Minutes 11-5-2008
Degrees and Certificates Committee
Minutes
November 5 , 2008 2pm-4pm
DAC Committee Members:
| X | Susanne Christopher | X | Phil Christain | X | Brad Krohn |
| X | Eriks Puris | X | Loretta Goldy | Joanne Harris | |
| X | Janeen Hull | X | Dave Stout | ||
| X | Scott Huff | X | Kathleen Bradach |
Committee Support:
| X | Amy Alday-Murray | Veronica Garcia | X | Kendra Cawley | |
| X | Davonna Livingston | X | Rebecca Mathern | ||
| X | Steve Smith |
Guests:
Carol Bruneau
Sanda Williams
Fred Attrach
2:00 Review of October Minutes – Dave moved to approve and Brad seconded. Minutes were approved as written.
Welcome new members: Joanne Harris and Brad Krohn, also Fred Attrach from the ASPCC.
Consent Agenda: Steve Smith – Nothing to report
New Business:
New AAS Electronic Engineering Technology: Mechatronics/Automation/Robotics Engineering Technology – Sanda Williams – Sanda brought in an updated list of outcomes for the degree.
In 2005, it was decided to revamp the EET program to increase enrollment. As part of the plan, they decided to create specialty options: Biomedical Engineering Technology, Wireless and Data Communications Technology, Renewable Energy Systems. As a result the program grew to over 100 students. There has been a large increase of interest in students from high schools looking to get information on Robotics. Because there are few jobs in Robotics, Mechatronics and Automation were added into the degree to increase the chances of attracting jobs for the students. Robotics is predicted to grow dramatically over the next ten years. There has been a great deal of collaboration with other departments. The initial opposition from Microelectronics has been cleared and EET has the full support of the MT department. Much research was done to see if other schools were offering similar programs and it was discovered that Lane Community College as well as, Clackamas Community College were also offering something similar. Dorina announced that MT will be bringing through a similar degree targeting jobs in the automated processes field. She recognized that there are a lot of similarities between the two fields. The graduates of the EET will be the makers of the automated systems, the MT graduates will be the users of the automated systems. Graduates will be hired by producers of automated systems. EET students will be more like field and service technicians as well as the makers of the automated systems. Susanne applauded Dorina and Sanda for their commitment to do what is best for the students and put together programs that could have been seen as rivaling programs. EET 270 on the course list is changed to EET 261 which is in the process of being approved by the Curriculum Committee in December. Dave questioned what the Advisory Committee thought of the new degree and Sanda stated that the advisory team was very supportive of the new degree plan. Dave recommended approval pending the approval of EET 261 by the CC. Janeen seconded. Motion was approved.
Additional Paperwork Supplied by Sanda:
New Outcomes: Upon completion of the Mechatronics/Automation/Robotics Engineering Technology option, the graduates will be able to work as technicians in the following areas:
- Manufacturing automated systems
- Servicing and repairing automated systems
- Assisting engineers with the design of automated systems
Revision – AAS Emergency Management – Carol Bruneau – Because of Hum 121 being inactivated, the department decided to go with HUM 221 instead. This increased the number of credits from 96 to 97. Carol explained the reasons for needing the degree was for preparedness. Eriks recommended approval. Phil seconded. Motion was approved.
AAOT Report: Susanne Christopher – Paperwork provided by Susanne. Susanne , Kendra and Scott provided an overview of the AAOT Revision and timeline. Kendra and Scott had just arrived from a state CIA phone conference discussing the degree. Susanne presented a handout showing the differences between the current and future AAOT. Scott and Kendra reported that many schools will move over to the revised AAOT structure in Fall 09 with an understanding that specific course may be phased in over 2-3 years as State outcomes become available.
Significant discussion occurred around the Informational Literacy requirement and how best to proceed with this in the PCC system. The question is how to deal with informational literacy. Kendra suggested we name the outcomes in the writing courses and have the other Information Literacy outcomes used as criteria for courses in the Discipline Studies to apply for Informational Literacy status; similar to the current Cultural Diversity system. This will be discussed further at the December meeting.
Kendra shared that a meeting is scheduled in May to develop a set of outcomes and criteria in Cultural Literacy. There will be 2 faculty from each CC to help facilitate and develop the outcome for the cultural literacy. The current thinking among committee members is to have the current Cultural Diversity course list become the Cultural Literacy course list with the understanding that courses on this list would be reviewed against the emerging state Cultural Literacy outcomes in the 09-10 academic year by the Curriculum Committee.
Susanne, with assistance from Kendra, will put together a plan to make the structural change in the fall ’09 and will bring it to the committee in the December meeting. As part of this plan, course outcomes and placement on lists – discipline studies – Gen Ed List, Cultural Literacy and Informational Literacy Lists – will be reviewed on a triennial basis. These processes would be lead by the Curriculum Committee.
Registrar’s Report: Rebecca Mathern
Consent item: Change Restrictions to Requirements language in the AAS General Education requirements. Two‐Year (and One‐Year) Certificate Restrictions to Two Year (and One Year) Certificate Requirements
Registrar’s recommendation to the D/C Committee:
1 – Time limitation for petitioning for a degree statement clarified as policy and in the catalog.
Recommend: Students must apply for graduation within one year of completing coursework at PCC. If it has been longer than one year, students must petition for an exception to this policy. The petition must be approved by the Registrar’s Office. If the student completed a CTE program, the CTE department chair must also approve the petition. Even when a petition is approved, the student would need to be readmitted and then be responsible for the coursework in the current catalog as of the date of their readmission to the college.
2 – Clear, Pass/No Pass credit amounts for degrees.
Recommend: Pass/No Pass/Credit: A maximum of 24 credits of Pass/No Pass grades will apply to any degree. Specific AAS degrees that deviate from this maximum will state the degree maximum in the degree requirements for the specific AAS degree.
The Committee recommended that this items go forward to the EAC for recommended approval
Registrar’s discussion items; no recommendations at this time:
1 – AAS General Education requirement change. Discussion on whether or not we want to change a section of the current AAS general education requirement that states “ No more than two courses may come from program prerequisites or from courses required by specific programs. (p 23)” The potential change would drop the language” program prerequisites” from the requirement. Rationale for this potential change is that in the five programs where this occurs (Dental Hygiene, Nursing, Veterinary Technology, Biomedical Engineering, Radiography, this could be seen as unreasonable because students need to take more coursework than the program requirements list just because their department happens to have prerequisites that are GenEd courses. Susanne stated that there is a lot of philosophical discussion that needs to go into making this decision. Eriks says that we should not pass this so that we can enforce more diversity in course work. Committee members agreed that they needed more time to reflect upon this item and we will bring it back to the December meeting
2 – Transfer articulation policy: Current college comprehensive degree requirements policy states: All candidates for a degree must have a 2.0 grade point average (c average) or higher for course applied to the degree.
Proposed change:
Bring in A, B, C, D and P (when P is C or better; D may or may not work for this P due to prerequisites)
In order to adhere to policy, the GPA from courses being applied to the degree must be calculated to ensure 2.0 minimum (Including the transfer courses).
Courses are viewed on unofficial transcript as TA, TB, TC,TD,TP. Rationale- Students can use transfer D’s toward graduation but students are more likely to fall into financial aid timeframe, SAP, other compliance problems (such as VA). This policy falls more in line with other Oregon schools.
Scott suggested the need for consistency. Should D’s be brought in for everyone not just for those students wishing to use them? Rebecca pointed out that this might be unfair to students who have always been at PCC who are not able to take the D’s off of their transcripts?
The Residency Requirements for Certificates was postponed until December.
Curriculum Report: Steve Smith-New Degree and Certificate forms.
Meeting adjourned 5pm.