Committee on Academic Policy and Procedures

Meeting Notes November 28, 2007-10:30 A.M.

113 Seaton

Next Meeting:

Wednesday, December 5 at 10:30 am in 113 Seaton Hall

Attending:

Mike Crow (iSIS), Jennifer Gehrt (LASER), Donnelly (AG), Tilford (AG), Herspring (AR), Wheatley (AS), Pumphrey (AS), Niedfeldt (BA), Cunningham (BA), Perl (ED), Hightower (EN), Karen Pence (HE), David Delker (TC), Scott Schlender (GR), Linda Morse (DCE), Monty Nielsen (REG), Gunile DeVault (REG), Lynn Carlin (PROV)

David Delker convened the meeting. Lynn Carlin, interim vice provost - IT services, was introduced.

College Permission Plans.

Forms were collected by Mike Crow. He will provide a summary.

Student Groups.

Handout was distributed with naming convention, codes already in use by Admissions, and form to create/inactivate student groups.

  • Mike Crow or Charlotte Pfaff will set up student groups; requestor is responsible for adding/deleting participants.
  • BA has set up four student groups (Honors Program, Study Abroad, transfer students, one other). View them in CS1 (Campus Community?).
  • Student groups can be used for requisites, reserved capacity, to identify students in ways beyond standard class, program/plan (e.g., Bachelor’s degree completion students).
  • Brian will provide training.

Requisite Issues.

  • Does Council of Deans need to decide. . .
    • Start without requisite checking?
    • Do requisite checking with those that are ready?
    • Does it have to be all or none?

Discussion concluded that Dean’s Council made the decision early on to allow flexibility to enforce or not enforce requisites.

  • Enforcement is a high priority for some colleges (e.g., those with accrediting agencies that check prerequisite compliance).
  • The number of courses and limited staff for data entry and testing is a concern.
  • Testing is a major concern in all colleges.
  • One-on-one in-office staff support would be helpful.
  • Jennifer offered staffing assistance. Question: Can staff support be brought in and trained quickly and sufficiently to provide the assistance needed?
  • Issue: the issues indicate a need to make decisions, document decisions, and communicate decisions. It was noted that much of our work has not been with policy decisions, but with implementation decisions. Mike reviewed the process collaboration sessions and noted that a group of 60 people dealt with more than 30 issues, with results documented. Information may be moved to a website for broader access.
  • Concern: DARS bridge and impact on requisite checking. Work continues and is a technological challenge – involves “wedding” two different databases. DARS go-live date is Feb 1.
  • How will math placement (algebra, trig, calculus) be accomplished?
  • Mike suggested adding a column on the course log (on SAMBA) to indicate if course is ready to “go-live” with requisites.
  • Monty noted that the print catalog has errors and out-of-date prerequisite information. Students who use it to check prerequisites will have inaccurate information. New electronic catalog available June 2008 will resolve this issue.
  • Confirmed: if a student is allowed enrollment based on prerequisite course in progress at time of enrollment, the student remains enrolled in the course even if prerequisite course is failed. A report will have to be run to check successful prerequisite course completion.
  • To be tested: if “Sophomore standing” is required, and the student is a freshman with sufficient hours in progress to be classified as sophomore upon successful completion, can student enroll in the course for the next semester? What if the combination of spring hours in progress plus summer hours registered will result in sophomore standing – can the student enroll in the class for fall?

Class Schedule.

  • Brian will be available Thursday 8-10 a.m. for help session about class schedule, followed by help session for program/plan changes, 10-noon.
  • Concern: how to enter/manage associated classes.
  • Concern: all components of a class appear to carry credit hours (QZ=3, LEC=3,REC=3). That’s how it appears, but actual total is 3 hours.
  • Concern: cannot insert sections to maintain a preferred order (e.g., all MWF sections grouped together, all TU sections grouped together). Added sections are at the end. Also, short courses are at end of list. Class search capabilities (by meeting pattern or course number) may alleviate some of these concerns for students, if not for faculty.
  • A refresher about room scheduling, including tech classroom requests, is needed.
  • Edit reports for error checking should be available tomorrow in production.
  • Instructor/adviser table is close.

Other Topics.

  • Waitlist report has been written to run prior to Day 8 purge of waitlists.
  • Report can be run to check for undergraduates who drop below 12 hours for semester.
  • BA and ED advisers should have system access now for plan changes.
  • Concern: when working on plan changes, takes 73 to 78 seconds to pull up a student’s record – even when “=” is used. Too long! Mike and Jennifer will check.
  • Adviser training? Will be in January. Some training will be available on-line. Will run focus group(s).
  • What about training for new staff? Will have to be provided on an individual basis, tailored to new employee’s role.
  • Department head role is “viewer role.”
  • Mike will provide security access forms at December 12 meeting before CAPP.
  • Reminder: automatic enrollment from waitlist is NOT real-time, but is done in a batch. There is NO NOTIFICATION to the student when auto-enrolled from waitlist.
  • Grades will be addressed in an upcoming meeting.
  • Plan changes can have an effective date for former, current or subsequent semester (08/01/20xx for Fall, 01/01/20xx for Spring, 06/01/20xx for summer). Transaction date also will be recorded.

Date and Time for Next Meeting.

Wednesday, December 5, at 10:30 a.m. in Seaton Hall. Plan also to meet prior to the CAPP meeting on December 12.