Educational Policies and Procedures Committee
Minutes, Sept. 10, 2007
Present: Marge Devinney, Jane Evans, Chris Dennis, Keya Sadeghipour, Bruce Conrad, Phil Harris, Rob Drennan, Mary Anne Gaffney, Catherine Schifter. Bob Aiken as guest.
Minutes from 5/7/07 were reviewed. With the exception of the second spelling of Orin Chein’s name, the minutes were approved as written.
- Bob Aiken welcomed the committee as the President of Senate.
- He noted that he has been updating the new administration on the importance of University committees being recognized by the administration.
- He noted that Senate has the right to name 2 non-voting members to the Trustees’ Committee on Academic Affairs. As President of Senate he will be one, with the other being the Chair of EPPC. Mary Anne has agreed to serve. The first meeting of that committee will be Sept. 25th at 12:30pm.
- He also noted that the new Provost has been charged with establishing an academic plan for the University to be delivered by next summer. This is to be a bottom-up process with faculty important in the process. An outside consultant is to be hired to assist in the process. They are looking for broad based faculty input with 35 colleagues working on this effort. Each college is to offer 2 names and CATA will provide 2 at-large names. Areas of stress include interdisciplinary studies, urban initiatives, structures of departments/colleges, role of undergraduate and graduate programs, licensure and certification programs, to name a few.
- Community College update – Mary Anne reported that Michele could not make the meeting today because she was visiting a community college. Michele is still working on this process and will report at another meeting. Chris Dennis noted that the Provost’s office is drafting definitions of terms related to majors, trying to define minors, among other issues.
- Academic Good Standing – Chris Dennis reported that the Provost’s office has been reviewing this policy that was put in place fall 2003. In the current policy, a student who has an academic warning is not eligible for merit-based financial aid, thus excluded from Title IV funds (Perkins, Stafford, and word study). The newly revised policy, which is now being reviewed by the Provost and President, would allow students whose GPA is below 2.0 to still be considered “in good standing” and thus eligible for Title IV funds. Jane Evans asked why a 2.0 (C) grade as the cut off when a C- is passing? This has not been reviewed by the Provost office.
- Update on electronic grading – Chris Dennis reported that this will not be ready for December 2007. Each school is to appoint a “grade liaison” to assure that each section of each course has an instructor. Where there is no instructor listed, the Dean will be responsible for inputting grades.
- Rob Drennan asked whether there is a policy about how many courses students may take during summer sessions. Chris indicated the maximum is 9 credits, but this can be overridden by an advisor. We asked if we could get information to confirm the 9 credits and to see how many students in which colleges take more.
- Meeting adjourned at 3:40pm – Respectfully submitted by Catherine Schifter.
