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                                                                            WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

ACADEMIC COORDINATING COMMISSION MINUTES

Regular Meeting  --  October 9, 2007

Chair James Hearne called the meeting of the 2007-2008 Academic Coordinating Commission to order at 4:10 pm on October 9, 2007.  There were fourteen (14) members present. 

Approval of ACC minutes

Commissioners accepted the minutes of May 29^th with minor typos.   

Items from the Chair

Chair Hearne welcomed Provost Dennis Murphy and the Commissioners to the Fall Quarter and drew attention to the ACC charge which will be reviewed later in the meeting.

AGENDA ITEMS.   Curricular and Standing Committee Minutes.

The following curricular minutes came before ACC on October 9 , 2007

Other comments on the minutes:

§    Roger Anderson reminded Commissioners that ACC formerly passed a rule that a new experimental course could be offered 3 times.  Some times this occurred only because units were too late to register a new course, so they were beefing up a course and changing the content and wanted to experiment before establishing a standard course. 

§    James Hearne expressed hope that with a new director of International Programs, the IPAC questions will be solved.  The question still remains if we are accepting Village Studies as a cosponsored program. Again, this will be taken up by the new Director.

Review of the ACC Charge  (attached)

§    Michael Meehan asked for faculty numbers in each college.  The Faculty Senate website under “Elections” lists this and is updated twice yearly, and as new or additional information is returned to the Senate office.

http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/senate/Electn0708.  Faculty should use “count by college” and “apportionment” to understand how numbers are allotted for ACC membership.

§    Provost Dennis Murphy asked for further interpretation of the terms “entrance and graduation requirements”, and whether these mean entrance to program, degree status, etc.  Hearne noted the previous discussion in ACC about filters for majors, and circumstances under which people could complete major requirements and still not graduate.  Hearne will ask the Senate Executive to be more specific about the meaning of these terms.

§    Hearne asked the members to reflect on the charge between now and the next meeting and to make changes as a result of their observations.  

Executive Council recommends discussion of “missed classes for sporting events”

Chair Hearne brought forward a discussion topic from the Senate Executive Council as to how flexible faculty members can be when giving make up exams, and allowing students to miss exams or miss class for university sanctioned sporting and club events.  Hearne commented that we are not trying to in any way force faculty to “be flexible”, but that we can be reasonable about allowing students to miss.

Challenges:

§    If a core course is offered only 2x a year, missing may not be too problematic because the course is offered again.

§    But if the course is only offered 1x a year, and a student is not ready until senior year, this is a problem.  It is unknown how frequently this comes up, but he does not foresee any other serious issue (Roger Anderson)..

§    There are some once-a-year classes that are difficult to get into, with a posted date for a lab exam that takes a week or more to set up.  The syllabus or class finder ought to note this from the onset and it is reasonable in this case to expect the student to be present, or to take a different course, or not to participate in the athletic program.  However, can be a problem if this course is required for the core. (Robin Mathews)

§    Provost Murphy cited a case where there was accommodation to allow a student participate by taking an exam a day earlier a one day later but the faculty member only allowed only one date for the exam for a number of reasons, including academic honesty issues, and the need to create a new exam.

§    Last year a member of the women’s basketball team had to not travel with the team because they had to take an exam on a certain day; that seemed like a difficulty at the other extreme.

§    Commissioners ventured that it seemed difficult to set a policy, when most of the policies are already set by the faculty member.  Faculty solving these issues on an ad hoc basis seems a better solution; formalizing a policy might prove more difficult.

§    Other suggested that if we cannot make a faculty policy, we might at least provide written information on the topic for students so that they can see what requests might seem unreasonable.

§    One commissioner would like to know how many requests there are; it would be dangerous to formulate rules based on one or two cases when many are solved individually by the faculty during the year.  She agreed it would be better solved one on one with faculty, student and athletic rep.

§    Another suggested that at least perhaps we can come up with a recommendation that faculty be reasonably flexible in accommodating a limited number of absences by students who are members of university sanctioned athletics and clubs.

§    Murphy added that he has additional emails where a variety of circumstances are described and he will forward these emails to ACC.

Call for Catalog Copy – Proposal from Lisa Zuzarte, Catalog Coordinator

Hearne moved to approve a proposal brought from Lisa Zuzarte for curriculum minute timeline, seconded by Michael Meehan, which passed unanimously.  The main text follows:

Call for Catalog Copy to the Academic and Administrative units – mid October 2007

Last ACC meeting for Curric Mins. to be approved for Catalog changes – February 19, 2008

Catalog copy sent to the Coordinator – February 29, 2008

Catalog Drafts sent to the Departments for Proofing – April 2008

Rationale:  December 15 not a realistic deadline since minutes have not been reviewed by ACC at this early date. The new timeline gives departments more time to present accurate and approved copy to the Catalog Coordinator.

Constituent Concerns

§    Joe St. Hilaire reported that Women’s Studies 353 has been in the catalog but has not been offered since 1994, and has been cross-listed with Anthro353.  It has not been withdrawn from the catalog yet.  Additionally, Anthro353 is a BCGM, but Women’s Studies is not, and this is confusing to students – to have a course listed which does not exist.

§    Chair Hearne will get in touch with Women’s Studies and request 353 be removed from the catalog, since it has never been offered apparently in 13 years.

§    Another course, Women’s Studies 453, also cross-listed with Anthro 453 has never been offered either, but since it is not a GUR course, the problem is less significant.

§    If the area really plans to offer 353, it has to acquire GUR approval first.

Adjournment

Commissioners adjourned at 4:55 p.m.

Rose Marie Norton-Nader, Recorder, October 9, 2007

ACADEMIC COORDINATING COMMISSION 2007-2007 ROSTER

Draft of Revised Charge to ACC

BL7.4            Academic Coordinating Commission

The Academic Coordinating Commission (ACC) shall have jurisdiction over all matters relating to the University's academic program.   such as curriculum, entrance and graduation requirements, and other matters of academic policy and teaching load. 

BL7.4.1 Membership

It The membership of the Academic Coordinating Committee shall consist of eighteen (18) members be as follows:  12 faculty including at least one from each area specified in BL 7.1.4,

a)    Two representatives from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (2);

b)    One representative from each of the following: the College of Sciences and Technology, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, the College of Business and Economics, Huxley College of the Environment, Woodring College of Education, and the College of Fine and Performing Arts (6); and

c)    One representative from the Library faculty (1);

d)    Two members of the Faculty Senate for one-year terms (2);

e)    The Associated Students Vice President for Academic Affairs (ex officio) (1);

f)      Three additionalfour students (3),;

g)    Tthe Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs, (ex officio) (1); and

h      Tthe Catalog Coordinator, (ex officio, voting) (1)

I.)     The Registrar (ex officio, voting) (1).. 

Faculty who are members of the Academic Coordinating Commission are appointed by their respective divisions  for two-year terms and ratified by the Faculty Senate.  If possible, Faculty representatives to the ACC should be members of their unit’s curricular committees.  Two Faculty Senators are appointed by the Senate for one-year terms and may or may not be members of curricular committees  At least two of the faculty members appointed shall be voting Faculty Senate members.  The four  student members shall be appointed by the Associated Students Board of Directors.  Academic Coordinating Commission   After Senate ratification, members are seated at the last Spring quarter meeting. 

A chairperson and vice chairperson shall be appointed by and from the committee membership at the last meeting each Spring Quarter.  The chair or his designee is responsible for communicating decisions of the ACC back to both the subcommittee(s) who forwarded proposals and the originating author(s).   A faculty member Chair will receive released time of 0.33 FTEF or equivalent release time from other duties to carry out the responsibilities of his/her office. 

BL7.4.2 Executive Committee

The Executive Committee of the ACC shall be made up of the chairperson, vice chairperson, the Associated Students Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the Provost.  The Executive Committee is responsible for setting the agenda for meetings, and is empowered to cancel meetings if there is not sufficient business. 

BL 7.4.3 Meetings

The ACC will meet on a biweekly basis on Tuesdays at 4:00 p.m..  Copies of meeting minutes shall be forwarded to the Faculty Senate for review as soon as possible.

BL 7.5.4 Standing Subcommittees

The ACC shall maintain the following subcommittees: Admissions Committee, Committee on the Assessment of Teaching and Learning, General Education Requirements Committee, Graduate Council, Honors Board, and International Programs Advisory Committee.  In addition, th Curricular Committees of the Colleges and the Library are considered subcommittees of the ACC.   The specific charges and memberships of the subcommittees are given in the ACC Handbook.   Subcommittees of the ACC shall forward minutes of their meetings to the ACC for review (within two weeks) as soon as possible.  The ACC is empowered to create additional ad hoc or standing committees (as it sees fit and necessary) to efficiently (effectively meet its charge.