Skip to main content

2016-04-19 Minutes

MINUTES
MEETING OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARDS
of the General College and the College of Arts and Sciences
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
3:30–4:50 PM, 3020 Steele Building

Members in attendance: Daniel Anderson, Navin Bapat, Rob Bruce, Kelly Giovanello, Amy Herring, Li-Ling Hsiao, Doug MacLean, Lee May, Abigail Panter, Vladas Pipiras, Michael Rolleri, Margie Scarry, Nick Siedentop, Keith Sockman, James Thompson, Charlie Tuggle

Guest: Alice Dawson, Gina Difino, Robert Miles, Lora Wical, Marilyn Wyrick

Absent: Chris Derickson, Kevin Guskiewicz, Cary Levin, Christian Lundberg, Mark Schoenfisch, Louise Toppin

Staff: Ben Haven

1. Welcome by Abigail Panter, Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education

Senior Associate Dean Panter welcomed the Boards to the final meeting of the academic year and started the meeting with a couple of announcements.

The Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) is in the process of designing and implementing a pilot program for an Undergraduate Testing Center for students with a final exam excuse. This service will be provided by OUE instead of Accessibility Resources & Service, which is designed for a specific purpose. To qualify, a student must have a valid excuse approved by an academic advisor from the Academic Advising Program in addition to a letter with make-up exam options from Dean Panter. The student works with the instructor to find an adequate make-up opportunity. The student and instructor have three options: (1) find an alternate time to hold the exam that is mutually acceptable; (2) if the student needs accommodations, use the exam administration capacity of Accessibility Resources & Service; and/or (3) use the new Undergraduate Testing Center. If the student and instructor choose the Undergraduate Testing Center, the instructor will write an email to the Testing Center administrators with information about the course number, preferred exam date/time, required testing conditions, and instructor and student phone numbers. Andy Lang from OASIS then sends a separate email to the instructor to confirm the instructions related to a secure exam upload and post-exam secure delivery back. If the pilot is successful, the Undergraduate Testing Center will be in operation at the end of each fall and spring semester.

Last week, a committee from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) conducted a three-day site visit to campus. The committee met with many administrators, faculty, students, and staff across campus. They plan to produce a final report with recommendations, which they will present to the SACSCOC Board of Trustees in June.

2. Study Abroad Advisory Report and Burch Field Research Seminar Proposals
Robert Miles, Associate Dean for Study Abroad and International Exchanges
Gina Difino, Director, Honors Study Abroad and Burch Programs

Five study abroad proposals were presented to the Boards by Associate Dean Robert Miles. Three proposals cover science and/or sustainability. Two proposals increase supply in two geographic areas in which there is much student demand, Scandinavia and Scotland. One Burch Field Research Seminar was presented to the Boards by Gina Difino. The proposal is faculty-led and offers students two five-week-long honors seminars.

3. Academic Appeals Committee and Review of the Faculty Guidelines
Lee May, Associate Dean for Academic Advising
Alice Dawson, Senior Assistant Dean for Academic Advising
Lora Wical, Senior Assistant Dean and Deputy Director, Academic Advising
Marilyn Wyrick, Senior Assistant Dean for Academic Advising

Associate Dean May began by providing some basic information about the academic appeals process to the Boards. Academic appeals are reviewed 50 weeks out of the year, and roughly 700 are reviewed per year, with a steady increase year-to-year. This academic year, Academic Advising expects to review at least 750 total appeals.

The Faculty Guidelines for Appeals should be reviewed periodically by the Administrative Boards. There are some select cases not currently addressed in the Guidelines and new policies, such as the eligibility policy, which will go into effect soon. In light of these recent changes and the limited scope of the current Guidelines, revisions to the policy are in order.

May and her senior assistant deans then asked for clarification on some cases not specifically covered in the Faculty Guidelines for Appeals.

  • When a student submits an appeal, they are expected to provide supporting documentation. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) can provide supplementary medical and/or psychological documentation, but it is increasingly limited resource-wise. For instance, CAPS cannot provide resources for students who are not getting ongoing treatment at UNC-Chapel Hill. Many students have outside care providers, but the Guidelines do not specifically address documentation from outside. The Boards agree that it is a good policy to accept outside documentation in lieu of CAPS documentation until these cases can be addressed in the guideline revisions.
  • Students cannot drop a class that they have passed; however, students do often have a compelling reason for dropping even if they have passed the course. Additionally, students would be dropped if they failed the course, so in some cases students are being rewarded for doing less well in a course. Currently, so long as the issue is compelling – no matter the grade – the appeal is considered. This decision to review each petition, regardless of grade, may be inadvertently privileging students who do well. Without more data and time to consider both sides of the argument, the Boards were unable to make recommendations for how to proceed.

Panter suggested a group of Boards members should be tasked with reviewing the Guidelines document, going through scenarios and problem points, and making recommendations for revision. She asked for volunteers for this committee. This work will begin in fall 2016.

4. NCSSM and UNC-Chapel Hill Articulation Agreement Update

Please refer to Boards’ meeting minutes from Tuesday, September 29, 2015 and Tuesday November 10, 2015 for background and additional materials on this agenda item.

The Office of Undergraduate Curricula received confirmation from the North Carolina School of Science and Math that their online courses are the same as their in-person courses. The activities, instructor, and assignments are the same.

Originally, the articulation agreement was signed by UNC–Chapel Hill with the understanding that only students who graduated from NCSSM will receive UNC credit for the in-residence courses. In fall 2015, there were some students who enrolled in NCSSM online courses through their online program, but did not graduate from NCSSM. Because the language within the articulation agreement was unclear, Dean Kevin Guskiewicz and other administrators approved the articulation of credits for the online courses for students who enrolled at Carolina in fall 2015.

For fall 2016, a pilot program was recommended to allow students who have taken NCSSM courses, but have not graduated from NCSSM, to receive credit. This includes students in the online program and students who returned to their original high school to graduate. The Office of Undergraduate Education will review the data after one year looking at student performance to see if the students are progressing in successive courses in a similar manner to those students who have graduated from NCSSM. While one year will not provide much data, going beyond the one year cycle may establish a precedent which would be hard to go back on. The Boards approved the pilot program with a plan to re-evaluate after one year.

5. Curriculum Committee Report, James Thompson, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Curricula

The Curriculum Committee Report was approved as distributed.

On behalf of Dean Kevin Guskiewicz, Senior Associate Dean Panter and Curriculum Director Siedentop thanked the Boards’ members for their service to the University and excellent work this academic year, giving special thanks to those members whose terms ended at the end of this semester: Daniel Anderson, Navin Bapat, Li-Ling Hsiao, Doug MacLean, Michael Rolleri, Margie Scarry, Mark Schoenfisch, and Charlie Tuggle.

The meeting adjourned at 4:50pm.

UNC_CAS542_png

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.