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Minutes of 2003-2004 Meetings |
Minutes from the most recent Gen Ed Implementation meeting
are listed first.
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Minutes of the Gen Ed Implementation Committee
July 6, 2004
Attending: L. Abate, C. Altmansberger, D. Blake, K. Brunt, R. Eckert, G. Ketcham, S. Masters, J. McDonald, J. Miller, B. Perry, J. Schorr, J. Seymour, H.S. Straight, J. Sullivan, A. Wawrzusin
Announcement: Dick Eckert is taking over as Chair for UUCC from Stan Masters
in the Fall.
Discussion of Foreign Language Requirement:
S. Masters apologized for the late notice for the partial proficiency option and noted that we probably should have had an implementation meeting in the Spring. We are here today to hear recommendations and how it's going; any major recommendations for change will need to wait for the UUCC and/or the Senate.
B. Perry stated that he noticed that none of the SOM transfers except those from SUNY schools would meet the new requirement. About 50% would meet it based on the old requirement. More importantly, he went through SOM curriculum and realized that students, worse case scenario, cannot meet Gen Ed and all their requirements and graduate with 130 credits. He suspects that SOM will request a waiver at the state level for FL. He also stated that he understands that SEHD is also considering a waiver. It seems odd to have a requirement that would be only for Harpur and is then waived for everyone. He suggested that the foreign language requirement be changed to be the state requirement, and then schools can add extra requirements if they choose.
J. Miller stated that we have already upped the ante on foreign language by setting higher entrance standards. Harpur Advising has come up with three recommendations.
We do not have data on how many incoming freshmen have met the requirement in high school. J. Miller stated that this may be a reason for holding this in abeyance, if we don't have data to base the changes on.
J. Sullivan reported that Harpur has done at least 400 evaluations for foreign language for transfer students and found that many of the transfers who took 4 years of high school foreign language did not score at levels to get credit for it - for example, a grade of 82 in the fourth year.
J. Miller stated that she read in the Senate debate a discussion about whether students developed proficiency in a language. Does allowing a student to take a second language to the second level demonstrate proficiency? S. Straight stated that students develop foreign language learning proficiency even if they don't develop a higher level of proficiency in a particular language; it is valuable for students to learn a third language.
K. Brunt reported that transfer students are in a squeeze situation; they need to complete upper level requirements mandated by SUNY. It is difficult to get them graduated in a reasonable amount of time if they need to complete Gen Eds and two foreign language courses.
S. Masters noted that last time we took things to the Senate, the Senate was not eager to have lesser requirements for transfer students. If we can document the level of the problem, it would be helpful. Prior Senate decisions don't necessarily indicate what they'll do in the future; the composition of the Senate has changed.
J. Sullivan noted that since we're on a 4-credit system, students take fewer courses than students at other SUNY schools who are on a 3-credit system. Students at other schools have more space to take Gen Eds because they have to take more courses.
J. Seymour reported that her students have trouble taking the requirements, especially because they are adult students who have been away from school a number of years, when FL was not stressed. She has been telling students to take foreign language at their community college so that they finish the requirement. The new Gen Ed has put up walls to effective transferring between community colleges and here. Also, it makes no sense that we hold non-SUNY transfers to a different standard than SUNY transfers; this is unfair to non-SUNY students.
R. Eckert said that he cannot guarantee what the Senate would say, but he feels it is an injustice that non-SUNY transfers are held to a different standard.
There was a question on how to advise incoming students. S. Masters and R. Eckert pointed out that the foreign language requirements are what is stated in the 2004-05 Bulletin; the earliest that we could expect any change would be the end of the Fall semester after it works its way through the system.
Will we make any changes retroactive? There are problems either way. If students take courses and we make it retroactive, students will take courses they don't need. If we don't make it retroactive, one year's worth of students will be held to a higher standard.
D. Blake asked, because we got this information out late, should we delay implementation of the new foreign language requirement for transfers for a year? S. Masters pointed out that partial proficiency - the portion of the requirement for which information was disseminated late - is a very small part of the requirement. D. Blake acknowledged this but indicated that he wished this to be a "lever" to use to delay the whole new transfer foreign language requirement. S. Straight suggests that he could urge the Provost to delay the new FL requirement for transfers for one year so that the Senate can consider the policy. R. Eckert says this would have more support if the chairs of the Senate and the FSEC supported delaying this for a year.
The question was raised, what about the Bulletin? S. Straight indicated that, if we decide to do this, we could add an appropriate note indicating that anomalies in the policy are being addressed.
At the time of discussion in the Senate, foreign language chairs honestly believed that most incoming students would meet the new standards. J. Miller pointed out that if we don't have data, we should hold off on implementing the requirement. What about freshmen? D. Blake stated that there are contingency plans to hire adjuncts in foreign language if they are needed; Harpur will be monitoring this during Orientation sessions. It was pointed out that in the Senate, the discussion focused on freshmen rather than transfers.
It was noted that the amount of time required to advise students on Gen Ed is very high; it is making it difficult to advise students on major and school requirements. There are issues with the amount of information that needs to be asked and known before advising students. It is very difficult for students and advisors to keep track of matriculation years, schools, etc. B. Perry pointed out that once student files have been reviewed, they are filed in the Registrar's Office and cannot be easily accessed for advisors to go back and look at them.
J. Seymour asked, is there a way to gather information on how many freshmen meet the foreign language requirement? R. Eckert noted that UUCC has asked for this information repeatedly. H. Pasquale pointed out that one person in her office does this will be starting in two weeks. Admissions can ask her to go through the files looking for this information; it may then take her longer to review the files, which would delay getting proficiency information to DARS. A suggestion was made that we could have the transcripts copied so that a research assistant could look at them in the Fall.
Recommendation from the Committee:
The committee recommended that S. Straight will go to the Provost today to request
delay of the entire FL requirement for one year. The plan would be to take this
back to the Senate for reconsideration, after data collection and discussion
with interested parties.
Decision from the Provost:
(For full text, see email from S. Straight, 7/6/04). The Provost has approved
postponement of the implementation of the new foreign language requirement for
transfer students entering in the 2004-05 catalog year, which means that they
will be held to the foreign language requirement as stated in the 2003-04 catalog
(see below). Freshmen entering in the 2004-05 catalog year will be held to the
new foreign language requirement, as stated in the 2004-05 catalog.
Foreign language requirement for transfer students:
The Foreign Language requirement for transfer students is fulfilled by one college course in foreign language at any level. This requirement may also be fulfilled in high school by demonstrating a level of proficiency equivalent to passing the corresponding Regents foreign language examination with a score of 85 or higher.
Minutes of the Gen Ed Implementation Committee
November 12, 2003
Attending: L. Abate, C. Altmansberger, D. Blake, K. Brunt, G. Ketcham, S. Masters, J. McDonald, J. Miller, J. Monroe, H. Pasquale, B. Perry, S. Santobuono, J. Schorr, S. Straight, A. Wawrzusin, L. Wells
Absent: J. Duseau, R. Eckert, B. Hazlett, D. Henderson, T. Kelly-Wallace, F. Srnka
Brief Announcement:
An online form is now available for students submitting appeals of Gen Ed requirements.
It can be found at: http://undergrad.binghamton.edu/appeals.html
AP Science for Gen Ed Lab Requirement:
The UUCC has approved using AP science with a score of 3 in Biology, Chemistry,
Environmental Science and Physics B and C as Gen Ed Lab. This proposal was sent
to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, which sent it back with questions.
The policy is on hold until these questions are resolved. An announcement will
be sent to the Gen Ed Implementation listserv when the Executive Committee or
the Senate makes a decision on this proposal.
New Foreign Language Requirement:
The new Gen Ed foreign language requirement goes into effect for students entering
in Fall 2004. The change is not in what students are required to take at Binghamton
but in a tightening of what determines high school proficiency. The new requirement
is as follows:
Revision to the Gen Ed Foreign Language requirement
Passed by the Binghamton University Faculty Senate 3/5/02Students are required to pass either a third-semester college-level course in one foreign language or a second-semester course in two foreign languages or to satisfactorily complete some other significant activity that requires second-level foreign language proficiency as a prerequisite, such as study abroad in a non-English environment or an internship serving people who can communicate only in a language other than English. Students can fulfill the foreign language requirement prior to enrolling in college either by completing four or more units of one high school foreign language with a course grade in the fourth year of 85 or better, or 3 units each of two high school languages with course grades in each 3rd unit of 85 or better, or by passing the AP exam (or its equivalent) with a score of 3 or better, or by demonstrating equivalent proficiency in some other fashion.
Watson engineering students will continue to be exempt from the foreign language requirement. Decker students and Watson computer science students will continue to be subject only to the SUNY-wide requirement, which can be fulfilled by attaining a score of 85 or better on the NY State Regents foreign language exam (or its equivalent) or by passing one college course in a foreign language at any level.
The new requirement will become effective for freshmen who enter in Fall 2004 and for transfer students who enter in Fall 2004.
No changes to DARS will be necessary. There will be more work for Admissions because there will be a need to look at courses, not just the Regents score.
The policy with regard to students who are interested in taking two foreign languages to the second level was clarified: under the new foreign language requirement, students who earn an 85 in the third year of a language in high school can choose to take a second language to the second college level. (We are no longer using the Regents score for this.)
There is a concern about how many students this will affect. It is estimated that this will affect 30% of incoming students. There is the presumption that we do have the capacity to provide seats in these courses. According to D. Blake, we hear that more students are taking four years in high school, and that Romance Languages says that the demand for lower-level foreign language is decreasing over time.
Discussion ensued as to how this would affect incoming transfer students. Harpur reported that of 400+ transfers this year, 201 were proficient based on this year's rules. Based on the new rules, 277 would be deficient, as opposed to 168 under current rules. (The status of approximately 70 students is unknown).
It was suggested that we advise prospective transfers from SUNY schools to take foreign language at their SUNY school before coming here. The GETA would then show their language requirement as completed if they've met the SUNY-wide requirement, which can be fulfilled by attaining a score of 85 or better on the NY State Regents foreign language exam (or its equivalent) or by passing one college course in a foreign language at any level.
Another issue was raised: for transfer students from SUNY schools, the GETA should show foreign language as completed if the student has a score of 85 or better on the foreign language Regents. There are times when the GETAs do not reflect Regents scores. Advisors asked whether they could use the students' high school transcripts in this case to verify that the GETA should have showed the foreign language requirement as completed. Under this proposal, if the high school transcript shows a Regents score of 85 or better for students who transferred from SUNY schools, the advisors would then mark the requirement as completed. The UUCC will discuss this proposal at its 12/2 meeting, and the UUCC's decision will be sent out via the Gen Ed Implementation listserv after the meeting.
It was requested that a special section be designed on the Gen Ed Policy website (http://undergrad.binghamton.edu/policy/) more clearly highlighting the new foreign language requirement. This will be done soon.
Mandatory Pass/Fail Courses
Currently, pass/fail courses cannot be used to fulfill Gen Ed requirements unless
they are offered mandatory pass/fail. This was originally meant only for Activity/Wellness
courses, but there are some Gen Ed courses in other categories currently offered
mandatory pass/fail. At its 11/18 meeting, the UUCC considered whether to restrict
Gen Eds for mandatory pass/fail courses to Activity/Wellness courses only. The
UUCC decided not to change the policy at this time. The policy remains that
pass/fail courses cannot be used to fulfill Gen Ed requirements unless they
are offered mandatory pass/fail. There are no restrictions as to which Gen Ed
requirements can be fulfilled by mandatory pass/fail courses.
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