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WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

ACADEMIC COORDINATING COMMISSION MINUTES

Regular Meeting  --  April 11, 2006

Chair Tom Downing called the meeting of the Academic Coordinating Commission to order on April 11, 2006 in OM340 at 4:04 p.m.  There were fifteen (15) members present, one (1) guest, one (1) recorder, and the Registrar for a total of eighteen (18). (See attached roster). 

Approval of ACC minutes

Commissioners approved the minutes of March 28 as written. 

Announcements and Reports:

Chair Downing reported to the Registrar and Catalog editor that IS 325 (Global Literature) had indeed been approved as a course at an earlier meeting.

AGENDA ITEMS – Discussion:   

General Studies Major (GSM)

Commissioners welcomed Kris Bulcroft, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, and Bliss Goldstein, who teaches a capstone writing class for the General Studies Major (GSM), as well as Karen Perry, Catalog Coordinator and member of ACC, who has been working with Bulcroft to centralize advising for GSM. 

§    Bulcroft updated Commissioners on progress made to date following recommendations of the General Studies Ad Hoc committee formed by ACC in 2003-04 to see if the GSM was meeting the objectives required by the degree. 

§    Bulcroft’s office has acted on the recommendations and conducted additional studies. A first action to remedy the situation for students who could not get access to courses (particularly in sociology, anthropology, psychology and English) was to create a centralized advising model with Karen Perry who is the first point of contact for the GSM student.  Perry does a centralized intake, looks at the courses they have taken and what remains, and what the student’s reasons are for selecting the GSM.  Students then have to get another signature from a GSM advisor.

§    Perry has prepared an advising packet with general information about choosing majors in general, the “majors guide” from academic advising.  Perry listed some 300 level GUR courses from the catalog that had no prerequisites, or prerequisites such students might be likely to have, so that General Studies majors would be aware of upper-division options.  Perry also provides both a checklist so that students can keep track of their courses and contact information for sociology, psychology and anthropology departments.  They also get a guide which explains the point of choosing a major, how to get more actively involved in a major, and how useful it can be to explain your degree to an employer.

§    Commissioners learned that the range of students who seek the GSM is much broader than first imagined, and may include education students doing student teaching who decide teaching is not for them; students who may have a low GPA, or others with a very high GPA who have never made a connection with a department in a way that will help them decide on a major; for some students who hold jobs, with the high cost of tuition, getting a GSM means getting through sooner; others may be in the military, or have other financial, work or family issues.

§    Commissioners asked:  How many credits short of a conventional major are students before they declare GSM?  Could some sort of support help them declare a preferred major?  Concern was expressed that this could become institutionalized rather than systematically avoided.

§    Perry reported that students close to completing a major are advised to complete within their conventional major if at all possible; Perry points out the options, and the down side of dropping a major.  It was reported that some students may be within one course of completing the major, but “run into obnoxious chairs” who will not make adjustments, including in cases where a student might have to wait an entire year to get access to a required course. There are some very strong students who may need one course, or do not want that final course with that particular professor; they may not have an intellectual disability, but a need to move on with life. 

§    Commissioners expressed hope that in administering the program we try to think of ways to diminish the number of students opting for it. There seems to be no good way to make it go away altogether, so we want to make it the best possible program consistent with its role in accommodating students for whom it was designed.  The earlier Perry can get hold of prospective GSM majors, the more design can be imposed on them.

Capstone Course for GSM:   Bulcroft reported that a capstone writing course (University 497g) was instituted Winter Quarter and will be taught again this Spring.  Bliss Goldstein designed the course which is available to GSM students only.

§    Goldstein spoke passionately about the value of this capstone experience, stating that GSM can be a default, or preferably it can be a full fledged degree because of the academic horizons it offers students.

§    Goldstein read from the course description which gives students opportunities to explore their wishes towards their majors through writing.  The intention of the capstone course is to ensure that students can write using evidence, and to provide an opportunity for GSM majors to cap off their college careers as well-educated graduates with a course unique to their degree.  In the capstone they focus in the first half on the artifacts of their college years, by writing an intellectual autobiography.  In the second half they focus forwards and write a proposal and prepare a portfolio which demands that they write analytically using evidence on a book of their choosing (from a list of 6).  Students must demonstrate by the end of the capstone that they can use evidence to support their claims.  Goldstein reported that not one student knew how to write using evidence at the start, but 15 out of 15 GSM students demonstrated this skill at the end.  The skills acquired by students were so appreciated that four of them are now applying for Graduate School.  Word of mouth has spread so that the next capstone filled up within ½ a day.   Every student is advised about the course, although at present there are insufficient resources to create enough sections for all GSM students.

§    Downing proposed that the course go through the usual process of getting a standard course number.  The x97 rubric provides a way of offering an experimental course; if the experiment is deemed a success, then a traditional number should be sought in the usual way. It would probably be desirable if a department could be found to sponsor the course, but “University” may have to do.

§    Bulcroft has further recommendations to provide direction to students.  She is exploring ways to package GSM with suggested pathways to provide real translatable skills that students can bring to potential employers, including Service Learning, International Exchange, and a routing through QSR courses that satisfy requirements.  Bulcroft does not have a budget to put funds in place, but hopes to get the program located in a college and generate SCH.  Some suggested locating the major in Liberal Studies and that the College of Humanities and Social Sciences is in any event the most appropriate home.

§    Some commissioners opined that a major should include a deeper acquaintance with a single discipline, but in the absence of that, access to 400 level courses would be desirable; however students often do not have access to the 400 level courses. Perry observed that the principal problem General Studies majors have is access to upper division courses in impacted departments.

§    Bulcroft thanked ACC, as well as Perry and Goldstein, and commented that students deserve a degree for persistence.  Bulcroft would like to see us continue to improve the programs for these students, and that they deserve the best Western experience. 

§    Commissioners asked that the program be revisited in a year, and that attempts be made to get a college more seriously involved in housing the GSM.

Grant Donnellan expressed appreciation and thanks to Bulcroft, Perry and Goldstein for taking on this task.

READING of Curricular Minutes – Exhibit B:

Constituent Concerns

Do off-campus course descriptions appear in the Western catalog?

The Woodring Commissioner asked for the curricular approval process for EESP courses, and learned that they go through the EESP Advisory Board, which reports to the ACC, and that courses peculiar to EESP carry the EXT rubric.

Human Services and TESOL, and other EESP courses appear in the Woodring section of the catalog.  But with such a large off campus elementary education program, are those courses also listed in the catalog?  If I am a student in Oak Harbor, are my courses all listed in the catalog? How similar is my program to the Woodring on-campus education program? The answer is that all courses in programs at Western, on-campus or off-campus, appear in the general catalog.

Ad Hoc Committee on Withdrawal Policy

Chair Downing proposed a small committee, consisting of the Provost, the Registrar, a student, and one or more Commissioners.

Adjournment

Commissioners adjourned at 5:05 pm.

Rose Marie Norton-Nader, Recorder, April 11, 2006

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