Faculty Senate Meeting

January 9, 2013, 2:30 pm,Noble130

Senators attending: Rebecca Austin, Michelle Bonanno, Beverly Chew, Rebecca Clausen, Betty Dorr, Jay Dougan, Leslie Goldstein, Rick Gore, Ryan Haaland, Melissa Knight-Maloney, Kenny Miller, Jonathan Latta, Justin McBrayer, Astrid Oliver, Chuck Riggs, Amy Sellin, Heidi Steltzer, Janice Templeton , Deborah Walker, Amy Wendland

Senators absent: Pam Smith, Kris Greer, Simon Walls

Guests: Marta Bergen, Barbara Morris, Peter McCormick, Jim Cross, Kim Hannula

Reports / Announcements:

President’s remarks – Chuck Riggs

  • Minutes, any corrections? None, approved by general consent as posted.
  • Remind everyone about sign up sheet; if 3 or more meetings are missed then replacement senator will need to be found.
  • Review all materials posted prior to the senate meeting.
  • Three Wed. meetings in a row, including this one, Jan 16 and Jan 23.

BOT Faculty Representative update – Amy Wendland

  • Senate does not rubber stamp stuff
  • Reading documents coming up in draft form prior to senate meetings is really important; we have big issues we will be discussing
  • Thomas Shilling and Ernest House are two new Board members; two native American members of the board
  • John Wells new president of the board
  • Karen Wild: new vice-chair of the board
  • Performance contract approved by CCHE is now also approved by the board; the board noted the quality of the content.
  • Next report to the board from Amy is due next week; please contact her before then if there is anything you would like included.
  • Opportunity soon to come for input and information similar to what happens at the beginning of the academic year.

Catalog Course Counting Proposal (Beverly Chew)

Big items that came up with Council of Chairs:

  1. Minimum credits for major. Can satisfy course requirements with different number of credits.
  2. Students who transfer in must complete 40 credits worth of coursework. That’s 40 credits worth of FLC courses.
  3. State compliance documentation – maximum credits used for Honest Credit Count and map to graduation.
  4. For degree auditing purposes (WebCAPP), when major has variable number of credits, the minimum number of credits is used.
  5. All FLC courses approved for Gt Pathways AH, HI, or SS requirements must be 4 credits.
  6. In Catalog of Courses, major requirements are organized into Core, Auxiliary, Distribution, and Elective. Standard names used. Total number of credits required for major is shown; however, subtotals for conceptual areas not shown. In electronic catalog, number of credits and description of course are available by clicking course name.

Discussion

  • Honest credit count for all majors has been undertaken; it needs to fit into 8 semesters for compliance.
  • Format in catalogue needs to be more aligned with function it serves to inform students and parents, so needs to be different.
  • Careful wording is needed to help evaluate and discuss that double dipping is not allowed.
  • What is the minimum number of credits for a major? FLC majors must be designed to require a minimum of 40 semester credits.
  • Transfer students must complete 40 credits; students must meet all coursework counting towards the major.
  • This is an issue related to differences in course credit values when they transfer to FLC in comparison to course credit for a similar course at FLC.
  • 63 credits is median credits per major
  • This will help students; reduce paperwork and hassle for students who do not take some courses in major at FLC as they work to meet graduation requirements.
  • Improve consistency within and across majors
  • Economics, Gender and women’s studies, psychology, math, history, NAIS, studio option Art are all close to 40 credits.
  • Would this weaken departments judged by output of students? It shouldn’t. Articulation agreements need to be in place to work out this issue if course transfers are not equivalent, ex. a lower division course from elsewhere transferring as an upper division course here.
  • How do we take this forward? SEC can put together a motion for senate to consider.
  • Honest credit count uses the maximum number; WebCapp uses the minimum. Most majors do not have variable credit. Can’t do this by counting courses instead of credits.
  • This will all go into a policy document on designing curriculum.
  • In the course catalog, we should remove credits required for major, subtotals, and course credits. This would shift students’ focus away from the credits to the areas and course requirements.
  • Total for major would be useful, especially for students considering double majors to see if they can fit the coursework into their academic plan.
  • Simplified versions of the map to graduation will be included in the next course catalog.
  • To Bev’s horror, if you dig deep, GE program could lead to 41 credits due to a mix of 3 and 4 credit courses in the AH, HI, and SS areas and the requirement by the state that students take 15 credits within these areas.
  • The fix: all these courses need to be 4 credits, which can happen by courses increasing their credits by 1 or by them no longer being listed as GT pathways.
  • State won’t count courses, so this wouldn’t be a fix.

Unfinished Business:

  • Theater Program Proposal Approval

Course/Program / Title / Change
Prgm Prop / Theatre-Design and Technical Theatre Option / Change option in maj

Motion to take this off the table, Bev Chew; seconded, approved.

Discussion

  • Several proposals went through emergency route for curriculum changes; this one did not. They’ve been written to look similar. This is the only one in our system yet; others will come soon.
  • Retable and hold until other proposals are also approved by curriculum so senate consider them together. Courses are approved, just program remains to be approved.

Motion to retable, AmySellin; seconded by RyanHaaland.

Motion to adjorn. Approved. Meeting adjorned at 3:32pm.

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