Agenda/Minutes‎ > ‎2006-2007‎ > ‎

2006 - 09/14

agenda status: approved

Agenda:

    University Committee on Academic Policy

    Meeting of Thursday, September 14, 2006
    10:15 a.m., Clara Bell Smith Center


    1. Approval of the Agenda

    2. Approval of Minutes of the August 31, 2006 meeting.

    3. Comments from the Chairperson

    4. Comments from the Assistant Provost

    5. College of Music Proposal ..........(Attachment)

    6. Dean’s List Policy..........(Attachment)

    7. Undergraduate Assistants Subcommittee Report8. Student Athlete Support Services, Tour of Smith Center..........(Jim Pignataro)
    (approximate time for this is 11:15)

    Phone or E-Mail Robin Pline (353-5380; pline@msu.edu) if you cannot be present. Please remember that you are asked to send a substitute from your college.


    Attachments: August 31, 2006 Draft Minutes
    College of Music Proposal
    Dean’s List Policy

minutes status: approved

approved at meeting of 09/28/2006

UCAP Minutes for meeting held on 09/14/2006
Approved 9/28/06

University Committee on Academic Policy
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Meeting Minutes

Members Present: Dennis Banks, Sue Strouse (for Renée Canady), R. Sekhar Chivukula, Peter Cobbett, Richard Hallgren, Yen-Hwei Lin, Folke Lindahl, Helen Mayer, Ralph Putnam (Chair), Brandon Sethi, Mike Shields, Jon Sticklen, Paul Turner III, Bruce Vanden Bergh, Alex von Eye, Connie Zheng, Keri Zolman

Members Absent: Philip Moon, Tony Nunez

Others Present: Doug Estry (Acting Associate Provost and Dean), Jim Pignataro (Director of Student-Athlete Support Services), Patrick McConeghy (Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Letters), Jim Forger (Director of the School of Music)


1. Agenda (approved)

2. Minutes (August 31, 2006 minutes approved)

3. Comments from Chair
    a. Circulated sheet for people to sign up for turns to take minutes. List will be circulated via e-mail to serve as a reminder.
    b. Chairperson Putnam brought the committee up to date with the status of the Working Group for the Improvement of Undergraduate Education within ECAC. A proposal to create a Council of Liberal Learning was taken to the Faculty Council where it received strong support. Issues that need to be resolved in this matter include where within academic governance this committee would exist. The proposal calls for this committee to exist as part of the academic governance system.
4. Comments from the Associate Provost
    a. An advisory group of Undergraduate Assistant/Associate Deans will be formed to examine possible changes to repeat credit policies. Undergraduate Studies office has also pulled together information on CLEP policies from other institutions which will be discussed at another meeting.
5. College of Music Proposal
    a. Committee discussed proposal to create a College of Music (28 April 2006 memo from James Forger, Director, School of Music, to Kim Wilcox, Provost).
    b. James Forger, Director of the School of Music, and Patrick McConeghy, Acting Dean of the College of Arts & Letters, presented arguments for reconfiguring the School of Music as a College of Music and discussed questions raised by UCAP members.
    c. After Professors Forger and McConeghy left the meeting, UCAP members continued discussing the proposal, considering the strength of the arguments for establishing Music as an independent college, concerns about possible additional costs for administrative overhead, and the importance of Music continuing its efforts to connect to other groups in the University and community.
    d. The committee voted unanimously to endorse the proposal for creating a College of Music.
6. Dean’s List Policy
    a. The committee continued discussion begun in Spring 2006 of possible changes or clarification to the Dean’s List policy. The issue brought to UCAP was whether students who are dual enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and taking less that 12 credits in their undergraduate program (but a total of 12 or more undergraduate and graduate credits) should be eligible for the Dean’s List. Discussion points included the value of recognizing students who strive for excellence by pursuing masters degrees while still enrolled as undergraduates, the different grading assumptions for undergraduate and graduate coursework, and the fact that the Dean’s List is an undergraduate honor with no analog for graduate study. The committee agreed that the policy should remain unchanged, but that the wording be changed to clarify that only coursework in a student’s undergraduate program counts toward the 12 credits required to qualify for the Dean’s List. The following changes to the policy were recommend by the committee by unanimous vote:
          The Dean's List honors all full–time undergraduates in the University who earn a 3.50 or better grade–point average for the courses in their undergraduate program totaling 12 or more credits for a given semester. The courses must be taken as part of the undergraduate program to be recognized as part of the semester total GPA, and not taken to fulfill the requirements of a graduate or professional degree program. The credits for a given semester must and for which grades have been recorded under the numerical grading system. The Dean’s List designation appears on the student’s official transcript. The list, prepared each semester, is displayed in the MSU Union Building and at http://www.reg.msu.edu.
7. Undergraduate Assistants Subcommittee Report
    a. No report given
8. Student Athlete Support Services, Tour of Smith Center
    a. Jim Pignataro, the Director of Student-Athlete Support Services, presented to the committee on issues facing Student-Athletes
    b. Tour of Smith Center facilities and discussion of academic support services for Student- Athletes followed

Respectfully submitted by
Brandon Sethi


Comments