Information to Discuss Dr. Turchen’s (AAC)Monday Only Class Proposal

Proposal – email from Dr. Turchen on 10/21:

During the AAC meeting today, we developed the following recommendation for consideration by SAC, BAC, TAC, and MOCC related to Monday Only classes and the issue ofclasses not meeting for the first time until after Census Date. We would appreciate feedback from our colleagues.AAC will discuss the calendar proposal again during its conference call on Nov. 18. The issue of the length of the summer session has been raised but not yet discussed and will be on the agenda for the November AACmeeting. Our goal is tohave the calendarrecommendation to the BOR in December.

Please forward the AAC recommendation to your respective Councils for consideration. I will need to receive feedback prior to November 9 in order to include it in the mail out for the AAC meeting.(MOCC needs to finalize a response on November 5)

AAC Recommendation:

Goal: Monday Only classes will meet prior to Census Date.

1. No change will be made to the start date on the proposed calendars.

2. No change will be made to the Registration/Orientation Date on the proposed calendars.

3. All classes that meet only once per week with beginning times of 4:00 PM or later will be held on Registration/Orientation Day.

4. Classes that meet only once per week can be scheduled on Mondays only if they meet one of the following criteria:

a. Begin no earlier than 4:00 PM, or

b. Are lab sections associated with lecture classes that will meet Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday each week?

c. The VPAA may make exceptions as long as an alternate meeting date is established prior to Census Date.

5. This approach will be effectivebeginning with Fall 2005.

This recommendation took into account the inventory of Fall 2004 Monday and Monday Onlyclasses provided by Ranny Jones. The inventory of Fall 2004 Monday Only classes was summarized as follows:

317 classes

148 (46.8%) begin meeting from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM

168 (53.2%) begin meeting from 4:00 PM to 7:30 PM

1 indicated no time

60 classes are offered at USDSU (2 beginning at 1:00 PM and 58 beginning at 4:00 PM)

Of the 148 that begin meeting at 7:00 AM, 69 are labs associated with lecture courses that meet during the first week. Therefore, 79 of the 148 (25%) Monday Only classes apparently do not meet at another time duringthe first week.

______

Information – to begin discussion on our MOCC call 10/22/04 – Ranny 10/21:

What happens in the current calendar?

  1. BOR Policy 2:6

“The number of class days in a given semester shall be inclusive of those days set aside for registration, assessment/performance testing and final examinations but exclusive of holidays and days set aside for new student orientation. New Student Orientation may be concurrent with or prior to registration.”

Question: For Fall 2004, August 30 was listed in our calendar as Registration and Orientation. Since registration counts as a class day and orientation does not – is it a class day or not and should it be the official start date of the term?

Academic interpretation – Registration Day (August 30) is counted as a class day so there are 77 days in the term – Class days run from August 30 to December 21 for this calculation.

Administrative (Operational) interpretation – the standard term begins the day after Registration/Orientation Day (Called on the calendar – “Classes Begin”) and ends the last day of finals (The standard term for financial aid, course preparation, accounts receivable, etc. begins August 31 and ends December 21 – courses that begin and end within this period of time are standard term courses. Therefore, the first 10% of the term calculation for census day, drop without charge, and add for standard term classes is calculated on a begin date of August 31 and an end date of December 21. The 60% Return to Title IV Point and the 70% final drop/withdrawal day for standard term classes are calculated on a begin date of August 31 and an end date of December 21.

  1. Financial Aid

The “U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid Handbook, Volume 3” states: Instructional time is based on the period that begins on the first day of classes in the academic year and ends on the last day of classes or examination. Instructional time does not include periods of orientation, counseling, homework, vacation, or other activity not related to class preparation or examination.

Generally, a term is a period in which all classes are schedule to begin and end within a

set time frame. (This does not mean all classes need to be the same length within the

term (some may be only one-half semester courses (August 31 to October 25). The

specific criterion is that the dates of these classes begin and end within a set time frame

(August 31 to December 21).

  1. Data Definition Problems – Standard and Non Standard Terms and Standard and Non Standard Courses
  2. Standard Terms – A standard term is a semester, trimester, or quarter. It is a period in which all classes are scheduled to begin and end within this set time frame. Classes or programs that meet outside this set time frame are considered to be in non-standard terms.
  3. Standard and Non Standard Courses – currently we define a standard course as one that meets the full semester and a non-standard course as a course that meets only a portion of the semester (a weekend, two weeks, one-half semester, etc.). I think we may want to define these as full semester and partial semester courses.
  4. The key here is that any full semester or partial semester course can still be a standard term course if it begins and ends within the set time frame of the standard term.

Recommendation for Discussion

Based on the above, If Monday (Beginning at 4:00) Classes begin on Monday (now Registration/Orientation Day), the recommendation is that the following calendar changes occur:

  1. The Monday (in the calendar) should now be called “Registration Day and Classes Begin at 4:00 p.m.” I think we should get rid of “Orientation” in the title.
  2. For both Academic and Administrative purposes: Monday is the official start of the term and the last day of finals is the last day of the term. For Fall 2004 the term would be defined to officially start on August 30 and officially end on December 21. All academic and administrative percentage calculations would be based on thesesame official start and end dates.
  3. If this is not done, the Monday Only (Beginning at 4:00) classes would be considered Non Standard Term courses for financial aid and accounts receivable purposes. They would not begin and end within the standard term (August 31 to December 21) – begin August 30 and end December 21.

______

Previous Discussions by MOCC (FA) on this same recommendation:

Alternate Proposal (#2) from the October 1 MOCC call - (This proposal will no longer be considered based on theFinancial Aid Module concerns expressed below.)

Instead of meeting all Monday classes on Registration/Orientation Day would it be feasible to meet classes that meet only on a Monday all semester(i.e. Monday night classes, 1 credit courses that meet only on Monday). This would eliminate from the proposal all classes that meet Monday, Wednesday,Fridayor that meet on Monday plus one additional day during the week. Since the majority of Monday only classes are held at off-campus centers such as USDSU, this should have a minimal affect onon-campus schedules. This proposal would be for the fall semester only, since the spring semester does not present the same dilemma.

The questions that MOCC will need to address are:

1.How many Monday only classes are there for Fall Semester 2004 and where do they meet? - Rannyhas supplied the spreadsheets for Monday only classesand all classes that have one meeting day of Monday.

2. If this change is made for Monday only classes, will these classes become non-standard classes with a begin date a day earlier than the normal start day of the term and the same end date?No, if the school (BOR system) calendar uses the Monday date as the start date for the academic term. Ideally there should be only one start date for the academic term.If the start date for Monday only classes is changed to the day prior to the official start of the academic term, these classes would be considered non-standard.

3. If the start date is changed this will affect the census date, the first date to give a "W" grade, the 60% Return to Title IV date, and the final drop date for these courses. Yes, the start date is one day earlier.

4. If these classes become non-standard as in (2, 3) above, will that affect their eligibility for financial aid? - Financial Aid Module It is best to avoid “non-standard” terms due to complications in having multiple start and end dates that affect the term calculations for Return to Title IV (refunds); delayed and second disbursement dates; dates for getting loan response files and using EFT; VA monthly education benefits;

5. On the other hand, if this change is made for Monday only classes, is it legal/ethical for these classes to begin on Monday but have an official start date of Tuesday with none of the dates being changed? (Lesta, I need help from you and Jim on this).

6. What are the academic, administrative, and student service’s pros and cons if this change to the academic calendarwould occur?

The reasons this proposal (#2) is not feasible is based onthe following findings:

1.Additional information in the spreadsheets attached defines that this is not just an issue for Monday only classes but for all classes that have aMonday meeting time.

2.From the Financial Aid Module (Rosie, Sharon,and Jay):

To beeligible for financial aid a class mustbegin and end within the standard term - official first day of classes through the last day of finals. If Monday only or Monday classes begin on Monday (Currentlydefined asRegistration/Orientation day, with the official start of classes begin the following day)the start date for these classes would be changed and this new start datewould result in placingall the students taking these classesoutside the term. The only exception to the standard term requirement for financial aidis if a total program has a calendar outside the standard term. That is not the case here - these are individual classes, not programs, that would be outside the term.There would not be a consistent group of students where a cohort could be identified since these students are not all ina non standard program. They are only in a non standard class. Therefore, the student population would change each term. It wouldrequire any student, that takes any of these classes, to be placed intoa manual non standard tracking requirement for the entire time they are a part of the BOR Systemand would impact the Federal Pell Formula used. This is not doable. The federal requirements state: "The PROGRAM of study has to be established using a consistent academic calendar. The PROGRAM of study would be all standard term or all non-term."The financial aid module went on to explain:

The Title IV financial aid has specific requirements for academic term (year) and payment period. (U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid Handbook, Volume 3, 2005-2005)

1.Academic term uses the first day of classes to define the weeks of instructional time. The first day of classes needs to be consistent for a standard term for the financial aid office to process consistent dates for awarding, disbursing, and reporting aid disbursements.

2.Payment period must be structured into one calendar first day of classes and last day for examination (classes) for a standard term. If there are different dates for a first or last date, then the payment period is non-standard and the financial aid office must separate the students into respective start/end dates.