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agenda status: approved

Agenda:

AGENDA

University Committee on Academic Policy

Meeting of Thursday, February 10, 2000
10:15 a.m., Board Room, Administration Building




1. Approval of Agenda

2. Approval of Minutes of the January 27 Meeting (Attachment A)

3. Comments from the Chairpersons

4. Comments from the Assistant Provost

5. Discussion of SIRS

6. Graduation with Honor/High Honor
(bring materials that were distributed for the January 27 meeting)

7. “Reading Days” Proposal - Joe Chartkoff (Attachment B)

8. Roundtable


Feb10UCAPagenda.doc

Attachments:
A. Meeting Minutes of January 27
B. “Reading Days” Proposal


Please phone or E-Mail Robin Pline (353-5380; pline@pilot.msu.edu) if you cannot be present.

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minutes status: approved

approved at meeting of 02/24/2000

UCAP Minutes for meeting held on 02/10/2000

Present: Kathryn Baker, Stephen Bentley, J. Roy Black, Laura Boehler, Howard Bossen,
Joseph Chartkoff, Cindy Gibbons, David Imig, Fred Jacobs, Kurt Lausman,
Folke Lindahl, Gerald Osborn, Jon Sticklen, Jeanne Wald, Winston Wilkinson

Others: Barbara Steidle (Assistant Provost)

1. The meeting was called to order at 10:20 a.m. The agenda was approved.

2. The minutes from January 27, 2000, were approved as presented.

3. Chairpersons’ comments:

1. Jeanne Wald reported that the Provost’s proposal to require incoming students to possess computers would be brought before the Board of Trustees at its upcoming meeting. Asst. Provost Steidle noted that the proposal had two aspects of particular significance to UCAP:
   
   1. It would require that computers be Internet-capable. New students below the level of Sophomore would be required to have such a computer starting Fall 2001.
   2. Transfer students at any undergraduate level would be required to meet this requirement starting Fall 2003.
      
2. Howard Bossen was sent by Vice Provost Paul Hunt to attend a conference on laptop computers in the classroom held during the week of Jan. 31-Feb. 4 at the University of Central Florida and sponsored by Dell Computers. Copies of Dr. Bossen’s report to UCAP on the conference were circulated to UCAP members. A revised version will be provided to Provost Simon. Key points made by the report include:
   1. Schools adopting the requirement find that parents then assume the university accepts responsibility for hardware and software maintenance.
   2. It also becomes expected that computer-based learning then becomes an integral part of collegiate learning in the classroom.
   3. Those schools have widely moved to establish or increase technology fees and use them to fund help desks on campus and well-trained technicians in dorms.
   4. The attending schools with the requirement were all much smaller than MSU.
After discussion UCAP endorsed Dr. Bossen’s report and recommended emphasis of these points:
1. UCAP should particularly emphasize the importance of the pedagogical implications of this proposal.
2. UCAP recommends that the University revisit the question of whether the University should develop arrangements with vendors to provide hardware and software on campus.
3. UCAP should stress the importance of providing adequate support services to make such usage workable, but also insist that funding to do so must not come from redirecting existing unit resources and thereby diminish their abilities to meet other essential program needs.
4. If MSU has not yet established a university-wide task force to consider these matters, it should do so as soon as possible.

4. Comments from the Assistant Provost: Dr. Steidle’s comments were included in discussions of the computer proposal and some responses to Howard Bossen’s report.

5. Discussion of SIRS: Fred Jacobs reported on his unsuccessful efforts to solicit participation at the meeting by faculty experts regarding SIRS questions and format revisions. In its previous discussions of SIRS, UCAP had developed an informal consensus that a supplementary course evaluation form be considered in which a limited number of questions would be included. These questions would serve concerns and interests held by students as to what information they would like to have to help inform them about course selection. At the present meeting, following extensive discussion, the majority of UCAP members present indicated support for a student SIRS form design that would include only perhaps three very broadly-focused questions: (a) how much did you learn in this course; (b) how effective was the teaching of the instructor; and (c) how would you rate the overall quality of the course. In view of the fact that the student representatives had left earlier for class, ASMSU representative Kurt Lausman offered to take these suggestions to ASMSU for reaction and formulation of an agreed-upon set of questions for UCAP consideration. The subject was tabled at that point until the next UCAP meeting.

6. Due to lack of further time, the agenda topics of (a) graduation with Honor/High Honor and (b) “Reading Days” proposal were tabled. The topic of Grade Marker Proposal, tabled at the end of the January 27, 2000, meeting, was not raised at this meeting and will be placed on the agenda for a subsequent meeting.

7. The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Joseph L. Chartkoff

UCAP2.10.00.doc

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