HIGH IMPACT, FIRST CONTACT COMMITTEE
MAY 18, 2000
MINUTES
Present: Brenda Amenson-Hill, Shannon Byrne, Ann Deprey, Scott Furlong, John
Gerow, Aeron Haynie, Leanne Hansen, Mimi Kubsch, Chuck Matter, Sarah Meredith,
Marlene Regan, Mike Stearney, Nicole Suchomel, Linda Toonen, Georgeanna WilsonDoenges
Absent: Cheryl Grosso, Laura Sear
1.
The meeting convened at 1:00 PM.
2.
Modifications of the Minutes for the 16 May meeting were adopted; Scott will make
the changes.
3.
The schedule for the next set of meetings was announced. It is:
May 31st @ 9 - 11
June 8th @ 1 - 3
June 15th @ 1 - 3
Scott will inform the committee of the rooms where these meetings will be held.
4.
It was noted that the document proposing a redesign of SOAR and Introduction to
College had been distributed to the HIFC committee via e-mail. The proposal will be
discussed at a later date.
5.
The committee then took up a series of issues that had emerged from our earlier
discussions.
a. Number of credits for the Freshman Seminar.
1) One model was to develop a 2-credit seminar that would end before the
conventional semester (say after 10 weeks/30 hours).
a) This design would put the intense work of the seminar at a time preceding
the major load in conventional courses and, as a secondary benefit, would
allow students to have more time to devote to those courses.
b) It was also noted that having one of the classes on Fridays would have the
advantage of keeping students on campus.
2) The committee also discussed a model where the Freshman Seminar would earn
3 credits, while Introduction of College would remain at 1 credit so the
combination would be 4 credits.
a) This proposal spawned a multi-faceted discussion concerning the
consequences of developing a 4-credit requirement for the total number of
credits students will have to complete. For example, will it raise the number
of credits required for graduation from 120 to 124?
b) It was noted that answer to this question will depend on how the Freshman
Seminar will be connected to the General Education requirements.
 One possibility would be that the seminar would substitute for an
existing general education requirement.
 Some saw an advantage in this proposal in that students will learn
more in the seminar format than in the large lecture format used with
some of the current courses that fulfill the General Education
requirements.
 Freshman Seminar as the Front Door for General Education.
Another notion was to have the Freshman Seminar serve as the Front
Door to the General Education requirements without having it
substitute for a current course. In this model, the seminar could be
taken before the General Education courses.
3) Since no consensus on these issues was needed at this time, we moved on to
other issues
b. The second major issue the committee discussed focused on ways to enhance the
continuity of a student’s experience in the first year.
1) The committee had an extensive discussion about the notion that the students
and faculty member stay the same as they move from Introduction to College to
the Freshman Seminar.
2) The question was raised whether this scheme should be expanded to include
SOAR.
3) An arrangement in which the instructor of a student’s sections of Introduction to
College and the Freshman Seminar would also serve as her/his advisor would
further enhance the continuity.
c. The rest of the meeting was devoted to an exploration of how the combination of
Introduction to College and the Freshman Seminar would fit the needs of transfer
students, especially those who completed a similar course or program at another
institution.
1) Since a goodly number of students at UW-Green Bay did not start here, this is a
real issue for us.
2) Should we require these students to fulfill the goals of Introduction to College
and/ or Freshman Seminars?
3) How would we assess which of the goals of our program/s were fulfilled by the
transferred course?
4) It is reasonable to expect that at least some of the transfer students would
benefit from participation in some components of Introduction to College.
Perhaps an orientation session or a special version of Intro to College could be
developed for transfer students. The socialization dimensions of Intro to College
would seem to be especially helpful.
5) The points above led to the suggestion that there be an opportunity for these
students to participate in a scaled down program that would allow them to select
what they need.
d. The discussion was broadened to include adult and international students as well as
those who transfer from other colleges/universities. The committee discussed the
various needs of these populations.
1) Some members made the case that we need to recognize the needs of adult
students and provide an array of course times to accommodate their work
schedules. Others identified some problems that have been encountered when
such attempts are made.
2) The committee also briefly discussed the processes used to introduce
International Students to UW-Green Bay and how those might be modified to
incorporate the goals of Introduction to College
5.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:20 PM