Minutes, September 15, 2008
Present: Suman Balish, Bruce Conrad, Chris Dennis, Marge Devinney, Mary Anne Gaffney (chair), Phil Harris, Dan Lieberman, Michelle O’Connor, Jackie Resavage, Keya Sadeghipour, Catherine Schifter, Concetta Stewart.
Introductions were made. Mary Anne noted that Anthony, our undergraduate representative, cannot make meetings this year, so she will work with the undergraduate government for a replacement.
Minutes were reviewed: Several changes were made, to be sent out to the members by Mary Anne. With the changes they were accepted.
Chair’s report: Karen Turner has been replaced as the GEEC representative on EPPC by Mary Anne. News from Gen Ed is there have been no complaints so far. Assessment will be the next emphasis. Middle States will be looking at assessment in Gen Ed. Chris Dennis remarked about gen ed information about courses – descriptions, changes, etc, coordination of information and curricular changes are being tracked. He also noted departments are flipping old core courses into gen ed.
Michelle O’Connor’s update: Michelle reported on the University Seminars. Both the transfer and sophomore seminars closed in mid-summer, being piloted this fall. Dr. Lieberman asked who teaches these seminars. Michelle noted they are taught by administrators in Undergraduate Studies, among other offices, all with Master’s Degrees, and often with faculty guest speakers. She proposed a junior level seminar preparing students for the MCAT or LSAT to start Spring 2009. There would be one basic syllabus with specifics for the focus. For the MCAT junior seminar, only those involved with Pre-Health would be eligible and the same would be for LSAT and the Pre-Law Advising program. Students will have to apply. We determined it would be good to invite Neida Perez (re Pre-Health) and Paul Crowe (re Pre-Law) to a future meeting.
Concern was expressed about the description – appears too general. Michelle will revise and send to Mary Anne. “Sections” were suggested to be used to identify the focus rather than different course numbers. Students would only be eligible to take the course once. Jackie asked whether the minimal GPA in content could be calculated. It was asked whether other universities do these types of seminars, and the answer was maybe.
Concerned was noted about requiring a full year of Mosaic and Chris said that it reflects the ability to read difficult texts for reasoning and analytical writing, which is one problem these students have on the graduate exam tests. Concetta noted from the Chronicle of Higher Education that the best predictor of college success from the SAT was the analytical writing section.
How many students would potentially take the class? Chris noted there are approximately 6-700 folks in Pre-Health. Cautionary statements included: If a student wants to represent themselves as a Temple University Pre-Med student, they must be vetted in this process; if a student is not part of this course or part of the Pre-Health Advising, they will not have access to the same level of support; and Temple Medicine and Temple University have a new agreement for high achieving students to have a “plus” program securing admissions to Temple Medicine, but only if they maintain the high achieving status.
Chris Dennis updates: The new DARS system (DARWIN) will be fully compatible with Banner. Early reports are that students like it. There are 125 majors and programs there, most of which were redesigned in the gen ed rollout.
Report on Latin Honors – to be made more meaningful by allowing only 16% of graduates (rather than 46.2%) to be eligible for Latin Honors. These thresholds were calculated from a past 5 year period, and will be updated each year in the same way. This information will be disseminated widely since it will be in place for graduation May 2009. Chris noted this is similar to other Universities and Concetta noted that Rutgers had such a plan when she was an undergraduate student. There was concern expressed about going forward for spring 2009, but Chris said the President and Provost wanted this in place ASAP. To earn Latin Honors one must have at least 60 credits at Temple.
Upcoming agenda items: Michelle noted that Patti Vorndran has a full time position at West Chester, but is working one day a week to finish projects. Core-to-core agreements are moving forward with Reading Area Community College and Luzerne Community College. The A-9 tables, where course transfer information is held, is being updated. Need a discussion of policies and procedures regarding awarding academic credit for non-academic experiences.
Chris noted a need for a discussion about what “is” a college degree given the current credit model. Concetta noted that the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board should be part of this discussion from the beginning.
One last item was about students returning 5 years or longer after being academically dismissed with the fall 2003 academic policy on academic standing and dismissal. The policy indicated that people who came back after 5 years the GPA would be forgiven, must reapply and show they have taken steps to improve performance. What about students from before? Should this policy be extended to those who left/were dismissed prior to this policy?
Mary Anne reported that she will be out for 6 weeks, starting date to be announced. In her stead, Catherine Schifter will chair EPPC.
Respectfully submitted, Catherine Schifter
