Nashville; this is a summary of major and/or interesting
proceedings.
As usual, we started with an informal discussion amongst
the 2-year school reps. Major topics included discussion
of
how interpretation of the 37.5 hour work week varies
from
campus to campus, and issues related to the ongoing
development of WWW courses (for example, as fulltimers
are
forced to take low-enrollment web courses, the adjunct
rate
goes up to cover the classes fulltimers were pulled
from; a
claim was made that TBR guidelines for WWW courses
recommend a cap of 15 students per semester, although
this
was not verified; many web-courses at the 2-year schools
have actual caps around 50).
You think we've got problems? At Columbia St, some
loophole
in homeschool accreditation has led to the admittance
of
kids as young as 11 years old. Consider the implications
of
this regarding, for example, a discussion of STDs
in a
biology or a college orientation course. Not to
mention the inherent behavior problem of a typical
11 year old who acts like a typical 11 year old
while you are trying to deconstruct Proust. They've
got
issues they are trying to work out that we could face
soon.
Treva Berryman briefly discussed the ongoing examination
of
the Compass placement tests, specifically relating
to the
accuracy of the placements suggested. The Compass
scores
have been correlated with both ACT scores and course
grades; analysis continues to determine whether our
placement "cut points" are at the right place. TBR
is
especially concerned when the correlations are way
out of
line for isolated schools; a suggestion that minimum
placement scores be revised upwards is under consideration.
Dr Manning spoke to the group, describing a new program
called "An Educated Tennessee", designed to raise
the level
of education in the state. According to some national
education policy group (my apologies, I didn't get
the
name) ranked the state of Tennessee 46th-48th in
educational level of our population; the education
rate of
Tennessee African-Americans was described as "deplorable".
As a minimum, TBR is advocating programs and funding
sufficient to raise the state above the national average
in
overall education of our state.
He said that UT was trying to deal with the state's
financial crisis by raising standards and limiting
enrollment, but that this was not an option for TBR
schools, as our mission pretty specifically focuses
on
accessability. He said "We carry an obligation to
reach out
to people, even of they don't know yet that they need
us";
apparently his lobbying efforts will focus on this
notion,
that accessibility is only possible given support.
I asked him about the likelihood that phase II of
the
equity studies would be approved; he said that "I
think the
board will approve it", but then pointed out that
it falls
back on the schools to come up with the funding, and
as he
understands it, hardly any of the schools have any
money to
devote to it. So it was a mixed message, at best.
Someone asked about the chance of a lottery bailing
us all
out and making the world a better place, but he pointed
out
that on the fastest possible track, the lottery would
start
in four years, with no new revenues until the 5th
year.
Plus, as it stands, education lottery money would
be
devoted not the running the schools, but to creating
new
scholarships. This will effectively put a squeeze
on the
schools, unless the money distribution is rethought.
AGENDA ITEMS
Copyright Issues w/regards to Web Courses
I was impressed with the first look at a document
designed
to apprise TBR personnel of all the different possibilities
concerning ownership of materials designed for use
in web
courses. It was in the form of a flowchart, and in
its
final form, personnel will be able to go through a
string
of simple yes/no questions, eventually winding up
with a
description of exactly what forms need to be completed
to
determine ownership of the material between the author
and
the school sponsoring the course. I hope to come back
from
the April meeting with the final version of the document.
Tennessee Regents Web-Based Degree
Work continues
on this; McPhee emphasized his
commitment to a high quality program w/academic integrity
that includes faculty in curriculum decision. The
degree
should be in place starting in the Fall.
Guideline P-080: Harassment-Sexual or Racial
SubCouncil voted
unanimously to put its stamp of
approval on this guideline for the reporting of incidents
of harassment, following a change from "Such reporting
should occur whether information concerning a complaint
is
received formally or informally, directly or indirectly",
dropping the phrase "directly or indirectly". I encourage
you to read the entire document (at the TBR website),
but
the gist of it is that ANY report of sexual or racial
harassment MUST be reported at the earliest possible
time
to the school's Affirmative Action officer.
Guideline A-100: Basic/Developmental Studies Program
Operational Guidelines
A decision to
restrict the numbers of hours
individual schools may offer in DSP courses was dropped
after the academic officers subcouncil, meeting the
previous day, couldn't come to a concensus about what
form
those limits would take. There is some concern at
the state
level that students must take, for example, a 5-hour
DSM
course at PSTCC, when several schools have an "equivalent"
course that requires only 4 hours. As a result, the
changes
to the guidelines were largely cosmetic, such as inserting
references to Compass and deleting references to AAPP,
and
so on. The issue is not settled, they continue to
look at
it, and the feeling is that in the not too distant
future,
5 hour courses DSP will be restricted, if not altogether
eliminated.
Update on Geier settlement
You will have
to ask some of the oldtimers about
the details of this 34 year old discrimination lawsuit.
The involved parties have finally come to a sort of
a
probationary agreement; the guy who served as the
negotiator in recent years now switches roles and
becomes
observer, charged with assuring that conditions agreed
to
by TBR are actually met. Honestly, though, it's a
very
complicated suit that I don't know much about; a brief
review by someone better suited to explain it all
would be
appreciated.
___________________________________________________________
Finally, changes to three policies were approved by
SubCouncil
Policy 3:04:01:00 Academic Services Scholarship Policy
A requirement
that high school students be in the
"upper quartile" was removed; all references to "ACT"
were
replaced with "enhanced ACT". The "upper quartile"
requirement was not a drop in standards; instead,
so many
high schools were failing to provide information making
it
possible to calculate the upper quartile cutoff that
it
became more of a hindrance than a help in picking
candidates.
Policy 3:05:01:00 Out of state tuition for students
who
engage in study abroad experiences.
This probably
applies more to 4-year schools, but
the idea is that in order to encourage higher enrollment
in
TBR-based study abroad courses, we will allow students
who
otherwise would have to pay out of state tuition to
be
classified, for the purposes of these courses only,
as
in-state students. I think.
Adoption of standard GPA Calculation (I can't find
the
policy number)
A recommendation
passed for adopting a TBR
system-wide standard for calculating GPA based only
on
courses taken at the current institution. For rationale,
beyond the standard "Everyone else is doing it, why
shouldn't we", it was pointed out that this was in
keeping
with articulation efforts throughout the system,
particularly in the context of the "common rubrics"
project. Also, honors designations make more sense
if the
calculations are done consistently across the system.
*****************************************************
Then they let us get home, not finishing the agenda,
because it was snowing pretty hard.
*****************************************************
As always, questions, comments, and concerns to be
addressed at the April meeting are welcome.
dave
----------------------------------------
DAVID VINSON
Email: dvinson@pstcc.cc.tn.us
"Pellissippi State Technical Community College"