Monday, December 4, 2006
Attendance: Philip Harris, Gretchen Condran, Chris Dennis, Concetta Stewart, Jackie Resavage, Orin Chein, Bruce Conrad, Karen Turner, Mary Anne Gaffney, Michele O’Connor, Catherine Schifter, Rob Drennan
The meeting was called to order by Mary Anne Gaffney at 2:10 pm.
Approval of Minutes:
Orin identified an error in the minutes regarding free electives. Mary Anne will correct the minutes and send them out by email. The committee will approve the minutes electronically.
Follow-up on Course Repeats (Jackie):
The Registrar’s Office receives a list of students who have repeated courses. Jackie brought us a list of the first 20 students on this list from Spring 2006, with identifiers removed, to give us a flavor of what students are doing. There are approximately 4,000 repeat files, with multiple repeats for some students. The number of students is around 2,000. The current policy, as of Fall 2003, is that replacement of the grade in calculating a student’s GPA can occur only once.
In the November 20 meeting of EPPC, Bruce submitted the following motion in two parts:
Part One: A department may adopt a protocol that requires students who have failed a particular course to repeat a specified prerequisite course or courses before repeating the course itself. If a student has previous credit for the prerequisite, either as a transfer or otherwise, no additional graduation credit shall accrue as a result of repeating the course.
Part Two: With the exception of courses that are designated to be repeatable for credit, no student may enroll in the same course more than 3 times.
The committee discussed the data provided by Jackie. Both Chris and Jackie argued that there is a different story associated with each case, making it difficult to frame a policy that is fair in all cases. Chris suggested that permission of the Dean be required.
Jackie argued that that since the number of students taking a course more than three times is small, we should adopt an advising response, specifically an advising hold. This suggestion prompted a flurry of suggested rules. Catherine recommended putting a flag on the third attempt and requiring a face-to-face discussion with an adviser before the fourth attempt. Jackie suggested that a warning letter be sent to the student when he or she registers for the third attempt and the student must meet with an adviser prior to a fourth attempt. An advising hold could be imposed in order to enforce the advising requirement. This would require technical support, but could be available by Fall 2007.
Chris stated that OWLNET has an advising tab. An electronic summary of courses repeated could be posted to the student’s OWLNET, which the adviser can review with the student. This would require some training of advisers.
No motion was passed. It was the committee’s recommendation that Jackie take the matter to the Advising Committee.
Transfer Committee (Michele):
Michele provided information on a proposal regarding transfer students that has been submitted to the GEEC. The challenge is to balance the requirements of Gened with the admission of transfer students. The resulting policy should not affect the number of students coming to Temple. Michelle handed out a sheet summarizing the proposal. She noted that we have a plan to reauthorize articulation agreements with 11 institutions, that the proposal applies to transfer students, and that students who start at Temple must do their Gened work at Temple.
Michele’s presentation stimulated a related discussion on the respective roles of the EPPC and the GEEC with respect to Gened. The GEEC’s primary role is to implement the Gened document approved by the Board of Trustees. The GEEC reports to the Provost. The EPPC’s role is to address matters of academic policy cutting across departments and colleges. It reports to the Faculty Senate. There is need for clarity, however, as to whether the EPPC ever reports to the Provost on behalf of the Faculty Senate. Concetta argued that the GEEC should bring to the EPPC issues that it needs us to deal with.
The meeting adjourned at 3:50 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Phil Harris
