ASCC Minutes September 2017

Arts & Sciences Curriculum Committee Meeting
Draft Minutes
September 12, 2017
3:30-5:00 p.m.
CNS 8

Members in attendance: Rachelle Brunn-Bevel, Ryan Drake (Elected Chair), Johanna Garvey, Dean Richard Greenwald, Laura McSweeney, Martin Nguyen, Giovanni Ruffini (Outgoing Chair), Kraig Steffen, Margaret Wills

Guests: Associate Dean, Elizabeth Petrino; Professor Steven Sawin

Meeting Began at 3:30 p.m.

Ruffini – The Committee has invited guests to discuss the proposal for Math and the proposal for BLS. Additionally, there are 12 course proposals. If we want to honor the invitations that have been extended to our guests, there is more than 90 minutes of work on this agenda. Once I am no longer chair, the agenda may need to be reloaded in whatever format the Committee feels is fitting. As I am handing over the position of chair at this meeting, I do not feel it is my place to do this.

Election of New Chair

As the first order of business, Ruffini notes his term is over as chair. He will hear nominations and calls from volunteers for those interested in replacing him as chair of the Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee. Professor Ryan Drake volunteers to take the position as the new Chair of the ASCC.

Motion: Steffen moves to approve; Garvey seconds
Vote: All in favor; motion passes unanimously

Professor Drake – States it is an honor to accept the position as Chair. He discusses with the Committee their preference on the length of the meeting, and how to restructure the agenda. His suggestion: honor our guests for today, and see how many course proposals we can get through.

Approval of minutes from meeting on April 11, 2017

Motion: Garvey moves to approve; McSweeney seconds
Vote: Majority in favor; motion passes

Note of Actions Taken by Outgoing Chair

A. BI/CH 324L and BI/CH 325L from Biochemistry I Lab and Biochemistry II Lab (respectively) to Biochemistry Lab.

B. MA Financial Mathematics Certificate Requirement Changes: from requiring MA 531 & MA 532 to requiring two of MA 401, MA 531 & MA 532 (see attached).

C. MU 255 from Symphonic Orchestra to Instrumental Ensembles.

D. ENW 398 to be repeatable up to six credits.

E. ENW 323 from Digital Journalism / Elective to Digital Journalism / Production.

Ruffini – A great deal of what the Chair does takes place behind the scenes. This mostly consists of moving from one category or another, or changing how many credits these are all worth. In some cases, with certificate requirements, the document passed from Chair to Chair on this Committee include certain authorities the Chair is given to make minor changes to a program and/or major and minor requirements. It is up to the chair’s discretion as to what minor constitutes. That’s what is going on with all of these. The Committee can review these decisions and comment. There is a paper trail for all of these, some have attachments.

FUA/BLS Concentrations

Wills - Thank you for having me here today as director of the Bachelor of Liberal Studies (BLS) program, as well as Elizabeth, our designated Dean’s office representative and point person on our Florence University of the Arts/ BLS initiative.

We’re here to speak to the potential for an exciting, mission-driven, revenue-generating collaboration with FUA. A FUA-BLS collaboration will enable FUA students in various accredited FUA certificate programs to continue their education with Fairfield in order to earn a Bachelor’s Degree through our existing BLS degree completion program.

We have enjoyed a partnership with FUA through study abroad for over twenty years, and they are very enthusiastic about this proposal. For the next few minutes I’ll offer some history and overview of the BLS major, more specifics on the current BLS curriculum, and finally provide some background on the proposed FUA-BLS partnership.

First: The BLS program, originally known as General Studies in 1990, and then the Bachelor of “Professional Studies,” was housed in the former University College. In 2011, when University College was officially closed, the CAS faculty voted to accept the “BPS” program into the College.

The Dean then appointed a Faculty Steering Committee. I was elected director, and served alongside Associate Dean Aaron Perkus, formerly of University College, to find a way forward for the BPS program.

A couple of years in, in the spirit of recognizing the Liberal Arts core at the heart of our program, we officially changed the program name from Professional Studies to Liberal Studies.

Important to note -- in 2009, Fairfield University was approved by the state to offer this degree entirely online. Offering BLS courses online was a modification to accommodate a more professional student. To date, only a few students have utilized this option, but the hope has been the range of available online courses at Fairfield would sufficiently increase and more BLS students would find this a viable option. Encouraging continued growth in our online offerings is a top priority for our pending hire of a VP for Continuing and Professional Studies. And such growth is essential in the FUA-BLS partnership.

Second, to offer you more specific background on the existing BLS curriculum: As seen on the current BLS program degree audit form, BLS uses a modified core and distributive major (BLS is an interdisciplinary program), and requires students take courses in at least two or more academic Areas (Areas being Social and Behavioral Sciences, Professional Studies – i.e., DSB, SON, SOE, Education, Humanities, Natural Sciences & Math. The major concludes with a capstone experience, GS 399.

In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the program, a BLS student’s major is intended for design in careful consultation with his/her academic advisor to reflect a student’s primary academic and career interests across at least two different areas. Finally, the BLS core curriculum, and BLS major curriculum, are complemented by a minimum of 8 electives.

The BLS is the only program in the College specifically designed to meet the needs of the post-traditional student.

To allow students to complete their degree as simply as possible, the BLS considers a wider range of transfer credits (up to 75) than for students transferring into the College or the DSB (up to 60).

Students who transfer in do so typically with a suite of courses, and those courses transferred are “approved” by a designated individual – originally Aaron Perkus, then myself, then Lynn Sally, and now Jean Daniele

Third, transitioning to the proposal before us – last December, Deans Williams, Walker and Sally brought before the BLS committee a request from FUA to consider a partnership that would help their students in the certificate programs of Culinary, Digital Media, Hospitality, Enology, E-publishing, Hospitality, and Visual Communication, have the option of extending their studies to complete a Bachelor’s Degree through Fairfield University. It should be noted the students at FUA have English as their first language and all courses at FUA are taught in English.

The Deans approached the BLS committee as the Liberal Studies major seemed to be a potential pathway for such a degree. In consultation with FUA president Gabriella Ganugi, who has an upcoming scheduled visit at Fairfield this October, Assoc. Deans Walker and Sally began drafting programs of study for the aforementioned programs of Culinary, etc., following the guidelines of the existing BLS curriculum which requires MAJOR courses are taken in at least two AREAS, and with a breadth of disciplines.

The BLS Steering committee and the director consulted with Brian Walker—we’re very grateful for his enthusiastic and careful work on this initiative -- and so we approved this initiative at our steering committee meeting last March. The message from the Dean’s office and the SVPAA’s office has consistently been one of great support and enthusiasm for this partnership. From there, Brian Walker began drafting the proposal you see before you, I continued the work with Elizabeth Petrino, and Elizabeth and I have since met to continue the ongoing work in addressing the administrative and advising structure of the program.

Looking at the proposed programs’ degree audits, we’d note that FUA would be responsible for advising their students in taking their MAJOR classes at FUA. The MAJOR courses they are taking at FUA are an approved suite of courses that are packaged and exist as a functioning/approved unit by a reputable institution which they are essentially transferring in to the BLS program. We trust our agreement with FUA that each of those programs are a set unit that should count.

The students CORE classes, in black print, are the ones for which Fairfield University is responsible. Our proposal notes that FUA students must take a minimum of TEN core classes “from” Fairfield University, either in-person or online. The courses in black, like finite Math, are Fairfield approved/equivalent courses that are already run at FUA – our study abroad students regularly take these courses and we do not make money off of these courses. The “online” courses in red are the courses FUA students would take through Fairfield—every online course is direct revenue for Fairfield. The yellow spaces are where we still need to determine either Fairfield or FUA courses to count.

As far as the BLS curriculum, there is one proposed modification, and that is we are adding an additional AREA, that being Hospitality.

We would also note that there were extensive discussions with Mary Frances as far as having an accrediting body sign off on the FUA major courses – as an extra measure of confidence. It was agreed we would hire someone to go to FUA and ensure the quality of these programs. While we trust that our collaborative institution has created programs that are good, we will go through and have them re-assessed.

A few final notes:

Former UC Dean Aaron Perkus from our 2015 BLS program review document: “The impact that closing

University College has had on the BLS program should not be underestimated. During the ensuing years (from

2009 to 2015) the University has lost an estimated 20 million dollars in Continuing Studies related revenue.” We suggest that our proposed collaboration with FUA is a step in the right direction as far as expanding our Continuing Studies offerings and elevating the status of the BLS program and the College.

Importantly, this initiative addresses the call of Fairfield’s 2020 vision statement to “meet this moment with energy and innovation.” The proposed FUA-BLS programs can further inspire collaborations with existing Fairfield programs such as our own Digital Journalism, as one example.

We understand that the FUA programs in Culinary and Enology don’t represent the “typical” academic student, but in fact, this fits with what a Liberal Studies has always been about – Fairfield made a space for these students in our approved BLS degree granting program 27 years ago.

Seven years ago, the CAS approved the BLS program as part of the College of Arts and Sciences. We contend that our program has good intellectual value, with the Fairfield core curriculum as a defining feature, and the FUA program collaboration will be a welcomed addition.

Petrino – This proposal was brought forward, reviewed and vetted by the BLS Committee. It was also under discussion in the Dean’s Office, through Brian Walker in collaboration with Maggie, and with FUA and their representatives. There are three areas, within the Dean’s Office, I was concerned on working through.

1. Potential Budget

o In consultation with Study Abroad, it seems the program has the potential to bring in 10 – 30 students its first year.

o Students are located primarily in Florence. They would already be taking the FUA program, and planning on finishing their degrees with the BLS program.

o Students would not need much support or additional services from Fairfield because they are already residents at FUA. Their budgetary needs will be covered by tuition, which will cover the adjunct or faculty member offering the online core course from Fairfield.

o Promotion will be primarily done by FUA, unless the university decides that it wishes to recruit domestically. In that case, Fairfield would take on more of their share of the financial burden.

o The role of Study Abroad will be to make sure that students are brought into and on boarded into the FUA program.

o The Dean’s Office will oversee the meeting of degree requirements. Advising will take place in the same manner as it is for the BLS students. FUA students advising will take place largely through the advising template we currently have. We will work with students via email exchanges. Ultimately, their programs will come back to the Dean’s Office who will ensure that they have met all degree requirements for BLS that Fairfield requires.

o The BLS Committee will serve primarily as an advisory body for the program. Any changes, curricular decisions, question about academic requirements will go through the BLS Committee.

o The CAS will handle advising through the Assistant Deans for students who need advising at Fairfield. For students at FUA, advising will be handled by FUA faculty who are residents there.

· Nguyen - I’m thinking about the resource issue. In the future, if another faculty member leaves, it could be that there are students who want to get the certificate, but aren’t able to because the courses aren’t available. On the flip side, I also see if this launches and there are students, it’s also a good argument for needing a replacement.

· Wills – I really like this as part of the college initiative, to have more and create more programs. I tell my students if you don’t have a minor, articulate what you have a concentration in. A certificate gives it another level of legitimacy.

· Drake – This sounds pretty easy and straightforward for the math department. My only concerns are about who is going to teach and when.

· Ruffini – At some point, Mentor died so they went to using Google Doc. form. I think people started thinking that was the submission form. There is nothing in any of the documents that specify that form is required. The document passed from Chair to Chair states there is a submission form, but it is not found. Ruffini or Nash did not require the submission form. If we as a Committee want answers to these questions (they are good answers and we want to have them) it is unfair to request them now because they were not asked for them.

· Drake – I’m fine with minutes and a syllabus right now. We can decide together as a group what we require. We will have to educate the chairs in regards to the forms.

There are two versions – MS Word and Google Docs. The Committee decided to make available only one link. Ruffini will pass the link to Drake for revisions.

· Steffen – It is a good addition of this type for Environmental Studies students. There was discussion about the number being the right number 202 vs 203 or 201. It uses our own campus document as a starting point, and references into other campus sustainability documents.

· Brunn-Bevel – I like the way the student projects fold into the course as well.

· Drake – This also involves local field trips. It seems like it is well thought out.

· Wills – I like it as a 300 level course enabling the instructor to oversee the projects, do adequate mentoring and in depth class discussion.

Provisional approval: special recommendation to carry out the earlier recommendation for the minutes.

· Steffen – It is an advanced level course, getting students to start thinking about what they are going to be involved within the sciences.

· Drake – A bit more of determinacy would be nice in terms of goals and objectives. It looks like an underdeveloped section of the course.

· Ruffini – In the syllabus, there could have been a little more detail as to specific of major areas in Theology.

Motion: Ruffini moves to approve provisionally: to change the final research paper percentage. McSweeney seconds.

· Ruffini – A cumulative exercise cannot be scored that high, it should be a 30% cutoff.

· Ruffini – The History department likes what Sunil brings to the table, not just in terms of what he is doing in South Asia, but in terms of broader an intellectual history.

· Drake – It speaks to the kind of sophistication that we want our students to have.

· Wills – This was thoughtfully designed with the U.S. civil rights movement from Martin Luther King’s readings from Stride Toward Freedom and Nelson Mandela’s selections from Long Walk to Freedom. There is synergy across this, viewing the U.S. and South Africa side by side.

· McSweeney – The Registrar is going to need a course description for the catalog. This may need to be cut down to 100 words.

· Vote: All in favor of approving this course provisionally with a change to the final research paper percentage.

· Ruffini – Michael Flatto, from the Office of the Registrar, needs the Committee’s information before the departments send him their spring offerings. Ruffini will find out the date and inform the Committee.