Present: Committee members Professors Bennett, Uddin,
Penniman, Staples,
Sievers and Talbot. Registrar Leybold-Taylor; Head Librarian
Vargo; Associate Dean Denard; Student members
Pellegrino, Smith, Jordan and Jaber.
Nancy Karpinski, Director of Internships and Career Services
Chair Staples called the meeting to order at 12:40. The
minutes of the October 18, 2004 meeting were approved with minor
changes.
In regard to Professor Greenwood's request for a structure to respond in case of a future severe disruption of the teaching environment, Chair Staples reported that Dean Hall is working to develop a mechanism which would fill the perceived need without being unduly prescriptive. The issue was tabled until Dean Hall brings her work on this to the committee.
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Dean Denard, with the assistance of Director Karpinski, presented a
draft proposal towards making Experiential Learning a more integral
part of the curriculum. Information, questions, answers follow,
not necessarily in order of occurrence, and interpreted by the
secretary pro tem. [] are secretary's comments, not in oral
discussion.
Draft proposal:
**Eliminate the three-January--intersession requirement, substituting
at least three "experiential learning opportunities"
**Move the Spring calendar back one week to dovetail with Cornell's
**adopt these changes starting with next year's Freshpeople.
Advantages: (& commentary)
** We pitch this on the website; beef it up to be more salient on the
ground--a *signature* part of the Wells experience.
** Middle States noted this as something we do well, and is
attractive, and could be expanded to be even more so.
** January req'ts are felt as very restrictive and a hassle to
administer and enforce. Focus now is on meeting Jan req't--this
could
move focus to the learning experience. More flexibility
while keeping
to the spirit of "something outside." Jan. offerings remain
for those
who want them.
** Coordination with CU calendar is attractive, esp. as more students
want to take science courses there.
[The registrar points out that: 1) At the moment, the policy is not to
encourage students to take Cornell courses in their major. 2)
There is no trend visible now toward more Cornell science
courses.] (IC's calendar often starts a week earlier than CU.)
Avoids that lonely, cobbled
together
week for CU cross-registers.
** Maybe it's not bad to have the option to kick back and relax a
little in Jan. (Finish incompletes, get well, etc.) Week
earlier out
in May means graduating a week before Cornell, maybe room for offering
a 3-week late-spring experience. (Paris in the
springtime?)
What is Experiential Learning anyhow?
--What do we want students to *get* out of it?
~Answers on an individual basis to "What can you do
with a Liberal Arts degree?"
~Mitigate the "no contacts no context"
post-graduation experience.
~Something that makes a bridge between
academic learning and the working/living--outside world.
~Some majors (e.g. Music and Art) are
inherently more "experiential"--we already need to build in to the
college experience more connections to the post-graduation working
experience.
~Apply skills from classroom to world. Beyond
skills, learning to understand the world can happen in many contexts.
--We already have in place: (clearly or possibly EL)
~ The internship program, which is
very effective and (almost uniquely) supportive. We don't want to
weaken or endanger that.
~ Service learning (in-semester course credit)
~ Experiential Seminars (Jan, Summer) Extra cost.
~ Off campus abroad
~ Off campus U.S.
--Consensus definition of EL doesn't yet exist. What should we
count?.
~ Internships obviously. Experiential Learning
is the current term.
Students still understand "Internships" and these should continue to
play an important and visible role.
~Experiential seminars? Some are clearly, some may
not be. [London Theatre?]
~Cross-cultural experiences (semester abroad,
january intro to same)--is it experiential if you just take courses in
a foreign setting? Probably a little.
~Volunteer work? Existing Service Learning in
"course" context would presumably be in.
?Context for
individual volunteer work to qualify for EL credit (faculty
sponsor/advisor, reporting a la internship)?
~Wells is free to decide about what's in, what's out.
Details of requirement, and discussion:
**Proposed: at least 3 experiences [courses] during 4 years. At
least one should [must?] be a semester-long (or at least ten-week)
experience.
--"Ten weeks?" Denard: some attractive outside
service programs (Everett[?]) have 10-week programs.
--[Semester-long requirement seems to be main additional
universal
time/credit requirement over present 3-J-term req't. Already
there for
Henry Wells, right? Do we want this addition of a "big"
experience for
everyone?]
--Semester-long course is potentially burdensome:
Fall/spring semesters, commuting to outside world is difficult. Already
too many courses to fit in, esp. for transfers. WILL students and
others need summer to make $$, can't couple with all-summer internship.
--Transfers should get some kind of pro-rated requirement.
--"Retroactive" credit for life experience?? (e.g. WILL
students often
come in with relevant work experience.) Needs some way to assess
and
grant.
--Better to make requirement in terms of course
credits? Clearer. Do we want to require more than one
experience? Some combination of credits and number of courses?
--Upper limit on internships usable toward graduation is
now 12 credits. Keep some upper limit for EL credits?
--Off-campus experience for on-campus students in winter
is a hassle. Use 7-week half-semester structure ('A' and 'B'
courses as used successfully by P.E. and service computer
courses)? Off-campus opportunities in A in the fall, B in the
spring, out of snow time.
--Double-dipping:
~ Some majors require internships--double count
toward EL?
~ Overseas study: orientation in Jan. counts now as
"January" course. Do we give more EL credit for the following
semester, or only a limited amount for the "whole" overseas
experience.
-- Henry Wells Scholarship can only be used now for semester or
summer internships. Should they be expanded to cover other
experiential-qualifying categories (seminars, abroad)?
What might we lose?
--Is the shortened January going to hurt our established
internship programs, esp. high-end high-profile like Corporate
Affiliates? Karpinski: We don't see a problem
here. Many internships are already shorter, and due to calendar
variability we have already experienced 3-week Januarys without
difficulty.
--What will the extra week of open school in January cost us in
terms of the heating bill? (Not answered yet.)
--What does this "extra" requirement do to
graduation-requirement loads? (Investigate.)
--If implemented "now": Confounded with coed transition,
won't be able to assess results of each.
Our energies should be going to the coed
transition; putting this together now might be a damaging distraction.
On the other hand, making big
changes, why not make them all at once?
ADJOURNMENT: At 1:37 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sally Sievers, Secretary pro tem.
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