AGC Minutes
Multi-Purpose Room, SCC
September 8, 2015
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Meeting Start Time: 3:00 pm
Facilitator: Michael Vargo
Guests:
Lakisha Beck – Student Records
Elaine Kampmueller – Graduation Requirements Team
Mary Lucas – Communication Studies
Tamara Scott – Graduation Requirements Team
Oscar Neal- Graduation Requirements Team
Keith St. Clair- Social Sciences
Yan Bai- Social Sciences
Gordan Vurusic- Social Sciences
AGC Members:
John Cowles
Proxy:
Raynard Ross
Approval of 4/14/2015 AGC minutes: Michael Vargo
A motion was made by Mike Light to accept the minutes from 4/14/2015 and Carol VanRandwyk seconded.
Vote: YES 98%, NO 2%, ABSTAIN 0%, passed
President’s Remarks: Dr. Steve Ender
 Opening Day: Dr. Ender expressed that this year’s Opening Day was the best ever. The TRIO students
did a great job on the panel. The mentoring and developing of relationships with students from
staff/faculty is important and the TRIO students are examples of that.
 Preschool Ground Breaking: The ground breaking for the pre-school was well attended. We are still
working on the look of the new pre-school building.
 The WalletHub Report: The WalletHub report came out. According to WalletHub, GRCC is ranked in
the bottom of community colleges. After looking into this further, their conclusions were not based on
data, and have been commented on by CCCSE (Center for Community College Student
Engagement). According to the Collegiate, students who were surveyed were surprised by the
WalletHub report.
 Blue Cross Blue Shield/Domestic Partner Benefits: Blue Cross Blue Shield is dropping domestic partner
benefits. The BOT was looking into the approval of domestic partner benefits, and the votes were
there, but if our insurance carrier does not offer the benefits, there is not a reason to take it to the BOT
meeting next month.
 Student Head Counts/Budget: Dr. Ender shared budget information. GRCC is down in student head
count, however, we hit our projections, and the budget will be balanced. We will leave faculty
positions open, but we have budgeted to hire 5-6 positions. We know that more faculty are leaving
at the end of this year, via VESP. We will possibly be hiring for the fall of 2016, but we will be cautious.
Enrollment numbers are down and we don’t know if we’ve hit the floor yet. We need 2-3 years to
look at enrollment, in order to hire more faculty.
Message from ExecAGC: Jennifer Batten
 AGC Executive Committee met a couple times over the summer to discuss the end of the year
evaluations.
 Election results: Dan Gendler & Nan Schichtel were elected to ExecAGC. Marty Hillard was elected
as SWD adjunct faculty representative, Susan Vanderveen was elected as SAS adjunct faculty
representative, and Laura Kennett was elected as SAS At-Large full-time faculty representative.
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
Year-End Report Status – We will not be printing the year-end report this year. The report will only be
available electronically on AGC webpage.
Highlights from evaluation (2014-15):
o Number of presentations – the standard is three presentations, however many questioned
that. AGC will propose updating by-laws to include wording for two presentations instead of
three for certain circumstances.
o Implementation concerns:
 Presenters are asked to think about how policies impact students and to present the
pros and cons.
 Teams are encouraged to express concerns in decision papers.
 Provost Chesley will be updating policies in December and at the end of the year.
o Team/Committee memberships:
 AGC Exec solicited committee members earlier this summer in order for faculty to put
the committee on their FPE.
o Table Discussions:
 Beneficial, good conversations, gives good feedback, and gives quiet members an
opportunity to be heard.
o Late feedback:
 There were changes to the policies proposals between 2nd and 3rd presentations,
changes came too late.
o Policy concerns:
 CLS policy, Academic Standing Policy, Grade Policy, Gen Ed Policy, Curriculum Model
policy – some feel these need to be reviewed before they are scheduled for review.
Please submit an issue paper to AGC Exec if you want to propose bringing a policy to
review sooner than scheduled. AGC will decide whether to bring it back before
review schedule.
Approval of Standing Committees and Chairs/Approval of Non-voting Members: Michael Vargo
DLFAB: Chair – Garry Brand
Vote: YES 100%, NO 0%, ABSTAIN 0%
IIPD: Chair – Paul Krieger
Vote: YES 100%, NO 0%, ABSTAIN 0%
Grade Appeal: Chair – Brent Spitler
Vote: YES 100%, NO 0%, ABSTAIN 0%
Excellence in Education: Chair – Kate Byerwalter
Vote: YES 100%, NO 0%, ABSTAIN 0%
Sabbatical: Chair – Katrina Kalisz
Vote: YES 100%, NO 0%, ABSTAIN 0%
Non-Voting Members
Vote: YES 98%, NO 2%, ABSTAIN 0%
Graduation Requirements: Patti Trepkowski & Jennifer Batten
Second presentation: The purpose of the proposal is to respond to the end of year feedback, to better align
graduation requirements with the MTA and the Curriculum Model, to make sure requirements are clear and
meet the student’s needs, and to evaluate the necessity and purpose of individual graduation elements. On
April 3rd, the Graduation Requirements Team met to discuss the principles, policy, and benchmarking. The
guiding principles are: align with transfer, align with MTA, give students & programs flexibility, align with
accreditation requirements, support ILOs and Values, and enhance graduation rates.
Three requirements were looked at:
 Should PS 110 remain as a graduation requirement?
 Should all students be required to take 6 credits of English composition in order to graduate?
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 Should all students be required to take a Wellness course to graduate?
The process: On May 4th, the team held a day-long work session to address each question. They reviewed
feedback from departments and individuals, discussed benefits and drawbacks, considered each question
based on the guiding principles, developed proposals, and voted on each item.
The Team’s Proposal:
 PS 110 should be removed as a graduation requirement.
 Graduation would require 6 credits of English composition or 3 credits of English composition and 3
credits of a MTA approved communication course.
 One credit of Wellness should remain as a requirement.
Table Discussion.
Comments:
 Keith St. Clair stated that he teaches PS 110. He’s unclear as to the number of pre-majors. In Keith’s
opinion, bullet points #1 & #3 look the same. The last bullet shows that there is no urgency for the
change. With English, there is a compromise, why not do this with PS? American Gov’t is a good class
for students to understand our government. Do you think this is a time for people to not understand
American Government?
 Tony VanderArk spoke on the English comp requirement. He stated that it is important to recognize
where our students are when they come here. Two semesters of English is important. College writing is
expected. Two semesters is the best thing we can give our students and only one semester would be
a disservice.
 Shelly Richter commented that this was a hard decision for the team. All team members fought for
and were passionate about what they thought is the best for the students. The proposal gives more
choices and solutions for the students and this is why the team made these decisions.
 Mike Light stated that he thinks the proposal is conflicting.
 Lakisha Beck stated that if we wanted to expand the requirement beyond PS 110, but still have
required courses, the Economics courses are comparable and students could take one of them
instead of PS 110.
 Heather Richards is a PS 110 faculty and team member. She stated that PS 110 transfers at the
highest rate. Our biggest transfer school is GVSU and GVSU doesn’t offer PS 110 because we do. In
Heather’s table discussion, they agreed that the requirements should be left alone, as is.
 Lynnae Selberg stated the issue is that PS 110 transfers but it doesn’t count to meet program
requirements.
 Tamara Scott stated, from her perspective as a team member, that PS 110 is not being removed as
an option. This just gives students more options and departments can still require PS 110 in their
programs.
 Jennifer Batten shared some statistics: of the students with 45 credits or more who left GRCC without
graduating, 31.4% were missing PS 110 and 44.7% were missing a Wellness course.
Please send feedback to Patti and Jennifer by Sept. 18.
Substitutions and Waivers: Diane Patrick & Patti Trepkowski
Why a policy? Currently, we do not have standards and criteria that are consistent in order to ensure the
integrity of our degree; we have to ensure that students have skills and knowledge for work or transfer, and
we need to meet HLCs core components. This proposal stems from the work of the Curriculum Operations
Support Team (COST) which the Provost asked the team to bring to AGC.
Alternatives such as transfer credit, articulated credit, tested credit, prior learning credit are preferred
alternatives to substitutions or waivers. Currently, we will use the Interim Substitution Process: 1) the student
makes a request to the DH 2) The DH makes a decision to move it forward to AD 3) The AD moves it forward
to Student Records.
The proposed course substitution policy summary states:
 Course substitutions are made in the context of program requirements.
 Course substitutions must maintain the integrity of program.
 Substituted courses must include substantially the same learning outcomes as the required course.
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Proposed Course Substitution Guidelines:
 All course substitutions are granted per program and must be on a one to one basis.
 Outcomes in the substitute course must meet 2/3 of the outcomes of the required course. Program
requirements for minimum course grades must be met. If no program grade requirements are
specified, the GRCC institutional grading policy applies.
 No substitutions will be given for certificate programs that are 15 credits or less.
 One (1) course may be substituted or waived per certificate if over 15 credit hours.
 Three (3) courses may be substituted or waived per degree.
 Substitutions can only be made if the student’s opportunity to achieve the program learning
outcomes is maintained.
 Substitutions can only be granted using GRCC courses.
 The deadline for substitution approvals is the last day of each semester.
 Substitutions will be noted in MyDegreePath and officially posted on the student’s transcript at the
time of graduation.
 If a course substitution is requested for an Articulated Pre-Major Program, the substitution must also
be approved by the partner transfer program.
 If a substitution is requested for a particular General Education distribution course, another course in
that distribution category may be substituted, if the program learning outcomes can still be
achieved with that substitution.
Proposed Course Waiver Policy Summary states:
 The student who receives a waiver must still earn the total credit hours required for their degree.
 Waivers are granted when the student has met the requirement through an alternative means.
Proposed Course Waiver Guidelines:
 A student cannot waive a course if a Challenge Exam or Credit for Prior Learning is offered.
 Time limits can be program specific as determined by the Department Head/Program Director
depending on the currency of content and program requirements.
 Waivers do not count toward the 15- credit graduation residency requirement.
 Waivers will be noted in MyDegreePath and officially posted on the student’s transcript at the time of
graduation.
 If a course waiver is requested for an Articulated Pre-Major Program, the waiver must also be
approved by the partner transfer program.
 All graduation course requirements must be approved by the Provost or her/his designee.
Department course waivers are first approved by the DH/PD.
 The deadline for waiver approvals is the last day of each semester.
The team benchmarked several colleges and found similar content, required learning outcomes, approval
process, and reserving the use of subs and waivers to situations of hardship.
Table Discussion. Table groups discussed the pros and cons of the proposal and the proposal guidelines, and
then shared any additional information with the committee.
Next steps: Please send feedback to Patti and Diane before Sept. 28. The 2nd presentation will be Oct. 13,
2015. The 3rd presentation and vote will be Nov. 10, 2015
Meeting adjourned: 4:45pm
Orientation for New AGC Members: Dan Gendler & Amy Koning
New members after meeting – 15 minutes.
Members’ Next Steps: Please share information regarding today’s topics with department/program.
Next meeting: Tuesday, October 13, 2015 / 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. / MPR-SCC
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