Baccalaureate Core Committee

Voting members present: Nancy Barbour (remote), Kathy Becker-Blease, Natalie Dollar (remote), Patrice Dragon, McKenzie Huber, Bob Paasch, David Roundy, Dana Sanchez, Inara Scott, Rorie Spill Solberg, Kaplan Yalcin
Voting members absent: Pat Ball, Filix Maisch, Weihong Qiu
Ex-Officio members present: Faculty Affairs – Heath Henry, WIC Director – Vicki Tolar Burton

• A Shared Governance Vision for OSU’s Baccalaureate Core
  • Discussion
    • The job description for the Baccalaureate Core (BC) Director needs to be rewritten before the proposed document can be brought to the Executive Committee.
  • Proposed 10-Year Cycle – Heath
    • Sometimes the Baccalaureate Core Committee (BCC) does not have enough time to assess all courses in a category. The courses then get pushed back to the next review cycle.
      • When this happens, it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of changes or courses.
      • With the proposed 10-year cycle, there is some concern that courses may go 20 years or more without a proper review.
    • It was discussed that for courses that have not been taught in several years, the department should have to make an arguments for its continuation in the BC.
      • Removing some of these courses from the BC could lessen the workload of the committee.
    • It was brought up that if the 2 low years could be spaced a little differently, the low BC review years could be catch-up years on recertifications.
      • It was mentioned that not all departments are good at following through on required changes or fixes and the BCC doesn’t have the bandwidth to chase them.
    • Cascades campus has an expedited process; should the BCC be concerned about BC courses being approved without BCC reviewing it?
      • The Cascades campus does have its own version of the BCC and they are open to collaboration and setting up opportunities for faculty development to ensure that their courses meet the BC requirements.
        • The proposed BC Director could facilitate communication between campuses.
    • The committee is overall happy with the proposed 10-year cycle, provided departments with courses that have not been taught in several years can either follow through with filling the teaching position or are willing to temporarily decertify the course until they have an updated syllabus.
• Category II Reviews
  • Writing Intensive Curriculum
    • Discussion Needed
      • ED 451
        • Students are creating a portfolio and prepping for a formal exam.
        • Writing assignments do meet the 2,000 minimum word count.
        • It was unclear if the students were APA citations and outside sources for their writing.
          • The WIC Director verified that they are citing multiple sources.
            • Approved, return with notes to make how students will be citing their sources more evident in the syllabus.
    • No Discussion Needed
      • PPOL 422
        • Approved with no notes.
  • Social Process & Institutions
    • Discussion Needed
      • HST 440
        • Typical issues with syllabus are present:
          • Lack of proper links for student conduct and disability access services.
        • The critical thinking outcomes need to be more explicit in the syllabus.
        • The Social Processes & Institutions (SPI) category has very specific outcomes and there is some concern that, since this is a topics course, other teachers’ syllabi may not align with them.
          • It was suggested that the faculty follow a model syllabus to ensure that everyone’s courses still meet the SPI outcomes.
        • How the course meets the critical thinking outcomes needs to be more evident on the syllabus.
          • Will be sent back for revisions and with suggestions.
  • Science, Technology, and Society
    • Discussion Needed
      • HSTS 452
        • The reviewer could not find anything explicit about what assignments meet the BC learning outcomes.
          • Sent back for revisions
  • Physical Science
    • Discussion Needed
      • CH 231
        • The link to BCC Syllabus Requirements is broken.
        • They are missing the verbatim BC statement and the Biological and Physical Science Outcomes are pasted directly from the site.
        • There is no course calendar or grading scale it is unclear how the learning outcomes are being met and how students will be assessed.
        • The course has an unusual amount of required prerequisites. They are wanting to change MTH 111 from a con-current requisite to a pre-requisite as it is noted that students who do not take it before CH 231 tend to have a high DFW rate.
          • The syllabus requires major revisions and will be sent back to the originator with notes.
  • Literature and the Arts
    • Discussion Needed
      • ENG 240
        • Will students be able to see how the assignments connect to the outcomes.
        • The BC questions did not have discussion on how consistency would be maintained between courses.
          • The course is likely being taught with only one instructor.
        • The committee noted it was difficult to assess the originators Primary Assessment Methods without some example assignments.
        • The syllabus makes references to Blackboard. OSU no longer uses Blackboard and has migrated to OSU Canvas.
        • The reviewer noted that schedule was set up rather differently; rather than focusing on weeks, it went into days.
          • The days listed are not very specific and could lead to confusion for students.
        • The Relative to Course Content column in the table needs to be a little more specific for first two BC learning outcomes.
          • How students are assessed and how the course connects to the BC learning outcomes needs to be explicit on the syllabus.
            • Send back for revisions.
•  Academic Policies and Procedures (APA)
  • Review of Baccalaureate Core Courses policy
    • APA has asked the committee to approve a title change for the policy
      • Approved

Minutes prepared by Caitlin Calascibetta