Advanced Programs Committee
Minutes of meeting on 9/26/00
In attendance: Carolyn Finch, Assoc. Dean; Chris Bocklage, FA; Ron Fulkert, BTE; Jane Gordon, TED; H. A. Hasan, SPED; Tom McDole, BTE; Erik Pedersen, HPERD; Kaia Skaggs, TED; Sue Stickel, L&C; Mary Teal, Music; Jackie Tracy, L&C; Judy Williston, TED (chair).
Guest: Rebecca Martusewicz, TED
The meeting began with introductions and a check of committee membership. Members absent appear to be Joe Coyner, SPEd; Lisa Frankes, TED; and Lech Wisniewski, SPED. There was a request from the BTE members that the agenda be arranged so that general issues are addressed first and COE-specific issues are addressed at the end in order to allow non-COE committee members to leave during the part of the meeting that does not affect them. Dr. Williston will attempt to do this.
Minutes from the 4./18/00 meeting were approved. Dr. Williston presented the Dean’s concern that the committee devise some way to function during the spring/summer terms in order to maintain movement through the university input system during that time. This issue will be considered in the future.
The COE Advisory Groups memo was distributed. This outlines the current standing committees in the input structure. It was briefly discussed and members are to look it over more carefully and be prepared to provide comments and recommendations at the next meeting. Also at the next meeting, Dr. Finch will bring the dean’s comments regarding goals and guidelines for the work of the Advanced Programs committee.
The policy statements regarding Graduate School residency requirements and doctoral programs guidelines were reviewed. Dr. Tracy and Dr. McDole provided some background information regarding the origin of the residency statement, clarifying that it originated with the doctoral programs and was intended to provide some consistency in requirements across campus. Because of the wording of the policy, it is not clear whether masters degree programs are included. It looks as though departments may be responsible for determining their own policies and it is not clear whether there would be any input or approval process at the college or university level. The policy is worded to say "graduate programs" but is embedded in the doctoral programs policies, so it is unclear whether it is intended to refer also to masters programs. The committee requested clarification on this point, which Dr. Williston will seek. The question also arose as to whether the graduate school might have information on the different program requirements currently in place regarding residency. This becomes a particular issue with distance courses and with off-site programs and Continuing Education.
Two M.A. programs not currently represented on the Adv. Programs committee formally submitted requests to be moved from Professional and Affiliated Programs to the Advanced Programs committee. These are the M.A. tracks in Educational Psychology and the M.A. in Social Foundations. In addition, Dr. Tracy informally presented the intent for the two M.A. programs in L&C, Community Counseling and College Student Personnel (which has a new name now), to request a move to the Advanced Programs committee from Professional and Affiliated Programs. Formal requests from these two M.A. programs will be submitted at the next meeting. There were no objections from committee members to proceeding with this effort. Dr. Pedersen will seek feedback from the HPERD department regarding the effects on the remaining programs represented on Professional & Affiliated programs, which are all HPERD undergraduate programs to be presented at the next meeting.
Dr. Martusewicz from TED joined the meeting to present a new course proposal SOFD/WMST 581. She explained the history of the request which originated in 1998. The course has been taught as a special topics course twice and has been approved by WMST. There was a question about the effect of the course being 3 credit hours rather than 2 as most other TED graduate courses are, but Dr. Martusewicz said there were other 3 hour TED electives and because of the cross-listing the 3 hour credit was appropriate. A motion was made and seconded to approve and send forward the proposal to COE Council with the recommendation that it be approved.
The M.A. in math education was discussed. Dr. Martusewicz reported a COE Council discussion that there is no social foundations course included in the program, and that the course listed as an elective, SOFD 535, is not the most appropriate for that purpose either. This complements the previous concern of the Adv. Programs committee that diversity issues were not addressed in the program proposal. In addition, COE council tabled discussion of the program pending review and further input from the Advanced Programs committee. It appears that the proposal should not have been sent on to COE Council, which prompted a discussion of the flow of information and recommendations. The math department was sent a memo regarding the concerns of the Advanced Programs committee and responded with a memo but no formal revised program proposal was submitted. Specific suggestions regarding the diversity and social foundations issues, as well as the curriculum issue, will be brought to the next meeting, a formal recommendation will be generated and sent to the math department which will then be submit a revised proposal rather than just a response memo. The revised proposal will be acted on by the Advanced Programs committee and action taken either to send it on to COE Council with a recommendation or to continue discussion with the math department.
Additional issues that will be coming in the future include several course change requests from L&C for credit hour changes from 2 to 3 hours and probably a large number of course change requests for prerequisites since they are being enforced beginning with Winter ’01 registration.
Dr. Finch requested that any examples of existing outcomes assessments at the graduate level already being used be brought to the meeting. These can be in relatively informal form, but should include some written documentation or examples.
The next meeting of the Advanced Programs committee will be October 10th, 2000 at 3:30. Agenda items include:
- goals and guidelines for the advanced programs committee
- comments and recommendations regarding advisory groups/ standing committees
- discussion of the incorporation of representation for the four non-NCATE M.A. programs in the COE onto the Advanced Programs committee
- revisit the M.A. in Math Education proposal in order to formulate a specific response and request for revision to send to the math department
- discussion of outcomes assessments currently being used in graduate programs
Respectfully submitted,
Kaia Skaggs, Secretary