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SCSU Task Force on Restructuring
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Task Force on Restructuring Meeting Notes
October 17, 2003

Present: Murphy, Larkin, Nunes, Rundquist, Kang, Dobey, Hansen, SubbaNarasimha, Cogdill
Absent: Starks-Martin

John Burgeson presented:

Dr. Burgeson stated that he feels there is not anything about restructuring the five colleges that would have any particular effect on Continuing Studies. Some activities assigned to Continuing Studies are decentralized - MN Traffic Safety Center is a good match. Combining Summer Sessions with Continuing Studies could work, but it doesn’t seem that changing the structure in that way would be of any particular benefit. The issues involved in offering evening school are budget/resource issues rather than structural ones. We need six colleges rather than four - the academic deans have too many reports to complete already. {Comments: Sharon Cogdill mentioned that she has spoken to Provost Spitzer about adding another option that would include a greater number of colleges. Tony Hansen said he would have another option to propose also.}

It is common practice that continuing studies courses are “seamless” - courses offered from the regular curriculum, and not needing to be transferred. There is really no difference between regular and continuing studies courses. Full-time regular professors teach 90% of Continuing Studies courses. Continuing Studies pays the part of the salary that is for teaching courses offered through Continuing Studies. There are significant numbers of people who can’t come to classes during the 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. regular class time; the adult part-time student is the biggest client. Continuing Studies also serves regular full-time students who cannot get into classes during the regularly scheduled times. The Center for Continuing Studies served 2600 students last year.

Susan Motin presented:

Dr. Motin explained that she is meeting with the committee as the representative of the Committee on First Year Experience, but is also giving her own opinions. She is a librarian but also teaches in the Information Media Department. She also serves on the Strategic Planning Committee.

There is a problem with getting students into core classes. Students need to be able to take core classes in the freshman or the beginning of the sophomore year. Funding follows FTE. We should look at an algorithm that would be equitable and educate citizens for the 21st century. The goals of the First Year Experience committee are a building sense of community, facilitating connections between the disciplines, and faculty collaboration. {Comments: Would a college of general education work in terms of the dross discipline? Might there be a focus on the kind of curriculum she’s suggesting if there was that kind of college?}

The committee is also looking at how we could model. We need good communication skills, numeracy, information literacy, evaluative and analytical skills and the ability to apply that information. The most frequent comment in her Research Information class evaluations is ‘why is this course not required on this campus?’ The Nursing Department put the Research Information course in its pre-nursing requirements. There are statistics to show that there has been an 80% retention rate of students who have taken IM 104/204. Her experience with teaching a paired course, ENGL 163 with DGS students, was rewarding. The committee would like to see blended courses instead of paired courses in the first year experience - two professors teaching together. It’s a good experience for students to see two professors work together, and affords connection between disciplines. The Minnesota Transfer Curriculum is lacking in that it doesn’t contain Information Literacy.

Dr. Motin clarified that there is no first year curriculum at present. The First Year Experience committee is an ad hoc faculty committee. The first-year experience program that exists now is a pilot program under Student Life and Development. The faculty committee will continue to work on developing a program.

Questions to Dr. Motin:

What has been easy with the structure we have? Faculty understand the need for information literacy.
English 191, Speech 195, and Democratic Citizenship in COE are some courses that are being targeted for blending with Information Media.

If the committee’s program were adopted, what kind of faculty would the program need, and where would they be from? They would have to be committed to it first of all, and have to spend some time together as faculty to learn about each other and trade information in terms of their disciplines and pedagogy. It would be a big time commitment.

Is the committee envisioning it as a program for all incoming students, or as an option? It’s viewed as an option, and it would have to be marketed. Many students come in not knowing what they want to major in, but if students know what they want they should be able to go right into their programs

If we were to go the route of a general college, would it just be the first year program, or all the general eds? That has not been decided.

Committee comments:

Having students take all core classes in the first year could be a problem because some programs require that some courses in the major must be taken in the freshman year.

Taking the liberal arts components from each college and putting them together as part of the first year experience program might work.

Other business:

It was agreed that the additional information Richard Rothaus sent after his meeting with the committee should be included with the notes. It was agreed that each presenter should have a chance to review their portion of the notes before they are sent out.

After a discussion about how to balance bringing in additional people to meet with the committee with leaving enough time to formulate a recommendation, it was agreed that Semya Hakim would be asked to come as a representative of the Faculty and Staff of Color Caucus, because she had specifically requested to come. Suggestions for getting other people’s input without taking all the available time included setting up one or two time periods when anybody could come, or forming subcommittees who could meet with other people at other times and bring reports back to the committee. It was suggested that memo from Provost Spitzer giving the charge to the committee be sent out to the campus community via e-mail or the web site.