PROPOSED RE-DESIGN OF DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE STRUCTURE

Transcription

1 PROPOSED RE-DESIGN OF DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE STRUCTURE PROPOSAL: a) Re-design the General Studies Academic Committees (GSACs). Disband the 21 separate General Studies Academic Committees and create three broad AREA COMMITTEES (10 members on each committee Five 4yr members & Five 2yr members). a. AREA I/II Committee English, Humanities, and Fine Arts b. AREA III Committee Mathematics and Natural Sciences c. AREA IV Committee History and Social Sciences Meet with these three committees annually to review their ratified templates and approved courses. This will change the number of committees dealing with general studies from 21 to 3. It will also reduce committee members from 367 GSAC members to 30 AREA Committee Members. b) Leave the Pre-Professional Academic Committees (PACs) as they are. Meet with them annually to go over all their ratified templates to discuss changes, corrections and updates. 1

2 RATIONAL AND BACKGROUND HISTORY OF AGSC DISCIPLINE COMMITTEES In the mid-1990s the AGSC/STARS Program was in its infancy stages. At that point in time, there was a state legislative mandate that all the public institutions of higher education in Alabama were called upon to resolve the issue of lost transfer credit among students who attended public state community colleges and later attempted to transfer their earned credits to a public state funded universities. There was much concern among the various institutions across the state. In establishing a statewide general studies program and articulation agreement, the AGSC members agreed that buy-in and support was needed from teaching faculty and chief academic officers across the state. As the AGSC began to set up the process to ratify templates for all the various majors in the state, they decided the new articulation program would be most well received if they created faculty-run discipline committees. They started by creating the main general studies areas (AREA I, II, III, IV) which covered general courses in English, fine arts, humanities, natural science, math, history, and social sciences. From these general areas evolved over 18 different GENERAL STUDIES ACACEMIC COMMITTEES (TODAY THERE ARE 21 COMMITTEES MADE UP OF 367 FACULTY MEMBERS). This allowed for representation across the state to each of the four-year institutions and an equal voice to the two-year faculty members. These committees worked well in the early years, because the faculty had a stake in making sure their general studies courses were approved for transfer. In addition, the faculty members wanted to make sure any degree requirements and transfer equivalencies came from voting and approval by these faculty member committees in their respective discipline area. In addition, the AGSC also established PRE-PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC COMMMITEES. These faculty groups gave primary voting rights to the four-year faculty in the pre-professional major areas (Engineering, Business, Education, Nursing, etc.). In addition, there were two non-voting two-year faculty on each of these groups to give insight from the community colleges. There are now 16 PRE- PROFESSIONAL COMMITTEES in place (MADE UP OF 173 FACULTY MEMBERS). 2

3 AREA I&II ENGLISH, HUMANITIES & FINE ARTS ACADEMIC COMMITTEE The AREA I/II English, Humanities & Fine Arts Academic Committee would: o Art & Art History o Communication Studies (Public Speaking) o English Composition o English Literature o Foreign Languages o Music & Music History o Philosophy & Religious Studies o Theatre & Dance o Other discipline areas considered to be in English, Humanities, or Fine Arts 6. Annual review of the established discipline specific guidelines for their 3

4 AREA III NATURAL SCIENCE & MATHEMATICS ACADEMIC COMMITTEE The AREA III Mathematics & Natural Sciences Academic Committee would: o Biological Sciences o Chemistry o Physical Geography o Geology & Earth Science o Mathematics o Physics, Physical Science, & Astronomy o Other discipline areas considered to be in Natural Sciences or Mathematics 6. Annual review of the established discipline specific guidelines for their 4

5 AREA IV HISTORY & SOCIAL SCIENCES ACADEMIC COMMITTEE The AREA IV History & Social Sciences Academic Committee would: o Anthropology o Area & Ethnic Studies o Communication Studies (Interpersonal Communication) o Economics o Human Geography o History o Political Science o Psychology o Sociology o Other discipline areas considered to be in History or Social Sciences 6. Annual review of the established discipline specific guidelines for their 5