• 0 Moffett noted that the urgency for creating these alternative terms is that we have 65 students in the graduation pipeline who need to graduate to improve our numbers for performance funding.
  • A guest noted that the sooner we have the details on these terms, the better we can use that information to promote the classes and recruit students for them. He said that in the past when we had a Winter term, it was all online.
  • 0 A Senator suggested a friendly amendment to the Action Item stating that class offerings during these alternative terms would be optional, depending upon department need.
  • 0 A senator asked how much course creation would be needed for the “special topics” spring-break term courses.
  • 0 Another Senator asked how “optional” it would be if a student needed the class to graduate?
  • Another Senator asked how would this affect course planning? He noted that there will be students who need a certain class, which will put pressure on the instructor to teach the class right away.
  • 0 Moffett acknowledged that this process will probably be very messy in the spring, but at the moment, we are just trying to focus on whether or not we could offer these alternate instructional sessions.

Ten minutes were added to the discussion.

  • A Senator said that we should consider this issue long term, and not just think about the pressure we might face to help these 65 students to graduate.
  • 0 A voice-vote was taken on the friendly amendment to apply to the 7-day session: majority “yay” with one “nay.”
  • 0 A Senator asked if APC had developed a mock calendar for these sessions. For example, he asked, would 8-week term grades need to be submitted before the 2nd 8-week session begins? The Vice Provost responded that the short terms are scheduled according to contact hours, and the final exam is during the last three contact hours.
  • A Senator asked if there is a definitive list of the students who would need these short-term classes to graduate. Moffett said that all he had heard is 65 students overall.

Ten more minutes were added to the discussion.

  • A Senator asked, what happens next if we approve this Action Item? Moffett responded that the Senate will be mandating that the faculty have the authority to say yes or no to offering these courses.
  • 0 A member of APC pointed out that if you teach two 8-week terms at the same time, you would have more time for research in the second 8 weeks. The benefit for the students is that a student can drop a course he is failing and take it in the second 8-week term.
  • 0 A Senator asked if we vote yes, will we have an opportunity to look at some details before these terms go into effect? Moffett said it was unknown.

The Faculty Senate voted to approve this Action Item: 14 aye's, 3 no's, 1 abstention.

  • APC member Jason Keeler reported on an Item related to changing the dates of the Rising Junior Assessment, making it twice over a week's period both semesters. The proposed weeks for RJA testing for AY 2018-2019 are November 5-9, 2018 and April 1-5, 2019.
  • Lauren Graves, Director of Institutional Effectiveness, stated that getting students to take this exam is important for institutional effectiveness, for CPE, for SACS, and for our assessment of the General Education program.
  • A Senator asked what exam is used for the RJA. Graves responded that we use the Proficiency Profile by ETS; we used to use the CAP Assessment, but it expired, so we went with a comparable assessment.

The Faculty Senate voted to approve this Action Item: unanimous yes voice vote.