The Arts and Sciences Council and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Meeting, January 24, 2017, 3:30-5:00, UMC 247

Meeting Minutes

Representatives present: Sabahat Adil, ALC; Julio Baena, SPAN; Daniel Barth, PSYC; Christine Brennan, SLHS; Cathy Comstock, RAPS; James Cowell, LING; Charles de Bartolomé, ECON; David Ferris, HUMN; APS; Ruth Heisler, IPHY; Kwame Holmes, ETHN; Leslie Irvine, SOCY; Janet Jacobs, WGST; Berit Jany, GSLL; Daniel Jones, HNRS;Carl Koval, CHEM; Ramesh Mallipeddi, ENGL; Stephen Mojzsis, GEOL; David Paradis, HIST Lonni Pearce, PWR; Fernando Riosmena, GEOG; Rob Rupert, PHIL; Sebastian Schmidt (forJulie Lundquist), ATOC; Kelly Sears, FILM; Ted Stark, THDN; David Stock, EBIO; Ding Xue, MCDB; Masano Yamashita, FRIT

Representatives not present: Scott Adler, PSCI; Paul Beale, PHYS; Andrew Cain, CLAS; RLST; Kim Dickey, AAH; Vanja Dukic, APPM; Erica Ellingson, APS; David Grant, MATH; Joanna Lambert, ANTH;

Also in attendance: Steven Leigh

The meeting was called to order at 3:34

Dean’s remarks, Steven Leigh

The campus administration is involved in budget discussions. There has been a drop in international student applications. The tuition from international enrollments is approximately $70,000,000, a significant figure so the college will have to pay attention to this situation.

The Dean is working with the Budget Committee to allocate the $2,700,000 increase in funds for this year.

David Brown, the PSCI chair, is chairing the Dean’s Strategic Planning Committee. The nomination process for members closes tomorrow and this new committee will begin meeting.

Chair’s remarks, Robert Rupert

Professor Rupert introduced new members, Daniel Jones, HNRS and Berit Jany, GSLL.

The General Education Implementation Committee (formerly the Core Curriculum Implementation Committee) has had its first few meetings and will continue to meet throughout the year. It has become apparent to the committee that the new core cannot be implemented until fall 2018. The chair, Cora Randall, will be contacting each department chair for advice and suggestions and input from faculty is also welcome.

Professor Rupert is reviewing the bylaws and would like the council to consider a change to the maximum number of years a chair can serve. Currently, two 1-year terms may be served; a longer term may be more productive. Please give any feedback on this or other bylaws, to Professor Rupert or any member of the Executive Committee.

The nomination process and election for the new chair will take place in the spring; anyone interested in faculty governance should consider running.

The Executive Committee puts together the ASC agenda but they want to be responsive to faculty so agenda item suggestions are welcomed.

A conversation about the continuing budget has begun on campus. As this is the largest part of our budget, Dean Leigh is happy that our college, which is the largest generator of revenue, may be able to join in these discussions.

Late-Drop policy

Last year, the Academic Advising Center ran a pilot program allowing any student to drop a class after the 10-week period if they talk to a counselor. The previous policy asked for extenuating circumstances after the 10-week period; the new policy, effective this year, stops the pilot program and is similar to the previous policy except that the extenuation circumstances do not have to have occurred after the 10-week drop period. The ASC representatives discussed different options and issues having to do with dropping classes. Among the issues shared:

  • The pilot program seemed too liberal; several representatives advocated a fixed limit of times courses could be dropped late.
  • A highly liberal system monetizes the process; only students who can afford to lose the tuition money can drop late and the campus does not lose tuition dollars.
  • With the permissive drop program, the AAC hoped the students dropping a course would do better in their remaining classes and that the conversation with the counselor provided an opportunity for a “teachable moment.”
  • Representatives expressed concern that only students with low grades drop late and those are not the students the college wants to retain.
  • Faculty are unsure of how much, if any, their recommendation on a particular drop, counts.
  • This policy appears to be a curricular issue and faculty should be able to develop the policy.

A motion was made for the ASC to formulate a proposal for a policy for late drops. The motion was seconded.

The vote was yes-25, no-0, abtentions-1

The Executive Committee will determine the group or committee to work on the proposal possibly with the help of the Curriculum Committee, Kyle McJunkin and the Academic Advising Committee.

Role of Wardenburg clinicians in providing medical excuses for students

The clinicians at Wardenburg Health Center are receiving requests to write medical excuses for students; currently they only confirm a student visited the center. The director has been working with Mary Kraus to resolve this and they asked for input from the faculty. Professor Rupert invited discussion from the representatives with the goal of agreeing to a recommendation.

  • Some illnesses can be subjective; what may keep one person at home would not keep another at home.
  • Specific excuses, spelling out a condition, could break privacy laws.
  • Several representatives wanted excuses that, without mentioning specifics, would say the student is unable to attend class or take a test.
  • The clinician’s perspective (see Addendum) were influential to the representatives.
  • If faculty were able to see the students’ history, patterns could be seen.
  • Many faculty feel the current policy, receiving only appointment confirmation, gives the student an opportunity to make a good faith effort follow procedures.

A motion was made to accept the statement from Wardenburg to leave policies as they are and not join the faculty asking for specific medical excuses. The motion was approved.

The vote was yes-26, no-0, abtentions-0.

This advisory motion will be given to Kyle McJunkin.

Motion from the Curriculum Committee to allow multiple minors, Leslie Irvine

Professor Irvine thanked Cathy Comstock as associate chair of the Curriculum Committee for filling in for her during the fall semester.

The motion from the Curriculum Committee removes the current restriction on the number of minors a student can have for either a B.A. or a B.F.A in the College of Arts and Sciences. The current limit is two. This motion will not change anything else; students will still have to comply with other restrictions such as keeping a certain GPA and having a major.

  • There is an increased demand for minors in fields that have lost majors.
  • The discussion in the committee centered on the multi-disciplinary aspect of multiple majors.

The Curriculum Committee moves to remove the current restriction on the number of minors a student can earn for either a BA or BFA in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The vote was yes-24, no-0, abtentions-1.

New Business

The lack of non-smoking signage on campus was noted.

Representatives are concerned about increased faculty responsibility for ADA accommodations. Having a full-service testing center is needed on campus.

FCQ’s are being revised; contact your BFA representative with input.

Noah Finkelstein, PHYS, is heading a group looking at multiple measures of teaching. It is important for faculty to weigh in if new measure of teaching quality is going to be used in the tenure and promotion process.

The first round of revisions of Regents Law 4 .

Professor Rupert encouraged the representatives to review them.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:57.

Minutes submitted by Janice Jeffryes

Addendum A, Wardenburg Medical Director Statement

Prepared for the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Advisory Board 11/14/2016.

MEDICAL EXCUSES (for missed exams, papers, and other academic obligations)

Why is this an item on the Advisory Board’s agenda?

History: Wardenburg has for many years provided only a verification of visit form (rather than a formal excuse) if a student, on the direction of a faculty member, requests written confirmation of a health problem that has interfered with an academic obligation.

Problem: Though this system has been acceptable to Wardenburg and to much of the faculty, it has not met the needs of all faculty members, some of whom feel that many medical excuses are fabricated, disadvantaging both honest students who take exams as scheduled and faculty members who must create and administer make-up exams. These faculty members feel they are not qualified to make judgments regarding the veracity of a student’s medical excuse, and believe that Wardenburg is in a position to provide this medical expertise. Wardenburg’s verification of visit form may be felt inadequate because it doesn’t provide details of the medical condition or convey judgment as to its legitimacy as a rationale for the student’s failing to meet academic obligations.

The issue is raised now for three reasons:

  • Wardenburg clinicians feel strongly that they should not be in the position of providing medical excuses.
  • Some students are currently caught between faculty expectations and Wardenburg policy.
  • The dilemma raises philosophical issues appropriate for discussion in the context of the ČÊĂń±Š”ä Honor Code.

Wardenburg and the College Health perspective (quoting friend and colleague Dr. Janet Corson-Rikert, recently retired Executive Director of Cornell’s Gannett Health Services and thought leader on this issue in the American College Health Association)

 The vast majority of legitimate excuses for missing exams (headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dizziness, etc) do not lend themselves to objective confirmation, particularly after the fact.

  • Even in illnesses for which there are ‘objective’ diagnostic tests (e.g., mononucleosis), patient A may be fully capable of handling a normal exam schedule while patient B may not. This type of diagnosis may be more often abused as a blanket excuse than are other equally legitimate illnesses without objective measures.
  • Medical care is based on trust of the patient’s history. If a student reports to a doctor that he had severe diarrhea and therefore couldn’t take his exam, that will be believed at face value and documented as such in the medical record. An ‘excuse’ note would document the same story that would have been given to the faculty member in the first place.
  • Federal HIPAA legislation (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) was intended to protect the privacy of individuals’ personal health information. Though HIPAA allows disclosure of medical information with a signed release, the process is administratively cumbersome. Students may also feel coerced, particularly in cases involving sensitive medical information. (The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) provides similar protections.)
  • Medically unnecessary visits for excuses displace visits for legitimate and more pressing medical conditions.

Philosophical and educational concerns

 It is both counter-therapeutic and counter to Wardenburg’s efforts to educate students regarding appropriate utilization of health care to ask students to seek medical care for acute illnesses for which no medical intervention is indicated.

  • If the student’s story is dishonest, it is unlikely to be exposed as such, and will not increase the fairness of the academic outcome. It will, however, have:
    • Been documented in the medical record, effectively extending the fabrication from the academic to the medical domain, injecting dishonesty into a health care system that relies on relationship and trust.
    • Reinforced gamesmanship over integrity.
      • If the story is honest, it risks insulting the character of the student and undermining his/her relationship with the faculty member.
      • Regardless, the process (inherently based on distrust) will have conveyed a clear message regarding the institution’s expectations for student integrity and the student-faculty relationship.

Questions for the VPUE Advisory Board:

  1. How does the issue of medical excuses relate to Chancellor DiStefano’s challenges to “Be Dedicated, Be Connected, Be Committed”?
    • What should we be teaching our students? What intellectual dispositions, character traits, and essential knowledge should we be nurturing? How can we inspire our undergraduate, graduate and professional students to become intellectual and moral leaders of their communities? How can we prepare them for well-rounded lives that incorporate artistic, athletic, cultural, humanitarian, political and social dimensions?
  2. Should ČÊĂń±Š”ä have a uniform approach to medical excuses?
  3. If so, who should determine the approach, and how should it be communicated?

Thomas Kunstman, MD

Medical Director, Wardenburg Health Center