Writing-Across-Curriculum Committee (WACC)
February 28th, 2008 MINUTES
9:30 - 11:00
ASC 306
Present: V. Breslin, K. Buterbaugh, T. Ferucci (ex-officio), K. Marsland, K. Ritter (ex-officio), D. Savage, D. Smith, C. Rosado
Submitting proposal recommendations via email: K. Lacey, N. Marano, D. Petroski
1. 9:43 called to order
2. Approval of minutes of February 14th (accomplished via email)
3. General review of file maintenance and flow of proposals. Members should keep proposals recommended for revise and resubmit, but need not retain copies of other proposals. All original files are maintained in UCF office.
4. Chair requested information on constitution of a quorum; bylaws say 50% plus one.
5. Interim Director Kelly Ritter provided an update of action items from the last meeting.
a. Faculty survey near completion. Analysis to follow.
b. Recommendation to bring plagiarism specialist (Moore) to speak to faculty on Monday April 21st. Program would be presentation and workshop. Committee member suggested that this might conflict with Passover. Kelly Ritter will look into this and get back to us.
c. K. Ritter and K. Marsland will meet with Provost Williams soon to move the search for a permanent director ahead. Issues include commitment to the position over the long term and permission to advertise the position. Sense of the committee is that given the time constraints, the best candidates might come from a search with an "until filled" deadline.
6. Chair Kate Marsland provided an update of action items from her list.
a. Update regarding FA08 schedule: 106 W-sections currently scheduled, not including those that were recently submitted for review. Faculty have requested more time to complete submissions, and there is a need for additional sections. March 13th is the last meeting at which the WAC can review proposals and have them approved by UCF before FA08 registration begins on March 31st. The committee agreed to extend the deadline to accept and review proposals in order to offer students as many W sections as possible. To facilitate this process, the committee will accept proposals submitted by March 5th.
b. Discussion of a time-line of WACC business for the SP08 semester and recommendation that planning for Spring 09 W scheduling be addressed this semester. The chair will discuss this with B. Drobish to establish a process that affords more advanced planning and the ability to publicize deadlines in a timely manner.
c. Brief financial report regarding funds for the Writing Contest and WACC support of Writing Center tutor.
7. Review of submitted W-course proposals:
GEO 311 , Geography of the United States and Canada
Faculty: J. Hanson
Committee Recommendation: Approved
Committee Vote: 9-0
GEO 362, Urban Geography
Faculty: P.C. Heidkamp
Committee Recommendation: Approved
Committee Vote: 9-0
ESC 204, Environmental Earth Science
Faculty: C. Coron
Committee Recommendation: Revise and Resubmit
Committee Vote: 9-0
8. Exigency Policy
Committee unanimously accepts the new wording (contained here) and requests the chair to bring it to UCF for approval.
New Language:
NOTE: This represents the usual procedure. However, it is understood that unforeseen scheduling difficulties or other issues may occasionally occur. Some examples of these difficulties include the following: illness of an instructor, a new hire teaching a required W class in the major, or an instructor who leaves Southern Connecticut State University suddenly. This list of exceptions is not meant to be exhaustive. There may be other types of issues that create an immediate need for the replacement of a W course instructor. When this need arises, an instructor can be substituted into a W course for the semester in which the need occurs. The instructor will be required to go through the normal W course process in order to teach the course in subsequence semesters.
9. Writing contest:
a. K. Ritter and K. Marsland suggested that the committee reword the original announcement guidelines, dropping the word count to 750 words to be more inclusive. The committee agreed.
b. Announcements have been distributed to faculty and will be sent to students next week. Guidelines will be distributed to faculty this week.
c. Winners will be selected at the WACC meeting on April 3rd so that names can be forwarded to K. Yaloff by April 9th for inclusion in the May 4th Honors Convocation.
10. The committee will set aside significant time in the April 17th meeting to discuss the currently-suspended W-recertification policy.
11. The committee's sense is that some minor changes in the W-proposal forms and requirements would make our workload easier.
12. Meeting adjourned at 10:50
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah A. Savage
