Committee on Academic Policies and Standards (CAPS)
Minutes for December 5, 2014
Members present:
Members excused:
Alternates:
Consultants:
Tony Docan-Morgan, Allan Macpherson, Paul Miller, James
Peirce, Heather Schenck, Rebecca Steck, Kelly Sultzbach,
Tiffany Trimmer, Rob Wolf
Sara Docan-Morgan
Kareem Shabana, Amy Wolff (not in attendance)
Carla Burkhardt, Guy Herling, Becky Vianden, Jan Von Ruden
1. Chair Tony Docan-Morgan called the meeting to order at 2:18 p.m.
2. Motion to approve minutes of October 24 meeting. Motion seconded. (8-0-0)
3. Roll call (9-0-0) to move to closed session as provided in section 19.85 (1)(a) of
Wisconsin Statutes, when: “deliberating concerning a case which was the subject of any
judicial or quasi-judicial trial or hearing before the governmental body.” Moved into
closed session to discuss a SAH student appeal at approximately 2:22 p.m. (9-0-0)
4. The Committee heard an appeal by C. Burkhardt on behalf of the student. The appeal
was requesting a waiver of the requirement for UW-L residency for the final 24 credits of
an engineering degree. The basis for the request was that the student is not at a UW
System school that has an articulation agreement with UW-L for engineering degrees.
Discussion included the fact that precedent does exist for CAPS to waive this
requirement for over ten credits. The committee voted to waive the requirement and
approve the appeal (8-0-0).
5. Motion to return to open meeting. Motion seconded. (9-0-0). Note that the meeting
agenda, including moving from open to closed session and back to open session had been
posted publically in advance (see http://www.uwlax.edu/meetings).
6. The Committee revisited the charge about whether there should be restrictions on
enrollment of incoming freshmen in online courses. J. Von Ruden indicated that
incoming freshmen are not enrolled for fall online courses unless the student requests that
course format.
Questions were raised about how clear WINGS is in conveying course format. J. Von
Ruden indicated that for online courses, the course room is listed as “Internet.” For
hybrid courses, the mode listed is “hybrid.” It is not possible to redesign the WINGS
interface. Clarification about where to find course formats can be added to the standard
email that all students receive prior to registration.
Another point of discussion concerned communication issues stemming from Continuing
Education promotions of online ENG/CST 110 at freshman registration. The Committee
felt that these issues need to be resolved. J. Von Ruden agreed that Records and
Registration will communicate and work more closely with Continuing Education about
enrolling students in online courses for summer sessions.
7. The Committee next considered the imposition of a registration restriction on students
who are on academic probation. T. Tritch, Interim Direction of the Career/Academic
Advising Center, supports the creation of a policy of this type. The Committee discussed
tactical issues related to such a policy. Next semester, SAH is implementing a policy
requiring probationary students to meet with a SAH Dean’s Office academic advisor to
permit these students to register. No comparable practice exists in CLS or CBA.
Practices by faculty advisors are also inconsistent in this regard, and in fact, faculty
advisors may be unaware that an advisee is ineligible to return to UW-L.
The use of Eagle Alerts and emails to communicate with faculty advisors and
probationary advisees were discussed. Complexities of releasing multiple holds relative
to the current structure of WINGS were also considered. Timing of application of holds
with respect to drop/add deadlines was discussed at length, as was the applicability of
holds to summer and winter terms. J. Von Ruden indicated that such a hold can be given
a start date that is not attached to a term, but applies more broadly, “going forward.” The
Committee felt this proposed implementation would resolve “semester vs. term” issues in
application of a registration hold.
The Committee recommended that the following policy be advanced to Faculty Senate
for consideration: “Students who are on probation will have an academic probation
restriction (negative service indicator) placed on their student record. Students must meet
with their academic advisor of their primary major before registering for a new semester
in order to remove this restriction.” The Committee proposed that registration holds be
applied in the second week of September and the first week of February, to avoid issues
with drop/add deadlines. Students on probation would then have to meet with their
advisor between the end of the drop/add period and the beginning of their registration
appointment to have the negative service indicator removed.
8. With respect to the charge to “examine summer session drop rates and whether
students are taking overloads...” the Committee re-examined data previously supplied by
the Office of Institutional Research. T. Docan-Morgan added a column to the dataset
indicating whether courses were online or face-to-face. The Committee noted that drop
rates for face-to-face and online courses for summer 2014 were negligible. The drop rate
in face-to-faces courses was 5.73%, and the drop rate in online courses was 6.38%.
The relevance of this question to the CAPS scope and mission were also debated. The
Committee felt that the issue has now been examined sufficiently. The question can be
reopened in future if the Committee is requested to consider it again.
9. The subcommittee tasked with reviewing questions about mass final exam times
indicated that they have investigated how other UW institutions handle mass exams,
heard from UW-L department chairs about why they use mass exam times, and are in the
process of brainstorming potential solutions. Any proposals to change current practice
will be provided as they are developed.
Motion to adjourn. Motion approved. (8-0-0)
Meeting was adjourned at 3:44 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Heather Schenck