Eastern Michigan University College of Arts and Sciences College Advisory Council Minutes Thursday, September 27, 2012 Scheduled Meeting Time: 3:30-­‐5:00pm Pray-­‐Harrold, Room 219 Present: Perry (AAS), Sacksteder (Art), Vosteen (WL), Kindred (CMTA), Woodland (ECON), Dionne (ENG), Dieterle (H&P), Haynes (COSC), Plagens (POLS), Corsianos (SAC), Higgins (WGST), Vosteen (WL), Booth (BIO), Johnson (CHEM), Bradley (G&G), Rescorla (MATH), Shen (P&A), Dove (PSYCH), Venner (CAS Dean), Mehuron (AD), LaPorte (AD), Ramsey (Arts DH), Sambrook (Sciences DH), Foster (M&D) Absent: Woodland (ECON) I.
Call to order by CAC Chair, Jill Dieterle, at 3:33pm II.
Approval of Minutes a. Full CAC Minutes of 9/6/12: Move to approve: Plagens, Bradley second (Motion passes 17-­‐0-­‐1) b. Arts subcommittee minutes of 9/20/12: Move to approve: Haynes, Sacksteder second (Motion passes 18-­‐0-­‐0) *Dieterle suggested separating out COT 709 because representation from the College of Technology (regarding this course) was to have come to the Arts subcommittee meeting, but they were not informed of the time or place. *Haynes noted that she would like statistics related classes to be additionally sent to the Science subcommittee for review in the future. c. Science subcommittee minutes of 9/20/12: Move to approve: (Motion passes 18-­‐0-­‐0) III.
Old Business a. Elections Candidates for URSLC (one Arts, one Sciences), Workload/Equivalencies (1 from CAC), and Assessment committees (3 from CAS) needed to be elected. Several people spoke on behalf of candidates from their departments for these committees Elected individuals were: URSLC—Margaret Crouch (Arts), Natalie Dove (Sci) Workload/Equivalencies Committee—Jill Dieterle Assessment—Jenny Kindred (CMTA), Beth Kubitsky (P&A), John Donne (ENG) b. Sustainability proposal (Laporte)—As mentioned before, the charge of this proposal is to examine change in size of 10 degree granting programs. Worked with CAC budget committee to come up with the proposed identification process. Distributed a list of the programs that exist (and their rates of growth or decline) based upon the IRIM enrolled majors report. Noted that this is not a final list and does not indicate who will be pulled for further study. In selecting programs for further study, new programs (less than four years old) will be filtered out. Programs that are already being phased out or that have had a substantial revision in the last four years will also be removed from further consideration. Slopes will be calculated via linear regression. For programs with steep slopes, degrees granted and numbers of enrolled majors will be retrieved. Laporte showed some sample data regarding rapidly increasing and decreasing programs at both undergraduate and graduate level (via handouts and slide show). Would like feedback on this as a process How can we capture nuances of this process? How do we decide what the “right” size is for a department (majors/faculty members)? How will this influence priority listing for faculty positions? Important to note no decisions have been made yet. Won’t necessarily be 5 high growth and 5 low growth. There will be a step in between before we figure out who is on the list. Looking at national trends, economic cycles, etc. It is hoped that this process can help us make some decisions about moving forward and how to move forward. c. BA/BS degree granting—09/10 CAC subcommittee drafted proposal to change way BS/BA degrees were granted. Was previously that if Foreign language was taken, a BA was granted and if not, the BS was granted. Both CAC and Faculty Senate passed unanimously a proposal that suggested that each dept decide what degree to grant and foreign language requirement be dropped for BA. Jack Kay (provost at time) asked for framework for this proposal. Subcommittee re-­‐met and reworded proposal. Passed unanimously on both CAC and Faculty Senate again. Now provost has sent another memo to faculty senate asking for additional input. CAC was not asked for input this time. In the new proposal, the language suggests that the BA will become the default degree granted and BS will be awarded if student takes 60 credit hours in sciences. Faculty Senate objected to 60 hours so that is open for negotiation. Also unclear whether 60 hours in sciences includes social sciences or not. Rhonda has not given clarification on this matter yet. Jill presented data on how this would affect currently existing programs within the CAS. Many scientific disciplines will not reach this 60 hour threshold (including computer science, psychology, etc.). This would then require a minor in math, science, or technology before a BS degree could be granted to these majors. There is additional concern that there is again a baseline degree and then one of privileged status. In short, the new proposal stemming from the provost’s office puts this back into play. After some lengthy discussion, a motion was put on the table. Motion (Haynes): CAC strongly objects to the notion of having either BS or BA degree as the default degree (as implied in the language of this proposal). In addition, we would like language included that says the BA degree requires at least 45 hours in the arts and humanities and the BS degree requires 45 hours in the sciences (both natural and social), math and technology.. Corsianos seconded this motion and it passed unanimously (18-­‐0-­‐0) IV.
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New Business None. Dean’s remarks None. Chair’s Remarks None. Faculty Remarks None. VIII.
Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 5:00pm. Respectfully submitted, Natalie Dove CAC Secretary 2012-­‐2013