Minutes of the Committee on Academic Planning
for October 8, 2004

Present: Jerry Greenfield, Susan Haller, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Doris Nice, Scott Thomson, Judith Tucker-Snider, Evelyn Zepp.
Guests: Dave Koss and Jason Pinkowski
Absent: Xavier Solis (but represented by Dave and Jason)

Thompson, as convener, called the meeting to order at 11:10.

Leeds-Hurwitz was elected chair.

We did not know whether Walter Feldt, as Secretary of the Faculty, was planning to attend meetings regularly as he did last year. Leeds-Hurwitz will follow up.

Thompson passed out a list of committee members, charge to the committee, a memo from Business (see discussion below), and a program review schedule.

We discussed the committee’s charge. Members from last year (Greenfield, Leeds-Hurwitz, Nice and Thompson) summarized the major tasks the committee completed: review of PARs and program reviews; discussion with Provost of the new “program appraisal framework” departments were asked to complete as part of the PAR process; approval of new major in Digital Arts and a consortial MBA; meeting with JoAnn Goodyear about potential future jobs in the region.

Greenfield suggested that, according to its charge, CAP “provides for faculty participation in long-range strategic planning” and that we should try to ensure this committee’s involvement in ongoing planning rather than merely reviewing final proposals.

Thompson requested that we consider a request from Business before continuing that discussion. As documented in the memo from Dirk Baldwin he circulated, Business received authorization to search for a position last spring, but has just lost a faculty member, and wants to change the position description in several ways as a result: content area (from Organizational Behavior to Policy/Strategy) and rank (from Assistant Professor to Assistant or Associate Professor). They requested that we approve this quickly so that they can move on it. The committee decided to request a copy of their PAR so we have enough information to make a decision, but agreed to respond via email rather than waiting for another in-person meeting if possible. Since Thompson had started the discussions with Baldwin, he will request the PAR and circulate it.

Also, we established a regular meeting day and time: every other Friday at 11 am.

The committee returned to the issue of new program development. Greenfield provided the following informal update. NOTE: this list is intended merely to make us aware of potential issues that may come to this committee later in the year; these are not actual commitments by any departments to pursue any particular directions. Mention here merely means that at least one person has some interest in the area.

1. Education: there is some interest in establishing a BS in Elementary Education – this will be on the agenda for the Teacher Preparation Steering Committee to discuss in the near future. This campus has never had a degree in Education (we currently have students earn a degree in a content area, then obtain Education certification in addition), but there is high student demand for it. Perhaps it is time for us to revisit the issue. Such an addition would require Faculty Senate approval for a request to UWS for entitlement to plan. There is also potential discussion of a Masters in Education, maybe in Education Administration, but this should wait until there is an undergraduate degree in place.
   
2. Health related options: we have a lot of students who express interest in health related fields. Some potential ideas suggested by Brian Taylor, the advisor to such students are:

• Forensic sciences – maybe Pathologist’s assistant? This is a newly created job, as there are increasing numbers of Pathologists, and interest generated by television shows such as CSI. This would imply an interdisciplinary major in Forensics at the undergraduate level, and a Masters program for pathologist’s assistant. It could link to Criminal Justice, Chemistry, Microbiology, Sociology, Anthropology and Psychology. It would require an expanded cadaver lab – we do have one, but it is too small even for current needs. Estimate: 50 students would enroll in such a program.
• Physician’s assistant – this would be a Master’s level program. Marquette has a program, but no one else in the area, so there is currently more interest than capacity. We would need new labs – maybe an arrangement with GTC to use theirs? Estimate: 20 students.
• Sciences and Technology area – “upside down degrees” – take students who have an applied degree from a technical college, and then add a little more science and a lot of liberal arts courses to get them a BS in applied science. System likes this idea.

Clearly there will be some new hires required if we add new programs. The goal is to choose those we can introduce without requiring substantial numbers of new hires. But the Provost likes the idea of reserving a faculty line for a strategic hire, meaning one that would increase enrollments on campus, rather than always replacing existing content areas.

Thompson added another possibility for a future program: we could build on our current minor in Gerontology, turning it into a major. The person being searched for in Biological Sciences will be able to contribute to this area.

Greenfield mentioned another new program potentially involving Biology: The Comprehensive Educational Services Administration (Jerry - is this the right title??) has been approved by DPI to create a proficiency based licensure program for people who already have a Bachelor’s degree but want to add Education certification. These would be on-line learning modules used in preparing for the Praxis content exams required by Education students. Students would take the exam, be told which areas they did not pass, and then take the relevant module. Ed Meachem’s office at UWS is involved.

This led to discussion of potential revisions in teaching majors within specific departments, designed to better match what the new Praxis content exams test. For example: History majors will now have to take a test that includes more knowledge of other social sciences than they traditionally are required to take; it might make sense to design a social sciences major specifically for teachers which would include those courses.

It was agreed that we need to keep informed of programmatic discussions across campus. We will try to assign a committee member to each new area. For the moment, Thompson will keep us advised of ideas that would involve Biological Sciences; Haller and Leeds-Hurwitz are both on TPSC and will keep everyone informed of Education-related discussions. Greenfield will let us know of discussions involving other areas as they occur, so we can assign someone to stay on top of them as necessary.

Meeting adjourned at 12. Our next meeting will be October 22.

Respectfully submitted,
Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz