Committee Minutes, Wednesday, October 24th 2007

Secretary Jeanne Chen submitted the following report to the Student Senate on Tuesday, October 30th 2007, on behalf of the Academics Committee, and pursuant to its Wednesday, October 24th 2007 recommendations:

Attendance:

There were eight (8) members (Briggs, Chen, Donnelly, Joyner, Parnell, Poteat, Roscoe, Warren) present.

There was one (1) member (Carter) absent.

The following officials were also present: Albaugh, Alston, Compton, Graham.

A quorum was present.

Meeting Overview:

We discussed the GEP and what was decided by the Faculty Senate, as well as issues about academic advising. We also decided what issues to speak about when we meet with Dr. Conway on Nov. 7.

Meeting Minutes:

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT SENATE
COMMITTEE ON ACADEMICS
Sen. Joyner, Chair, Presiding
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
7:00 PM

Opening Roll Call

Update on GEP
The Faculty Senate should be initiating a vote on the GEP proposal on Tuesday, October 23, 2007. I will let you all know the outcome of this meeting. If they pass the proposal, it will then proceed to the University Standing Committee on Undergraduate Education, of which I am a member. As such, I would like to have the Senate’s input on and concerns about the proposal.

*Interdisciplinary courses – STS courses are very broad, cutting those down; adding economics classes [taking classes that will benefit the student later in life]; cutting down number of non-curriculum related courses
- class that teaches about financial planning, how to deal with diversity, current events and the environment; current issues. [proposal from Sen. Compton]

Academic Advising

Obviously this is an issue for many students. We need to discuss what elements need to be addressed and how we can best collect student input on the matter. This is an issue we will bring up with Dr. Conway, but we need to brainstorm what we actually expect the administration to improve upon.

*Asking students in the Brickyard how their advising situations went and what they expect from their advisors
*Some way to review individual advisors after advising sessions.
*Sen. Compton: Order pizza from Domino’s w/line item money and give students a slice of pizza when they fill out an advising survey.

Discussion of Issues

We will be meeting with Dr. Conway on Wednesday, November 7 at 7:00 PM. As such, we need to discuss what issues we would like to present to him, as the Dean of Undergraduate Academics. In addition, he has some issues to bring to us as well.

*Dr. Conway is taking the idea of freshmen retake/drop date to faculty senate
*24 Hour exam policy – possibility of pushing back 8 am exams to 9 am; “reading days” where students have 2-3 full days w/o classes in order to study
*Student advisor positions – guiding younger students as to what classes to take, how to get an internship, how to write a resume

Next meeting: Nov. 7