ICC Academic Policy Committee

ICC Academic Policy Committee

May 3, 2002

Minutes

Members Present: Sandra Cohea-Weible, SU (chair); Eric Lampe, UMBC; Dee Houston, UMUC; Judy Sabalauskas, UB.

  1. Advising Reports
  2. The committee members present discussed the expectation that all institutions would have their advising reports available to the BOR Education Policy committee for their meeting in June. To date, the USM has not communicated a date when the reports will be due to the USM for duplication. Concern was expressed about the lack of communication with institutions not regularly attending ICC meetings, the absence of activity by the System Academic Advising Oversight Committee, and the possible lack of consistency of the reports submitted. To date, the committee knew of only three reports that were completed - SU, UMUC, and Coppin. S. Cohea-Weible will contact the System office with the concerns and further information regarding the submission of these reports to the BOR.

  3. How institutions establish BA or BS status for their degrees
  4. Information regarding this topic was available from the following five institutions. It was determined that in all the institutions discussed, the department proposing the program determines the degree (BA or BS) and seeks approval through the campus curriculum approval process. Specific Information regarding this subject was shared as follows:

    UMUC - Departments determine the degree when a program is developed. The humanities offer a BA degree and all others offer a BS degree. A language requirement is not longer used to distinguish between a BA and BS degree.

    UMBC - All students are required to complete a language requirement through the 201 level. Students pursuing a BS degree can substitute math for the language/culture requirement. All most all majors are BA degrees. The exceptions are majors in math, science, financial economics and engineering. These majors result in a BS degree.

    UB - The BA degrees have more electives in the degree than the BS degrees

    SU - Departments determine the degree when a program is developed. There are more BS degrees than BA degrees. BS degrees are offered in the sciences, math, nursing, business, and the behavioral sciences. All other majors result in a BA degree.

    TOWSON - Students in the BA degree programs must complete a language through the intermediate level. Students pursuing BS degrees do not.

  5. Common academic action terminology (completed chart)

Upon review of the information submitted by participating institutions, the committee formulated the following conclusions:

    • Different terms are used to show different levels of academic action.
    • Almost all institutions have at least 2 - 3 steps to dismissal status.
    • All but one institution has dismissal with an appeal process and a path to reinstatement (readmission after some academic action). In some institutions this happens after suspension.
    • Suspension - In most cases the student leaves the university for a period of time and has to be reinstated. This level of academic action can be similar to the dismissal action at other institutions.
    • Probation - An action taken when a student has less than a 2.0 cumulative gpa. Can also be determined based on the number of semesters at an institution or by class or by number of credits completed. Often there is a limit on the number of credits for which the student can enroll. At some institutions this academic action is referred to as academic warning. This is usually the initial notification for academic deficiency.
    • Academic Warning - Similar to probation. In institutions where both probation and academic warning are used the academic warning precedes probation.
    • Academic Jeopardy - Used at UMBC. Applied only to first semester freshmen.
    • Extended Warning - Used at Towson only
    • Unsatisfactory Progress - Used at UMCP - Similar to academic warning except it is calculated on a sliding scale and can be issued for students with cumulative gpas higher than a 2.0.
    • Academic Alert - Coppin - Similar to UMBC's academic jeopardy in that it applies to incoming freshmen only
    • Provisional - UMES and UMUC - Admission status for undergraduate students with a low grade point average or previous dismissal that come from another institution. .
  1. CLEP score chart
  2. The committee will continue next year to try to complete in information on this chart.

  3. ICC matters

The committee members were asked to discuss ways to improve the ICC meetings and to elect a chair for the upcoming year. The committee asked Sandra Cohea-Weible to serve as chair and she agreed. Ideas for improving ICC included:

    • Reduce meetings to three a year. Continue to have the September retreat and schedule two more - perhaps one in November and one in early May.
    • Look for good speakers to address the group on relevant topics. Don't have a speaker just to have a speaker. Schedule a 30 minute talk and perhaps a 15 minute question/answer session. Ideas for topics might include legislative updates that affect USM (not necessarily USM personnel) and experts in certain content such as student success, future directions for universities, etc.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 1pm.

 

 

Sandra Cohea-Weible, Recorder.