Curriculum Committee
April 27, 2012
MINUTES
Members Present: Janice Alexander, Lynn Farris, Rick Halverson, Brenda Hanson, Rich Haptonstall, Don Hickethier, Kristen Jones, Phil MacGregor, Pat Pezzelle, Pete Wade, Karla West
Others Present: Lloyd Haugen, Jessica Hopkins, Mary Jordt, Cindy Keifer, James Soular, Marlene Stoltz
Approval of April 20, 2012 minutes APPROVED
Pete Wade moved to approve the minutes; Phil MacGregor seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Action Items
NDTE 110, 111, 112, 115, 125 (revisions) APPROVED
Pete wade explained the proposal to add “or consent of instructor” as a prerequisite for these NDTE courses. Currently, WLDG 185 is listed, but a welding course is not necessary for a student to understand nondestructive testing. Brenda Hanson moved to approve the proposal; Rick Halverson seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
AVFT 133 (revision) APPROVED
Mary Jordt explained the proposal to increase the lab fee for this course from $13,250 to $13, 650 due to increases in fuel and equipment use, as requested by Red Eagle Aviation. Pete Wade moved to approve the proposal; Rick Halverson seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
EMS 255, 274, 276, 278 (deletions) APPROVED
Kristen Jones explained the proposal to delete these EMS courses due to curriculum restructuring in the Paramedicine program. Janice Alexander asked about EMS 255 which isn’t in the Paramedicine program. Pat Pezzelle moved to approve the proposal; Rich Haptonstall seconded the motion. Janice Alexander commented that the committee usually gets all the necessary information before taking action. Pat Pezzelle amended his motion to accept the deletions contingent on verification from Kris Long that EMS 255 should be deleted. Rich Halverson seconded the amended motion, which passed unanimously. *Kristen Jones confirmed with Kris Long that EMS 255 should be part of the deleted courses, as the material is covered in one of the revised courses.
Graduation Waiver Request NOT APPROVED
Marlene Stoltz explained the proposal on behalf of the student’s advisor to waive a graduation requirement for Kelly Palmer, who has earned 19 of the required 20 FVCC credits to earn a degree. Kelly is applying for the FVCC LPN program and having an AS will help her chances in the selection process. There is no department or division chair for this particular issue. Marlene explained that similar proposals have sometimes been approved in the past. Brenda Hanson thinks the student could have taken a late-starting class to actually earn the necessary credit so it should not be approved. Lynn Farris recommended that the student take the issue to the nursing program committee for consideration. Pat Pezelle moved to deny the request; Rick Halverson seconded the motion, which passed with one abstention.
IDS 280 Special Topics: Mastering APA Format for Research and Lab (new) APPROVED
Jim Soular explained the proposal to approve a five-week, one-credit course on APA style.
Rick Halverson thinks this class is needed for transfer students and moved to accept the proposal; Don Hickethier seconded the motion. Jim explained that the course will be offered during the last five weeks of the semester so students could potentially have a paper from another class to work on. Discussion followed about whether or not to state that the course is five weeks long in the course description; the decision was made not to include this in the course description. Pat Pezzelle mentioned that the course will not be available to students at the Libby campus. The proposal was approved with one abstention.
CTE Program Reviews APPROVED
Jessica Hopkins gave highlights of the program review summaries from Spring Semester 2012: Early Childhood Education AAS, Building Trades AAS/CAS, Paramedicine AAS, Gerontology Certificate, and Surveying AAS. Janice Alexander asked why equipment costs are a limiting factor for enrollment in the Surveying Program rather than looking at ways to get funding for more equipment. She stated that there are ways to get money for more equipment so the program could accommodate more students if there is a need. Pete Wade explained that the Building Trades program enrollment is down due to the economy and the committee should be careful when making decisions about programs that are affected by cyclical factors. Pat Pezzelle mentioned that the Early Childhood Education program is no longer offered in Libby and that while the program was in Libby, they did not receive any benefits from the Best Beginnings grant. Kristen Jones will check the language of the grant to see if it needs to be adjusted. Jessica mentioned that the program review process doesn’t specifically address connection with the Libby campus. Janice asked about adding something about delivery method in the program review process and mentioned that the Building Trades program was asked to make significant changes due to low enrollment but the Surveying program wasn’t even though they also have low enrollment. Kristen Jones explained that the Building Trades program director expressed interest in revamping the program. Pete Wade moved to approve the summaries; Don Hickethier seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
AHMA 220 Phlebotomy (revision) APPROVED
Karla West explained the proposal to increase the lab fee for the course from $25 to $90 due to increased cost of supplies. The course has recently been added to the Medical Assistant program. It is now going to be offered in the fall. Brenda Hanson moved to approve the proposal; Phil MacGregor seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Administrative Assistant CAS (deletion) APPROVED
Karla West explained that the program has been in moratorium and Brenda Rudolph is working on revamping it. Phil MacGregor moved to approve the deletion; Pete Wade seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
MFGT 128 and MFGT 129 (revisions) APPROVED
Pete Wade explained the proposal to change the prerequisite on these courses to MFGT 115 from MFGT 123 because MFGT 123 has been deleted. Pat Pezzelle moved to approve the motion; Phil MacGregor seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
WLDG 191 (revision) TABLED
Pete Wade explained that this course was developed to be repeatable but that did not get on the course profile. Students sometimes need to retake this class to complete their projects. Cindy Keifer asked why a student doesn’t get an incomplete if they don’t get their project finished because the repeatability becomes a problem for financial aid. Pete explained that if they don’t finish their project, they will still get a satisfactory grade if they were working towards completion. Most students who take this class are degree-seeking students in the welding program who want to further develop their welding skills. Pete suggested creating 1,2,3,4 levels of this class and Cindy said that would help in terms of financial aid. Kristen Jones recommended tabling the proposal until Pete Wade presents the course with levels to remedy the financial aid problem.
MUSI 108 (new) APPROVED
Karla West explained that MUSI 108 is already in the catalog but this version of it is slightly different because it is an actual FVCC ensemble rather than a larger community group. Discussion followed about how to deal with the repeatability and financial aid. Lynn Farris suggested adding a, b, c to the titles to signify each as a different class for financial aid purposes. Brenda Hanson moved to approve the proposal contingent upon Cindy Keifer looking in to how on other campuses handle the repeatability issue. Pat Pezzelle seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
IDS 280 Civil Rights in the United States (pilot) APPROVED
Rick Halverson explained options for re-titling this course, which was tabled at the last meeting because the title did not accurately reflect the learning outcomes. Rob Bauer suggested the following title options: “Civil Rights in the United States since the Civil War” or “Civil Rights in the United States since Emancipation.” The committee suggests adding “: African Americans” at the end of the title. Pat mentioned that this course will not be accessible to students in Libby. Karla West moved to approve the course with the title “Civil Rights in the United States: African Americans”; Lynn Farris seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
IT 177 Introduction to MASTERCAM and IT 178 Advanced CNC Programming in MASTERCAM (revisions) APPROVED
Pete Wade explained the proposal to revise the names of these courses and eliminate the prerequisite. Lloyd Haugen explained the need for this change to more accurately reflect the nature of the course. Phil MacGregor moved to approve the proposal; Pat Pezzelle seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
CCN Changes APPROVED
Pete Wade moved to approve the changes; Janice Alexander seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
WAS / NOWCJ / 225 / Criminal Law / CJUS / 200 / Principles of Criminal Law
CJ / 220 / Corrections / CJUS / 220 / Introduction to Corrections
CJ / 230 / Police Organization and Behavior / CJUS / 230 / Police Organization
CJ / 231 / Criminal Procedure / CJUS / 231 / Criminal Evidence and Behavior
CJ / 271 / Seminar (Courts) / CJUS / 271 / Intro to Judicial Function
CJ / 275 / Criminal Justice Internship / CJUS / 298 / Internship
SOCI / 101 / Introduction to Criminal Justice / CJUS / 121 / Introduction to Criminal Justice
Discussion Items
New Program Approval – Kristen Jones
Kristen Jones explained the proposed process for new program approval, which was presented at the previous meeting. The proposed steps are 1. Vice President of Instruction is notified of a new program proposal and shares that with executive staff; 2. The proposed program goes through the established program review process; 3. Faculty Senate reviews the proposal; 4. The program review recommendation is submitted to Executive Staff; 5. Executive Staff submits the new program proposal to Curriculum Committee; 6. Curriculum Committee reviews the curriculum. The main difference from the current process is that the proposed new program goes to Executive Staff before Curriculum Committee. Kristen explained that Executive Staff would review whether the college has the resources to support the proposed new program and whether it aligns with the college’s goals. Phil MacGregor expressed concern that there would end up being curricular discussions in Executive Staff and suggested that the Faculty Senate president or vice president attend the Executive Staff discussion to answer questions. Kristen explained that it would be her role to make sure curricular decisions don’t happen at Executive Staff. Janice Alexander wondered if proposals would never get to Curriculum Committee at all if they go to Executive Staff first. Rich Haptonstall added that it doesn’t matter the because if Executive Staff is going to prevent a new program from going forward, that could happen either before or after Curriculum Committee sees it. Kristen expressed that she doesn’t want the process to get in the way of faculty initiative and creativity. Discussion followed about pros and cons of the order of the process. Kristen suggested moving forward with this proposal, adding the Faculty Senate step. In addition, if the new program has the potential to be confusing or contentious, she will invite the Faculty Senate president or President Elect to the Executive Staff meeting where the proposal is discussed. The committee was in agreement.
Kristen Jones explained that she has had a request to talk about the make-up of Curriculum Committee. There has been concern that too many non-faculty members are allowed to vote. She reviewed the current make up of voting membership. Pat Pezzelle doesn’t think he should be a voting member since he is an administrator, and his role should be to sit in and report back to his staff. He thinks voting members should be largely academic so suggested adding a faculty member from the Libby campus instead of him. Janice Alexander thinks Pat should vote because of his distance learning piece. Janice explained the history of committee membership, but said she hasn’t heard of a current problem with committee construction. Pete Wade would like to see the committee stay the same since faculty have the majority of the vote. Don Hickethier wants Career and Technical Education and Lincoln County Campus to stay on as voting members. Karla West thinks that only faculty should be voting members. Brenda Hanson mentioned that the committee would be no different from Faculty Senate if only faculty had voting rights. Phil MacGregor thinks the make-up is good because there is the necessary representation from the Learning Center and Student Services, and Curriculum Committee actions affects their areas. Rich Haptonstall values everyone’s opinion and thinks that as long as faculty have the majority of the vote, the balance is good. Rick Halverson agrees. The general consensus was to keep the committee membership as it is.
Last week the question of who is responsible for follow-up on Curriculum Committee decisions was mentioned. Emily Jense makes changes that are decided on at the meeting, but often needs to get information from responsible parties to make other changes. In the future, she will send out one reminder to the responsible party, before asking Kristen Jones or Phil MacGregor to follow-up.
FYI
SIGN 281G is now SIGN 243G