Policy Committee
Minutes
May 13, 2005

Present: Jim Hicks, Kate Carney, Frost Johnson, Linda Bastian, Michael Warwick, Michael Sonnleitner, Taylor Hanna, Nan Poppe, and Porter Raper. Guest: Cecelia Guinee.

Discussion :

The committee reviewed the EAC’s responses to our draft prerequisite proposal (see EAC minutes of 4/20/05).

We first discussed the issue of DE capacity for those students who would be turned away from those courses requiring prereqs under our proposal, and to help us determine whether there would be enough classes for those students, we decided to consult DE department chairs at the 3 campuses to get their opinions about capacity. We were fortunate to have Cecelia Guinee, DE faculty member from Sylvania, present as a guest to answer some of our questions and provide guidance. She confirmed that there is a drop in enrollment in winter and spring terms, and that perhaps the biggest concern for an increase in enrollment due to our proposal would be the fall term. There was a question regarding fall term DE enrollment: are any students currently turned away due to full capacity?

The committee had unanimous consensus concerning the necessity of ensuring that enough DE courses were offered to accommodate the increase in enrollment connected to this prereq proposal. We also want to ensure that DE courses will be offered on margin to accommodate the additional students—so that any students redirected from college-level transfer courses have the necessary DE classes available to them. The DOIs on each campus need to be included in our planning, if this proposal is adopted, so that these courses are indeed offered in sufficient numbers.

Taylor Hanna came up with a very interesting idea after we heard the capacity information from Frost and Cecelia: the college could have the prereq requirement kick in during the winter term of ‘07 when there is likely more room in DE courses. We can have the EAC consider this option.

In the interest of increasing the college success of under-prepared students, we discussed the possibility of requiring those who test into DE level courses to take college-survival courses. Because the DE SAC is currently investigating a possible move to 4 credit courses, and would possibly increase their college-success content in existing courses, the PC decided to address this issue in the future. Depending on the outcome of their decision, we could return to the EAC for a further recommendation concerning college-success courses (required, for example, for those students testing at very low skill levels).

We also discussed the idea of the college providing incentive for DE-level students to take college-survival courses by offering a one-class tuition waiver upon successful completion.

While the committee felt as though fall 2007, for a variety of reasons, was a reasonable target date for this proposal’s implementation, we also will request that—in the interim—the EAC provide a strong recommendation to all students regarding the wisdom of having college-level skills before taking college-level courses. We discussed a few ways this message could be communicated. We will also request, in the interim, that SACs carefully consider the necessary prerequisites for their courses.

In our discussion of the proposal, there was some divergence of opinion regarding the phrasing about and priority of our call for appropriate administrative funding. We reached consensus with a change in language from “specific and substantive support” (for DE, student services, and lower-enrolled transfer courses affected by the policy) to “substantive support.” [see “Necessary Resources” heading in the prerequisite proposal]

The current draft proposal for the PC’s prereq recommendation will be posted after committee members have had a chance to review it. Then, it will be available for EAC members to peruse before the next EAC (on 5/18) on the PC website. The EAC will discuss the final draft at this meeting, and then it will be up for a vote at the June EAC meeting.

Our next meeting of the PC will be at 3:30 on June 7^th at Central.