Council Members Present: Bryon Clark (Chair), Betty Clay, Jim Cunningham, Jane Elder, Steven Emge, Dick Hackett, Diane Dixon (proxy for Brad Ludrick), Shannon McCraw, Steve McKim, John Mischo, Sharon Morrison, John Topuz, Chip Weiner (ex officio), Cherry Wilmoth
Council Members Absent: Gleny Beach, Gene Hetzel, Nancy Hill, Linda Kallam, Patty Pool
The meeting was called to order at 2:35 by the Chair. The minutes of the previous meeting were considered. Dick Hackett moved to accept them as written and Betty Clay seconded. The Council voted unanimously to accept with no abstentions.
The Chair informed the Council that Patty Pool will be leaving the university at the end of the current semester and a replacement for her from Management/Marketing will be necessary Kitty Campbell was nominated. The Chair will contact Dr. Campbell and see if she will accept the nomination.
Academic council will meet at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 8 in the Welcome Center. The first item on their agenda will be the recommendations of the General Education Council. The Chair will attend to present the information to Academic Council and he asked for other volunteers from the Gen Ed Council who might be free to also be in attendance to help answer any questions that might arise. The Chair felt that one potential point of discussion might be the proposed addition of a computer course to the general education requirements, raising the hour need for a student to meet the gen ed requirements from 41 to 44. The Chair pointed out that students are already required to demonstrate computer proficiency by either testing out or satisfactorily completing either a CIS or BIM course, so in reality no additional hours will be required. Rather, we are simply rearranging already existing requirements.
Dr. Weiner’s report on Mid-Level Assessment was presented to the Council. It was pointed out that the report indicated that even though SOSU students start at a lower level than the national average, those who gave the test their best effort in most cases scored or above the national average. Also between the Fall 2002 and Spring 2003 semesters there was a shift in the testing protocols and procedures that have resulted in higher test scores for our students.
Documents were also presented showing how many spaces were available in recent semesters in selected general education courses. Assuming an entering freshman class of approximately 600 students, there are sufficient spaces to accommodate student needs. An additional document detailed distribution by grades given, which would indicate how many students would need to repeat the class. Even with those factored in there is still sufficient class space.