Undergraduate Curriculum Forum
MINUTES
Adanti Student Center, Room 301A
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Present: M. Hartog, K. McGill, M. Das, S. Grace, G. Kowalczyk, S. Felsenfeld, S. Kopaczewski, L. Lancor, K. McNamara, S. Grubacic, L. Bower, M. Diamantis, M. McClain, C. Hannah, J. Liu, E. Kramer, L. Ferraro, J. Irving, J. Strawn, K. Lacey, M. Vancour, K. Gatzke, K. Cummings, P. Kahlbaugh, D. Smith, T. Abdulaziz, G. Adams, E. Keenan, S. Latorre, T. Lin, J. Mielczarski, K. Barnett, K. Burke, G. Cochenet, S. Graves, M. Shea, B. Glynn, P. Beals, S. Clerc, N. Moniello, D. Bentley-Drobish, S. Keller, J. Mills,
Absent: M. Narumanchi, B. Phelan, J. Fullmer, E. West, B. Nakamura, C. Simoneau, J. Hong, C. Dellinger-Pate, R. Kustin, J. O'hara, J. Tait, W. Elwood
Guest:
I. The meeting was called to order at 9:37 a.m.
Quorum (50% + 1) was reached at 9:37 a.m.
II. Announcements
a. Polly Beals announced:
i. Faculty Development program on curriculum tomorrow ENB 121, especially for LEP czars
ii. Email blast from Faculty Development announced that curriculum development grants are open with an April 4th deadline. They have a special interest in faculty planning courses for LEP.
iii. Need more Tier II proposals and Tier III, capstone, proposals
b. Tricia Lin - 64 Days of Violence presentation, Working with Girls: Theories and Practices of Girl Power will be held on March 10th from 5-7:30 in ASC 301
c. Marty Hartog noted that Faculty Senate Chair, Susan Cusato reported that Senator Beth Beye's visit with SCSU went well. We need to share additional considerations on how to save money with Susan (cusatos1@southernct.edu) and Senator Beye (beth.beye@cga.ct.gov).
III. Approval of UCF minutes of February 17, 2011
a. Minutes of Feb. 17th approved unanimously
IV. Standing Committee Reports
a. NPIC
i. Discussion of 2/24 meeting
1. Created preliminary format for revising minor programs
ii. Minutes of 2/24 accepted
b. NMC
i. Discussion of 2/24 meeting
1. Motion to accept the following new/revised courses and revised program proposals:
New Course Proposals
1) ENV 101 Critical Thinking: Global Environmental Issues
2) HIS 150 Critical Thinking through Historical Biography
Revised Course Proposals
3) ENG 325 English Medieval Literature
4) EXS 383 Kinesiology
5) ILS 302 Information Service
6) ILS 400 Information Service Practice
7) ILS 425 Information Sources
8) ITC 380 Instructional Design Basics
9) ITC 470 Multi-Media Production
10) SOC 362 Criminology
Revised Program Proposals
11) Ethnic Studies Minor
2. Motion approved unanimously
ii. Minutes of 2/24 received
c. PRAC
i. Discussion of 2/24 meeting
1. Reviewed the Department of Education (expedited review due to external review) and recommended to grant continuing approval - Recommendation accepted unanimously by UCF
ii. Minutes of 2/24 received
d. UWIC
i. Discussion of 2/24 meeting
1. Discussed revision of By-laws
ii. Minutes of 2/24 received
e. WACC
i. No meeting
1. Student Writing Contest received 18 papers and will be selecting winner(s) by the end of the semester.
f. LEPC
i. Discussion of 2/9 meeting
1. Need more Tier II - Creative Drive - proposals
2. Faculty are encouraged to begin working on Tier III capstone seminars. Until the LEP Tier III forms are completed, it is recommended that faculty consult pp 9-11 of "The Liberal Education Program at Southern" document available at the UCF/LEP website. In particular, the bullet points on p. 11 will be helpful as guidelines to key course elements.
1) A Tier III capstone in the major is acceptable and existing courses can be revised to meet the capstone requirements
3. FAQ have been posted to the LEP site, which can be found from the UCF website.
ii. Discussion of 2/16 meeting
1. Discussion of degree evaluation for banner. Departments should send their degree evaluations to Kim Laing. Any program revisions will need to go to UCF. LEPC is working on a motion to streamline the process. They recognize that degree evaluations will need to be updated as new courses are proposed. Faculty are encouraged to routinely check LEP site for latest approved courses Also, restricted offerings may be affected, so departments need to be informed [restrictions from departments particularly on Tier II typically refer to restriction in choice to fulfill Tier II (similar to how this existed under AUR].
2. Advisement workshops for faculty will take place after spring break.
3. Deans will be contacting chairs to determine department requirements that are not linked with LEP that incoming students need to complete or can complete, including elective options.
iii. Discussion on LEP
1. Discussion on how incoming transfer students will be placed, considering their number of transfer credits from 3 through the Associates Degree
2. Community Colleges are developing Critical Thinking courses, but the hope is that it is not like the ENG 112 equivalency (i.e., having a course on the books but not offering it doesn't provide support for students transitioning into SCSU)
3. By 2014, all students will be following the LEP curriculum.
4. Registration date for new transfer students is around May 23rd.
iv. Minutes of 2/9 and 2/16 received
V. New Business - Provost Selase Williams spoke with respect to budget cuts
a. Dr. Williams presented a 2011-2012 Academic Planning information sheet for discussion, which indicated that SCSU is facing reductions of state appropriations (40% of total budget) of up to approximately 20%
i. Reductions in the State Appropriations between 5% and 20% of 40% of our total annual budget (5% equals $3.5 million and $5 million is equal to 50 faculty lines with benefits) (Reductions in faculty would start with temporary and vacant faculty lines)
ii. Strategy recommendation: increasing enrollment - a 2% increase in enrollment or 239 additional students which would result in $3.1 million (equal to 31 faculty positions)
iii. Strategy solution "Build our way out of this" by:
1. Increasing first year students by 100
2. Increasing class size from 20-23 wherever there are caps: INQ 101, W-courses, entry level comp courses, Tier I of LEP
3. Increasing transfer students from 948 to 980
4. Increasing graduate students from 1,000 to 1,050
5. Improving retention OR increasing part-time students
iv. As a result of first-year and new student orientation, SCSU saw an increase in first to second year retention from 72.6% to almost 86%, second to third year up 4.5%, and third to fourth year up 4.5%
v. Last fall the proportion of part-time to full-time faculty was violated so part-time rolled into several full-time temp positions. Need to maintain 440 full-time to keep the 20% ratio of part-time to full-time. Permission granted to recruit 24 full-time faculty positions for 2011/2012.
b. Questions for Dr. Williams:
i. Ken McGill questioned what role the increasing class size (20-23) would have on on-line courses? (Currently, there is a 20 person cap on on-line courses in Arts & Sciences.) Will the cap be changed and will more on-line courses help? Selase: Yes. It helps with on-campus space issues and allows faculty to teach more students.
ii. Ken Gatzke asked what are other campuses doing and commented that there is no plan to place an impact on voters (i.e., cutting the number of students would motivate voters to speak up.) Selase: CCSU and SCSU are better situated to handle this crisis than ECSU and WCSU due to vacant positions and reserves. If CSU leadership decides to share budget reduction, SCSU may end up with a greater deduction than others due to its ability to absorb the cuts.
iii. Karen Burke asked do we have the facilities to accommodate additional students. Selase: There is a plan to reduce the availability of senior housing, in lieu of additional new student housing. This is a common practice on other campuses, and parking should not be affected much.
iv. Karen Cummings asked if Selase knew if other CSUs are trying to increase enrollment to grow their way out, too. Selase: We will have competition for students. We were challenged reaching goals last year, because Yale, Albertus, and UNH drew from local schools with lowered tuition.
v. Sean Grace (a) asked why ECSU and WCSU cannot absorb more students than SCSU due to their lower student-teacher ratio. Selase: ECSU is more residential. Sean (b) recommended SCSU consider initiating a School of Continuing Education to accommodate part-time students and enhance revenue this way. Selase: Policy changed regarding part-time students and now PT students can only enroll at a certain time, and there are deliberations on allowing PT students an opportunity to take remedial courses over summer (similar to SEOP and Comcast program).
vi. Joe Fields suggested that the numbers be examined and interpreted. For example, there is a revenue stream generated through employment in the State by our graduates compared to people with only a high school education. This revenue would be a wash against the State's investment in their college education.
vii. Ken McGill recommended SCSU consider waiting a year on LEP implementation, because LEP accommodates fewer students per incoming class, whereas AUR accommodates 40 students. Karen Cummings added that Dean Fredeen examined these numbers and found that there wasn't a significant difference.
viii. Jonathan Irving asked Selase to comment on the process for layoffs. Selase: Vacant tenure-track would be first, likely to be followed by temp part-time, then one-year full-time temps. We are trying to do this by attrition. The Governor would have to declare a state of fiscal exigency for layoffs.
VI. Old Business - tabled
Meeting adjourned at 10:53 a.m.
These minutes are respectfully submitted by Michele Vancour.
