Highline Community College Faculty Senate

 Minutes
April 17, 2002

 Present:  Sharon Hashimoto, Maggie Brown, Rebecca Sliger, Bob Bonner, Jean Harris, Tracy Brigham, Gwen Spencer

 Presiding:  Glen Avantaggio, Vice President

 Agenda:  1.  Probation Policy re-draft

                  2.  Review of Degree requirements

 1.      Probation policy;  Rebecca Sliger, Maggie Brown, Eric Baer and Gwen Spencer have been appointed as a sub-committee to re-draft the Probation Policy.

2.      There are three more meetings this quarter to reformulate the probation policy, take it to the Divisions and operationalize it.

 3.      Members discussed aspects of degree requirements such as Diversity and Global requirements, for example and requiring more writing across the curriculum, writing tutors and writing workshops.

 Gwen Spencer noted that there is a loophole in the writing requirements;  Students taking Writing 101 can pass without a C and then go on to take Journalism.  To enter a 4 year university, a student needs a C (2.0).

 At Highline, to go to the next writing course, Writing 102, students need a C, (2.0) except if they Journalistic Writing.

 Sharon Hashimoto said this issue was discussed in the Writing Department where it was agreed that students need to pas Writing 101 with a  C, (2.0) in order to go on  to  other writing courses.

 Gwen Spencer emphasized that the large, major universities such as the University of Washington, Seattle University, Western Washington University, Washington State University, CWU, WWU and EWU all require a 2.0 in course work in order to be admitted.  Therefore, we need to change our degree requirement here. 

 Glen Avantaggio will send notification via the minutes to Faculty Senate members who were not present in order to let them know about this timely issue concerning needed change in the degree requirement.

 4.      Glen Avantaggio stated that during the process of looking at degree requirements, we did not look at the AAS degrees and need to do so 

Bob Bonner passed handouts concerning the AAS, Associate in Applied Science degree, stating that it has different degree requirements than the other degrees the college grants.

 There are specialty designations related to job functions such as in the Respiratory Care practicum.  Also, students in AAS majors take 90-100 credits in their two year programs.  ˝ to 1/3 of their credits are in general education.

 Not all AAS programs have open door policies.  People apply for admission to these programs, like the nursing program and they must complete prerequisites in order to be eligible for the screening process that preceeds being chosen for admission.  In addition, some programs go through accreditation processes at the national level and at the state level where state law governs the accreditation process. 

 There are five AAS degrees that go through a  national accreditation process for their specialty, such as Respiratory Care and Nursing.

 There are no proposed changes for the AAS degree presently.  One recent change is that for the AAS degree, under Communication requirements, students can now take either writing 101 or Speech 100, not both.

 There used to be “course imbedded” learning that no longer exists.  (See Handout)  The new expectation is that master’s  level instructors will teach all coursework required for the AAS degree programs.  Once issue concerns the ease of transfer to four year universities for some of the AAS courses so that these students can go on for bachelor’s degrees.

 Bob mentioned that starting  these AAS degree programs is rigorous and the programs themselves must demonstrate that there are jobs  for their graduates with specific salaries and  that they conduct needs surveys to ascertain this data. 

 5.      Gwen Spencer distributed a handout with two quarters worth of data concerning our new policy on probation.  There are now fewer students taking course work  with greater than 15 credits, total, since the  policy was implemented.  She explained several aspects of the handout and also the impact of a lesser credit load and the effect on financial aid, all of which  the sub-committee will address. 

 Gwen also  mentioned that the official  admission requirements for AD  transfer students is 2.75 and it is expected to go higher.

 Notes by Judy Johnson-Wise