11/18//04  Accepted  Kathy Knutzen, Associate Dean of CHSS was present to answer questions from previous minutes as well as minutes of 11/18/04.  Downing reported that the college curricular committees  routinely review their own graduate courses (in response to questions from previous minutes regarding prerequisites for graduate courses).  Knutzen also reported on a new major/minor in Japanese. This program has to go to the HEC Board and currently no funds have been allocated, even for a half-time faculty member mentioned in the minutes. The college is proceeding with the curricular review and will address resource issues later on. 

Provost Bodman asked about interdisciplinary majors coming through CHSS when chairs were in other colleges. Knutzen reported that CHSS would temporarily take care of these requests. 

In response to a request by Registrar Joe St. Hilaire, the Catalog Coordinator confirmed that some course descriptions would be rewritten to clarify the course content for students.  St. Hilaire asked for consistency in identifying freshmen, first-year students, transferred-in status with less than 45 credits, and other categories of freshman “status” no later than in their third quarter of enrollment.  Downing agreed the Executive Committee and Commissioners will return to the topic of identifying and flagging “first-year” in the catalog.  Downing will email the Curriculum Committee Chairs to flag “FY” courses in the catalog and the timetable, and in the minutes as well.  Commissioners will seek an appropriate rubric to identify a “freshman”.

College of Sciences and Technology CC:: 11/17/04.  Accepted with the exception of BIO454 (which is a new course under a number for a recently cancelled course).  Downing complimented the committee on their excellent minutes once again and noted they were much improved over last year.  Downing pointed out that Math 102 had been renamed 112. 

RE-USE OF COURSE “NUMBER” WHEN A COURSE IS CANCELLED

Recommendation:  The ACC with advice from the Registrar and the Catalog Coordinator asks that an old course number not be used for a new course number for at least five years after the demise of the old course in order to avoid confusion in the catalog for students.

Graduate Council CC: 4/13/2004.  Still postponed.  Downing reported on a reply from Kirsti Charlton regarding previous Graduate Council minutes on how the members rank their vote of approvals for the allocation of TAs.  Final recommendations disregard the “outlier” votes (in the manner of figure-skating tallies).  Downing will forego corresponding with the Graduate Dean on further details of the TA allocation, but will ask about old ED513 becoming new ESTU588 under a different description.  If this is a new course it must be approved as a new course.  Graduate Council minutes of 5/11/04, 11/2/04 – Accepted.  

International Programs Advisory Committee,  6/10/04, 10/18/04.  Accepted.  Members will ask IPAC for a report on LEXIA.  Provost Bodman would be interested in students’ experiences in this program.  Western is not the transcripting agency for LEXIA.  One Commissioner noted that IPAC members had asked whether IPAC can offer assistance to the GUR committee for recommending overseas courses for GUR credit.  Currently chairs only can approve an equivalent course, but one Commissioner claimed that there is no signature authority as such for approving equivalent GUR courses. This matter will be referred to the GUR committee.

Teacher Curricula and Certification Council,6/1/04.  Accepted.  A Commissioner explained that an “endorsement” is an area of specialty or expertise outside of certification that allows those already certified with degrees to teach an endorsable subject.  This can make the prospective student teacher more employable.

Discussion Items

General Studies (GS) Major.

Members continued discussion of the General Studies (GS) Major and reviewed the options available to the committee.  Members noted that:

§         To leave the GS as it is would be a disservice to students.  Members also realized they could dissolve the major completely, but exit problems would still exist in the senior year.  Access is a problem beyond the scope of the committee, but at the very least the committee should modify the major to the point it is given credibility.

§         To give focus within the colleges by creating a template for the GS major in the college, such as a concentration in the humanities or a concentration in the social sciences with a few narrowed down requirements is a good idea.

§         We have to give the colleges the freedom to develop such a template, and to deal with the problem of accreditation.  Colleges ought to be able to opt out, and also can be free to offer a “General Studies degree with an emphasis”.  Members agreed this was worth exploring.

§         Some students will say they have a degree in an area when they truly don’t, and will misrepresent their degrees, which can be a disservice to other students.  If students don’t decide until senior year they still have 3 quarters to fulfill requirements.  This would put focus on a real degree.  The GS major is not to be confused with a student-designed major which must be decided early in the student’s academic career.

§         The desirability of gatekeeper courses being given at the end of a sequence in the senior year was once again questioned.  Access is as much a problem as failing a “gatekeeper” course. 

§         Advising would address a certain number of problems in achieving earlier success.  The low-GPA problem is a reason why students cannot gain access even after having accumulated a number of credits in a department.

Several suggestions emerged from the discussion:

Recommendations:

§         Ask College Curriculum Committees to devise an “emphasis option” for the colleges. 

§         Advise departments to revise their gatekeeper courses in some way, or make those courses that are a “fundamental course” to the major more challenging earlier on.  In Psychology, for example, there is a course you must complete in order to declare the major, as well as a sequence of classes that you must pass in order to complete the major.  One recommendation might be to move some of the advanced material to the earlier level of the sequence as an introductory challenge.  There would still be stumbling blocks in getting into courses such as the statistics sequence. In any event, the hope is that students would discover their ill-fit in a major early enough to make other arrangements.

§         Suggest to the Provost that he take a look at access funding and related issues so that departments do not have to restrict access to their programs.  

There was a disappointment and a sad consensus that not much progress has been made on the whole matter of the General Studies major.  Up to this point we have simply been unable to relieve the tension between the desire for a more coherent and quality major with the need to provide an alternative to a fairly large number of students who for one reason or another accumulate a large number of credits without satisfying the requirements for a standard major.  

Adjournment

Commissioners adjourned at 6:07 pm.

Rose Marie Norton-Nader, Recorder, November 30, 2004. 

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