EPPC Minutes Oct 29, 2007
In attendance: Mary Anne Gaffney (Chair, FSBM), Bruce Conrad (CST), Anthony DeFusco (Student), Chris Dennis (VPUS),Marge Devinney (CLA), Rob Drennan (FSBM), Jane Evans (Past-President),Phil Harris (CLA), Michele O’Connor (VPUS), Jackie Resavage (Records), Keya Sadeghipour (Dean, Eng), Concetta Stewart (Dean CST), Patti Vorndran (VPUS)
The meeting was called ro order at 2:40.
The minutes of the previous meeting were revised and approved.
O’Connor reported that she drafted a memo to reply to faculty members wishing to have classes designated as CORE classes; the memo asks them to apply for the General education program. The memo had been approved by Terry Halbert (Co-Director, GenEd), and the EPPC also approved it.
Resavage asked if there were any oversight issues when dropping CORE classes from the curriculum, and asked if students would be able to repeat a GenEd class that substitutes for a CORE for a higher grade. The answer was, there was no oversight process, but the only CORE classes that seem to be dropped right now are “decayed” classes that are rarely taught (or not taught) , and students can take GenEd courses, and the higher grade can be substituted for the CORE class. It was noted that Records was having some problem with students who want to repeat a GenEd class that is cross-listed in two departments. Conrad noted that some of these issues had already been faced when Math CO75 was “disappeared”. Dennis noted that his office scrutinizes every request to drop CORE classes, but noted that there was no oversight when the CORE class simply stops being taught.
O’Connor then presented a problem raised at the GEIG committee, that Records will have trouble when students enter a new program or change majors, thereby changing their ‘admit dates’, which will then be automatically read by the system that they should be taking GenEd, when in fact those students should be completing a CORE. She proposed three ways of tackling this problem, by using ‘Transitional CORE’ program. This Transitional CORE would NOT apply to transfers of 45+, nor would it affect students under articulation agreements nor CORE-to-CORE students. O’Connor also foresaw problems as programs revised their majors to 123-124 s.h.
Resavage asked if this problem could be easily resolved for the Intra-University Transfer students by a simple switch of procedure on her end. She promised to research the problem.
It was agreed that members would go back to their schools and colleges to discuss how bulletin years are used and EPPC would consider the issue further at the next meeting.
Sadeghipour opened a wider issue by asking why each School or College could not set their own total numbers of hours for graduation and policies about admit dates on the DARS document.
Gaffney asked if the alternatives would lead students to prefer to do “dummy” IUTs, in order to “get out of” doing parts of the CORE, by taking advantage of the Transitional CORE.
Dennis noted that a new advising document would be available soon.
Committee members asked more time to think about it. It was agreed that members would go back to their schools and colleges to discuss how bulletin years are used and EPPC would consider the issue further at the next meeting.
Dennis mentioned that Peter Jones is talking to the Colleges about granting graduation credit for ROTC courses. Engineering, Nursing, and Business already give credit. CLA, CST, and SCAT are in discussions. More info to follow.
Meeting adjourned.
