Baccalaureate Core Committee

Voting members present: Heather Arbuckle, Kathy Becker-Blease, Daniel Faltesek, McKenzie Huber, Matthew Kennedy, Filix Maisch, Lori McGraw, Bob Paasch, David Roundy, Rorie Spill Solberg, Kaplan Yalcin
Voting members absent: Aidas Banaitis
Ex-Officio members present: Faculty Affairs – Heath Henry; DPD Director – Nana Osei-Kofi; Ecampus – Craig Rademacher; WIC Director – Vicki Tolar Burton
Guests present: Tam Belknap

Category Proposals

• WGSS 414 – Writing Intensive Course (WIC) and Difference, Power, and Discrimination (DPD)
  • The course is already coded for DPD but would also like to be coded for WIC.
    • DPD courses are supposed to be accessible to all students; WIC courses are major specific.
  • The course also has a 200 level pre-requisite that is also coded for DPD, as well as Social Processes & Institutions.
    • This means that a portion of the students taking this course have likely already taken a DPD course through the pre-requisite.
  • The College of Liberal Arts (CLA) may not have seen the issues with this submission as there are no written policies that can guide the submitters or inform them why this could be an issues.
    • There is language that states the DPD courses should be accessible to all students, regardless of major. WIC courses are major specific by definition.
    • 49% of current students (and within the last five years – 119 total enrollees – 58 students) are within the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) program. Most of the other students are from CLA. Only 18 students come from other majors.
  • The committee discussed holding courses like this until they come to a decision on what policies they will develop in regards to double-dipping.
    • How many courses in the Baccalaureate Core double-dip as a WIC? How broad of an impact is this and how will this affect other courses that similarly categorized?
      • WGSS has two other WIC courses.
  • Can the committee have a note posted online stating their intent to hold on courses like this?
  • The discussion will be tabled until another meeting.
• Discussion Needed
  • SOC 372 – Difference, Power and Discrimination
    • The course meets the DPD guidelines but there are six popular culture courses between two units and four of them are also in the DPD cateogy.
      • The committee shared their concerns of competition with the originators
      • The Liaisons have shared their concerns but have made no formal request to stop the proposal.
    • The CLA curriculum council currently does not have a thorough review process, but is discussing developing one to catch things like this.
    • This sort of issue brings up the Baccalaureate Core Committee’s (BCC) own policy issues and how there is no formal, documented policies in place to prevent over saturation and competition.
    • The committee did decide that popular culture as a topic does seem to draw a lot of students, which may allow for the additional course.
      • Approved with a request to add the DPD statement to the syllabus
  • PHL 234 – Western Culture
    • The course is attempting to be both a Western Culture and a Cultural Diversity course.
    • Readings are largely about Western philosophers, though they have added a few non-western ones.
      • The committee noted that it’s not much of a Cultural Diversity course if 80% of the course is about Western Culture. Though adding more philosophers from other cultures takes away from the Western Culture aspect.
      • Answers for Cultural Diversity on the form have less detail and question 2 is not answered at all.
    • Approved for Western Culture; denied for Cultural Diversity. The committee will note to the originator that, while it doesn’t meet the Cultural Diversity requirements, it does a great job meeting the Western Culture ones.
  • GEOG 103 – Cultural Diversity
    • Will be discussed at a later date.
  • ANTH 210 – Cultural Diversity
    • Course looks good, but how the Baccalaureate Core (BC) Learning Outcomes are assessed needs to be displayed more clearly on the syllabus
    • The syllabus appears to be modeled after the example document that the BCC has. Does this need to be updated?
    • They did not submit the on campus syllabus.
      • Send back for the on campus syllabus. The proposal is for a course name change, but the syllabus has not been updated.
  • SOC 351 – Difference, Power and Discrimination
    • Will be discussed at a later date.  
  • NMC 412 – Science, Technology and Society
    • Will be discussed at a later date.  
  • ANTH 380 – Contemporary Global Issues
    • Has been sent back and returned multiple times. Course content is never related to learning outcomes. It’s left unstated and implied. The committee would like to see some more specific statements in the syllabus.
      • Send back with notes to refer to previously sent suggestions.

New Business

• Workgroup day – November 18 from 11:00-1:00 PM or 11:00-12:00 PM?
  • November 11 – Veteran’s Day – no meeting
  • Leave it up to members to find a meeting space and time
• Academic Advising Council proposal
  • Head advisors will be trained by BCC members to make matriculation decisions from transfer students and make these decisions on the university level
    • Colleges are going student by student for decisions
  • The BCC cannot guarantee that courses are being taught the same from year to year and will continue to meet (BC) standards.
  • In CLA, faculty review the syllabus for the course to insure that it meets the requirements, but it’s student to student.
  • Shoulder there be a separate committee for articulation transfers?
  • The BCC would like to invite the Academic Advising Council chair to get more details on the proposal.
    • There needs to be a process to insure the courses remain aligned with BC outcomes.
  • Overall, the committee feels permanent list is not a good idea – there is no way to ensure courses continues to meet standards.
    • They agree it would be a good idea that students who submit the same course in different colleges get the same answer.