Minutes of the Academic Policies Committee
for March 27, 1998

The Academic Policies Committee met Friday, March 27, 1998, in CA 233. The meeting was called to order at 2:05 P.M. by E. Zepp, Chair. Other members attending were J. Elmore, W. Feldt, S. Johnson, W. Moy.

1) The minutes of Feb. 27th were approved as distributed.

2) The issue of Academic Appraisal Forms was raised by one of the members. After discussion, it was decided the committee would send a memo to the Vice Chancellor, cc to University Committee, expressing concern about the process (how students are identified to receive a form) and the lack of communication with faculty relative to the purpose and nature of these forms.

3) The question of the "individually planned major" had been postponed since the Fall. The committee approved sending a memo to the Vice Chancellor asking him to renew the impetus for investigating this possibility. Interdisciplinary Studies also seemed to be a good starting point for pursuing this possibility.

4) The question of the efficacy of the existing "Forgiveness Policy" was discussed. It was suggested that the matter should be placed on the APC agenda early next year: should it be more permissive or stay the same; should all the many requirements remain (is the five year requirement too long?)? Mary Power would be a good resource person for this issue.

5) Standards for non-traditonal formats: an action plan prepared by the Vice Chancellor was distributed. Much of this requires investigation and collection of data outside the realm of APC. However, the committee decided to place on the agenda for the next meeting the issue of approval of courses with non-traditional formats (in particular, not the question of content, but courses offered in less than the traditional 50 min X 3 for 15 weeks number of hours). Proposed resolution:

Course and Curriculum Committee shall be directed, as part of its charge, to evaluate course formats as part of its consideration of course approval. Further, courses approved in traditional format should return to CCC for new approval if programs plan to offer them in new formats (compressed-time, web-based, etc.).