Summer, 2007

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The following proposals were approved via e-mail over the summer of 2007.

HIST 220 Historical Methods, Stephanie Mitchell
EXSS 301 Tests and Measurements in Exercise and Sport Science, Cynthia Allen
Biology 467 Senior Seminar, Dan Choffnes

Respectfully submitted,
Mark Snavely

Minutes from the 5/7/07 Meeting

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WAC Committee Meeting Minutes – 5/7/07

The meeting was called to order at 11:00 a.m.

The committee discussed a petition from a transfer student requesting a waiver for the W.I. requirement outside the major. The committee approved the waiver, based on the student’s completion of English Composition I and II at College of Lake County.

Alan Wallace asked committee members for their summer availability in order to schedule summer meetings. It was agreed that WAC decisions can be made over the summer by e-mail “meetings” of regularly attending members, or by the vote of quorum of three regularly attending committee members. Minutes of any summer meetings/decisions must be recorded.

Mark Snavely reported that Tracy Gartner’s course was approved as Writing Intensive, via email decision. Two additional courses will be submitted for WI approval in the near future.

Alan Wallace reported that he and Rick Matthews are working with Wayne Thompson on a scanable form for W.I. assessment. A “heads up” email will be sent out to the faculty, followed by distribution of the assessment form in hard copy and electronically. The assessment forms should be returned to the committee prior to graduation. The results will be posted online.

Mark Snavely has been working with Mike Kishline to develop the W.I. course renewal form. Any significant change to a W.I. course must be indicated on the renewal form. Mark will see about adding a request to the form for a rationale for proposed changes. The form should be up and running by September. Renewal of W.I. courses is required, at least for the first few years of implementation.

W.I. course proposals listing more than one instructor can be approved, provided each instructor is W.I. certified and that instructors use identical syllabi.

The accessibility of the W.I. course proposal/renewal forms was discussed. At present, the web pages are five layers deep. At the May faculty meeting, Mark Snavely will give a brief report on the progress of W.I., and will demonstrate for faculty how to find the W.I. blog, forms and updates.

The August W.I. workshop afternoon session (1-4 p.m.) will be led by Alan Wallace. Jean Preston will assist him with this session. Mark Snavely and Rick Matthews will conduct the morning session with Department Chairs. The WAC committee will have a 7:00 a.m. breakfast meeting meet with Marty Townsend on Thursday, August 30.

Alan Wallace expressed concern regarding W.I. course requirements in the School of Professional Studies (SPS) because of pending changes in management and curriculum in SPS.

W.I. approval is needed for the new Heritage I pilot sections to be taught in fall 07. Mark Snavely will remind the HOC about this requirement.

Alan Wallace requested that committee members think about future assessment of W.I. courses and also how to best recognize outstanding W.I. faculty and outstanding student writing developed in W.I. courses. The committee agreed that this recognition should come from the Divisions and the HOC.

Mark Snavely will send a memo to Division Chairs regarding pending W.I. deadlines, writing assessment issues, and faculty and student recognition.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 noon.

Respectfully submitted,

Jean Preston

Minutes from the 4/24/07 Meeting

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Writing Across the Curriculum Committee

Minutes of the April 24, 2007 Meeting

Present: Michele Bonn, Maria Carrig, Rick Matthews, Leonard Schulze, Barbara Short, Mark Snavely, David Steege, Alan Wallace

The committee agreed that the process of reviewing and approving Writing Intensive (WI) course proposals will continue in the coming academic year, whatever the result of the vote on the Heritage curriculum that takes place today. If a new Heritage curriculum is piloted, the new courses will have to go through the process of proposal, review and approval for WI status.

The fall Writing Workshop will take place August 28-29, during the same week as the Heritage workshop.

Three WI course proposals were considered. Classics/Religion 332 and Political Science 210 were approved. Education 201 was approved pending discussion with the instructors to clarify certain parts of the course description.

The WAC/FAQ page will be finalized during the summer, after the Committee has determined answers to some of the questions.

The deadlines for submission and approval of WI course proposals were discussed. The official deadline is the end of October for proposals for the following academic year. Approval of proposals is in November. The absolute deadline for approval is February.

Alan Wallace said that assessment of WAC could begin by sending a questionnaire to Heritage instructors about their experience with WI this year. The committee looked at three questionnaire formats and chose one that could be scanned, and that focused on evaluation of the WI component. Mark Snavely suggested working on question format with people in writing assessment, to make sure we get the information we want. Currently, only Heritage 103 and 104 are WI, so only they will be assessed this year.

The meeting adjourned at 1:00.

Minutes from the 4/2/07 Meeting

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WAC Committee Meeting Minutes – 4/2/07

The meeting was called to order at 11:00 a.m.

The committee discussed and conditionally approved a proposal from Linda Noer for a fall ’07 W.I. course, Social Work 240 (Human Behavior and Social Environment). Mark Snavely will contact Linda about requiring feedback on journal entries and encouraging her to submit a syllabus.

Alan Wallace reported on progress with the WAC FAQ online and/or paper brochure. The committee discussed several related issues, including the need to have a link from the Academic Affairs web page directly to committees, so that items such as the WAC FAQ are more easily accessible to the faculty. Mark Snavely will talk with Christine Rener about this issue.

The WAC FAQ should also have a list of submission deadlines for various W.I. related items. Michelle Bonn will send a list of proposed deadlines to Alan Wallace. Department chairs should still be responsible for designating courses as W.I. on departmental schedules, but the committee believes these designations should be included on the schedule “revisions,” rather than on the first schedule drafts submitted to the Registrar.

A WAC workshop for SPS adjuncts, particularly Education Department adjuncts, needs to be offered, but the numbers of adjuncts that will need the workshop are less than the committee anticipated. More information is needed from the Education Department before this workshop can be planned.

Jean Preston reported that she has submitted fall ’07 Writing Center statistics and a proposed WC budget for 2007-08 to Brad Andrews. Brad has indicated that the Writing Center should have its own budget line next year, and will most likely be moved from his supervision to the Academic Dean’s supervision. Since these issues are being considered, WAC will delay sending a letter of support for the Writing Center to the Dean.

Mark Snavely will give a brief update regarding WAC to the faculty at the May faculty meeting.

Alan Wallace will speak with Maria Carrig and Leonard Schultz to see if they want to serve second three-year terms on the WAC committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:05 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for noon on Tuesday, April 24 – location TBD.

Respectfully submitted,

Jean Preston

Minutes from the 3/20/07 Meeting

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WAC Committee Meeting Minutes – 3/20/07

The meeting was called to order at 12 noon.

The committee discussed and unanimously approved two proposals for W.I. courses, Jim Lochtefeld’s Religion 100 (Understandings of Religion), and Gary Williams’ proposed 40X course, Sport and Exercise Psychology. The committee’s approval of Gary Williams’ course is for W.I. status only. The course itself must still be granted divisional and CPC approval.

Alan Wallace brought up the question of transfer students’ potential problems with meeting W.I. requirements. After some discussion, the committee agreed that transfer students would be permitted to submit petitions requesting waivers for the W.I. requirement. The WAC committee will appoint a subcommittee to review these petitions and grant or deny them.

Alan Wallace presented a list of issues the committee has discussed over the past year that need to be discussed further and/or acted upon. The committee discussed several of these issues:

o Mark Snavely will work with the college webmaster to design a W.I. course approval renewal form that will be convenient for faculty to use and will supply the necessary information needed to the WAC committee as well.
o The committee will devise a system to keep track of adjunct/contract instructors who teach W.I. courses to insure that these instructors do not end up teaching a disproportionate number of these courses.
o Rick Matthews and Alan Wallace will develop a F.A.Q. brochure to distribute to faculty. One question that will be addressed in the brochure is how to advise students so that the majority of them do not complete their W.I. requirement within their first two years at Carthage. The brochure will also include a statement that instructors taking the WI workshop will be “compensated on a one-time basis” only.

o The committee decided that the inclusion of a detailed syllabus would not be a required inclusion for W.I. course proposals, but that such inclusion would be highly recommended.
o The committee discussed the Writing Center budget and fellow pay issue. Jean Preston will pursue with Kurt Piepenburg and Brad Andrews the plans for the Writing Center budget for 2007-08.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:05 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 2, time and place TBD.

Respectfully submitted,

Jean Preston

Minutes from the 1/19/2007 Meeting

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WAC Meeting Minutes
2/19/07

Present:

Mark Snavely
Leonard Schultz
Rick Matthews
Alan Wallace
Michelle Bonn
David Steege
Jean Preston

Alan Wallace showed the committee a list of faculty who are teaching Heritage this semester. Only five faculty on the entire list have not been certified to teach W.I. courses, or have not submitted a proposal for their Heritage section for W.I. approval.

The Committee agreed to meet again on Tuesday, February 27, at noon.

Mark Snavely presented several W.I. proposals to the Committee for its consideration.

Heritage proposals were submitted by Sam Chell, Jonathan Marshall, Marla Polley, Marian Rothstein, and Chris von Dehsen. All were approved for W.I. designation.

Ingrid Tiegel submitted a W.I. proposal for Psyc 365: Child Psychopathology. The committee approved the proposal pending clarification of the weight given to writing assignments on the course syllabus.

Leonard Shultz will deliver the list of Heritage faculty who are not W.I. certified and have not submitted a W.I. course proposal for their course to the committee.

Michelle Bonn gave the Committee a list of courses that have been submitted to the Registrar’s office as W.I. courses. Only one course on the list (Engl 201/Smiley) has been approved by the WAC Committee. Two Math courses (Math 309/Snavely and Math 300/Trautwein) have been approved, but were not included on the list. Michelle will update the list, and Department Chairs will be informed if their courses have not yet been approved for W.I. designation and reminded of due dates for future submissions via a memo from Mark Snavely. In addition, the Registrar’s office will include instructions for designating courses as W.I. in the Departmental scheduling packets.

Mark Snavely will request that Division Chairs, after reviewing Departmental schedules, poll their Department Chairs regarding second W.I. courses.

Rick Matthews will be proposing a summer term ACE W.I. course, Topics 271, Elite Deviance. Understandings of Religion was mentioned as a good option for an ACE/SPS W.I. non-major course. Rick Matthews will contact the Business and Education Departments to see what progress they have made on ACE/SPS W.I. courses. He will also talk with Diane Keller about faculty certification.

Alan Wallace is planning an ACE/SPS W.I. Workshop that will probably take place in August. This workshop will be for adjunct faculty, but will also offer an alternative for full time faculty who cannot attend the daytime workshop offered for full time faculty. The workshop will be offered on weekends or in the evenings to accommodate adjuncts’ schedules. Alan will try to determine how many faculty might attend and will set a date as soon as possible.

Leonard Schultz questioned if the requirement for a research paper in Heritage II is too advanced for second semester freshmen. Alan Wallace expressed similar concerns. Alan will share with the committee a proposal he and Anne Shaw prepared for the HOC when the new Heritage curriculum was being developed.

Alan Wallace handed out a summary of the work the WAC has accomplished over the past year. He requested that the Committee read the summary and come to next week’s meeting ready to discuss both the summary and any priorities for the coming year.

Respectfully Submitted by Jean Preston