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Minutes of 2002-2003 Meetings |
Minutes from the most recent Gen Ed Implementation meeting
are listed first.
Scroll down to view minutes of earlier meetings.
Follow-up to 4/3 Gen Ed Implementation Committee Meeting
Posted to the Gen Ed Implementation Listserv 4/8 by Kathy Brunt
As a follow up to the Gen Ed meeting last week, I spoke with Patty Anderson and confirmed the following:
For students who matriculated Summer 2002 and later, a blank in the Evaluation of HS transcript field on the AC10 screen does two things:
Therefore, a student whose high school transcript were overlooked would not be receiving DARS reports that showed they were proficient in Math, American History and Foreign Language.
Note that when there is a blank in the Evaluation of HS transcript field,
this is the ONLY time a student is automatically made deficient in DARS.
If the adviser reviewed the file and no HS transcript was received, the assumption
was made that advisers/admissions would put an 'N' in the evaluation field and
manually make the student deficient by entering D's in the other three fields.
This has been done in Harpur for many years - prior to Gen Ed.
Minutes of the Gen Ed Implementation Committee Meeting 4/3
Attending: Abate, Blake, Brunt, Eckert, Finlay, Jones, Masters, Miller, Monroe, Perry, Santobuono, Schorr, Straight, Wawrzusin
The primary focus of this meeting was discussion of issues surrounding the GETA and the UUCC's new policy regarding the GETA. (See attached)
It appears that while some SUNY schools are sending the GETA, others are not. It was noted that Suffolk and Nassau are consistently sending GETAs but that BCC and Dutchess are not. It was also noted that Stony Brook is not sending GETAs unless the student requests them, that Corning has stated they have a waiver from Albany that they don't need to send GETAs, and that Westchester has been spotty. Jenny will raise these concerns at the Gen Ed conference in Syracuse later this month and asked advisors to send her the names of any other "problem schools."
The following information has been newly added to the Gen Ed policy website:
- The new GETA policy
- Pictures of Binghamton's GETA (.jpg files)
- A link to the SUNY System website of all approved SUNY-GER courses at all
campuses
Minutes of 12/2/02 meeting
Gen Ed Lab Credit for AP Science Courses
The UUCC has decided that students who have AP credit for science courses may
petition to have this AP credit count as Gen Ed "L." Students need
to submit either a syllabus for the course which gives details about the lab
component of their course or a letter from the instructor of the course with
their petition to the UUCC.
"PH" Requirement for Transfer Students
The one-year waiver from the "Ph" portion of the Pluralism requirement
for history-deficient transfer students expires at the end of this academic
year. Beginning with the Fall 2003 entering students, history-deficient transfer
students will need to take a "Ph" course rather than a regular P course.
8-Credit Limit on UNIV Courses
Per a policy passed by the Faculty Senate last year, students can only receive
credit towards graduation for 8 credits of UNIV (university-wide) courses. This
will need to be programmed into DARS and will need to appear in the 2003-2004
Bulletin so it will go into effect with students entering in Fall 2003. Currently
there are very few UNIV courses (the library courses and a course from the Services
for Students with Disabilities office), but more may be coming soon.
Handout for Students on Foreign Language Waivers
Revisions to a handout for students on foreign language waivers were discussed.
(Click here
for final document.) This handout will next be sent to the foreign language
chairs for their feedback and will be posted on the web and made available for
advising offices to hand out prior to the start of the Spring 2003 semester.
For non-native English speaking students who fulfill the foreign language requirement
through one of the methods listed on the handout, the advising offices should
remove their foreign language deficiency via the AC10 screen. Please send any
suggested comments or changes to the handout to the listserv ASAP.
11/26/02 update on subcommittee convened to discuss DARS' handling of "PH" courses
A subcommittee consisting of L. Abate, K. Brunt, S. Santobuono, J. Schorr, and A. Wawrzusin met twice to consider issues related to how DARS was handling the so-called "PH" courses -- those specialized Pluralism courses for students scoring less than 85 on the US History Regents. A number of issues were discussed and resolved. Following is an update.
Issue 1: Due to changes in the DARS coding, between March 2002 and the end
of the Summer II term in 2002, DARS was hiding the "PH" requirement
if it was in process for deficient students who also had a regular P course.
This was corrected in September 2002.
The concern was that deficient students in this situation may have dropped the
PH, thinking they did not need it. The UUCC agreed that any students in this
situation should have their PH requirement waived; however, upon investigation
it became apparent that no students in this situation dropped their PH course.
Issue 2: Seventeen PH-deficient Watson Engineering students entering in Fall
2000 and Fall 2001 took a P instead of a PH, believed to be due to a combination
of the above issue and advising issues.
The UUCC has agreed to waive the PH requirement for these students, based on
DARS issues, advising issues, and time-to-degree issues. The UUCC's understanding
is that we won't be asked to waive this for Fall 2002 entering students, because
they were well advised not to take a P or PH in the Fall 2002 semester (i.e.,
until the high school transcripts were all entered for the Fall DARS run), or
for any subsequent students, because Watson is moving to block scheduling for
freshmen engineering students and that should eliminate this problem. The UUCC
has also agreed to waive the PH requirement for Watson Computer Science students
in the same situation, also due to DARS, advising, and time-to-degree issues.
The Decker School of Nursing, which experiences similar time-to-degree pressures
as Computer Science, has no students in this situation. It is important to note
that these waivers are only for students entering in Fall 2000 and Fall 2001
who needed the PH but took a regular P instead; students who are deficient who
have not taken any Pluralism course are still expected to take the PH. For the
future, all students who are not sure if they're History-deficient at Orientation
should be advised not to take a P or PH until their high school transcripts
are entered and their deficiency status is clear.
Issue 3: The wording printed on DARS for students who have completed the PH
could be construed to be unclear, as it states that a course fulfills the "US
History and Pluralism requirement." There is a minor concern that students
may find this confusing, especially since there is still a separate section
for Pluralism.
The UUCC agreed that rephrasing this to "both US History and Pluralism
requirements" would make this clearer.
Issue 4: Due to a DARS coding error, courses that were supposed to be date-ranged
as PHs only for certain semesters were not date-ranged, so they counted as PHs
for every semester they were offered. The October DARS reports were sent out
with this incorrect information. This has since been corrected.
Upon investigation, it appears that only one of the date-ranged courses has
been offered since Fall 2000 - ENG 114E. We were concerned that deficient students
who had taken ENG 114E and saw it on their DARS as fulfilling PH may have dropped
or pass/failed an in-progress PH course. Upon investigation, it was found that
two students in this situation dropped the PH and two more pass/failed it. The
UUCC agreed to allow the PH to count pass/fail for those students who pass/failed
it, and for the PH deficiency to be removed for those students who dropped it
(thus waiving the PH, but requiring the students to take a regular P). S. Santobuono,
K. Brunt, and A. Wawrzusin agreed to notify all deficient students who had taken
ENG 114E and received an incorrect DARS -- but who had not yet taken a PH --
of the error on DARS prior to registration for Spring 2003 so that the students
could correctly plan their schedules. Twenty-nine students fell into this category.
Issue 5: AP American History should both clear the PH deficiency and count
as an N (Social Science). For deficient students, it is clearing the PH deficiency
but is not counting as a Social Science. This has been corrected, but needs
some tinkering as to the cosmetic appearance of how it prints out on DARS.
Since Watson and Decker students only need one Social Science, it was decided
that corrected DARS should be issued for any Watson or Decker students in this
situation so that they don't unnecessarily register for a Social Science for
Spring 2003. SOM, SEHD and Harpur students take more than one Social Science
course anyway, so this is not seen as an issue for them.
Finally, letters were sent to all affected students (i.e., those to whom waivers were granted) informing them of the issues with their DARS. Names of all students affected by these issues will be sent to L. Abate for record-keeping purposes.
Minutes of 10/10/02 meeting
Brief announcements:
- A link to the Gen Ed policy website was requested. It's at http://undergrad.binghamton.edu/policy/
- The October DARS run will have an updated list of "Ph" courses
(the specialized Pluralism courses for those students who scored below 85 on
the History Regents). The DARS reports run on Tuesday night, 10/15, will have
the updated list. DARS for SOM and SEHD were already run without this updated
list; by request, SEHD DARS will be re-processed. Here is an updated list of
all the current "Ph" courses:
- ANTH 256, Native American Culture and History
- GEOG 212, Historical Geography of the US
- HIST 103, Foundations of American Civilization
- HIST 104, Modern American Civilization
- HIST 250, Colonial America
- HIST 257, American Working Class Since 1877
- HIST 264, Immigration & Ethnicity in the US
- HIST 356, American Legal History
Plus the following topics courses, only approved as "Ph" for the indicated
semester:
- ENG 114E, Experience of Race & Class in American Lit - SPRING 2003 ONLY
- ENG 370B, Race/Class in Mainstream American Lit - SPRING 2003 ONLY
- HIST 380R, History in American Culture - SPRING 2003 ONLY
- HIST 380F, Religion in America - SUMMER 2002 ONLY
The Gen Ed Math Requirement
The UUCC will soon be taking a broad look at the Math requirement, including
appeals and our informal policy that Math-deficient students with a B in Statistics
can skip MATH 107 or 108. The UUCC will most likely tighten up the policy on
appeals, and the new policy will go into effect as soon as it is passed. It
was noted that although this has been an unofficial policy, it has possibly
been shared by the advising offices with students who have done well in MATH
147. The UUCC will not undo appeals we have already granted, and there could
be an argument for honoring courses which were taken at Binghamton prior to
Fall 2002. The UUCC will begin considering this next week. J. Miller would like
to know the outcome of the UUCC's decision as soon as possible so that Harpur
could advise students for registration.
J. Monroe noted that this could affect nursing students. Decker only requires Statistics, and many transfer students take it before they come here. J. Monroe estimates that probably 15-20 percent of nursing transfer students are deficient in Math and that the majority of them have taken Statistics before their initial contact with Decker. Decker advised incoming transfers during orientation that they would need to appeal later. It was asked whether it would inconvenience DSON students to take MATH 107 or 108. J. Monroe noted it would be difficult to add Math classes in their junior year, which is when they would come in as transfers, but they could fit courses in if necessary. J. Monroe will write up figures and a request for exemption from 107/108 for Decker students who transfer in at the junior level.
Lab Credit for AP Courses - Can Students Take a Repeat Course for Gen Ed Credit?
Currently, students don't get the Gen Ed L for AP credit because we have no
way of knowing what Lab components their courses contained. The question was
raised (via a student appeal): should we let students repeat a course for which
they received AP credit just to get the L? Or should we consider giving the
Gen Ed L for appropriate AP scores? We need to know more about the Lab component
of high school AP courses. For example, is the high school lab a demo lab or
a hands-on lab? Can we ask Admissions to find out more information about lab
component of AP courses? L Abate will look into this on the internet. The UUCC
will consider this issue at its next meeting and report back to the Gen Ed Implementation
Committee.
Update on Numbers of Deficient Students
We will not be sending letters to juniors with deficiencies in American History
this Fall, but labels could be printed if any advisors want to send letters
out to their deficient students informing them which courses they need to take.
In terms of students who need the O and "Ph" courses, there are capacity
issues, but we are more or less OK. For students who came in with deficiencies
in Math and Foreign Language, the issue is that students are not taking these
courses. We need to get creative in finding these students and talking to them
about the requirement(s). It is possible to run DARS for these students so they
can be reviewed by advisors. There is a potential issue for Foreign Language
classes on the horizon for next year: deficient seniors would have registration
preference and could displace freshmen or sophomore students who are trying
to continue their language studies. SEHD has asked for DARS for its students
who are deficient in American History, Math, and Foreign Language. There was
then a general discussion of capacity in O courses in SEHD, Harpur, and SOM.
Advance Registration for First-Year Students
S. Straight announced that "Advance Registration for First-Year Students"
will be discussed at a meeting 10/11. It is proposed that a portion of incoming
students' courses (maybe 2) will be scheduled for them prior to their arrival.
This would involve Learning Communities and Area Based Courses and would be
closely linked with Discovery. A concern was raised as to whether new students
would be allowed to displace current students in the registration process. The
deadline for deposits is May 1, so it would be possible to wait until after
current students have registered. Another issue would concern transfer students
-- we wouldn't want incoming freshmen to displace incoming transfer students
who might need courses. Buffalo, Penn State, and Syracuse are doing something
like this.
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