Date:
To: Joe Heppert, Chair, University Senate Executive Committee (jheppert@ku.edu), Jim Carothers, President, University Council (jbc@ku.edu)
Cc: Molly Mulloy (mmulloy@ku.edu), University Governance, AP&P 2005-2006
From: Jack Brown, Chair, FY 2006 AP&P Committee (jbrown@ku.edu)
Re: AP&P's Final Recommendations for 2005-2006
Joe and Jim,
This year's (2005-2006) AP&P committee has completed all charges to the Committee and has previously forwarded recommendations regarding these charges to University Governance. There are, however, three additional issues, none of them charges to the Committee this year, which the Committee feels strongly should be addressed by 2006-2007 AP&P.
Item #1: The
first issue is whether AP&P should consider the issue of grade
inflation. As a committee, we decided to
further investigate this issue. We have
coordinated with OIRP (Ryan Cherland) to gather information about grades
students have received at the University over the past 10 years. Our Committee
is most concerned about the overall teaching issues that could potentially
impact student outcomes and faculty performance, without specifically
addressing an outcome to report to Governance.
The Committee is concerned that the issue of grade inflation may be tied to teaching performance and student teaching evaluations. The evaluation process currently used to assess faculty teaching was last reviewed by the University approximately 10 years ago and appears to need reevaluation.
Recommendation: The
AP&P committee recommends to Governance that they assign a charge to next
year's (2006-2007) AP&P committee to review the process of faculty teaching
evaluation. The Committee strongly recommends that the charge include the
establishment of an ad hoc committee to conduct the initial review for the
Committee. Furthermore, the Committee
recommends that the ad hoc committee be chaired by the Director of the Center
for Teaching Excellence who will determine the membership of that ad hoc
committee. The ad hoc committee charge
will be to investigate the current faculty teaching evaluation process and
recommend any changes in this process.
The ad hoc committee findings will be reported to AP&P. AP&P
will review those findings and report their recommendations to Governance.
Item #2: The AP&P committee members unanimously are concerned that the current student course enrollment process is inadequate and needs to be changed. The current process lacks the ability to determine if a student has completed the required pre-requisites for a course within which the student is attempting to enroll. This issue is critical and affects both student outcomes and faculty members' ability to properly instruct classes.
Recommendation: AP&P recommends that Governance direct that the Registrar's office, as soon as possible, find and install computer program software that is compatible with the current system to identify whether a student attempting to enroll in a given course has completed a given course's pre-requisite requirements. If such pre-requisite requirements have not been met by the student, the student will not be allowed to enroll in the current course until which time they receive permission of the instructor.
Item #3: AP&P was asked to review the current "30-hour rule" of the University although it was not a specific charge to the Committee. This “rule” requires that all students complete a minimum of 30 credit hours at the University of Kansas prior to their being able to graduate with a baccalaureate degree from the University (please see pertinent paragraphs, below).
ARTICLE III. GRADUATION AND DEGREES Section 1. Requirements for Graduation with the Bachelor's Degree
3.1.1 The minimum quantitative requirement for graduation with a bachelor's degree shall be l24 credit hours of which at least 45 hours shall be in junior/senior courses.
3.1.2 No baccalaureate degree shall be granted to a student who has not completed at least 30 semester hours of residence courses at the University of Kansas (as defined in Article IV of the Rules and Regulations of the Faculty Senate) except as provided in Section 3.1.3.
FSRR: ARTICLE
IV. RESIDENT STUDY: NONRESIDENT STUDY. Section 5.
Limitations on Credits Allowed 4.5.1
To obtain a Bachelor's degree from the
Recommendation: Through the remarkable detective efforts of Molly Mulloy of Governance, this rule has been identified as unique to KU in that the rule was established by and is maintained solely by KU. After substantive discussion of this issue, AP&P recommends that the rule be allowed to stand with no change.
The reasoning applied to this issue by committee members included, (1) the fact that the University currently has carefully maintained credit transfer rules associated with many institution levels, i.e., community college versus 4-year accredited university, (2) if credit hours completed at a different institution are deemed acceptable and transferable, in the absence of a limitation upon the number of transferred credit hours allowed, then, all credits allowed for transfer should be transferred and count toward the baccalaureate degree, and, (3) investigation by one member of the committee determined that at the College level at least, the use of this rule is exceedingly rare.
Thank you for your consideration of our recommendations.
Jack Brown
Chair, 2005-2006 AP&P Committee
For the Committee