Curriculum and Degree Requirements Committee Minutes October 14,, 2015

DATE/PLACE: October 14, 2015 3:15-4:45 /Center 217

Members: Phil Moore(chair), Siv Serene Barnum, Jeffrey Borrowdale, Melanie Brown, Jennifer Ferro, Jamie Kelsch, Casandra Rhay, Gayle Smith, Craig Taylor, Paul Wilkins

Meeting called to order at 3:15 p.m. by Phil Moore.

Other Committee Business:

1- there was a vote taken on who would chair the committee for 2015-16. Phil Moore said he would be willing to do it for another year and the committee was in favor.

2- We have positions to fill for members who will no longer be on the committee either by choice or have retired.

3- Update on items discussed at our meeting last may:

• what is the philosophy behind credit increases and the driving force for that credit increase? A person could argue that it's pedagogically driven. If so, where's the boundary/limit on credit increase? i.e., pedagogically, 5-credits would be more enriching than 4 and so on? What should the Committee consider when it's reviewing these kinds of proposals and what principles/guidelines should they use in making a decision? An outside variable = what are 4-year institutions doing that our students are transferring to? It could make sense to match what they're doing with their credits per course. But there's a downside to increasing Lane credits where students pay more and use their financial aide. Do we want to develop some criteria for evaluating the credit increase proposals? it was decided there needed to be further discussion on this at a future meeting.
• developing term limits for members- jamie commented that some of us have been on the committee for quite a few years. a three year term limit was brought up and also that the committee should provide orientation for new members.  It was decided we need to brainstorm to come up with specific instructional areas to be represented on the committee.  Phil is willing to take a list to faculty council for review.  It was also decided that there should be an orientation for new committee members.
• update curriculum application guidelines.  Michael was not at the meeting to comment on this.
• review/update curriculum forms for new/revised curriculum- this was tabled to a future meeting when we have more time to go over the current forms. However committee members were encouraged to submit changes they would like to see incorporated into the forms by email prior to our fall meetings. Melanie will check with other colleges to see what type of forms they are using.
• core learning outcomes- Melanie will follow up with Chrisitina Howard who was not at the meeting today.
•  if a course has changed content and it originally had an AAOT attribute for foundational skills or discipline studies, does the course developer need to include an AAOT form showing how the course still meets the attributes?  All agreed that yes they should include either the old form or an updated one for review and approval. A note will be added on the curriculum website forms area addressing this issue.
•  it was requested by the committee to have a written guideline for grandfathering of courses on the AAOT list. Melanie asked the State DOE to more clearly address the no grandfathering rule in their updated guidelines and they agreed to do so.

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