Academic Program and
Policy Committee
Meeting of
Present: Professors Gagnon, Goddard, Klitgaard, Olson (chair), Wahl; Dean Miller-Bernal, Associate Dean Speaker, Librarian Godbout, Registrar Leybold-Taylor; Student Representatives Bates (WILL), Laury (‘09).
Guest: John Wells
The meeting commenced
at
Announcements: Professor Klitgaard apologized for failure to do his Middle States ‘homework’ and provided all the usual excuses: illness, e-mail in-box full, etc.
Minutes of February 29
were approved with the following revisions:
1. Name: Post Gate should be changed to Posegate
2. Middle States Assignments:
a. Associate Dean Speaker was not assigned Standard 11.6
b. Registrar Leybold-Taylor was not assigned Standards 11.1 or 11.8
c. All members of the committee were assigned Standards 1.1 and 1.2
Sophomore Study Abroad Program in Seville/Costa Rica: The program was approved unanimously. John Wells was present to discuss the program and respond to any remaining questions. Prior to a vote to approve, discussion points included:
a.
The existing
b.
The new proposal drops Environmental Science from the
c. There were concerns from Professor McClusky (sent via e-mail) about the effect of the program on student’s choice of major and retention issues.
d. The program offers Latin American history which is not available at Wells and offers a desirable complement to our current offerings.
e. Student interest in the program is strong.
f.
The selection committee will include faculty and
members of Student Life; this committee will be responsible for choosing
students for the program, deciding whether
g. We should not worry about Costa Rica not being up to Wells ‘standards’ given that they are viewed as a world leader in certain respects (e.g., environment, sustainability).
h.
Is OCS too language-oriented? The consensus was that it is not, given the
number of programs that are not language-oriented (e.g.,
i. Are we trying to control too much in terms of the order in which students progress through a program? General faculty consensus was that we are not, that ordering is necessary.
Action Item: Registrar Leybold-Taylor asked the John Wells provide a blob (or a blurb) for the catalog if the proposal is approved by the Faculty.
Middle States Self Study: The committee discussed how to manage the compilation of our individual responses into a single APPC response. Beginning with Standard 1.1, discussion ensued that led to questions about how to proceed. Associate Dean Speaker clarified the purpose/intent of the Self Study and instructed that our response should represent APPC as a group. The committee decided to compile all of our individual responses to each question and then invite comments for further discussion. We will provide a bulleted list of individual responses for Standard 1.1 and 1.2, and a unitary response for the remaining items. The word ‘recital’ should be changed to ‘performance’ or ‘concert’ in Standard 14.3 (Professor Gagnon humbly apologizes for misspeaking and meant no offense by her use of the term ‘recital’, borne of sheer haste – and perhaps a touch of ignorance -- as it was.)
Action Items: Raquele Laury ’09 graciously offered to compile the responses to each Standard and will send the compiled list to the listserve. Members should send their questions, issues, comments, etc. to chair Olson prior to the APPC meeting on Friday, March 14. The Committee will spend time on those responses that require further discussion before submitting a formal response. Note: Response to the Middle States Self Study is due Friday, May 14.
Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday,
March 12 at
The meeting ended at
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah A. Gagnon
secretary pro tem