Baccalaureate Core Committee

Voting members present: Pat Ball, Nancy Barbour, Isabelle Brock, Alix Gitelman, Filix Maisch, Bob Paasch, Bill Smyth, Rorie Spill Solberg
Voting members absent: Natalie Dollar, Weihong Qiu, Dana Sanchez, Inara Scott
Ex-Officio members present: Heath Henry – Academic Affairs, Shannon Riggs – Ecampus, Vicki Tolar Burton – WIC Director

1. Category II Proposals
   • FW 324
     • The response form discusses how the Baccalaureate Core Learning outcomes are assessed but this information is not present in the syllabus. Their 1250-word paper is a sea-food guide, but looking at previous examples leads the committee to believe that the assignment may not be suitable as a writing exercise and may not meet the minimum writing requirement.
     • The proposal will be sent back for revisions.
   • FW 345
     • There is a brief mention in examinations on how assignments are connected to the course-specific outcomes, but there are no specific examples and the statement is vague, overall. Their writing assignment is broken up with a poster that is supposed to have a minimum of 1000 words. It is not clear if the 1250-word minimum requirement will be met.
     • The proposal will be sent back for revisions.
   • WSE 385
     • There is no indication at all on how course outcomes are linked or how they are assessed. There is no description for any of the assignments. The syllabus seems rather vague, overall.
     • The proposal will be sent back for major revisions.
2. Discussion
   • SPAN 439
     • The college is asking to remove SPAN 439 from the Baccalaureate Core. It was confirmed that they have several Writing Intensive Course (WIC) alternatives for students to take. It was explained by a member of the committee that removal from the Baccalaureate Core is not much different than submitting a course through the Course Proposal System and, since it does not meet multiple categories, it should be fine to push it through the system.
   • One member of the committee brought up a previous Calculus course that came through. It had several syllabus errors, as well as several limiting prerequisites and was sent back to the originator for revisions. Most of the issues were resolved, but the issue of the limiting prerequisites remains. The originator submitted justifications for each of the prerequisites and why they were needed.
     • The committee decided to add this to the agenda for next week’s meeting.
3. Information Item
   • We have an upcoming request from the College of Education that all double degree students in ED be allowed to count their disciplinary major WIC for both degrees, with the knowledge that every student also completes the portfolio of Education documents (lesson plans, work samples, reflections, etc.). The College is putting together a proposal document to be considered by the BCC.
     • Students are continuously appealing to have their WIC from their Academic Major count towards their Education degree, so that they do not have to take two WIC courses. Most of the time, this appeal is approved. The College of Education wanted to discuss a possible policy change that would allow students to do this without having to go through the appeal process. The Committee would like to invite a member of the College of Education to come to a meeting to explain greater detail how this policy would work and answer any questions. If it goes further, the Baccalaureate Core would possibly ask the College of Education to liaison with the Unit Heads of affected departments. One member suggested bringing it to the attention of the Deans, instead, and allow the Deans to filter down the information to the Unit Heads. Another member had concerns that missing this second WIC would mean that students would be missing out on important content for their degree programs. It was confirmed that all this information was addressed in the document that was submitted to the Baccalaureate Core Committee and it would be sent out to the other members for review. It was suggested that the Baccalaureate Core Committee also reach out to the Registrar’s Office and get their opinion on the possible policy change.