ASCRC Writing Committee Minutes, 4/12/11
Members Present: N. Hinman, M. Medvetz, T. Russell, R. Sattler, M. Semanoff, K.
Zoellner
Members Excused/Absent: G. Burns, M. Carson, T. Gustin
Ex-Officio Members Present, K. Webster, K. Ryan
The meeting was called to order at 1:15 p.m.
The minutes from 3/22/11 were approved
Communication Item:

The Committee was reminded of the faculty governance meeting with the
Commissioner of Higher Education and members of the Board of Regents
tomorrow at 1:10 in TODD 210.

Chair Semanoff will contact Associate Provost Walker- Andrews regarding
having a member for the University Assessment Committee attend a meeting.
Apparently the Committee has a faculty subcommittee.
Business Item:

The committee agreed that the recommendations made to ASCRC should include
priorities, rationale and definitions of program level assessment. The priorities
document will mention the alternatives considered but not recommended, such as
portfolio. It will also include the recommendation of adding a second
composition course specific to areas of study (humanities, social science, and
technical writing). A full implementation plan is not required.
Directors Webster and Ryan will draft the recommendations. Professor Zoellner
will draft the cover letter and Professor Medvetz and Semanoff will provide a list
of program assessment samples, answers to common questions, and other
supporting documents that can be posted to the website as reference information.
The draft documents will be circulated for comments or posted to Google Docs
for group revision.

The committee will meet on April 19th to discuss the drafts. Chair Semanoff will
not be in attendance. The documents need to be presented to ASCRC on April
26th in order to go to the Faculty Senate on May 5th. Hopefully several members
will be able to attend the 2:10 ASCRC meeting.

The committee was reminded that it still needs a chair-elect. Professor Burns and
Chin were recommended. Camie will contact Professor Chin and the English
Department Chair to confirm next year’s member from English.

The committee is no longer considering substituting the GRE for the UDWPA.
Students should be taking the exam before their senior year. The last UDWPA
prior to the end of the semester is being offered this weekend and there are many
seniors that have not satisfied the requirement that are not registered. A reminder
has been sent to advisors. It was suggested that a reminder be sent to all seniors.
However, the Registrar’s Office does not currently have a mechanism to send
targeted communications. Next semester there will likely be several sophomores
in the School of Business that will be dropped from their courses because they
have not passed the UDWPA.

Several pending agenda items related to writing resources for faculty will be
addressed next semester when the Director of the Faculty Development Office,
Amy Kinch is invited to a meeting.

The committee agreed that sending a Thank You letter to faculty teaching writing
courses would be a nice gesture. Camie will send sample thank you for your
service letters.

Clarifying writing requirements may not be necessary if program level assessment
is implemented because programs are going to have to rethink how to ensure their
students are competent writers.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:55 p.m.