Academic Affairs Committee Minutes

August 29, 2014

In attendance: Berhane Teclehaimanot, Susanna Hapgood, Ed Cancio, Joan Kaderavek, Randy Vesely, Renee Martin (substituting for Mary Ellen Edwards)

Susanna Hapgood was nominated, seconded, and unanimously elected to be chair of the AAC for 2014-2015 academic year.

AAC members commended Berhane Teclehaimanot for his past leadership of this committee.

Susanna requested that Berhane write a briefof the course revision process to guide faculty and departments through this process.

An AAC committee member suggested that College Council come up with the requirements for appointing a student representative to the college committees. Another process may be to invite all students to be representatives, if no students respond, the AAC may have to appoint a student.

Bullet points for recruiting students to AAC may include:

Excellent experience for someone who is going into academia, the opportunity to see how curricular matters are reviewed and approved.
Fulfill a service component to the university and Judith Herb College of Education
Add a student voice to curricular decisions within the JHCOE

Some members of the committee pointed out that work was completed on the draft graduate handbook over the summer by two members of the AAC committee; some AAC members were uncomfortable with the process that was followed to achieve the current draft.

AAC members discussed the purpose/value of the qualifying exam for the Ph.D. programs.

Points that were pointed that may justify the qualifying exam (a) would identify students who have weak writing skills early in their academic work, (b) may serve as a data point for accreditation of advanced programs to document achievement of educational goals for graduate students, (c) may foster discussion by faculty across departments regarding the rigor and expectations for doctoral-level classes. Some members of AAC pointed out that in the past qualifying exams were required by the College, but were later discontinued by some programs. Concerns were voiced regarding program-level decision making and implications of the qualifying exams for faculty workload. Some members of the AAC suggested that discussion of the qualifying exam with the broader faculty could facilitate discussion of admission policies and procedures for doctoral students as well as of ensuring rigorous coursework expectations.

AAC members discussed that we need to remind council that faculty need to be involved in forums to discuss the qualifying exams proposal and written and oral exam drafts that were submitted to faculty at the end of spring semester.

APPROVED 9/19/2014