Members Present: Joe Moffett (Chair), Ashok Kumar (Vice Chair), Ibukun Amusan (Secretary), Nancy Capriles, Maheteme Gebremedhin, Caroline Gibson

Guest: Daryl Lowe (Associate Dean of Student Conduct and Title IX)

The meeting was called to order at 3:14 pm.

The Agenda was approved after Dean Lowe's Proposal on Academic and Classroom Management was moved to the top.

Chair Moffett introduced Caroline Gibson, the new member of APC, from Fine Arts.

Associate Dean Lowe's proposal on Academic and Classroom Management was discussed.

After hearing about academic misconduct and disruptive behaviors in the classroom, Dean Lowe decided to write a proposal that will assist with managing such situations. Instructors should be able to ask a student to leave class for a couple of days temporarily, pending meeting with the Dean and until the student has understood what is expected of him/her. Permanent removal/exclusion from the class must go through the necessary student disciplinary process, which has to be clearly defined. Apart from plagiarism, there is not much about this in the faculty handbook. Students have been simply moved between classes with different professors in the past, and this may not be fair on the new professor.

The procedures for disciplinary actions should be specified so that instructors know exactly what to do. Dean Lowe said he would like academic misconduct hearings to end with Academic Affairs and student misconduct issues end with Student Affairs.

It was mentioned that a student confronted a professor in the classroom this semester and he refused to leave the class after the professor asked him to leave. The professor was unnerved and gave a report to chief of security but has not heard anything the incident since. Dean Lowe advised that campus police should be contacted immediately whenever such situations occur in class. Dean Lowe should also be contacted, and an incident report should be completed online. Dean Lowe said instructors can ask students to leave class temporarily, even if it is just about repeated violations of policies on the syllabus such as no cell phones, attendance issues, and so on. It was suggested that the student code of conduct that defines disruptive behavior should be added to the syllabus. Disruptive behaviors include any behavior that obstructs or disrupts the learning environment.

The catalogue has a subsection on Disposition of Cases of Academic Offenses that addresses the responsibility of instructors when dealing with academic offenses/misconduct.

APC plans to work on attendance policy and will incorporate Dean Lowe’s suggestions on attendance and punctuality.

The minutes of the previous meeting on October 3, 2016 was approved.