Called to order by Allan Bennett, BoT
Chuck Bernstein, Trustee, appointed as Vice Chair
Present: Donna Stewart, Bob Hazard, Cheryl Baunbach Caplin, P/T Counselor, CODAA Earl Dowling VP Student Affairs, Sue Dreghorn, Secretary of CODAA, P/T English, George Beck, VP SLC, Donna Stewart, Interim VP Academic Affairs, Jim Bente, Dr. Ann Rondeau, COD President.
Bennett:Here to discuss recommendations regarding academic activities. Particularly the HLC visit and accreditation. The masses have avoided this committee and there are no public comments. So we will move on to approve the Minutes of April 2017.
Dreghorn notes a typo that needs to be corrected. Seconded, approved by all but Bennet since he was not in attendance at that meeting and abstains from voting..
Review of Aug 17 2017 BoT Resolution of Committee Oversight. Bennet notes that on Nov 22, 2017, the HLC changed COD status from Accredited on probation to Accredited, with certain conditions which we will talk about in a minute. The Resolution of Committee Oversight basically is a litany of several charges that were given to this committee. They are listed in the resolution. There are 10 charges given to this committee:
- Meeting every other month to receive status reports from Academic Affairs.
2) Insuring that by fall 2017 faculty and academic leadership have fully addressed and resolved the issue of lack of adherence between course outcomes on ACFS in all faculty syllabi regardless of delivery
3) Ensure by end of fall 2017 term the BOT policy 25-76 on assignment of how credit hours are assigned be reviewed and approved. All course delivery formats.
4) Audit of Spring 2018 by March 15, to address lack of adherence of course outcomes as listed in ACFS. Must be resolved.
5) May 15, COD administration prepare and submit an interim monitoring report to the HLC showing adherence by all faculty in classes of all delivery types to BoT Policy 25-76.
6) by end of spring 2019 faculty and administration give evidence that all Career and technical programs have assessment plans that assess program learning outcomes.
7) By Sept 2019 COD administration has submitted an interim monitoring report to the HLC that shows that all career and tech programs have assessment plancs regarding learning outcomes.
8) By Spring 2019 faculty and administration have set internal targets of performance for operational areas of the college and use data to measure success in those areas.
9) Dec 2019 COD administration submit an interim monitoring report to the HLC that shows that data and metrics inform decisions and initiatives adopted by COD and that the internal targets have been met.
10) make any further recommendations to the BOT regarding these issues.
Bennet– this is an ambitious agenda that this committee must oversee this to make sure it is met.
NEXT ITEM: Policy 25-76 Assignment of credit hours. Jim Bente takes over. Says there is policy and procedure and there is difference between the two. HLC Crierion is met with concern — federal compliance of assignment of credit hours. The policy did not ultimately address all delivery formats of courses taught by the College and Federal compliance. Updated policy revision — Bente notes that it indicates we will award credits in accordance with Federal standards. Federal Credit hour is a federal definition– we are not writing our own, we are adopting the federal standard of 1 semester hour is equivalent to 50 minutes. This was not in the original policy. This will bring us into compliance. This is a BOT policy. It is in the policy manual. It is in the administrative manual. The procedure is under review by Academic Affairs. Addresses on-line, hybrid, internships. Will spell out specifically how credit hours are awarded for each of those. The policy itself is sufficient to meet Criterion 3A and the federal definition. And then spelling it out will make it more robust and fully in compliance.
President Rondeau calls for Donna Stewart to comment. Stewart: There are a number of pieces in place. We can provide a detailed report at the December mtng of exact actions taken. We have done an internal informal audit. The majority of our courses this fall– any out of compliance have been addressed. Faculty were contacted. We are well situated for the Spring audit. We have started the discussion for longer-term planning and discussion for vocational and tech, and career activities. We have a two year window for reporting back. We are working with faculty partners, have an HLC taskforce of a variety of faculty and staff addressing the plan for assessment related activities. We will provide and allow ourselves time to make the changes, implement them, report them. Student learning outcomes has a different timeline.
Rondeau; we are seeing trends on the issue of assessment. It is a broad term. It has lots of stuff in it. HLC is including assessment in its criterion for accreditation. The Committee will be asking us abou thist. We should be persistent about assessment. We are in complete collaboration with faculty for academic assessment (there is also financial, etc) but academic will be done in partnership with our faculty. Donna, I have pretty much covered what I’ve asked you to do.
Stewart agrees.
Bennet -asks for any other comments on policy 3A and the syllabi.
Dreghorn: Will syllabi need to have number of credit hours?
Bente- contract with student must be on it. Course descriptions and learner outcomes must be consistent across delivery mode and no matter who is teaching. The courses must be identical and the same. Learning Outcomes and course descriptions must be in there. Putting the number of credit hours on the syllabi is recommended.
Bennet: Moving on to #10, next meeting date..
Dowling– should we take a voice vote on that?
Bennet: That would be redundant. Any action by this committee would be redundant.
Next meeting — will be a meeting of more substance. I would like to see materials turned in no later than Monday to Maryann for distribution. I’d like a status report from the Office of Academic Affairs regarding HLC 3A and 4A in preparation for the interim report due May 2018. The HLC letter of Nov 14th points out the specific items that report must have
a) description of consistent process and practice that demonstrates adherence to course descriptions and learning outcomes.
2) consistent process and practice of course regardless of delivery
3) clear description of policy for awarding credit hours Policy 25-76 policy which we just passed takes care of this.
Listening to this conversation makes me think we should have some discussion of trends in assessment. Jim, do we need to get any kind of discussion of 25-76?
Jim Bente– it is currently with Academic Affairs. Their revised policy will go to the full board for the December mtng. The BOT mtng is the 14th but we are meeting on the 11th. We should review that item on the 11th so that we can act in our advisory capacity to the BOT and have a recommendation in for the full BOT mtng.
Addresses Donna Stewart –should we have something about assessment.
Stewart: We will have a report ready for what we have done and will be doing for planning on the varying parts of the HLC challenges regarding assessment. Is that what you are asking?
Bennett: Each 1000 mile journey must start with one step. Let’s focus on the interim report due May 2019. That will be the priority. Then we can get into other items.
Stewart: Yes, we will be prepared for the11th.
Bennet: any other items to be added for that Dec 11th mtng?
Bente: No.
Bennet: Full status report on the document we will be submitting. What about the audit?
Bente: I will be prepared to talk about the audit process and how we will proceed. The HLC wants clear evidence that we are in compliance. It will be produced by the audit.
Bennett: Yes, I’d like some additional info on that item
Stewart: Status report on the review of plans for assessment will come from the faculty team as well. The report will come from faculty and administration.
Rondeau: regarding the next set of items from the HLC to be met — it is encouraging to have the faculty and the administration to work together. It is something we are working closely with the faculty on that. They are the experts. We will be helpful to them as they make those efforts, but properly the faculty must be the leaders on that. The reporting process of the last two years should be continued. Asks Bernstein if he wants to comment on that as he has been on that committee. Bernstein declines.
Bennett: We will get into more meaty agenda items for the next meeting. This concludes our agenda for today’s meeting. Calls for the meeting to adjourn at 2:33 pm.
moved and seconded. Meeting adjourns.