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agenda status: approved

Agenda:

AGENDA

University Committee on Academic Policy

Meeting of Thursday, February 20, 2003
10:15 a.m., Board Room, Administration Building



1. Approval of Agenda

2. Approval of Minutes of the February 6, 2003 meeting.....................................(Attachment)

3. Comments from the Chairperson

4. Comments from the Assistant Provost

5. Reconsideration of Vet Tech Change in Admission

6. Request to Allow Credit Earned in MSU Co-sponsored Study Abroad Programs to be
regular MSU Credit Rather than Transfer Credit (Office of Study Abroad)
..............[materials will be distributed electronically by Debby Mansel when available]......(Attachment)

7. Sub-committee Interim Report on Academic Integrity

8. Roundtable/Remarks


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


Attachments: February 6, 2003 Draft Minutes

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minutes status: approved

approved at meeting of 03/13/2003

UCAP Minutes for meeting held on 02/20/2003

Members Present: Michelle Beaujean, Bridget Behe (Chair), Colleen Card, Jon Sticklen (for Betty Cheng), Steve Dilley, Patricia Mullan, Folu Ogundimi, Georgia Padonu, Sharon Senk, Gary Stollak, Winston Wilkinson, Maija Zile,

Others Present: June Youatt (Assistant Provost), Helen Pazak , Ed Rosser (College of Veterinary Medicine Faculty), Kathleen Fairfax, Dean John Hudzik (Office of Study Abroad)

Chairperson Bridget Behe called the meeting to order at 10:15 a.m.

1. The agenda was approved.

2. Minutes of the February 6, 2003 meeting were approved with an editorial correction. (p.2; item 6, last sentence): Change sentence to read: This issue will be reconsidered at the next UCAP meeting with additional information to be provided to UCAP.

3. Comments from the Chair: Behe reported: (a) ECAC has forwarded the proposal to amend the footnote to the ADP to include trans-gendered persons to FC, (b) Students Protecting and Representing Education (SPARE) have formed on-campus in an effort to unite budget concerns of college students throughout MI, and (c) we should expect to see in the future a discussion of the dissolution of the Dept. of Ag Engineering and how this will impact students. 4. Comments from the Assistant Provost: deferred.

5. Reconsideration of the implications for the approved changes to the Veterinary Technology Program: Faculty representatives from the College of Veterinary Medicine discussed rationale for the change to completion of 28 credits for admission into the Bachelor of Science Program. The approved credit change was modeled after other professional programs on campus such as nursing.

Several questions/comments from UCAP members and the Assistant Provost were raised for purposes of clarification regarding the student population, number of applications, attrition. In response to questions, Pazak indicated that of those students who do not enter the University as "vet tech," most come from Pre-Vet Med and Animal Sciences, and they rarely see a major from cross-campus. Certificate students are brought in at 14 credits. Typically, 60 applications are received with a 50-50 split (certificate vs. degree). In response to a question on attrition caused by academic reasons, in the last 3 years, seven students were recessed but completed after 1 year. Students usually do not go to other majors. Students, who come later to the program, top 40 accepted, career usually extended. Students, who are turned down, usually due to admission criteria, may reapply. UCAP, after some discussion, affirmed their decision to approve the changes for admission to the Vet Tech Program.

6. Request to Allow Credit Earned in MSU Co-Sponsored Study Abroad Programs to be Regular MSU Credits Rather than Transfer Credit (Office of Study Abroad). Kathleen Fairfax presented the rationale for the proposal. Co-sponsored programs are treated as faculty-led programs with one exception: credit earned only comes back as a block of undesignated, ungraded transfer credit. This has a negative impact on students since there is no accurate record of the specific courses they took, and students have large numbers of ungraded transfer credits at the end of their academic programs.

Discussion occurred as to the extent to which departments would continue to control the use of credit earned in co-sponsored programs. Youatt indicated that the proposal allowed the course name and credit to be transferred, but decisions about the ways in which these courses and credits applied to programs remained within the purview of each department. There was some discussion about the ways this might adversely impact SCH production. There was also a question raised about the way this might affect accreditation requirements within a major or program, but the group determined that since departments had control over whether or not to accept these classes and credits as part of the program, there should not be a conflict.

There was much discussion about whether or not co-sponsored study-abroad programs should be reviewed through UCC. Some members indicated that this was unnecessary since these were not academic programs, but a set of courses which might or might not be used as substitutions within an academic program. Since the decision about substituting these courses remains a department decision, there would be no need for UCC approval. Others, however, held that some consistent University oversight was critical.

There was some discussion regarding the calculation and translation of grades to the MSU system. Youatt indicated that the "translation" would be on an institution-by-institution basis, so that grade equivalents would be determined for the institutions involved in the co-sponsored programs. This led to further discussion about whether these equivalent grades would advantage or disadvantage students.

After much discussion, the following motions were made:

1. The names of courses and the corresponding credits as taken in the co-sponsored program should appear on the transcript. (takes care of p.2-A; as on p.8.). Motion carried.

2. A second motion on grades was tabled.

The committee will continue to discuss the implications of the policy, including whether or not the grades (as earned) should be posted, and whether or not the equivalent grade should be calculated into the GPA.

7. Subcommittee Interim Report on Academic Integrity: Patricia Mullan distributed the most recent version of the subcommitttee’s report. Key findings include: existing written university policies include explicit information on academic integrity, but the information is fragmented, with insufficient cross-referencing. The committee’s review of primary policy documents and surveys of students, faculty, and administrators suggest that some policy statements are ambiguous and potentially contradictory. Some existing policy statements do not seem to promote expectations for academic integrity. The report’s recommendations, which focus on suggestions for more effective and timely dissemination, implementation and review of academic integrity policies, were discussed.

Commendations from the chair and a motion were made.
Motion to send the Interim Report to the provost was passed.

8. Roundtable/remarks: no discussion due to lack of time.

Meeting adjourned at 12:15 p.m.

Next meeting March 13, 2003

Respectfully submitted,
Georgia B. Padonu

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