WAC Meeting Agenda
Monday, February 9th 2009
12:10 to 1:00, Lentz Hall 332
Attendance: Ryan Ringhands, Rick Matthews, Jonathan Marshall, Jean Preston, Anne Cassidy, Mark Snavely, David Steege, Barbara Short, Ed Montenarro,
I. Approval of Minutes from December 8th meeting: approved (https://wac.carthage.edu/)

II. New Western Heritage requirement: what will Carthage accept as a transfer?

Email:
Rick,

As we discussed this morning, I’d like to give the green
light to the Registrar to accept the following as transfer
equivalencies, but I first wanted to get your feedback
regarding the writing components.

For WESTERN HERITAGE 110
One English comp course and one Western civ before 1500
course;

for WESTERN HERITAGE 111
One English comp course and one Western civ after 1500
course.

A note on two unlikely circumstances for either 110 or 111:
1) if the Western civ course were writing intensive
according to WAC guidelines, then that course alone would
be sufficient and no English comp course would be
necessary; 2) a writing intensive liberal arts course
comparable to Western Heritage would be sufficient, and
neither Western civ nor English comp would be necessary.

Looking forward to your feedback.

Chris
Committee decision: Transfer Students need both Western Civ and English Comp to get credit for each Heritage section bringing classes in Carthage from another college or university. We approve the writing intensive part of this proposal.

III. New course proposals—Mark
Julie Dalhstrom—Physics 271 for this current spring 09 semester: new part time physics professor and hasn’t yet been through the workshop. “Revisions will be accepted.” What does this mean? No informal writing. More clarity needed on the process and how the building process between 5 major writings take place. Passed with consultation and will expect a new proposal to come through with revisions. Meeting with Rick and he will contact her.
Jonathan Bruning—CDM 345 for Spring 2010: Lots of revision and feedback, significant proportion. Approved. (contacted by email BJS)
Wallace—English 303 for Summer 2009/2010: we have approved this course for other instructors. Lots of writing. Approved. (contacted by email BJS)

IV. Waiver Requests (Ryan Ringhand & Rick Matthews)
Michele Oksa: asking for release from writing intensive course in her major for adult education Information Systems. Provisional no pending graduation date.

Marguerite Harris: asking for a waiver from the religion requirement to graduate this fall due to an injury. No other classes in religion exist. Waiver approved.

Michele Pfarr: asking for a retroactive writing intensive credit for EXSS 270. Credit approved.

V. Fall retreat: Not a lot of new hires; resource allocation issues; western heritage issues. We will meet on Monday, Feb. 23 at 12:10pm LH 332 to discuss this topic.

VI. Unfinished Business

VII. New Business

Adjourned at 1pm. Submitted by: Barbara Short

Writing Across the Curriculum Committee Meeting

12-08-08, CC 117 at 1pm-2pm

Attendance:

Rick Matthews, Jonathan Marx, Jean Preston, Ann Cassidy, Chris Renoir, Barbara Short, Ryan Ringhands, Mark Snavely

Approval of minutes from November 10^th

Meeting with Mike West has handled by Rick. Mike has asked to ask depts. to get courses that are writing intensive. We can’t tell dept. about the courses; that is up to Mike and the dept. The WAC is an oversight committee. Training for adjuncts in the adult program and advising needs to be addressed in Adult Education so that the same writing requirements are fulfilled between day and adult education program. It is not clear if the dept. or adult education or the two together who are responsible for recruiting ACE WI instructor and deem courses as such.

Business Senior Seminar and Adult Education: Business student is denied a petition. Adult education was consulted. Business dept. has found a course to cover the problem.  Management 490 Rick Fields is teaching the course (adjunct and not certified). He has to submit the proposal. Grant him a waiver to teach it now and then go through the training in the fall. This move helps Adult education and Business dept. so maybe we will have fewer waivers.  So moved and approved by the committee.

New Course Proposals:

Pam Smiley renewal:  English 405 Senior Seminar for next fall 09; approved

Taking over for Maria Carrig who is supposed to teach it; no changes from Maria Carrig’s file/course.

Lynn Loewen: Spanish Senior Seminar 401; approved via e-vote for spring 09.

Waiver Requests:

Nicole Paielli: She took the business senior seminar before it was writing intensive. Now she is asked to take it again because it is writing intensive. Advising issue. Passed.

Andrew Steeves: adult education student; course descriptions from other colleges. Denied. We are not substituting courses.

Jay Grossert: Transferred in 2007 and not asking for his course in the major to be waived.  Why can’t he take a writing intensive course next semester? Senior Seminar will be one writing intensive. He didn’t make the case that he can’t take a course this spring. Ryan confirms that he is an ACE student. No advisors signature. Denied

Jason Mihelich: Business administration who is yet to take Management 490. Applied to wave both requirements. Attachment is not here. General education is being offered this summer and dept. requirement will occur in the spring. Denied

Matthew Yonkers: ACE; same situation with Management 490. He has been taking credits since fall 07. We are not substituting or looking at courses again. Advising issue. How many writing intensive ACE classes have been involved in the adult education since 2007? Waive the one for the major. There should be one over the summer; he could graduate four credits short.

We will anticipate another meeting in early Feb. 09.

Unfinished Business

New Business

Respectfully, Barbara Short

The following course/instructor pairs were approved as WI courses for the 2008-2009 academic year.

MLAN 401 Spanish Senior Seminar, Lynn Loewen

WAC Meeting Minutes
11/10/08

The meeting began at 1:00. Minutes from the October 14th meeting were approved after correcting the misspelling of Chris Renaud’s name.

Temple Burling’s Heritage II Writing Intensive Course renewal was approved.

Rick Matthews will contact Temple Burling to reiterate the agreement between the WAC Committee and the Heritage Program regarding writing intensive expectations for all Heritage courses in exchange for blanket approval of these courses as Writing Intensive.

W.I. waivers were granted for the following students:

Heather Johnson
Jennifer Newell
Eric Carson
Elliot Kist
Melissa Chabkian

The W.I. requirement was not waived for Beth Robbins. The committee determined there is time for the Business Department to put the necessary courses in place for Ms. Robbins to complete in time for graduation. Ryan Ringhand will communicate the decision to the student. Rick Matthews will speak with Tom Groleau and Mike West to encourage both the Business Department and Adult Education to address the issue of Writing Intensive courses as soon as possible.

Rick Matthews will also speak with Admissions to insure that correct information is being given to incoming students, particularly transfer students.

The meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Jean Preston

WAC:  October 20, 2008 BJS

To access the blog: wac.carthage.edu

Attendance: Anne Cassidy, Jean Preston, Ed Montanaro, Jonathan Marshall, Chris Renaud, Mark Snavely, David Steege, Rick Matthews, Barbara Short.

Minutes are approved from last meeting on Oct. 6th.

Course approval for Writing Intensive:

·         Laura Rodman Huaracha: CDM 315 History of Graphic Design: approved

·         Tom Powers: Criminal Justice 302 American Courts: approved with Rick’s mentoring

·         Anne Cassidy: ART 306 Masterpieces in Asian Art and Architecture: approved

 

Waiver Requests:

 

·         Kelsey Stewart: waiving one dept. requirement bio 251 is offered now as writing intensive and wasn’t when the student took it in the past. Taught the same. Transitional issue, accepted.

·         Melissa Chakkian: resubmit to make the case that the WI course requirement applies to her, denied.

·         Laura Potter: waiving one dept. requirement bio 251 is offered now as writing intensive and wasn’t when the student took it in the past. Taught the same. Transitional issue, accepted

·         JoAnna Huszla: waiving one dept. requirement bio 251 is offered now as writing intensive and wasn’t when the student took it in the past. Taught the same. Transitional issue, accepted

·         Sarai Nieto: Spanish major who has already taken the courses before they were writing intensive in the major, accepted the waiver request.

 

Report on Fall 2008 WAC workshops:

Marty Townsend’s input and report by Rick Matthews: Part of a larger year end report. Number of faculty and most of faculty are made eligible to teach WI classes. We will talk more in the spring about who needs to get into the program and specialty workshops.  The report summarized our WAC meeting with Marty. Rick’s role is to make sure everything gets done with faculty and communication occurs. Rick met with Judy Schaumberg. 1) Webpage for WAC will be designed. People don’t know what is going on: goal of the webpage. Faculty, students, transfers will be served. 2) Talk to development dept. to create a summary sheet for students. Adult education is an issue. Rick talked to Mike. They need courses on the books to serve adult students. Seven majors served in adult ed.  and most don’t have WI in adult education. It’s the responsibility of the dept. to make sure classes are WI at night. Regular faculty may teach in adult education. There is money from adult ed. to pay for training of adjuncts and faculty to take and teach workshops.  Faculty may be asked to teach some of the workshops before next Fall.  We are in phase 2 of development; now we are moving toward a stabilized program. There are over 90 classes this academic year identified as WI. Working with dept. chairs will be important. Assessment by the dept. chairs will be crucial to make sure objectives for the dept. are being met. Dept. that don’t have WI courses: athletic training, Asian studies, great ideas; Rick will be contacting them. Transition for adding WI designation has been smooth because faculty are doing writing already in their classes. More strategic and long-term thinking is hard to do with the committee when we are doing tedious work.

 

Form for departments to add WI designation to courses after they have been taught: create a simple form for dept. chairs to fill out and request, which would create a written record.

 

Next meeting is yet to be set.

 

Clas 275: Research Methods, Chris Von Dehsen
Engl 106: Interpreting Literature, Amy Bruning
Genl 691: Entrepreneurship in the Arts, Dimitri Shapovalov and Matt Boresi
Gifw 241: Foundations of the Natural Sciences, Brian Schwartz
Mgmt 490: Business Policy Seminar, Mary Krome
Phys 408: Observational Astrophysics, Doug Arion
Reli 100: Understandings of Religion, Chris Von Dehsen
Reli 275: Research Methods, Chris Von Dehsen
Soci 143: Cultural Anthropology, Mathew Somlai

Oct. 6, 2008 WAC committee meeting
Present: Mark Snavely, Ryan Ringhand, David Steege, Barbara Short, Rick Matthews, Ed Montanaro, Jonathan Marshall
1. Approval of Minutes
Approved as of what is on the web
2. Election of Committee Chair
Mark Snavely: chair continued: letting FEC know.
3. Approval of new course proposals
• Ellen Hauser: revised syllabus Theory of Women in Gender Studies WOGS 311: 40 % that is non-exams: approved. Spring 09
• Jean Preston and Ruth Fangmeier: Growing Old in America WOGS/ENG 271 Spring 09; approved
• Ruth Fangmeier: Social Work 471 Family Violence: Spring 09; approved
• Michelle Bonn: 2 sections EXSS 301 Tests and Measurements; Spring 09: approved
• Rick Matthews: SOC 499 Senior Seminar; Spring 09
4. Waiver Requests
• Dan Conder: Elementary major: asking to waiver college waiver. Denied because he will get his writing intensive courses through the dept.
• Alpha Sabbithi: Religion major: 2 more semesters: asking to waiver 4th WI class; Denied and encouraged to schedule a writing intensive class and resubmit if this isn’t possible later.
• Jason Ossobatto: marketing major, 5th year transfer: requesting one in the major being waived; scheduling conflicts; accepting
• Aaron Hill: International political economy and Asian Studies minor; asking writing course in major and outside waived; took Art Cyr class that he thought was approved; transfer student; POLS 405 is writing intensive in Spring 09; major denied. Outside the major POLS 205 fall 07 should have been writing intensive; accept the request.
5. Report on Fall 2008 WAC workshops: meet in two weeks to talk.
6. Form for departments to add WI designation to courses after they have been taught.
7. Unfinished Business
• Dept. Chairs need to flag writing intensive courses for each semester; JoDonna gets the information from dept. chairs for the schedule. Then Mark Snavely double checks the list. We need proposals by Oct. 15 this term for approval for next term. Please have advisors not tell students that courses are writing approved if they aren’t.
• Course information is stored on our computers and the data base.
• Whole class of POLS 205 gets WI credit: Ryan to check.
• Adult Education: getting adjuncts certified: Rick meeting with Mike.
8. New Business
WAC workshop report on Oct. 20 1-2pm
Rick meeting with Judith and webpages/background issues in the meantime.

WAC Meeting Agenda
Monday, September 15, 2008
1:00 to 2:00, CC 117
Attendance: Mark Snavely, Rick Matthews, Jonathan Marshall, David Steege, Anne Cassidy, Jean Preston, Barbara Short, Ryan Ringhand, Ed Montanaro.
I. Approval of Minutes from May 7 2008 meeting (https://wac.carthage.edu/)

II. Election of Committee Secretary – Congratulations Barb!

III. Approval of new course proposals (Mark Snavely)

Ellen Hauser: WOGS 311 doesn’t approve exams as writing: asking for revision; Rick is going to follow up with her. 20% meets the criteria that she set out. Not enough writing to learn. Revise and resubmit to the committee; term is not clear.

Julio Rivera and Patrick Pfaffle: GEOS and BIOL 471 Nicaragua: J-term; passed.

Steve Udry: HIST 220 for 2009-2010; passed.

Getting a proposal from Matt Zorn soon.

IV. Waiver Requests: put slides on the website to help to sort reasons for accepting or denying.

Daniel Borak: ENG 152.005: denied, not substituting or self designing, no faculty member signing.
Kimberly Randle: first class in 1999, free from writing intensive, doesn’t need WI course
Dan Conder: took 201 before it was listed. Mark is following up to see his major/minor. tabled pending more information.
Alpha Sabbithi: jr or sr; which courses do you need to take for your major or minor (open slots); tabled pending more information.
Gina Yi: accounting major, hasn’t taken sr. seminar yet, day school, advisor needs to be consulted, she is going to get a course and has time to get another course; denied.

V. Update on Writing Fellow certification (Jean Preston)
Writing tutors/fellows:
Training process meets criteria. 10 hrs. training and 20 hours of experience. We do 25 hrs. of training automatically. 10 hrs. of training in addition throughout the semester. Currently we have:
3 students at level II
4 students at level I

VI. Report on Fall 2008 WAC Workshops (Matthews)
Rick is putting together on workshops. First we offered two kinds of sections: certification and advanced with people already certified (a moment of growth). Poses new questions: organization, compensation, recommendations. We are becoming our own teachers. We should be ready to run all of the workshops ourselves this year; become self-sustaining for money reasons. Find ways to cultivate interest and become resources. Spread out among our colleagues.

VII. Unfinished Business
Passed proposals via email for this fall 2008 at the beginning of the semester. See summer notes for those courses.

VIII. New Business
Enrollment cap for team taught writing intensive courses: 30 for a trial
This number would work with lots of informal reflective writing, writing to reflect on what you have just been doing. Formal paper means revision for editing.

Meetings: Oct. 6 CC rm 117 1-2pm. We are all available. If we need an additional meeting, Rick will schedule additional ones and give us some notice.

Have to do something with the course updates. Timing is off. We need an update system. We can do that within the current system. When and how often we ask for the updates is the question. We need to know what courses are running.

Less immediate: instructor re-certification. Suggestions: teaching a WI course once a year. Workshops, point system, on or off campus.

Business and second general education courses are in short supply.