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agenda status: approved

Agenda:

1. Approval of the Agenda
   
   
   
   
2. Approval of the September 23, 2010 Minutes
   
   
   
   
3. Request for an Opportunity for Incoming Freshmen in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree in Nursing .........(Attachment)
   Teresa Wehrwein, Associate Dean, College of Nursing
   Bess German, Director of Admissions and Student Affairs, Honors College
   James Rouse (Lt. Col.), Chairperson, Military Science Department
   
   
   
   
4. Request for a New Agricultural Technology Certificate in Viticulture .........(Attachment)
   Richard Brandenburg, Acting Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
   Vance Baird, Chairperson, Horticulture Department
   Tom Smith, Acting Associate Director, Agricultural Technology Institute
   
   
   
5. Comments from the Chairperson
   
   
   
6. Comments from the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education
   
   
   
7. Institutional Data Policy: Discussion .........(Attachment 1, Attachment 2)
   
   
   
8. Roundtable

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minutes status: approved

approved at meeting of 10/21/2010

UCAP Minutes for meeting held on 10/07/2010

Attendees: Paul Abramson, Gillian Bice, Crystal Branta, Lisa Cook, Laura Dillon, Doug Estry, Anita Ezzo, Fred Fico, Kathleen Hoag, Evan Martinak, Matt McKeon, Tom Morse, Mary Noel, Justin O’Dell, Helene Pazak, Ron Perry, John Reifenberg, Christopher Scales, Mike Shields, Jim Smith, Mary Kay Smith, Emily Storrer

Not Attending: Chenguang Wang

The Agenda was approved as amended, moving the two requests earlier in the agenda.

The Minutes of the September 23, 2010 meeting were approved with minor corrections.

Request for an Opportunity for Incoming Freshmen in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree in Nursing
Teresa Wehrwein, Associate Dean, College of Nursing
Bess German, Director, Admissions and Student Affairs, Honors College
James Rouse (Lt. Col.), Chairperson, Military Science Department

The committee unanimously granted voice to Drs. Wehrwein and German, and Lt. Col. Rouse.

Associate Dean Wehrwein stated that the request emanated from the College’s disadvantage in the recruitment of highly qualified high school students because of our current policy on admission at junior standing. These highly recruited students often accept offers from nursing programs at universities that admit directly to the major upon matriculation. Highly qualified MSU applicants have turned down admission to the MSU Nursing because they want the assurance of knowing they are definitely in a program, even when the alternative program may not be their first choice. This change would allow the College of Nursing to offer a limited number of highly qualified incoming students a reserved place in the program upon the student’s admission to the University. Dr. Wehrwein indicated the College of Nursing would accept up to 15 students under this program. Newly admitted students to this program would agree to meet a specific set of qualifications, including a minimum GPA expectation, in order to claim their reservation in the Nursing program upon becoming a junior. If the students did not meet all the requirements of the program, they would be able to apply in the regular competitive pool with other applicants.

Dr. German and Lt. Col. Rouse stated that the current admission to the major as a junior policy also negatively affected recruitment to their units as highly qualified students are looking for access to programs early in their academic careers. Lt. Col. Rouse indicated that the U.S. Army provides four-year scholarships to Army ROTC cadets with a nursing major but are reluctant to do so unless the entering cadet has been admitted to the nursing programs. The result is that many of our cadets cannot receive these scholarships until they become a major in the junior year; therefore, these highly qualified individuals opt to enroll in a university that admits to a major upon freshmen matriculation in order to receive the full benefit.


After a brief question and answer period, voice was withdrawn from Drs. Wehrwein and German, and Lt. Col. Rouse.

Motion by Ron Perry passed with one abstention.
The University Committee on Academic Policy, in its consultative capacity to the Provost, has no concerns about the request for an opportunity for incoming freshmen in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree in Nursing.


Request for a New Agricultural Technology Certificate in Viticulture
Richard Brandenburg, Acting Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Vance Baird, Chairperson, Horticulture Department
Tom Smith, Acting Associate Director, Agricultural Technology Institute

The committee unanimously granted voice to Drs. Baird, Brandenburg, and Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith stated that this fifteen-credit certificate program, which is part of the Agricultural Technology Program, was initiated at the request of wine industry representatives and educational representatives who documented a need for a credit-based program in viticulture. He explained that a previous viticulture program had been eliminated in 2005, due to low enrollment and the fact that the majority of the individuals interested in this certificate could not interrupt their work to attend classes on the MSU campus. The new program requested would not require the student to be on-campus. MSU courses would be offered through the use of various distant learning technologies. In addition, program courses will be offered through collaboration with VESTA, an NSF funded Midwestern regional center of excellence in viticulture and enology. In addition, several community colleges located in areas near wine growing regions of Michigan are part of the cooperative network. MSU courses would be delivered at the community college locations by interactive TV, VESTA delivers its courses online, and the balance of the courses taken at participating community colleges would transfer to MSU through the course transfer system.

After a brief question and answer period, voice was withdrawn from the representatives of the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences.

Motion by Lisa Cook passed with one member abstaining.
The University Committee on Academic Policy, in its consultative capacity to the Provost, has no concerns about the request for a new Agricultural Technology certificate in Viticulture.


Comments from Chairperson
Chairperson Bice remarked that Faculty Council had requested that another motion regarding online SIRS be added to the upcoming ECAC agenda. She surmised that it appears that faculty are concerned about bias in the SIRS questionnaire. Dr. Bice recommended that the SIRS Subcommittee prepare a report for presentation at the next ECAC meeting in order for ECAC to make a more informed decision.

SIRS Subcommittee Chairperson, Dr. Smith, stated that the SIRS pilot study was not intended to look at the issue of statistical validity. The pilot study is looking into ways to increase online SIRS response rates by altering policies around the administration of online SIRS. If Faculty Council is primarily concerned about statistical validity, it needs to make clear how this is defined. Are they referring to the reliability and validity of the questions that make up the current institutional SIRS form or are they looking for statistically reliable response rates?

Chairperson Bice noted that the next ECAC meeting was planned for November 2 and that she will ask that a presentation of the results of the online SIRS pilot from summer 2010 be added to its agenda.

A question was raised concerning student anonymity in online SIRS. Dr. Estry responded that currently, although a record of who responds to the online SIRS is kept, student identities cannot be linked to student responses. Dr. Gift, Vice Provost for Libraries, Computing, and Technology was given voice in order to respond to the question. Dr. Gift explained that databases could be programmed as linked or delinked. The programming in the online SIRS is delinked and that student responses are as anonymous as possible. Dr. Gift’s voice was removed.

Dr. Bice mentioned that ECAC was seeking faculty volunteers for an 8-member working group that would review and provide feedback on the University’s Anti-Discrimination Policy, a proposed Anti-Discrimination Policy user manual, and the University Sexual Harassment Policy. Fred Fico volunteered to be the representative from UCAP. There were no other volunteers and the committee expressed no objections.

Comments from the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education
There were no comments from the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education.

Institutional Data Policy: Discussion
David Gift, Vice Provost for Libraries, Computing, and Technology

Dr. Gift mentioned that the UCAP suggestion about additional training had been added to his unit’s agenda as it considered the new Institutional Data Policy. He stated that unit administrators would be responsible for administration of the new policy. Because of the variability in unit work, each unit would not require all levels of training. Some would only need FERPA training whereas in other units the administrator or fiscal officer would need other specific training. On the other hand, clinical units would need all of that and more. It would fall to the unit administrator to determine the training landscape required within his/her unit. The proposed policy is more general than specific because occasionally someone encounters this type of information and needs to understand the care that should be given to this information. Dr. Gift stated that a website was being developed that would discuss the issues of training and a brochure would be available in print and online. All of this was a subset of a managing data website his group has maintained for years, a website that has been used as a model by other universities. He added that attention needed to be given to the method and frequency of reminders about the need for attention to this policy and that his unit was examining the effectiveness of the channels that would be used for communicating the reminders and the policy.

Chairperson Bice suggested that she write a memo to ECAC providing the points discussed by UCAP to present for discussion and approval at the next UCAP meeting. There were no objections from the committee.

Roundtable
Committee members discussed difficulties they were having with downloading committee material from the UCAP website and the possibility of updating members by email in addition to updating the website on any agenda or materials changes prior to meetings.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by
Sandra Walther

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