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WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

ACADEMIC COORDINATING COMMISSION MINUTES

Regular Meeting  --  February 14, 2006

Chair Tom Downing called the meeting of the Academic Coordinating Commission to order on February 14, 2006 in OM340 at 4:06 p.m.   There were fourteen (14) members present, two (2) guests, one (1) recorder, and the Registrar for a total of eighteen.  (18). (See attached roster).

Approval of ACC minutes

Commissioners approved the minutes of  January 31 with one correction.

Items from the Chair:

Alpha Suffices

Chair Downing reported on a meeting of the “Alpha Suffices Committee” which included Downing, the Registrar, and members of his staff involved in CAPP and the Degree Audit system, Marie Eaton, Kathleen Kitto, and others. The Chair offered the following to get the discussion going:

Proposed motion:

“Alpha suffixes shall be used only to distinguish sections of courses repeatable for credit (e.g., 417a, 417b or 445a or 445b) and in the rare cases where a unit’s offerings exceed the numbers available in the traditional numbering system.”

This policy specifically excludes the use of alpha suffixes

·            To distinguish separate courses, e.g. A/HI 270a, A/HI 270b. These should simply be given different numbers.

·            To distinguish separate sections of the same course, e.g., Dance 135a, 135b and Elementary Ed 385a, 385b.

·            To distinguish lab from lecture sections. Numbers will do.

·            To indicate the quarter in which a course is taught.

·            To indicate grading mode (S/U or A-F).

Less clear is what to do about the use of the suffixes to indicate different topics as in the case of “different topics,” e.g., 394A = Elementary Practicum, 394B = Practicum in Literacy. These, however, look a lot like courses repeatable for credit and may be permitted by the new policy. There is a similar problem in knowing how to handle “particular areas of study,” e.g., 101A-409A = Core studies, 101B-498B = Concentrated Studies (I don’t even know where these come from, but see remarks from Registrar on the use of suffixes copied below).  By the way, we do not need to identify FYE sections of regular offerings by means of an alpha suffix; apparently something called an “attribute” (cf. the attribute “HUM”) will do just fine for this purpose.

From the Registrar:

Alpha suffixes appear to serve the following purposes:

1.  To indicate the quarter in which the course is taught, e.g., 350A = Fall; 350B = Winter; 350C = Spring.

2.  To indicate different topics, e.g., 394A = Elementary Practicum; 394B = Practicum in Literacy.

3.  To indicate different credit levels, e.g., 499A-D = 1 credit; 499F-M = 2 credits

4.  To indicate grading mode, e.g., 499A-D = S/U grading; 499N-R = A-F grading.

5.  To make a course repeatable with different topics and alpha suffixes, e.g., 417A Participatory Action Research; 417H Cross-Cultural Law.

6.  To indicate lab vs. lecture, e.g., 458A Beginning Clinical Practice; 458B Lab: Beginning Clinical Practice

7.  To indicate a particular area of study, e.g., 101A-409A = Core Studies; 101B-498B = Concentrated Studies

8.  Lack of numbers, especially at the 300- or 400 level.

Using alpha suffixes on course numbers can cause problems in three areas of responsibility in the Registrar’s Office: degree audit, course repeat tracking, and prerequisite checking.  Here is an explanation of the problem in each of those areas:

1.  Degree audit

 a) CAPP encoding is complicated when a requirement limits the number of credits to a certain level (200-, 300-, 400-, etc.) and there are courses at that level with alpha suffixes.   For example – the requirement is 10 credits at the 400-level.  In some cases it may require multiple lines of encoding (400-4xx, 4000-4xxx) and with multiple lines of encoding there is no way to limit 400-level courses to 10 credits.  We can limit each line to 10 credits or each line to 5 credits – but neither of those will work for every student in all circumstances.

 b) Unique static course numbers can be encoded in CAPP with a high level of confidence.  In other words, if a required course always is offered as 352C, CAPP can easily monitor it for completion by a given student.

 c) Course number and subject code changes create an additional level of complexity making the encoding more difficult.  If 352 is changed to 352D in the new catalog, CAPP must be encoded so that the 352 in the 05-06 catalog is equivalent to 352D in the 06-07 catalog.  (While this isn’t an alpha suffix problem per se, there are frequent changes involving the addition of the alpha characters.)

2.  Course repeat checking

a)  As with degree audit, a range of numbers (e.g., 350A-Z) makes it very difficult to check for repeats.  If course is not repeatable for credit but a student takes 350A and later takes 350H, the system may flag 350A as having been repeated.

b)  Repeat checking also is complicated by course number changes.  For example, a department recently changed a course number from 238 (which was repeatable) to 238A and they also added a 238B and 238C, none of which is to be repeatable.  Students who had taken 238 and then took 238A were not caught by the system because the machine recognized 238A as a different course.

3.  Prerequisite checking

 The same difficulties listed for course repeats will cause problems in prerequisite checking.

AGENDA ITEMS

Minors

·    Chair Downing reported hearing that some students with a reduced GUR load due to the recent changes in the GURs are moving toward enhancing their academic record by declaring a minor. This means we might want to institute a mechanism for declaring minors, which would incidentally enhance the degree audit system that is being established.

·    One potential feature of permitting students to declare a minor is to extend access to certain courses typically restricted to majors to declared minors. This clearly has resource implications, and someone mentioned a concern that some students might declare a minor insincerely just to gain access to a particular course that would otherwise be unavailable. 

·    In some heavily impacted departments, it might be possible to give first priority for registration to minors, then second priority to declared minors so that declared minors don’t make access to declared majors more difficult.

·    A benefit to departments and programs would in any event be more informed resource management.

Dependency Graph

James Hearne hopes to have a computer science major(s) create a dependency graph for the campus that would simply list and link courses, minors, majors and departments.  Clicking on a course number would display all the linked courses that are affected.  There is a possibility that the Degree Audit system would be able to pick that up through global search or other means.  For ACC purposes, a department contemplating changing a course can push a button and see what it is they are about to affect. This would make it much easier for departments and programs to conform to the so-called Monahan Rule (ACC Handbook, very bottom of page 19).

Meeting of Curricular Chairs and Secretaries

Chair Downing would like to host a meeting with all the chairs of Curricular Committees, and the relevant staff, in Spring Quarter to explain changes on several topics:

·    Use of alpha suffices, problems in course numbering, the “seven year rule”

·    Being dropped from the major if the GPA falls below a randomly chosen point (unapproved policy in at least two departments)

·    Limiting access to majors

·    How material gets to be catalog copy, particularly in the text that is not reviewed by an curricular committee

·    Size of course descriptions in the catalog

·    FYEs

·    Sample use of curricular minutes

·    Other topics warranting explanation that have been implemented recently

·    Suggestions, ruminations – whatever -- from the committees

Fall 2005 Withdrawals

·    There was a column on the Fall grade report circulated that recorded the number of student drops in each department or program. Provost Bodman asked if the global withdrawal rate from classes was available for the last five years.  (Currently 3-1/2% withdraw from initial classes).

·    The discussion of drops led to questions regarding the policy of assigning the grade of W. St. Hilaire reported that prior to five years ago the policy was  a lot tougher than it is now, but still about 1500 to 1800 withdraw in the first and second week when they are swapping and finally getting into the class they want.  However, they get a “W” even in the second week, that is, after the first five days of the quarter when dropping a course is simply considered a change in registration.  It seems punitive that drops in the second week consistently show up as a “W.” Students fear this may needlessly look bad on their transcripts, especially to future employers.

·    Downing would like the use of “W” on the transcript to be discussed at the next meeting.  Commissioners noted that the problem will not be resolved until the course access problem is solved.  One suggestion is to stagger the drops and adds so that there is a longer time to add courses than there is to drop. There was in any event a consensus that the policy assigning Ws for courses dropped in the second week should be modified, or even dropped altogether. 

READING of Curricular Minutes

The following minutes were reviewed or re-reviewed by the Commissioners: 

General Notes:  

1)   What appears in the catalog copy and the language that comes to ACC for approval should be similar.  It should not be necessary for the Catalog Coordinator to have to rewrite course proposals.

2)  Secretaries/recorders of minutes, please identify yourself on the Curricular Minutes submitted from your College committee.  

3)  SENATE WEBSITE IS THE MOST CURRENT LIST OF CURRICULAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS.  Please check the website and see that your particular curricular committee membership is correct.  Please send an updated list with term beginning and end.  Thank you.

Adjournment

Commissioners adjourned at 5:47 pm.

Rose Marie Norton-Nader, Recorder, February 14,  2006

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