UNIVERSITY WIDE IMPACT COMMITTEE

Minutes Of Thursday, October 4, 2001
University Student Center, Room 205

Present:  Frank Harris (chair), Rosalyn Amenta, Sandy DiFrancesco, Terese Gemme, Marty Hartog, Elizabeth Johnston, Megan Macomber, Kathy Swenson.

Recorder:  Frank Harris

Call to Order:  9:35

New Members:
The committee welcomed two new members:  Terese Gemme, Music; and Elizabeth Johnston, Special Education.

AUR Courses and Departments:
The committee revisited the issue of AUR courses and departments restricting AURs in their department.  Using the minutes of the Sept. 20 meeting as a guide, the committee endeavored to look at the five points listed and discuss them.  These five points were as follows:

1. The original purpose of AURS
2. Department's selection of AURS for their majors
3. Students' freedom to choose
4. Special cases for AURs being selected
5. Departments changing CPR forms without approval.

The committee to varying degrees dealt with four of the five points.  It made the following decisions on three of them:

Point #1:
1. The original purpose of AURs:
Originally they were designed to insure students received the opportunity to sample a variety of courses that will provide them with a broad base of knowledge, as well as grant them the opportunity to sample courses  in fields they might otherwise not take.

Revised Point #1:
The original purpose of AURs:
They were designed to ensure that student receive grounding in the liberal arts;
college-level reading, writing and analytical skills and the opportunity to take courses in fields outside their own.

Point #2:
2. Departments' selection of AURs for their majors:
 There are some who believe that departments should have autonomy to determine if a particular course in the AURs is relevant to their students and that departments are best equipped to know what courses would be best suited to advancing their students forward in their field.

Proposal for Point # 2: 
UWIC members voted unanimously that departments may, in principal, restrict AURs in their own field, subject to approval by the UCF.

The committee, however, will continue to discuss this point to develop a more complete statement that will cover the many considerations involved in departments restricting AURs.

Point #5:
5.  Departments changing CPR forms without approval: 
Everyone agreed that this needs to cease, though it is unclear how many departments are doing this.

UWIC Proposal for Point #5:
UWIC, having come to the understanding that in order to effectively address the issue of departments limiting or restricting AUR choices for their majors, recognizes that it needs some way to determine which departments are limiting AURs without proper approval and how prevalent this issue is.  UWIC proposes that the UCF ask Vice President of Academic Affairs, Phil Smith, to arrange for the posting of each department's CPR form on the Southern Connecticut State University website.  It is the view of the committee that posting the CPR forms would accomplish the following:

A. Make public for students and faculty each department's CPR form for easy perusal.

B. Provide an inherent check and balance to ensure that CPR forms posted on the 
website and those being presented to students by departments are identical.

Adjournment
10:50 a.m.