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Minutes February 26, 1999 Present: Chair Barbara Balko, Dell Smith, Deborah Lycan, Micha Grudin, Blythe Butler for Michael Sexton, Dell Smith, Shannon Benfield-Blankenship, Kristi Williams, Glendi Gaddis, Michael Ford (briefly), and Sharon Barnes (secretary) Absent: Kevin Holloway, Alicia Gilbert, Greg Caldwell, Dale Holloway, and June Jones Chair Barbara Balko opened the meeting. The minutes of January 29, 1999 were approved. Subcommittee Reports Barbara Balko reported that the Petitions and Waivers Subcommittee met and dealt primarily with residency types of issues. The Honors and Awards Committee is concerned about late applications and what to do about them. Class Size Shannon Benfield-Blankenship reported on conclusions reached by the student life advisory committee regarding class size and space issues. The Sciences are generally okay. They have a large general lecture with small individual lab classes. The students' major concern is in the Social Sciences, specifically, the large International Affairs Department. Should they be hiring an additional new faculty member and reduce the class sizes? It is unknown if interest in International Affairs will maintain itself since the Environmental Studies major was created, especially if they overlap areas. There is no space or rooms to accommodate classes larger than the 40 limit. Large classes are not personal. The biggest issue is the expectation of students. Marketing for first year student class size should be more accurate. The concern is mostly with introductory classes in the Social Sciences. Shannon said that Lewis & Clark's marketing needs to be up front about sizes; that certain departments are magnets for majors. He suggested the departmental statements include information on class sizes on the freshman level. The way the class is being taught is the big issue. It is hard to manage 40 students in a discussion class. He said to spell out the class size for various majors. Blythe Butler said this would be possible to do for the individual department pieces. Dell Smith said that the Enrollment Management Committee is trying to work with these ratios internally and externally. Micha Grudin asked if students visiting campus should be sent to smaller classes. New majors of Environmental Studies and East Asian Studies are interdisciplinary. Deborah said part of this discussion needs to be between the departments and the Registrar -- some of the majors have a lot of students and few faculty to advise them. With faculty pressures to teach, research, advise and their home commitments, it makes for a heavy load. Statement for Registration Announcement Dell Smith presented three options for statements to put in the Registration Announcement Bulletin regarding attendance at the first class session. This will put pressure on students to attend the first class session. The statement agreed upon was a combination of his options: "Students are expected to be in attendance at the first class session or face the possibility of losing his/her registration in that class section. If a student cannot attend the first class he/she must communicate with the professor, before the first class meeting, to determine if the seat will be held." Advising Survey Dell Smith and Kristi Williams will report the findings from the NSO advising survey at the next faculty meeting. Deborah asked if they had figured the variance. At this time the variance had not been figured, but it will be by the time they report at the faculty meeting. Deborah said she would be concerned if the variance were really large. The amount of time given a faculty member for individual advising during NSO is one-half hour. Developing a personal relationship with the advisee over a period of time is important. Micha suggested that advisee lists be given to faculty including names and addresses and e-mail addresses if available, so that faculty can contact them during the summer. Kristi pointed out that most faculty do not want to do this during the summer since this is their time off and time for research. Blythe said letters from faculty advisors could be put in the NSO packet. Dell asked if we are placing too high expectations on faculty for advising during NSO? The real impact is made over an extended period of time. Shannon suggested faculty could let their advisees know they are here, and after students are settled, come back in a few weeks to talk. Everyone liked this idea. Dell said faculty should make their advisees feel comfortable then look at the broader issues. Deborah said faculty should meet within their own department and have a discussion/sharing session with their colleagues on advising. Faculty have no way of knowing if they are out of line until they know what others are doing. Advising could be improved this way. Kristi could meet with departments. Dell said faculty should be advising continually whether formally or informally. Kristi encourages faculty to share various methods of advising. Dell said we need procedures for planning. Deborah asked if there were any other ways of collecting information from students. Kristi said the seniors could be surveyed. Shannon said a lot of students are going overseas. Focus of advising changes to talking about post-graduate plans in Junior and Senior years. Faculty naturally do this better. Kristi said the problem is primarily in pre-major advising. Proposal to Change Renewal Criteria for Merit Awards Glendi Gaddis talked about the renewal criteria for the general and academic scholarships with the GPA criteria. In February, Student Financial Services is now making awards for next year. There are 2000+ prospective awards to make before May 1 plus more in May and June. Guidance was asked for where it is appropriate for decisions to be made. General financial aid renewal criteria are 1) students must demonstrate financial need for need-based aid, 2) students must have a 2.0 minimum GPA each semester, and 3) progress in class standing as defined by the Registrar. There are times when there are legitimate reasons why students are below standards and need to go through an appeal process. There are Dean's, Neely and Trustee scholarship recipients who are not meeting the standard. Neely and Trustee recipients are generally better students. It was agreed to send mid-term warnings after fall grades are posted and then letters denying aid for those who fall below standards after the spring grades are posted. Students are able to appeal these decisions. Deborah said that cumulative GPAs are much more difficult to raise once they are low. Look to see if there is improvement the last semester. Blythe said the first year students is where the problem is the greatest. Deborah asked if they could re-earn the right for the scholarship. Glendi said some schools wait for two years to monitor GPAs for scholarship recipients. There has been a problem with Neely and Trustee recipients who are below standards asking for Dean's awards (they are originally given Deans, but when they were given the Trustee or Neely, the money was given to other students). Staffing is a problem in tracking students. This is the time of year Student Financial Services is gearing up to make awards for next year and staff are all busy. Warnings are easier to give than dealing with revoking financial aid at mid-year. Micha said grade expectations change from high school to college. Many times the GPA in college is lower than in high school. Glendi stated that we want the Neely and Trustee students here. Blythe said Admissions looks not only at a student's GPA, but at their overall academic strength, including course schedule rigor, test scores, essay and rank in class as well. Glendi said most scholarship recipients are doing well. There is the progress issue also. There are eight semesters of aid given institutionally. There are problems with transfer students and double majors trying to complete their course of study in eight semesters. Doing assessments for standard financial aid at the end of the year to assess progress is difficult. Meeting adjourned. Next meeting is March 12. |
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Created by: barnes@lclark.edu Updated: 17-SEPT-99 |
