Student Development Committee
March 2, 2007

Attendees: Dee Wilson, Kelly Marks, Wendy Palmer, Rebecca Mathern, Laurie Bales, Jasmin Bate, Linda Reisser, Mary Severson, Lisa Fountain.

Guest: John Sneed, Distance Learning, Sharon Coates, math instructor

Textbook Cost Update

Laurie Bales said that textbook affordability is an issue that the bookstore is working on diligently with national associations to reduce book cost for students. The PCC Bookstores recently joined the Used Textbook Association that supports keeping used textbooks affordable.

This is one way that the Bookstore is working to reduce costs in addition to the EAC Subcommittee recommendations that were made earlier this year.

In particular, the bookstore supports the “Buying books across the district” recommendation because the bookstore knows that the more ‘volume’ purchases made across the district, the greater likelihood the cost will be reduced.  

Dee asked if the bookstore might be willing to get involved in ASPCC book swap. Laurie said that the benefit of having a ‘non-institutional’ avenue for students is valuable to some students.

Laurie says- Customizing books is another way to reduce costs that came out of the EAC textbook committee recommendations.

The copyright office that might be developed at the college (pending new initiatives) will provide a place for instructors to have support for accessing parts of books so that students don’t have to buy an entire book.  

Distance Learning

Changes are made to the Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook so that it is more inclusive of the distance learning methods. Minor changes were made to 12.6 and 13.2 to reflect classes that are not held ‘in a classroom’ or with ‘face to face’ interaction.

12.6                             added

                                    by any means

This is meant to include non-classroom means such as or email harassment.

13.2                             deleted                                    replaced

                                    conduct in class                       class conduct

                                    class for one day                     one class session or the equivalent

                                    the student to meet with         a conference among the student

For non-classroom environments, conduct violations will be handled expeditiously. Violations may also require….

• deleted                                   

The student meets with the faculty member and division dean to hear the charges

                                    replaced

The faculty member and division dean present charges and allow the student to

Grading Policy

Getting rid of the instructor withdrawl is an area of concern for Dee. She is concerned for new-to-college students who might not understand the policies regarding dropping classes.

Kelly Marks does not think that this will be a problem for new students because they will learn the policy for the first time, regardless of what the policy will be.

Major issues to discuss:

Grade options selected at registration and changing to audit can only happen during the first two weeks.

SDC is okay with both of these proposals- grading options selected at registration and audit choice only happening through the end of week two.

If students drop a class after week 2, the class grade is recognized as a W.

            SDC supports this.

If a student stops showing up for a class after week two, instructors cannot assign a NS or Instructor WD.

Dee thinks that there will be high non-compliance if we remove the ability for Instructor WD. Mary believes that an instructor WD is the one avenue of flexibility for faculty to work with their students during times of hardship. Mary stated that she views this as a safety net for the students who are ill prepared for college when the start at PCC.

The SDC has concerns about the removal of NS or instructor WD during this timeframe of the quarter and agrees with the opinions that Mary Severson describe above.

Directory Information

The SDC supports the recommended changes to the directory information. The next step is that the DOS will report these recommendations to Chris Chairsell.    

Implementing the Children on Campus Policy

A brief summary of the new policy was drafted by Linda Reisser. It will be shared by either Chris Chairsell or Randy McEwen via announce@pcc.edu

ID Cards

The committee has developed and published an RFP for ID card proposals. There will be a decision on a vendor by the end of June 2007. An expected implementation is summer/fall 2007.

Computer Literacy Issues

Tony Griener was unable to attend today’s SDC meeting but submitted a letter stating his continued concern about the availability of CRC service to students who need over-the-shoulder computer assistance. The SDC decided that they will request that ASAC discuss this topic again.

Meetings for the Remainder of the Academic Year

April 5, 1-3 p.m. at SE Center

May 3, 1-3 p.m. at Cascade Campus

May 31, 1-3 p.m. at RC Campus – pending need for meeting

New Member Requests

Doreen Hanna as a Fin Aid representative

Heather Lang as a RC representative