AAS working group recommends new curriculum committee
The AAS Working Group met for the fourth time on April 26 to develop
the details surrounding the Curriculum and Educational Initiatives Committee.
The new committee, initially recommended by the working group at its March
meeting, will give faculty an important voice in statewide education issues.
Until now, a formalized mechanism for faculty input into statewide education
issues has been absent in the WTCS.
The working group spent the bulk of its time discussing the committee's
primary responsibilities and its relationship to other groups within the
system. There was some disagreement over the charge, with some working
group members arguing that the committee should report to either the presidents
or the Instructional Services Administrators. However, after a lengthy
discussion, consensus was reached on the following:
Charge --
"The Committee will make recommendations to the WTCS president on system-wide issues related to curriculum and education initiatives. The committee will also make recommendations regarding the process by which information regarding these initiatives is collected from and communicated to constituent groups within the WTCS."
The working group also
discussed committee membership, arriving at the following structure:
Membership (12 voting, 1 non-voting) --
- 3 faculty representatives appointed by WEAC
- 3 faculty representatives appointed by AFT-WI
- 1 Instructional Services Administrator representative
- 1 college president representative
- 1 student services administrator
- 3 deans/associate deans
The group will be facilitated by the WTCS president or his/her designee. The facilitator is a non-voting member of the group.
The recommendations related to the committee was discussed at the May 24 meeting of the WTCS State Board. If the board does not object to its creation, the committee will be formed and begin meeting soon thereafter. It was agreed that the committee would be reviewed one year from its creation.
Once established, the committee will immediately begin to conduct some of the work necessary to expand the list of system-wide general education courses (under the new AAS plan, only courses on the system-wide gen. ed. list will count toward the satisfaction of the gen. ed. requirement). Currently, there are 36 courses on the list. The AAS group felt strongly that the list of approved courses needed to be expanded so as to provide students and programs with additional options.
Generally speaking, those involved in the AAS working group were very pleased with the end work product. The Curriculum and Educational Initiatives Committee is an important mechanism that will allow faculty to provide meaningful input on statewide issues. Issues will be reviewed by the new committee early on in their lifecycle. Faculty, along with the other constituent groups, will have an opportunity discuss potential concerns and provide recommendations well before the implementation stage, thereby avoiding the messiness associated with the AAS. This is a very important step forward.
Lonnie Benning (the WEAC representative) and Michael Rosen (the AFT-WI representative should be thanked for the time and energy they devoted to the AAS working group. They have served as exemplary representatives and have been wholly committed to increasing the input faculty have in matters related to curriculum and other education issues.