ASC Policy Subcommittee April 10, 2014 Meeting Minutes
In attendance: Drew Anderson (student), Debbie Chee, Ken Clark, Karl Fields (chair), Sunil Kukreja,
Daniel Laesch (student), Mary Rose Lamb, Jan Leuchtenberger, Brad Tomhave, Landon Wade, Keith
Ward, Ann Wilson
Fields called meeting to order at 4pm.
Minutes from March 27, 2014, were approved.
Petitions Report for the Period 03/20/2014 – 04/02/2014
During the dates covered by this report, the following actions were taken on petitions submitted
to the Academic Standards Committee:
3 Approved Medical Withdrawals
3 Total Petitions
Registrar Approved:
Preview Team Approved:
Sub-Committee Approved:
0
2
1
Total Approved:
3
Preview Team Denied: 0
Sub-Committee Denied: 0
Total Petitions:
0
In addition to acting on petitions, the grades of 8 students were reviewed based on final grades
received in place of incomplete grades and 7 academic sanctions were assigned.
For the year to date, 194 petitions have been acted upon with 177 approved and 17 denied. For
comparison with last year, as of March 27, 2013, 187 petitions had been acted upon with 164
approved and 23 denied.
Record keeping and academic integrity code violations
Tomhave and Kukreja distributed draft letter addressing Senate charge regarding record keeping and
formal communication with students in cases involving academic integrity code violations,
subcommittee members should review for April 24, 2014 meeting
Discussion of end-of-year report in light of Faculty Senate charges:
 Two (two baccalaureate degrees concurrently and students’ right to privacy in regards to
Withdraw policy) of the original four charges have been completed




Tomhave will draft a letter addressing the Registrar’s Office practice in reviewing international
students’ prior academic work (one of original charges)
Final original charge (course scheduling and common hour) outstanding
Two additional charges (record keeping and formal communication with student in academic
integrity code violations and transfer credits) are under discussion, with Running Start and
Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education transfer credit policies being a
possible charge continuing into next academic year
Other possible charges for next year are international withdraw policy prompted by third party
(study away students) and Incomplete policies in regard to assigning and time allowed for
completion
Resumed discussion on transfer credit in light of Admission’s response to chair’s questions (see
Appendix A) regarding Running Start. Admission information is valuable and supports that Admission
does not see the current policies as negatively affecting their work to attract students. Questions of
timing in the admission cycle and use of resources to give clearer picture of what will transfer and how it
will work towards degree requirements. Committee feels that policy is appropriate but appreciates the
confusion that it may engender. ASC is rightly situated to review Running Start policy but could this
serve as a starting point to collaborate with Admission and Registrar’s Office on clearer language and
presentation of positive impacts of Running Start, outside of “just” yielding credit?
Meeting adjourned 4:45p.
Submitted by Landon Wade.
Appendix A
Admission and Running Start
Hi Karl,
Many thanks for asking the members of the admission office for their thoughts on our Running Start
policy. And many thanks to Carolyn for coordinating the responses from our team. Here you go!
1.
Do you feel the Admissions Office is comfortable with the current Running Start policy? Should
we consider revising it?
Counselors feel they understand the policy (philosophically) and feel comfortable explaining it to
prospective students. While we encounter disappointed or surprised students/parents (more on that
under question 2), we don't think that's a reason to revise the policy. There may be opportunities to
make the policy on our website even more clear regarding what may/may not transfer for credit, adding
additional language akin to what we actually say to students, but beyond what is written in the policy.
2.
How do you present this policy to prospective students when they ask about it? Do they seem
satisfied with the explanation? Or do they seem confused or frustrated or desirous of additional
information?
In various ways, counselors typically describe our policy by first defining our philosophy: the value of a
four-year, residential, liberal arts experience.

If the student's goal is the most efficient route to a bachelor's degree, the student likely won't be
happy to hear our RS policy.

If the student’s goal is to challenge him/herself through Running Start (akin to AP or IB), he/she
will likely be less concerned by credit transfer. Typically these students just need reassurance that
we recognize the difficulty of the high school program (and consider that as part of our admission
review process) and that they won’t need to “repeat” coursework they’ve already taken.
We use language (similar to that on the written policy) like "if your RS coursework is above and beyond
the typical college prep high school curriculum, it MAY transfer to Puget Sound," then give examples like
math and foreign language.
Our sense is that students who have not received appropriate advising (from their high schools or
community colleges) sometimes approach us with the assumption that we will transfer all of their credit.
They are frustrated or confused by our policy, and we become the “bearers of bad news.” Because we
know that this can happen, we often initiate conversation about Running Start with local students – at
college fairs, during high school visits, or in interviews on campus – but inevitably there are students
who apply and are admitted to Puget Sound and THEN find out about the policy and feel they’ve been
misled.
Running Start credit is only evaluated for enrolling students, over the summer and after they’ve
submitted their deposit. Thus, there are students (admitted or prospective) who are frustrated that we
aren’t able to tell them earlier how their credit transfers (or doesn’t). In other words, there are students
who want to know what Running Start credit will transfer before they commit to enrolling at Puget
Sound, or that want to compare how much credit we will transfer with the transfer policies of other
schools to which they’ve been offered admission. These students can be frustrated by the timing of our
credit evaluation process, rather than the policy itself.
3.
Do you feel Puget Sound is attracting the kind of students it wants, or do we lose some strong
students because of this policy?
While we may lose some students because of the RS policy, and (based solely on numbers) these
students may appear to be “strong students,” we don’t feel that we’re missing good fit students because
of the policy. Students who want to get their bachelor’s degree in two years may choose to go
elsewhere, but students seeking a transformative, residential, four-year experience are not often
discouraged by our Running Start policy.
4.
Do you know if the financial aid package for incoming students changes depending on the
number of transfer units they bring with them?
Financial aid is awarded by a students' level of academic standing. If they have enough credits to move
them beyond being considered a freshman, they will have different federal loan maximums based on
whether they are at sophomore or junior/senior status. Puget Sound institutional funds do not change
as a result of the number of transfer credits.
We look forward to hearing the outcome of your conversation! Has the committee looked at the policies
of Whitman? Or other PNW liberal arts colleges like Lewis & Clark, Willamette, and Reed to see what
their "dual-enrollment" policies might be? When we handle such policies consistently across
institutional type, it can become less confusing for students. In the spirit of consistency, we also
appreciate that the current Running Start policy has similar language to how explain AP/IB credit (that
the maximum amount of credit for any FR student is the same, regardless of how the credit was
attained).
Please let us know if you have other questions.
Many thanks,
Jenny