Monday, April 9, 2007
Attendance: Anthony Defusco, Chris Dennis, Rob Drennan, Jane Evans, Mary Anne Gaffney, Jackie Resavage, Keya Sadeghipour, Concetta Stewart, Karen Turner, Bruce Conrad, Patti Vorndran
Guest: Lori Salem, Director of Writing
The meeting convened at 2:10.
Gaffney decided to begin with the transfer agreements from area community colleges. Vorndarn announced that she has established a Blackboard site in order to track the progress of our decisions on GenEd–to-GenEd agreements with area 2-year institutions. This will be updated after each EPPC meeting.
Programs approved as meeting all the GenEd requirements for transfer students from MontCo: Assoc Arts Humanities; Mathematics; Social Sciences; Secondary Education.
The Undergraduate Advisor for Math had previously told Vorndran that MontCo's Math 103 was a lower-level math than Temple's C055. Thus, three of MontCo's AA programs were asked to raise their math requirement in order to be considered as a GenEd-toGenEd transfer: Communications, Elementary Education, Liberal Studies. The new program, which is currently NOT under the CORE-to-CORE agreement does NOT meet GenEd requirements.
Gloucester County Community College:
approved as meeting all requirements for GenEd to GenEd transfer: Associate of Science; Associate of Arts.
Bucks County Community College:
NOT approved for GenEd-to-GenEd: Accounting; Chef Apprenticeship/Food; Chef Apprenticeship/Pastry; Communications/Cinema Video; Early Childhood Education; Fine Woodworking; Graphic Design; Hospitality & Tourism Management Emphasis; Food Service Management; Information Technology; Management/Marketing-Small Business; Management/Marketing – Retail; Medical Assistant; Nanofabrication; Occupational Studies; Office Administration; Paralegal Studies; Retail Management; Small Business Management; Travel & Event Planning. The following programs would be approved if they require a higher-level math course: Network Technology; Nursing (possibly could be covered in a program-to-program arrangement?). Paraprofessional Instructional Assistant would be considered if a science requirement were added.
Still pending:
Mercer, Camden, Lehigh; CCCP might not be considered this year, as they are also revamping their GenEd curriculum.
Approval of the minutes was suspended; Gaffney promised to send changes out by email.
Lori Salem presented a list of FAQs that the Writing Center and the Writing Committee had been working on for a number of months. They wished to get approval of the EPPC before posting these on the website. She was fully aware of the compromise nature of the document, since it had to cover many schools and colleges. Salem stressed that there are no capstones in the major, but each major must approve which w-courses are acceptable.
The EPPC approved:
- Letting departments of foreign languages decide if majors in foreign languages should do the writing course in English or in the language they are studying.
- The cross-listing of writing classes, with departmental approval.
- The formula of at least 2 writing courses for 6 credits, after some discussion about the advisability of 1 or 2 credit W-courses.
- After some discussion about repeatable for credit classes, we approved of the language presented. Dennis and Resavage suggested practical means to allow the Salem to 'filter' writing classes, by placing "X" in the course qualifier slot. Dennis also noted that new course inventory forms would have to be filed. Evans and Gaffney suggested that the writing committee ask for syllabi earlier than the very beginning of the semester, in case changes need to be made.
The problem of the number of writing classes a double major must take was debated. It was decided to find out how many students this would affect before further discussion. We also decided to discuss double majors (and double dipping) at the next meeting.
The question of W-course substitution was also debated. We are aware of the difficulty some students can face getting into the needed w classes, and the corresponding squeeze on faculty to then raise the number of people in a w-class to unmanageable numbers. We suggested that departments should be encouraged to identify courses in other departments which would qualify for 'departmental' writing classes. If the student is really unable to take a departmental or a departmentally-approved writing class, then a writing intensive independent study may be set up within the add-drop period; or the department chair, Director of Writing Center, and advisor, in consultation, must come up with another alternative.
The EPPC decided not to allow concurrent scheduling of a W and a non-W course. We will also discussed the advisability of other concurrent courses. An independent study can be designated as writing-intensive, given the Writing Center guidelines; the review process was reaffirmed.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:40. Respectfully submitted, Jane Evans
