agenda status: approved

Agenda:

1. Approval of the Agenda
2. Approval of February 21, 2008 minutes
3. Comments from the Vice Chair
4. Comments from the Associate Provost for Academic Services
5. Request to Establish a Specialization in Sales Leadership Communication with a stated Admission Requirement and Grade Point Requirement
   Janet Lillie, Associate Dean, College of Communication (Attachment)
   William Donohue, Professor, Department of Communication
   Richard Spreng, Associate Professor, Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management
6. Religious Observance Policy Discussion
   Ralph Putnam, Subcommittee Chair
7. Academic Integrity Policy Discussion
   Peter Cobbett, Subcommittee Chair
8. Roundtable
   
   

Phone or e-mail Sandra Walther (353-5380, swalther@msu.edu) if you cannot be present. Please remember that you are asked to send a substitute from your college.

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minutes status: approved

approved at meeting of 03/27/2008

UCAP Minutes for meeting held on 03/13/2008

Attendees: Dennis Banks, Peter Cobbett, Marty Crimp, Ruba Farah, Richard Hallgren, Jeremy Harrison, Caroline Hartig, Linda Jackson, Carolyn Loeb, Helen Mayer, Jerry Punch, Ralph Putnam, Henry Reinart, Michael Schechter, Parita Shah, Michael Shields, Jim Smith, Linda Stanford, Thomas Volkening, Chris Wenstrom

Absent: R. Sekhar Chivukula, Doug Estry, Brad McDonald

The Agenda was approved.

Minutes from the 2/21/08 meeting were approved.

Comments from the Vice Chair
Vice Chair Putnam reminded the committee that there was little time to complete committee work in order for it to be forwarded to ECAC and faculty council for consideration.

Professor Putnam introduced Jeremy Harrison, the newly appointed UCAP representative from the Law College.

Comments from the Associate Provost for Academic Services
No comments.

Request to Establish a Specialization in Sales Leadership Communication with a stated Admission Requirement and Grade Point Requirement
Janet Lillie, Associate Dean, College of Communication
William Donohue, Professor, Department of Communication
Richard Spreng, Associate Professor, Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management

The committee unanimously granted voice to Drs. Lillie, Donohue and Spreng.

Professor Donohue stated that the Sales Leadership Specialization is a response to requests from MSU students and external businesses. The Departments of Communication and Marketing and Supply Chain Management co-developed the sales leadership program to provide students with a broad knowledge of sales& marketing in addition to effective communication skills. Students for the Sales Leadership Specialization will be recruited from MSC 313, which will be the prerequisite for the specialization.

Discussion centered on the following issues:

• Justification for a 2.5 minimum grade in the MSC 313 prerequisite course.
• Double weighting of MSC 313 grade, first as a prerequisite and then as a requirement.
  It was agreed that MSC 313 would be listed as a separate requirement (prerequisite) and would be removed from the list of courses to be taken after admission to the specialization.
• Need for clarification of admission restrictions by major or college and clear statement of restrictions in the catalog.
• What is the admissions process? How will successful applicants for the specialization be chosen?
• What is the precedent for the administration of an aptitude assessment as an admission requirement? Need clarification of what aptitudes would be assessed, such as leadership qualities or communication apprehension.
• What is the educational goal of the specialization?

After discussion, the committee determined that too many unresolved issues remained to move this request forward, and deferred it to a future meeting. Professor Putnam will provide a synopsis of the committee’s concerns for response from Drs. Lillie, Donohue, and Spreng.

Several committee members suggested that, at a future UCAP meeting, the committee undertake an appraisal of its practice in reviewing programmatic requests, especially in the areas of insuring equal rigor in each proposal review and examining data regarding grade point requirements among programs.

Academic Integrity Discussion Policy Discussion
Peter Cobbett, Subcommittee Chair

Dr. Cobbett requested the Academic Integrity discussion be delayed due to the short amount of time remaining in the meeting. He requested that a special meeting of the committee be arranged to address this topic.

Motion by Michael Schechter was unanimously approved.

The committee will convene an additional meeting on April 3, 2008 to discuss the Academic Integrity proposal.

Religious Observance Policy Discussion
Ralph Putnam, Subcommittee Chair

Professor Putnam reviewed the same draft of the Religious Observance Policy proposal discussed in the March 13 committee meeting.

Discussion centered on:

• Inclusion of a link to a calendar of religious holidays in the online version of the policy.
• What constitutes unreasonable burden for an instructor when accommodating an absence for reasons of religious observance?
• Inclusion of language regarding students being advantaged due to absence for a religious holiday or students being disadvantaged by others absent due to a religious holiday.
• Inclusion of blanket policies in the proposal.

Further discussion was deferred to a future meeting due to lack of time remaining in the meeting.

Roundtable
Dr. Cobbett reported that the College of Human Medicine would continue to provide a representative to UCAP.

Meeting adjourned at noon.

Respectfully submitted by
Sandra Walther