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2015-11-10 Minutes

MINUTES
MEETING OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARDS
of the General College and the College of Arts and Sciences
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
3:30–4:55 PM, 3020 Steele Building

The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m. and chaired by Senior Associate Dean Abigail Panter.

Members in attendance: Rob Bruce, Li-Ling Hsiao, Doug MacLean, Cary Levin, Christian Lundberg, Lee May, Abigail Panter, Vladas Pipiras, Michael Rolleri, Margie Scarry, Mark Schoenfisch, Nick Siedentop, Keith Sockman, James Thompson, Louise Toppin, Charlie Tuggle

Guests: Deborah Eaker-Rich, Carol Tresolini, Silvia Tomaskova, Lynne Vernon-Feagans

Absent: Daniel Anderson, Navin Bapat, Chris Derickson, Karen Gil, Kelly Giovanello, Amy Herring, Christopher Putney

Staff: Ben Haven

1. Welcome by Senior Associate Dean Abigail Panter

Abigail Panter welcomed the Boards and started the meeting with a few updates.

  • A report to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS) is due in early January. UNC-Chapel Hill must respond to seven responses from SACS. The College, in collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA), is currently drafting this response. The first draft response deadline is mid-November.
  • A naming convention for the Online Syllabus Management Tool (OSM) has been established. The tool was successfully piloted this term and is still on schedule to go live in spring 2016.
  • The Office of Arts and Sciences Information Services (OASIS) and the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) are looking into improving the learning contract workflow. They are exploring whether or not this can be done online and how to document exceptions for more than two students enrolled (labs being the main exception).
  • The syllabus review is underway for fall 2015.
  • For faculty interested in creating new courses, the idea of a syllabus template incorporating best practices, a schedule/calendar population feature, and the honor code statement was discussed.

2. UNC CORE Certificate Program

Rob Bruce, Director, William and Ida Friday Center

Carol Tresolini, Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives

Rob Bruce and Carol Tresolini began with an overview of the certificate program. Over the past year the University has launched an initiative designed to help service members and veterans succeed. In May 2015, the University announced the first phase of UNC CORE, an online credit program of existing courses created to help active-duty military, veterans, and National Guard and Reserve members complete their general education requirements. Soon thereafter, it was evident that there were a couple of additional components that needed to be considered to help this student population.

  1. Advising component – the Friday Center had almost advertised too many courses. It would be helpful to have advisors guide students and put them on track toward a degree.
  2. For most of the branches, students must have a certificate or degree program to qualify for tuition assistance.

The Friday Center consulted with the College of Arts and Sciences to consider a certificate program. Working in collaboration with the Office of Undergraduate Curricula, the Friday Center focused on foundation courses and courses that would transfer across other institutions [based on General Education Transfer Component (UGETSE)], which has a standard approval process. There is still no guarantee of admission, but credit transfer would be accepted.

Since this population is often active duty and asynchronous with standard course meeting patterns, students would have to take self-paced courses to complete the certificate. There are some drawbacks to the self-paced courses. There are oftentimes lags in participation after enrollment and the initial flurry of activity, and since these courses are self-monitored, there must be a mechanism in place to proctor the final exam. The Friday Center has developed a process to help students persist in their work and take the final exam with supervision in place: 1) initially, faculty work with an instructional designer at the Friday Center to design courses with these students in mind 2) a team at the Friday Center will reach out to these students after initial enrollment to keep them on track 3) to complete the course, the final exam must be administered by a proctor. There are testing centers across the globe that offer exam proctor services in certain circumstances.

Bruce and Tresolini then responded to Boards’ comments and questions, including concerns about outside of military interest, demand forecasting, admissions and acceptance policies, the value of the certificate to this population, whether or not the online credit limit will apply to those students who pursue a degree at UNC-Chapel Hill upon completion of the certificate, and how this program will be assessed. Only military students can enroll in this certificate, so there would be no demand outside of this specific population. Estimating demand is still difficult; an advisory board will be meeting regularly to put a better figure on demand over time. The admissions process will be handled through the Office of Undergraduate Admissions; the students must be active military to qualify, but there is also a more rigorous admissions process in place (see the attached proposal, section 9, page 8, for more details).

There is value for students pursuing this certificate program, as these credits would transfer in if students apply and are admitted as full-time, degree-seeking students to UNC-Chapel Hill or any other UNC system school. Additionally, this thoughtful, intentional approach to selecting courses would put students on the right degree path to fulfill certain General Education and curricular requirements. Online courses that are completed through the certificate program would not contribute towards the maximum number of online credits (24 credits) if the student matriculates to UNC-CH as a degree-seeking student. Finally, an assessment coordinator will be evaluating the curriculum, rates of completion, student progress toward degrees, and other program metrics.

With questions answered, and concerns and recommendations noted, the Boards approved the CORE Certificate Program.

3. Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies

Silvia Tomaskova, Professor and Chair, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies

The Department of Women’s and Gender Studies has had a graduate minor in Women’s and Gender Studies; however, enrollment is low. Graduate certificates tend to be interdisciplinary, which is a benefit to students pursuing graduate degrees outside of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. With this certificate, these students will attain competency in women’s and gender studies research methods. The certificate proposal is modeled on the University of Michigan’s program, indicating a strong leaning and focus in women’s studies rather than a more broad approach. The Boards approved the certificate.

4. Human Development and Family Studies Undergraduate Major, School of Education

Deborah Eaker-Rich, Senior Associate Dean, Chief Academic Officer, and Director of Graduate Studies, School of Education

Lynne Vernon-Feagans, Coordinator of Education M.A./Ph.D. (ECIL) and Professor, School of Education

The School of Education currently has an undergraduate major for child development and family studies, but this is a licensure program, and the School is phasing out their licensure programs at the undergraduate level. There is a good deal of interest in the helping professions, including social work, education, and other applied social disciplines. A Human development and family studies major would capture many of these students in their undergraduate career. It is a more applied major, focused on these professions. This program would also provide the opportunity for a student to take some courses early to apply to a master’s degree. The Boards provided feedback.

5. North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM) Articulation Agreement Follow-Up Item

Please refer to Boards’ meeting minutes from Tuesday, September 29, 2015 for background and additional materials on this agenda item.

During the course of today’s discussion, Boards members agreed that there are two issues to resolve before a decision can be reached.

  • Are the online courses different from the seated courses at NCSSM. Should credit articulate in for both kinds of courses?
  • Should the articulation agreement apply to non-graduates of the NCSSM program who have taken courses at NCSSM (some students attend NCSSM as a junior and then return to their high school as a senior)?

The OUE, in collaboration with Boards’ members and colleagues across campus, will follow up and provide this additional information. The Boards will then reconsider the articulation agreement.

6. Curriculum Committee Report, Associate Dean James Thompson

The Boards approved the most recent Curriculum Committee Report as distributed.

7. Curriculum Revisions, Curriculum Director Nick Siedentop

The Boards approved the following curriculum revisions, effective with the fall 2016 semester.

Undergraduate Bulletin text for all curriculum revisions

In celebration of the Boards’ hard work this semester, Panter suggested that the final meeting of the year end with a social gathering, location TBD.

The meeting adjourned at 4:55 PM.

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The Administrative Boards of the General College and the College of Arts and Sciences are responsible for advising the Dean of the College about the undergraduate curriculum, including changes in that curriculum, approving individual courses offered in Departments and Curricula of the College, and making decisions when requested on specifications for degrees.