Academic Governance Committee Report
Given to the University Senate on October, 30, 2006
submitted by Dr. Mike Gleason
At our October 6, 2006 meeting:
1. Mike McGinnis gave presentation on the work of the General Education Committee.
2. Paul Jones shared with the committee the report from the Information Gathering Group (IGG) established to investigate the Graduation Application process related to a proposal before the committee, that was submitted by the Office of Academic Affairs, that originated with the Council of Deans, whose aim is to enforce the existing deadline for application, September 1, for Spring graduation and thereby reduce the number of students who have not met graduation requirements, but still participate in Spring commencement.
Effective for Spring 2008, in order to participate in Spring Commencement, students must
complete all degree requirements. The only exceptions to this rule will be those degree
programs that require a final capstone experience that is scheduled in the summer term.
Students must apply for Spring Commencement by September 1. By February 1, a final
degree audit will be conducted to ensure that students who have applied for graduation
have enrolled in their final course requirements. Any students who are not on track for
completion in the spring term will be informed that they will not be allowed to participate
in Spring Commencement.
Note: Students who complete their degree requirements in August or December will have
this noted on their academic transcript and a diploma will be issued by the Registrar’s
Office. They may elect to participate in Commencement activities in the following spring.
The Information Gathering Group established that the problem has grown over time. For example 245 of those applying for Spring graduation in May 2006 did so after the September 1, 2005 deadline. The necessity of the September 1 deadline was discussed at the meeting. It was pointed out that we have only one staff person reviewing the applications for graduation, and that is only one of many duties this staffer has. The number of graduation applications reviewed is quite large, in the last year 327 were reviewed in the Fall 2005, 658 were reviewed in the Spring 2006, and 446 were reviewed in the Summer 2006. The use of the degree check program, CAPP, known as “Curriculum, Advising and Program Planning”, was discussed by Kathy Hill and she added that this should be “up and running” within the next few weeks. And while this software program will solve many of the difficulties associated with the review of applications, it will not solve them all. Solutions to make students more accountable for getting their applications in on time were discussed. One was to place holds on students who have not applied another was to charge a late fee for those who do not meet the deadline. The Information Gathering Group found that the graduation application process is a symptom of the larger problem of advisement and that greater support is needed across campus, and many of their recommendations address this issue.
Those recommendations are:
1. Review university advising system to improve processes and to address training for staff and faculty.
2. Clarify advisors and students role in the overall advising and petition process.
3. Provide advisors with routine reports listing each of their students who have petitioned for graduation.
4. Develop an Advising Handbook that will assist advisors with important information on university policies and provide annual updates to policy changes (i.e., CORE changes, Regents Test information, etc.)
5. Standardize Degree Progress Sheets to include basic information which would be included on all forms (i.e., legislative requirements, exit exam information,CORE, etc.)
6. Reintroduce Degree Evaluation Program (CAPP) to assist student and advisors with student’s progress towards degree requirements. This software program will help students monitor their academic progress and enable them to run what-if scenarios should they wish to change their majors.
The Academic Governance Committee accepted the information gathering group’s report. We will re-examine this issue on Friday. For example, one aspect of the proposal before us that we have not fully investigated yet is the proviso that “By February 1, a final degree audit will be conducted to ensure that students who have applied for graduation have enrolled in their final course requirements. Any students who are not on track for completion in the spring term will be informed that they will not be allowed to participate in Spring Commencement.”
3. Autumn Grubb, Deborah Vess and Al Mead discussed the proposals to make a change in the current Teaching Excellence Award (proposal I) and the creation of an award, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (proposal II). Autumn Grubb and Deborah Vess discussed these concerns along with their primary intention behind the proposal which is to align GCSU criteria and BOR criteria for said awards. Al Mead presented a report from the Awards Committee concerning the proposal. One concern dealt with publications needing to have more weight than presentations. Other concerns were also expressed and discussed. Revised proposals will be presented at our meeting this Friday.
4. The committee was informed about the reorganization of the Professional Nursing Program that has been taken by the School of Health Sciences.
5. One proposal we did not get to on our October agenda was old business concerning details of a proposal on Academic Dishonesty proposal from the VPAA’s office that we tentatively approved last Spring. We will take this proposal up again out our meeting on Friday.
6. Another proposal, also from VPAA, was not introduced as new business as we ran out of time. We hope to introduce this proposal to reconstitute the Faculty Research Committee at our meeting this Friday.
7. Yet another piece of new business for our Friday meeting is a proposal from the School of Health Sciences to create a minor in Movement Arts Therapy.