ASCRC Minutes 3/18/13
GBB 202, 2:10 p.m.
Members Present: B. Borrie, C. Chandler, J. Deboer, L. Gillison, M. Grimes, C. Henderson, M.
Hopkins, D. Stolle, T. Thibeau, N. Vonessen
Members Absent/ Excused: G. Coon, N. Greymorning, B. Holzworth,
Ex-Officio Present: N. Hinman, E. Johnson, S. O’Hare, J. Zink
Guest: J. Renz
The minutes from 3/12/13 were approved.
Communication Items:

Chair Borrie provided an update from the Faculty Senate meeting last week. WRIT 222 was
approved to retain the writing course designation. He presented the motion to retain the
course listings in the catalog. This caused a 10-15 minutes of discussion about the way that
course description information will be linked and displayed online that resulted in the
Registrar volunteering to give a demonstration of the Banner course search function at the
April Senate meeting. Chair Borrie also alerted senators to the business items (Technical
Credits; and Academic Policy and Procedures catalog rewrite) that will be coming as
information next Month to be voted on in May.
He had a follow-up inquiry from a Senator asking whether there was any formal notification
of the change to ASCRC. Chair Borrie forwarded the minutes from when the discussion first
started. She seemed to be satisfied with this.
Changes still need to be made by Information Technology. Registrar Johnson believes that
some of the concerns will be alleviated once the system is seen in context. Professor
Vonessen volunteered to help do some testing. It was also recommended to have potential
students (including students with little to no experience with the current catalog) test the
system.
Business Items:

The T-Credit workgroup met with the Director of Financial Aid, Kent McGowan, to discuss
concerns raised at the last meeting. A student pursuing a bachelor’s degree requiring
completion of 120 credits must meet the degree requirements within 180 attempted credits.
(Associate’s degrees must be completed within 90 attempted credits.) T-credits normally
count toward a 140 credit threshold at which time the student will receive notice from the
financial aid office that their aid eligibility is on hold until they submit a degree plan as part
of a max credit review. It appears the Financial Aid Office may remove transferred credits
from the calculation of eligibility if those credits are not a specific requirement for the
baccalaureate degree being pursued. Thus, it was concluded there would be few situations in
which financial aid eligibility is threatened by the proposed motion.
ASCRC discussed whether students would be better served with a petition or automated
process to count the t-credits towards graduation requirements. Financial Aid Director
McGowan felt that an automatic process would work fine, and although it would entail
slightly more work for the transfer transcript evaluators in Admissions/New Student Services
it was felt that this would remove a potential barrier for transferring students.
ASCRC also discussed whether a two tiered system is appropriate (students who have earned
an AAS degrees may count 20 Technical Course Credits towards the minimum credit
requirements for the bachelor degree, while all other students may count 15). There was a
sense that allowing 20 credits is an encouragement for completion of the AAS degree.
The title of the motion was revised to encompass all technical course credits not just those
from Missoula College. The term ‘transfer’ throughout the motion will need to be assessed
given that Missoula College is considered part of UM so the term should probably be
changed to ‘count’. The motion passed with the understanding that the minor edits will be
made.

Professor Gillison received the learning outcomes for FILM 481. The Program Director
indicated that OCHE did not require learning outcomes when the courses were transitioned to
common course numbers because it was a “bag” course under which a variety of topics
would be offered. It was pointed out that several of these pseudo-“bag” numbers have been
approved in a variety of departments and programs. The following brief learning outcomes
were approved by ASCRC and will be sent to OCHE.
Outcomes for FILM 481 – Advanced Studies in Film: Courses offered under this
number will vary in content and emphasis, but students taking any course title under this
number will write clearly and extensively about the central theorists, themes, and debates
associated with the course's theoretical and/ or practical focus.

ASCRC discussed and edited the latest draft of the Academic Policies and Procedures section
of the catalog. It was recommended that the table for special session courses was removed.
There is concern that the summer and winter session dates are not proportional to the autumn
and spring semesters and that WF/WP deadlines were not included for those semesters. All
drop dates should correspond with Financial Aid and Business Services refund dates as well.
Summer session is administered by School of Extended and Lifelong Learning so Dean
Maclean and Registrar Wimett should be consulted. Registrar Johnson will communicate
with them. He will also edit the tables and send the final draft to the committee for final vote
next week.

Assistant Vice President O’Hare reported on a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant
proposal for an assessment and innovative revamp of the early alert system. The proposed
system could have students perform an alert on themselves, not just for low academic
performance, that would trigger university support and advising. .
The meeting was adjourned at 3.50 PM.