S.91-1
[1
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
TO: Senate
FROM:
J. Munro
Chair, Senate
Cttee on Academic
Planning
SUBJECT: Undergraduate Curriculum
DATE:
December 11, 1990
Revisions - Faculty of Arts -
SCAP Reference: SCAP 90-57
Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Academic Planning and the Senate
Committee on Undergraduate Studies, gives rise to the following motion:
S
MOTION: "that Senate approve and recommend approval to the
Board of Governors, as set forth in S.91 -1 undergraduate
curriculum revisions in the Faculty of Arts as follows:
Department of Psychology
-
Changes to the program admission requirements for
Psychology Minor, Major and Honors students"
--
Simon Fraser University
Roger Blackman
Department of Psychology
Department Chair
CC
5245
291-3358
MEMORANDUM
To: Jock Munro, Chair of SCAP
Date:
November 27, 1990
Topic: Program change in Psychology
Last summer, the Psychology Department requested approval of changes to the program
admission requirements for Psychology Minor, Major, and Honors students. In each
case, students will be required to achieve a minimum grade point average over the specified
-----1ower-division-courses before being-considered- for admission.
Minor: Complete PSYC 100, PSYC 102 and PSYC 201 with a minimum grade point
average of 2.00
Major: Complete PSYC 100, PSYC 102, PSYC 201 and PSYC 210 with a minimum
grade point average of 2.00
Honors: Complete PSYC 100, PSYC 102, PSYC 201 and PSYC 210 with a minimum
'
grade point average of 3.00.
This proposal was approved by FACC on August 2nd, but
when it was considered by SCUS at its October 16th meeting
it was determined thatthe GPA limitation constituted an
enrolment limitation. SCUS approved the course completion
component,
but forwarded the GPA limitation proposal to
SCEMP for consideration. SCEMP approved the GPA limitation
at its meeting of November 21st.
In this process, the arguments for the proposal have
been elaborated. To facilitate consideration by subsequent
bodies, these arguments are recapitulated here. Since
Psychology's main concern is with the change in regulations
governing
declaration of a major, and since this particular
change is the only one with potentially
significant
enrolment limitation implications, the following arguments
focus on Psychology majors.
-
Comoletina the Courses Before Declarin
g
Maior
It is our experience that many students declare a major
in Psychology after taking only a few introductory level
courses. We feel that the declaration of major should be a
well-informed decision, and in particular that students
I.
1
should have completed the core content and method courses
that define the scope and practice of Psychology.
We have a minimal prerequisite system in Psychology.
This acknowledges the obligation we feel to make the
discipline maximally accessible consistent with the need for
cumulative development of knowledge. We have felt for some
years that the balance has tilted too far in the direction
of accessibility. However, we have stopped short of
recommending, for example, that most or all the lower
division requirements be completed before any upper division
course is attempted. Although that is common in other
programs, Psychology is different in that 48% of our upper
division enrolees are not Psychology majors. We feel that
many of them would be unwilling to take PSYC 201 and 210
(Research Methods, Data Analysis) in order to gain access to
upper division Psychology courses. The effect of adding
PSYC
201 and 210 to the prerequisite list on our upper
division enrolments (the largest of any department in the
University) would be unacceptably disruptive.
Another reason for the proposed change is to encourage
Psychology majors to take most of the basic required courses
before they take most of their upper division courses. Some
students delay the method courses (PSYC 201, 210) too long,
in our
'
opinion. We could address this problem by changing
our prerequisites, but as noted in the previous paragraph,
the effect on enrolments would probably be unacceptably
large.
is
Establishin g
a Minimum CGPA of 2.00
This part of the proposal is not motivated by the need
to reduce our enrolments. Psychology has always shown
itself exceptionally ready to shoulder enrolment growth. In
fact, between 1982 and 1989 Psychology absorbed 30% of the
universit y
-wide increase in course enrolments! Rather, we
are concerned that Psychology is becoming responsible for an
increasing proportion of the students who are denied entry
because of low CGPA to programs with enrolment limitations.
This is a difficult trend to track, but 89/90 data show that
the proportion of students admitted to a major with a CGPA
<2.00 was higher in Psychology (11%) than all but one of the
other programs sampled.
Consequences for Enrolments
There will be no obvious changes resulting from the
first part of the proposal - to have students take the
required courses before declaring the major. The effect
will largely be one of reordering their course schedule.
0^
S
There would be effects of requiring that these basic
courses be completed by would-be majors with a minimum CGPA
of 2.00. We have examined some data that suggest what these
consequences might be. There are no definitive data, since
the first part of the proposal has never been in effect.
However, we have looked at two sets of sample data.
First, for students declaring a major in Psychology in
85/86 through 89/90, we noted their CGPA5 at the time of
declaration. The numbers of such students (percentages in
parentheses) over these 5 years are as follows: 31 (12%),
49 (15%), 36 (12%), 32 (10%), 50 (11%). Note, however, that
this is based on the student's GPA over a
ll
courses, not
just the required lower division Psychology courses (some of
which had not been taken at the time of declaration).
Wlso lkëdatthërecords ofth53tUdts who --
graduated with a Psychology major at the convocation
ceremony last month. Records show that 8 of these students
had a CGPA less than 2.00 in the required lower division
Psychology courses that they took at SFU (some of these
requirements were satisfied with transfer courses). This
represents some 15% of this admittedly small sample.
These data suggest that implementation of the proposed
•
changes might result in us denying admittance to major of
some 10-15% of students currently admitted on first
application. We should stress that this figure should not
be generalized to our upper division enrolments. As
previously noted,41niost half our upper division enrolees are
not Psychology majors and would be unaffected by the
proposed change. Even those denied admission to a
Psychology major could continue to take most of our upper
division courses.
We conclude that the number of Psychology Majors might
drop by 10% if the proposed changes are implemented, but
that the drop in our upper division enrolments would be
considerably less.
CC: Meredith Kimball, Psychology UG
Sheila Roberts, FACC
SC
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