Committee on Academic Policies and Standards (CAPS)
Minutes for February 14, 2014
Members present: B. Butterfield, P. Miller, R. Wolf, T. Docan-Morgan, R. Gillis, D.
Annino, and E. Strauss
Members excused: T. Seddon and J. Dziak
Alternates: Allan Macpherson, James Peirce, Sherwin Toribio (not in attendance)
Consultants: J. Von Ruden, T. Walls, S. Keller, C. Burkehardt, and G. Herling
Guests: none
1. B. Butterfield called the meeting to order at 2:21 p.m.
2. Motion to convene. Motion approved. (7-0-0)
3. Motion to approve minutes from 11/01/13. (7-0-0)
Motion to approve minutes from 01/22/14. (7-0-0)
4. Committee considered Summer Session Start Date Appeals.
5. Appeal: ECO 110 – 3 credits. Request to start June 9th, 2014 running over
Summer Sessions I/II. Justification for appeal: To allow students who need
ECO 110 as a prerequisite for courses to be taken in Summer Session III. Also
Instructor will be presenting at an international conference. The Committee
voted to approve the appeal of the start date. Motion to accept waiver.
Motion accepted. (7-0-0)
6. Appeal: BIO 313 – 4 credits. Request to start July 7th, 2014 running over
Summer Sessions II/III. Justification for appeal: BIO 313 is a very high
demand course with an unfilled wait list nearly every semester. This start
date would allow students to take the complete sequence of BIO 312 and BIO
313 in the summer. The Committee voted to approve the appeal of the start
date. Motion to accept as a permanent waiver. Motion accepted. (7-0-0)
7. Appeal: PSY 241, 212, 305, 318, 334, 391, 717 (3 credits each). Request to
start July 7th, 2014 (changed from 7/1/14 due to typo) running over Summer
Sessions II/III. Justification for appeal: Departmental policy recommending
that online courses last six weeks for pedagogical reasons. Also, summer
offerings provide for introductory courses and courses that serve as
requirements to be offered in the first 6-week session, which allows for two
6-week sessions for course sequencing. The Committee voted to approve the
appeal of the start date. Motion to accept waiver. Motion accepted. (6-0-1)
8. The Committee revisited the change of Final Exam time process. The
Committee decided to present Provost Macpherson with a possible wording
change to the current Final Examination Schedule policy.
The current policy is as follows:
Final Examination Schedule
A final examination shall be given for one-credit courses at the last regular
meeting of the class. All other classes (two or more credits) will have final
examinations given as scheduled in the special examination period
prescribed by the faculty, the deans, and the administration. The schedule for
this special examination period can be found here. The nature and relative
importance of the final examination are to be determined by the instructor in
charge of each course.
Instructor-initiated changes to the published examination schedule are
permitted only if approved by the Provost & Vice Chancellor of Academic
Affairs. Instructors may send requests to change an examination time to the
Provost at provost@uwlax.edu.
No student will be required to take more than three final exams on the same
day. If a night class is not involved, instructors of the fourth and subsequent
exams on that day will be obliged to reschedule that student's exam if the
Office of Records and Registration certifies that such an overload exists. If a
night class is involved, the night class and the student's first two exams of the
day will remain as scheduled and the other instructors will be obliged to
reschedule their exams for that student.
Changes to the second paragraph as follows:
Any changes must be approved by the Provost & Vice Chancellor of Academic
Affairs and will only be granted under extraordinary circumstances.
Instructors may send requests to change an examination time to the Provost
at provost@uwlax.edu.
9. The Committee considered the size and configuration of the committee and
its appropriateness for the workload. The Committee feels that the current
size and configuration is more than adequate for the workload. They wish it
to be noted, that although they were open to and actively sought out student
representation on this year’s committee, no student representatives
attended. It is the Committee’s hope that future recruit of student
representative could stress that these students could find the process
extremely valuable, especially to those interested in the area of Student
Affairs.
10. Motion to adjourn. Motion approved. (7-0-0)
11. Meeting was adjourned at 3: 00 p.m.