Bristol
Community College
Faculty
& Professional Staff Senate Meeting
Minutes
of Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Room
H129 3:00 pm
Senators in attendance: J. Pelletier, R.
Benya-Soderbom, D. St. George, S. Pero, R. Worthington, J. Boulay, J. Flanigan,
L. Neubert, H. Tinberg, T. Grady, L. Delano-Botelho, J. Corven, B. French, J.
Constantine, D. Phillips, J. Jodoin-Krauzyk, G. Leeman, K. Hiller, G. Leeman,
B. McGuire, J. Bjornson
Absences: J. Mbugua, S. Ferreira
Excused Absences: M. Geary, S. McCourt
Special Guest: Anthony Ucci
Two guests attended this meeting.
Meeting
called to order:
3:04 pm
Minutes: Minutes from November were reviewed and
approved with one abstention due to absence.
Welcome
and Introductions
President Tinberg welcomed Jon Bjornson and Brian
McGuire to the Senate (fulfilling the remainder of Cecil Leonard’s and Ravitha
Amarasingham’s terms, respectively). He also welcomed back Vice President Ginny
Leeman and Sharon Pero as ex-officio for the Senate.
Division
Reports
·
No updates
Metamajors
Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, Anthony
Ucci, delivered a presentation on the proposed metamajors that are in the
process of being submitted to CWCC for approval.
·
The target population consists of
students who are not in a defined major; core associated with specific
discipline area.
·
The goal of metamajors is to provide a
better path, more connection, and better opportunities for students.
·
The designed curriculum would be
completed over 4 semesters, then students would enroll in a major.
·
BCC identified problem areas in terms
of retention and overall student success with regard to the General Studies
Program:
o
Over 3,000 students (1/3 of all BCC
students) are enrolled in General Studies.
o
Retention rates are comparable to
entire school (55% return; Fall 2014).
o
While some students progress and have a
plan, many don’t. This lack of clear goals presents challenges for advisement.
Similarly, open-ended requirements present advisement issues.
o
At orientation, these students have no
real point of contact which is problematic for establishing connections to the
college.
o
Although most student are seeking
better economic opportunities, there is no significant financial benefit in
graduating with a degree in General Studies.
·
AVP Ucci highlighted lessons learned
from the Guided Pathways to Success (GPS) Program:
o
Participating students gained greater
awareness of options and what is needed to get through school, having a go-to
person for problems.
o
Students made more informed choices
about majors and had a better understanding of opportunities within respective
fields.
o
The program integrated several high
impact practices (block scheduling, connection with peers).
o
The program retained 88.4% of
participating students at college in all cohorts so far.
o
The goal for metamajors is to scale up
the GPS program by offering more flexibility so there is not a loss of credits,
but pathways for all BCC programs.
·
To date, faculty teams structured an exploratory
1st year curriculum in broad content areas (funnel into program at
college to graduate with certificates/degrees).
·
This initiative targeted areas with
higher employment and transfer opportunities and it will include well-defined
course sequencing (including pre-requisites) in the college catalog.
·
The college will employ an opt-out
model to increase participation. General Studies without a metamajor will also
remain, just not as the default. The projected implementation year is
2016-2017.
·
The projected metamajors include:
o
Applied
Technology Studies
o
Business
and Entrepreneurial Studies
o
Educational
Studies
o
Health
and Life Sciences Studies
o
Humanities
and Arts Studies
o
Legal
and Social Studies
o
STEM
Transfer Studies
·
Challenges included:
o
Too few available slots in health
sciences than interested students.
o
Limited areas of overlap for criminal
justice, history and paralegal studies; this conversation allowed for more
intentionality in course selection for programs.
o
What to do about under-enrolled programs
(certificates and concentrations within degree programs)? Some had no
enrollment (or less than 10 graduates within past 10 years); need to
re-evaluate: market, revise, or remove from catalog.
o
Certificate programs often take longer
than timeline in course catalog (e.g., pre-requisites).
·
Opportunities included:
o
Initiative will consist of
contextualized courses, block scheduling, and cohorts.
o
Courses will be listed in the catalog
and DegreeWorks, prioritized in sequencing order with milestones highlighted.
o
All will take math during 1st
or 2nd semester to keep them on track to graduate.
·
Senator Hiller furthered the discussion
of the GPS process, advocating for the value and use of the Advisement Syllabi
[created in the GPS Health track]. Although developed, it was not implemented
and this resulted in candidates within the GPS Health track not receiving
accurate advisement information on course selections. She urged AVP Ucci to
consider the development and use of Advisement Syllabi in all GPS tracks moving
forward, as it is crafted from the academic discipline's knowledge base of
their programs. In fact, the GPS Health Advisement syllabi had been vetted
through the Health Sciences Division as a whole, however, a gap was identified
when the program transitioned between grant funding streams and personnel
changed.
Retention
·
Senate members discussed the
feasibility of NEASC working groups under Work-to-Rule. President Tinberg will
draft a letter to Vice President Sethares requesting that meeting minutes from
the working groups are shared with members so lack of participation during
Work-to-Rule does not preclude being involved in the work of these groups.
·
The Senate’s Task Force on academic
support and retention will continue looking at the impact of declining student
enrollment and academic support as it relates to retention.
·
Secretary Boulay discussed how
Service-Learning courses and learning communities were dropped for the spring
semester due to low enrollment.
Meeting
Adjourned: 4:09 pm
Respectfully
submitted, Jennifer Boulay, BCC Faculty & Professional Staff Secretary
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