AFA Committee Minutes for February 16, 2007

Present: S. Gilchrist, L. McClusky, C. Patella, J. Schnurr, S. Sloan, A. Staples
    Guest: C. Speaker


1.    Meeting called to order at 8:40 am. Minutes from Feb 9 were approved.

2.    Susan will present the major conclusions from the Scannell and Kurz report on Scholarships at the meeting March 2. Jackie will reserve a projector for the powerpoint presentation.

3.    Both Cathy and Susan will continue to get the background data on the characteristics of our current student body as part of our background research on shaping the future class.

4.    Cindy updated us on the progress of analyzing the data from the 1st year program. In WLLS 111 the students preferred the activities that they could choose to attend. She told us of a model from Ursinus College that has resulted in retention rates of 96% for the first-year class - which may be a model that we would like to look further at. As part of that model, faculty are compensated for the extra work they put into the 1st year program - something that AFA might want to discuss with Leslie at some point. Along those same lines, faculty that are involved with WLLS 101 should get more training in teaching writing, since most of us can recognize poor writing but don't know how to teach good writing.


Respectfully submitted,


Jaclyn Schnurr
Secretary Pro-Temp