September 12, 2007
Academic Standards Committee
Present: Nancy Bristow (Faculty Senate Liaison), Jack Roundy; Alison Tracy Hale; William
Breitenbach; Theodore Taranovski; Wade Hands; Kristin Johnson; Sarah Moore; Seth
Weinberger; Brad Tomhave; Gary McCall; Debbie Chee; Robert Taylor; Kathie HummelBerry; Mark Martin; Ben C Bradley; Mike Spivey; Carolyn Weisz; Greta Austin; Dolen
Perkins-Valdez; David J Sousa; Chris Kline
Order
Senator Nancy Bristow, as the Senate’s liaison to the ASC, called the meeting to order at
9:00 am.
Announcements
Chris Kline, as departing ASC Chair from 06-07, congratulated the committee on its work
last year.
Elections
1. Election of Chair: Mike Spivey
2. Election of Secretary: The committee decided to rotate the position among each member,
according to the plan proposed by David Sousa and Bill Breitenbach et al.
Note: the secretary should forward complete minutes to Jimmy McMichael, at
facultycoms@ups.edu.
Jack Roundy has served for about fifteen years as secretary, but he is finally being allowed to
step down because of other obligations. The committee thanked him for his long and
excellent service.
Business
1. Discussion of the size of the ASC committee
Bill Breitenbach raised the question of the size of the committee. He asked why the
committee is so big. Kathie Hummel-Berry asked, “Has the committee ever in the past
divided into two groups, one for Petitions and one for ASC business?”
Bill Breitenbach asked why people on petitions committee have served on main committee.
Nancy Bristow clarified that the committee did not need as many faculty members as it has
currently. She read from the Bylaws, which require that no fewer than 7 members of faculty
sit on the ASC. Debbie Chee and Chris Kline responded that the only argument is that the
work of the ASC is important to understanding the policies which inform the petitions.
Sarah Moore pointed out that it was important for members of the committee to be
knowledgeable about the policies. She also noted that, in the past, a few people who haven’t
been able to attend the whole committee attended the petitions committee.
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David Sousa asked whether there should always be overlap between the petitions and main
committee.
Sousa noted that the committee’s difficulty finding a common time to meet speaks to the
problem of having a committee of 15. He questioned whether a committee of this size
could conduct focused discussions. He proposed that the ASC shrink in size and assign a
group to petitions, and that these groups stay continuous in fall and spring.
Ted Taranovski asked whether the question of splitting into two committees should be
referred to the bylaws. He also felt that there should be overlap between the petitions
committee and the main ASC body.
Bill Breitenbach suggested that the ASC set a time to meet in two weeks, and in the
intervening period people could decide whether they wanted to serve on the Petitions
committee, and then their attendance on the ASC could be voluntary. Seth Weinberger
noted that he was willing to serve on both committees simultaneously.
2. Time of the ASC committee meeting
After considerable discussion, the committee agreed to meet every other Wednesday at 8 am,
with a schedule to be finalized by the Chair. The next meeting is to be held in two weeks, on
September 26th.
3. Membership of the petitions committee
The following people volunteered to serve on the Petitions Committee:
Ben Bradley
William Breitenbach
Debbie Chee
Brady Evans
Kathie Hummel-Berry
Mark Martin
Sarah Moore
David Sousa
Robert Taylor
Alison Tracy Hale
Seth Weinberger
The time of the petitions meeting will be decided by members of the petitions committee.
4. Senate charges for the ASC for the 07-08 academic year
Nancy Bristow explained that her role as Senate liaison was to let us know what our charges
are for the year as a standing committee of the Senate. She will also communicate the
discussions going on in Senate, and the ASC Chair will keep her posted on the activities of
the committee, so that information flows effectively between the two bodies.
After the Senate looked at the ASC’s year-end report, it gave us four charges. These are,
Nancy explained, an informal ‘heads-up’ of what is coming down the pipe.
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i) The Senate’s subcommittee of Sousa et al. examined the class schedule, and the principles
on which to base the schedule of classes. The report by that committee will be the basis for
the ASC’s work. Among the issues expected to arise is the question of a ‘free hour’ without
classes. Bill Breitenbach suggested that 4 am would be a good time. Ted Taranovski noted
that the question had been addressed for the past thirty years.
ii) One small change is proposed for the Student Alert form. It will be modified to note
chronic late arrivals. The ASC oversees that form.
iii) There is a question about University Honors and graded units completed at UPS. A
student who did not have 28 graded units at the University because he/she had AP credits
and took some courses pass/fail was not eligible for University honors.
iv) Self-assessment. The ASC was asked to do it last year. It is not a lengthy list of
questions, and the list will be forward to the ASC.
5. On-going business of the ASC from the previous academic year (06-07)
Jack Roundy pointed out that there are two other on-going charges:
v) A review of the WF policy. The ASC changed the WF policy. We told ourselves then
that we would review the new timetable (which extended, for instance, the time during
which students may withdraw from courses without record on their transcripts), once we
had the data to do so. We now have that data and should consider whether the policy is
working.
vi) The on-going discussion of academic honesty in the digital age. The plagiarism
subcommittee of Seth Weinberger, Mark Martin, and Greta Austin was asked to forward
their proposed revisions to the Academic Honesty policy in the Academic Handbook (aka
the Logger).
Sarah Moore, Brad Tomhave, and Jack Roundy also noted a seventh issue:
vii) The committee should review the foreign language requirement as it applies to students
who lack the ability to process a foreign language. (The ASC petitions committee has seen
an increased number of petitions from students asking to be exempted from the foreign
language requirement.)
Carolyn Weisz asked whether the ASC was involved in the evaluation of the current
internship program. Brad Tomhave stated that this is the responsibility of the Curriculum
Committee.
6. Petitions report by Brad Tomhave
There have been 13 meetings of petitions subcommittee since the last ASC meeting. Over
that period, 77 petitions were approved, 20 denied, for a total of 97.
Brad Tomhave noted some petitions of interest:
- On June 30thk, the committee dealt with the issue of a student who had planned to
use certain courses to replace foreign language requirement. The courses approved
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were not necessarily the best choices for him. The ASC needs to have guidelines for
how it dealt with such courses substituting for the foreign language requirement.
On June 5th, the petitions committee turned down a medical withdrawal petition,
because the student did not comply with instructions from CHWS.
An internship g.p.a. average waiver was not approved.
One student petitioned successfully to have a grading option changed from P/F to
graded, but there were dissenting opinions.
In the past year, from 9/2/06-9/6/07, 80% of petitions were improved. There was also an
increase in the number of petitions (308, as opposed to 252 in the previous year).
43 approved by registrar
65 by preview team
138 by committee
246 total approved petitions (79.9%)
61 denied petitions (19.8%)
no action on 1 petition (.3%)
308 total petitions decided
7. Approval of minutes from last meeting:
Brad Tomhave moved to approve the minutes. Jack Roundy seconded it. The minutes were
approved unanimously.
8. Approval of petitions preview team
Brad Tomhave handed out the text in which the responsibilities of the Petitions Preview
Team are outlined, as delegated by the ASC. Seth Weinberger moved to approve the
Petitions Preview Team. It was seconded and unanimously approved.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 8:55.
Respectfully submitted,
Greta Austin
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