Undergraduate Studies Committee
April 17, 2013
Minutes
Present:
Absent:
Guests:
Ann Agee, Rocio Avila, Bem Cayco, Paul Douglass, Cary Feria, Dennis Jaehne, Peter
Lee, Ravisha Mathur (Chair), Weider Yu
Laura Hart, Laura Ingraham,
Steve Branz (UGS), Gloria Edwards, Mark Loftus (Risk Management)
I.
Approval of Minutes.
The 4/3/13 minutes were approved with minor corrections. There were 2 abstentions.
II.
Risk Management (Mark Loftus)
Mark Loftus, the University Risk and Compliance Officer, attended the committee meeting to
discuss the CSU directive on tracking students completing service learning and internship
courses. This tracking involves signing agreements with all host agencies to cover any university
liability as well as assuring each student signs and submits a ‘learning’ agreement.
This more formalized approach was initiated by the CSU Chancellor’s office with the
implementation of EO 1064 (http://www.calstate.edu/eo/EO-1064.html), in 2011. This
executive order required each campus:
…to develop, implement, maintain and publish a student internship policy governing
internships where the university makes the placement. Electronic copies of internship-related
documents are permissible. See technical letter RM 2011-01 and the accompanying Release
of Liability Handbook.
General internship policy shall, at a minimum, include the following:
A. Internship Planning
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Individual to be responsible for oversight of the policy;
Academic policies for establishing an internship;
Awarding of academic credit;
Accommodation plan for students with special needs;
Emergency response plan;
Student compensation, if applicable; and
Minimum requirements for agreements between the internship site and
university.
B. Placement Assessment
Prior to placing students, an assessment of the appropriateness of the internship site as a
placement for CSU students shall be conducted. A written assessment summary of the
internship site shall be completed and retained by the responsible campus office and be
available for review. That summary shall respond, at minimum, to the following
considerations:
 The potential for the internship site to provide an educationally appropriate
experience;
 Identification of the potential risks of the internship site;
 Identification of an appropriate individual from the host organization to supervise
the student at the internship site;
 Evaluation of the educational environment;
 Evaluation of the potential for student academic experience and its relationship to
the student’s academic study;
 Selection criteria and basic skills required of the student; and
 Agreement of internship site to meet campus expectations, including a signed
placement agreement between the internship site and the CSU that addresses both
the internship site's and the campus's role in the internship, as well as the
student’s responsibilities.
At SJSU, there are around 5,000 internships and service learning courses offered each term. An
internship is usually defined as a semester long course of study where the student’s main
responsibility is to a host agency. A student’s attendance, learning, and progress are reported
through their host agency. A service learning opportunity is usually one component of a course,
from 3 – 6 weeks (a minimum of 10 hours) working in a host agency. If a course has a 2-3 hour
component where the student needs to interview someone outside of the university, this is not
considered either an internship or a service learning component.
CSUMB has created an open-source software program for recording community service
placements, campus internships, and academic field trips. Currently there are multiple agreements
for a ‘host’ agency, especially if these host agencies are working with a number of departments at
SJSU. This software (S-4) will allow us to enter all agreements in one database and help
eliminate duplicate agreements for each internship or service learning site.
It will also allow instructors to enter all students to make sure that the appropriate learning
agreement for all students in internship and service learning courses are signed prior to any site
visits. In the past, both agency and student forms often were not processed until the end of the
term, after the student had completed all their work.
The S-4 software will cut down on duplication of efforts, formalize the entry to student learning
agreements and will allow SJSU to distribute information. Because the information will be in a
unified database it may be easier to assess risk in various agencies and maintain the information
in one database.
In addition to the paperwork required from both the host agency and the students, there is an
additional requirement that each campus conduct site visits for any unknown internship sites to
assess the risk to the student. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of host agencies makes it
impossible to visit each site.
Although there always will be risk management issues, it is helpful to assess the risk prior to
students going to the host agency. Mark is happy to go out to classes or student groups and speak
to them about risk management.
III.
Guidelines for Double Degrees
Steve Branz discussed the spreadsheet on double degrees. He feels that the UGS committee needs
to review the double degree requirements before considering concentration requirements.
The committee would like to review information on departmental degrees prior to making any
decisions.
Action Item: The UGS department will provide information on degrees in the same department,
detailing the number of courses in common and the number of unique courses.
IV.
College Curriculum Committees
A discussion of the committee member’s interface with their college curriculum committee is
delayed until the next meeting.
Action Item: The committee members will contact chairs of curriculum committees to access
these resources so that UGS can examine best practices.
V.
UGS orientation guide
A discussion of the committee member’s input for the UGS Committee orientation guide is
delayed until the next meeting.
Action Item: Committee members should think about what they wish they knew about UGS
committee (and information regarding what is done within the committee) and develop a list of
items that they think should be included in Orientation guide. Bring these lists to the next
meeting.
VI.
Pending
 Guidelines for culminating experience and/or capstones memo to associate deans (Dennis
Jaehne).
 Changing UGS committee charge (Ravisha Mathur).
- Can be developed then vetted through the senate.
 Departmental Honors. Survey department chairs.
- Dennis is still developing the survey mechanism.
 Guidelines for Double Degrees
- Pending discussion
Meeting adjourned: 1:00 pm
Gloria Edwards