Minutes of the Academic Policies Committee
for September 14, 2009

The first meeting of the Academic Policies Committee for the 2009-10 academic year took place on September 14, 2009, at 10:00 p.m. in MOLN 367-A.

The meeting was convened by 2008-09 chair Laura Gellott.

Present: Laura Gellott, Stuart Hansen, James Kinchen, Ronald Otto, Susan Hawkins-Wilding, Dennis Rome (Dennis was called away from the meeting).

Excused: Gail Gonzalez, Carmel Ruffolo, Joy Wolf, Rhonda Kimmel, Erin McDermott (student).

1.  The committee approved both the draft minutes of May 1, 2009, and the draft of the annual report for 2008-09.  Laura Gellott will forward both to the governance office.

2.  In view of the large number of people excused from the meeting, election of a chair was delayed until the next meeting.  The floor was, however, opened for nominations.

Laura Gellott was asked if she would be agreeable to serving as chair again.  She replied that she would be willing, but in view of her duties over the next few months as chair of the provost search, she said she would agree to be chair only if a vice chair were chosen who could pick up the duties if provost search responsibilities intruded.

Gail Gonzalez, in her absence, was nominated for vice chair.

The floor remains open for nominations; election of a chair and, if needed, a vice chair, will take place at the next meeting.

3.  Stephen Delcuze from PSG presented the latest revisions on a proposal to grant students 2 credits (1 per semester) for serving as student reps. on selected governance committees.  Over the summer, Stephen and Laura Gellott met with Rhonda Kimmel to iron out some registrar-related matters in regards to this proposal.  POLS and GEOG, along with HIST, also agreed to grant credit to appropriate students through the umbrella of departmental internships.

James Kinchen suggested two minor changes to the latest draft: clarifying that this program was open to ALL students who would meet the qualifications, and that selection of student reps for committee service with internship credit would be on a competitive basis.
 
A quorum of voting members being present, the committee approved the proposal unanimously.  It will be forwarded to the University Committee for the October Senate agenda.

4.  The committee spent some time discussing issues for the coming year, including policies on distance learning, and the whole issue of a transcript/standards committee.

5.  Next meeting: It would appear that Fridays at noon would work for members of the committee.  In the expectation that this is the case for the absent members as well, the next meeting will be

Friday, September 25, Noon-1:00, MOLN 367-A.

Submitted by: 
Laura Gellott