January Minutes from Statewide Faculty Curriculum Council

Statewide Faculty Curriculum Council
Minutes from the January 9, 2009 Meeting
Lowry, Building 959, President’s Conference Room

I. Amy Rell, Chair of Arts and Humanities from CCA, provided the group with a handout which explained her request to create a TRI (Translation and Interpretation) prefix. Amy answered several questions. The motion to approve this request passed.
II. Geri provided the group with CCCS/CCHE updates:
A. The Energy Summit met in December. The group will continue its work.
B. Everyone is aware of the budget issues facing the state. Gambling money will not reach commnity colleges until 2010.
C. Although it is still very early in the legislative session, there are two items that are of interest:
1. There will probably be a bill introduced regarding concurrent enrollment. The P-20 Council has looked at this and is working on a bill to address the matter. CTE courses may also be included for the first time.
2. Senator King is sponsoring a bill which would require four-year colleges to have five majors that guarantee 60+60. It would also have the colleges add one major a year for the next five years. Professional programs would be exempt.
D. Faculty To Faculty conference: Geri provided the group a handout which gave three scheduling options for the conference. A motion was made to add a second discipline meeting in the spring. Most of the discussion centered on reasons why this would be a positive move. The motion passed unanimously.
Another motion was made to use option 2 on Geri’s handout for scheduling the conferences. Option 2 breaks down the disciplines into four groups and has two of the groups meeting on one date/site (TBD) and the other two groups meeting at another site/date (TBD). Basically, the size of the conference has outgrown the ability of any community college to comfortably host the event. Renting a conference facility would be very costly. This option addresses both of those concerns. SFCC will decide on the dates and locations at a future meeting. The motion passed.
III. SFCC was reminded, again (in the March 2008 meeting the group agreed “no RSVP, no lunch”), that it is important to RSVP for the SFCC meeting. Lunch orders have to be made in advance, so it is important for members to RSVP. A RSVP on the afternoon before the meeting or the morning of the meeting does not provide enough time to be included in the lunch order.
IV. MAT 099/106 issues: There was a lengthy discussion regarding the challenges that this has caused. The bottom line is that it won’t change. Mike wanted his objection to the change noted.
V. Update on the status of e-mail List Serve for disciplines: all colleges have now responded to Geri’s request. She hopes that the lists will be up by the end of the month. They will send out a test to make sure the distribution lists work.
VI. Mike mentioned that the 2-year and 4-year Ag. group met in Lamar yesterday. Concerns about the dual credit and PSEO were discussed. Geri said that if there are cases where the policies are not being followed, they should be forwarded to her.
VII. Gt Pathways:
HIS 249—a motion to recommend the course for inclusion in the gt Pathways passed.
Make sure that the course title gets added to the syllabus.
GEO 111—a motion to recommend the course for inclusion in the gt Pathways passed.
The group then discussed the same issues regarding gt Pathways that were debated in the Nov. meeting. Should gt Pathways have more and more courses? Should there be a limit on the number or stringent criteria for a course to be nominated? Etc…. (see Nov. minutes). SFCC members were again given the charge to carry this discussion to their faculty groups. The general feeling was that SFCC needs to have some philosophical statement on the matter to help guide future decisions.
VIII. Bulletin Board:
ALT 126 and 226—yes
ART 158—waiting for discipline chair approval
CAD 259—yes
CRJ 268—yes
DAN 117, 118, 119—yes
HIS 236—yes
HPR courses—waiting for discipline chair approval
PAP courses—table, want representation from RRCC
PED 166, and the PLU courses—table, want representation from RRCC
PSY 206—waiting for discipline chair approval
Previous months:
CUA 265—hold
ESL 051—yes
EIC 133 and 141—hold
GRK 105 and 106—yes
LIT 121—hold until the HUM course changes have been submitted
IX. The next SFCC meeting is scheduled for February 13, 2009

Minutes Respectfully Submitted By,
Fred Boettcher
SFCC Secretary