Approved Minutes of November 7, 2002 (with minor correction incorporated) 

UCAPC Subcommittee Reports

Study and Assess Writing Across the Curriculum (SAWAC):  Carol Loranger submitted minutes of the November 8 meeting to keep everyone informed of the committee's progress (which was noted by UCAPC members in the present meeting as being most impressive) . 

SAWAC Minutes of November 8: 

1.    Present were C.  Loranger, K. Schatmeyer, R. Mercer, L. Finkelstein, J. Fraker, J. Law and C. Holdcraft.
2.    Reports: 
    Committee members are continuing the review of WI syllabuses submitted to WAC for academic year 2001-2002.  Committee members will prepare written reports on WAC compliance/implementation as indicated by syllabuses and deliver these to Loranger by finals week (Dec 2-6). Loranger will use these to draft a preliminary report during the winter holiday.
    At the committee's request, OBR is compiling data on staffing of WI sections, student enrollment and grading--particularly pass/fail rates for the WI component. This material will be available by the end of November. Rudy Fichtenbaum will analyze and report to the committee in January.
3.    The committee discussed a suggestion made by a college dean that a controlled experiment be used to assess WAC: have a group of students who have take WI courses and a control group of students who have not taken WI write for 50 minutes in response to a prompt, then compare the essays to see if any difference in writing proficiency is evident.  While it is grateful for any input offered, the committee decided not to follow up on the suggestion for the following reasons:
    a. such an experiment unduly emphasizes one WAC outcome (improved writing) at the expense of two equally significant outcomes (writing to learn and introduction to writing conventions of a discipline)
    b. opportunity for revision, a key component in WI course implementation, would be absent
    c. educational background and writing instruction prior to enrollment at WSU cannot be accounted for
   d. even were the above problems addressed, the committee's time frame does not allow for implementation
The committee agreed to recommend that, in future, if it wishes to have useful information on student results, the university faculty develop and implement a long-term longitudinal study, perhaps following an entire class from matriculation to commencement. 
4.    Committee members decided to informally interview representative WI faculty from their colleges to learn how faculty use and evaluate writing WI courses in GE and the major. Interviews will be completed for report to the committee by February 1.
5.    Carol Loranger will draft a request for assessment from deans and chairs by finals week. The committee will offer revisions so that the materials can go to deans before winter quarter.
6.    Richard Mercer and Ken Schatmeyer agreed to be present at WAC open forums November 13 and 14 to receive feedback from interested participants. They will report back to the committee at our next meeting
7.    The committee will meet in early January, conducting any interim business by email. Committee members should provide Carol Loranger with a grid of their available hours as soon as possible.

COSM 

Approved Inventories: BIO 260, EH 369, EH 416
Returned Inventories:  CL 499, EH 451
Returned Modifications: BIO 451
Regarding proposals returned for change, the committee noted some minor problems that can best be explained and corrected by contacting the COSM representatives to UCAPC. 

RS COB 

Inventory: (included in the Program Changes for RS COB) 
Modification: (included in Program Changes for RS COB) 

RS COB 

The committee reviewed the COB proposal to convert, beginning Fall 2003, existing Business Core Requirements and all Major Programs, Minor Programs, and course offerings from a 3 credit hour base to a 4 credit hour base. The proposal simultaneously incorporates all program changes to accommodate the New General Education Program and a Transition Plan to serve existing students. The complete proposal was 51 pages in length and was accompanied by more than 200 course modification and inventory requests with attached syllabi. Prior to the meeting, the Department of Management Science and Information Systems and the CECS worked closely with one another to coordinate MIS course change proposals and resolve potential issues. That effort was successful. After its complete review, the committee returned 13 modification and inventory requests for change.  In its review of course syllabi, the committee noted many errors in prerequisite courses that did not reflect the conversion to new course prerequisites. It was made clear that the COB faculty primarily focused on changing course content as the overriding task and that such minor syllabi errors will subsequently be corrected prior to the course offerings. Along the same lines, writing intensive course syllabi were found to be lacking in meeting the WAC Program requirements, but given the current effort via the Study and Assess Writing Across the Curriculum Committee (SAWAC) and ongoing reviews by the WAC Committee, these syllabi (and, in fact, others across the university that are not presently before UCAPC for review) will have to be revised to meet the WAC standards. That revision process will be coordinated throughout the university and is forthcoming. Aside from that, the committee is requesting a few reformatting of program area changes and changes in the transition plan. Overall, the committee felt that the latter minor changes could easily be accomplished outside of the committee. With those changes, the proposal was approved for submission to the Faculty Senate.

Following the meeting, the RS COB incorporated all of the UCAPC's recommendations into the proposal and it will be forwarded to the Faculty Senate as follows (in pdf format):

Raj Soin College of Business: Proposal for Conversion to Four Credit Hours

Chair's Note: The above UCAPC members representing colleges and units outside the RS COB are owed much appreciation and are to be commended for their diligent work in the Fall Quarter and, in particular, with regard to the current proposal. It is not often that the UCAPC receives proposals of such magnitude. The previous one dates back to the 1997 CEHS proposal to meet the new licensure standards of the Ohio Department of Education. While that UCAPC meeting lasted 4 hours, the current meeting on the much more extensive COB proposal took a mere 3 1/2 hours.  In addition to the 3 1/2 hour meeting, they all spent countless hours reviewing the 51 pages of program changes and 200+ course modifications, inventories, and syllabi in preparation for the meeting. Their recommendations for improvements will greatly assist the Faculty Senate in their review and ultimately the RS COB in its future implementation.

The committee tentatively set its Winter Quarter meetings for January 13 (3:00 p.m.), February 10 (3:00 p.m.), and March 17 (1:00 p.m.). Colleges submitting curriculum and policy proposals for review by the committee need to submit the original and 18 copies at least 8 working days in advance of each meeting.