SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
83 - 13
MIMORANDUM
As amended at Senate - Jan. 10/83
To ...... ..ENATE
..........
From..
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AD.ATE
STUDIES
Subject.
QiANGES ..
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Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies
at its meeting of November 30, 1982 gives rise to the following motion:-
MOTION:
"That Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of
Governors, as set forth in S.83-13, the proposed
Changes in requirements to the Senior Citizens Certificate
Program
1)
Deletion of the Program Requirements 1, 2, 3 and 4 (given
on page 111 of the 1982/83 Calendar)
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2) New program requirements as follows:
"The successful completion after age 60 of 30 credit hours
of study approved by the Program Co-ordinator or other
official appointed by the Dean of\ Arts
3)
Deletion of Note (ii) (given on pageIIi of the 1982/83
Calendar)
FOR INFORMATION:
At the suggestion of the Steering Committee of the Certificate Program
for Senior Citizens the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies approved that
the Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Curriculum Committee be given responsibility
for the academic curriculum of that program and for recommending candidates for
the Certificate.
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SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
SCC/S
?-S7
MEMORANDUM
To
Mr
.......
.From.....
9....c.u.s. .
.csum Committee
Subject ..
fp
•
Date
......121.1.
The Faculty of Arts Curriculum Committee at its meeting of November
8, 1982 passed the following motion:
That the Faculty
of
Arts Curriculum Coriinittee accepts
the responsibility
of
being the academic "home" for
the B.C. Studies and the Senior Citizens Certificate
Pro
grams.
The Committee accepted this 'noble work' with the appropriate humility
and gravity.
,w
S. Roberts
cc. D. Foth
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
To.....
Changes to the Senior Citizen's
subjectCertificau. P.gru ..........................
Secretary, Faculty of Arts
.... Curricu1u
.Comwitte
......................
Date....
Np.y9s.?.S,i982..........................
The Faculty of Arts Curriculum Committee, at its meeting of May 13, 1982,
passed the following motion:
"The Faculty of Arts Curriculum Committee approves the
changes to the Senior Citizen's Certificate Program as
outlined in Dennis Foth's memo of February 22, 1982."
Would you please place this submission on the agenda of the next meeting of
S.C.'J.S.
Thank you.
S. Roberts
SR/md
SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
Faculty Undergraduate
Curriculum Committees
Subjed.
Program
Proposed Calendar Changes
Extension, Credit Programs
0
Date..
...........................
The Steering Committee of the Certificate Program for Senior Citizens
recommends two changes to the calendar entry 'aS per the attached memo-
randum and documentation.
Most programs of the university have a clearly identified Department
and Faculty "home'. Hence, proposals regarding program changes usually
begin at the departmental level and move directly to the appropriate
Faculty Undergraduate Curriculum Committee for consideration and appro-
val before being forwarded to the relevant sub-committees of Senate.
The Certificate Program for Senior Citizens is one of two programs that
is exceptional in this regard (the other being the Certificate Program
in B.C. Studies) in that, for want of a better phrase, it can be des-
cribed as a program of the university generally. It is advised by a
Steering Committee (the attached brochure lists the current membership)
with recommendations for the award of the Certificate also made through
this Committee.
As this is the first time changes are being proposed to the Certificate
Program for Senior Citizens, a procedural precedent for moving the re-
commendations through the Faculties to Senate does not exist. Follow-
ing discussion with Mr. Evans, Secretary of Senate, I think the most
appropriate procedure is to solicit your comments on the recommenda-
tiOns and to relay them to the
Steering
Committee. The Committee, upon
consideration of your comments, would then forward recommendations di-
rectly to the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies.
Both Dr. Ames, Chairman of the Steering Committee, and Mr. Conibear,
the Program Coordinator are prepared to answer any questions you
may
have about the proposal or to attend a meeting of your curriculum
committee if you think that would be appropriate.
Thank you for your consideration. Comments may be forwarded directly
to me or to Dr. Ames.,
D. Foth
DF/hn
Enclosures
Distribution: Dr. M. Covell, Arts
Dr. K. Egan, Education
Dr. G. Bhakthan, I.D.S.
Dr. A. Sherwood, Science
cc:
,,$r. H. Evans, Registrar's Office
Dr. E. Ames, Psychology
Mr. K. Conibear, Dean of Arts Office
.
1^1
Certificate Program for Senior Citizens
Calendar Changes Proposed
by the C.S.C. Steering Committee
Proposed Change 1
That the Certificate Proqram for Senior Citizens be revised by deletion
of items (1), (2), (3) and (4) on current (1981-82) calendar page 518 in their
entirety and substitution therefor of the following item:
The successful completion after age 60 of 30 credit hours
of study approved by the Program Co-ordinator or other
official appointed by the Dean of
Continuing
Studies.
The Rationale
The current calendar entry is based on studies made by a committee in
1975, as reported in SCUS paper 76-15. In that paper the courses listed in
calendar item (2) are called "core" courses and their selection is explained
by a statement that "available data on programs elsewhere suggest that the
subjects chosen are of particular interest to older adults." Since those
words were written six years have passed and over three-hundred seniors have
participated in over twenty-five courses offered to them in community centres
or on the downtown campus. SFU therefore no longer has to depend on available
data from programs elsewhere. It has its own experience to draw on.
This experience
It reads:
ENGL
101-3
PHYS
001-3
PSYC
106-3
PHIL
100-3
POL. 121-3
indicates the present
or ENGL 102-3
or CHEM 005-3
or CN.S 200-3
list
of
core courses is unsatisfactory.
The calendar requirement is that the student normally take 15 credits from that
list - in effect at least one course from each line. In fact, of the ten off-
campus senior citizens who have so far applied for the certificate, none has sa-
tisfied that requirement. This was hardly their fault: despite rigorous attempts
to use the calendar list as a guide for courses to be offered senior citizens,
it has proved impossible ever to mount PHYS 001 and POL. 121 for them, and only
once possible to mount CHEM 005, PSYC 106, and CN.S 200 (and CN.S 200 never
again: it is no longer in the calendar). All ten have therefore been. awarded
the certificate as exceptions to the normal requirements, as provided by item
(4)(a). So the exception has become the rule, and the chief effect of the list
has been to complicate the task of the Steerirg Committee in its selection of
courses.
Question i ses whether any list of core courses is necessary for senior
citizens. They are a unique qroup. Most of them have left the workaday world;
few - very few - are Preparing to re-enter it or advance themselves in it, and
.
those few have their own special needs, to which the current list is utterly
irrelevant. Our senior citizens are indeed perhaps the only pure students we
have, seeking knowledge not for what it will do for them or for the benefits
12
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they may derive from proof of their acquisition of it, but for its own sake.
Ours are also capable of reaching general agreement on what subjects they
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wish to study, and of making their wishes known to us. They tend to hold class
meetings at the end of a semester to discuss where they'd like to go next and
to pass their wishes on to Continuing Studies through one of their instructors,
by petition through the mail, or through the Executive of the Opsimath Club.
Enlisting the President of that club to advise them at its meetings, the
Steering Committee has had good success in responding to such requests.
One result has been several successions of courses each with a localization
and logic
of
its own. A group of seniors who make Edmonds House their centre
specialize in English: they have there taken, along with a few courses on other
subjects, ENGL 101, 102, 103, 206, and 221, are taking ENGL 212, will take ENCL
226 next spring, have asked for ENGL 204 and 205 next, and hope then to go on
to upper division English courses. Confederation House has similarly, though
less spectacularly, concentrated on courses on religion. Item (4) of current
calendar regulations permits exceptions from the core courses requirements for
"senior students wishing to ... undertake a different program of study". Al-
though this 'clause was certainly meant to provide for individual programs, its
application to group programs is convenient, is generally easy to administer,
and produces good results.
They are academically good. The several trends so far developed or
emerging lead to academically demanding studies. The special interest in re-
ligion has induced the offering in semester 81-3 of CHIN 341, The I Ching,
and PHIL 231, Issues in Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion. Two other
special interests pursued by groups of the seniors have resulted in the sche-
duling for semester 82-1 of POL. 323, Provincial Government and Politics, and
PSYC 357, The Psychology of Adulthood and Aging. Courses so ambitious as these
would never have been ventured within the confines of programs based on a re-
stricted group of core courses.
And there is yet another, and timely, reason. to break free of the concept
of core courses for the senior citizens program. The recent openin
q of the
Downtown Campus provides an opportunity for the intermixture of young and old
students which was not available when senior citizen courses could be given
only in senior clti.:en centres. In this regard a few sentences from the SCUS
paper 76-15 are apposite.
Segregation of senior citizens into special courses
is understandably a controversial issue. Eventually senior
citizens will be integrated into regular courses at Simon
Fraser University to complete their Certificates. In the
Jong run, integration will be beneficial to both the indi-
viduals and the University. However, in the initial part
of the program, some special selection of existing courses
for seniors only must be provided to help them learn new
skills and gain in self-confidence.
Few who have had class-room experience with older students on campus will dis-
pute that their integration with younger students is beneficial for all concern-
ed. In fact, however, the Certificate Program for Senior Citizens has done
little, until recently, to promote such integration. Rather the opposite: by
offering courses near their homes it has saved some seniors the inconvenience
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of coming up the hill, as some of them might otherwise have done, to take courses
with their juniors. Up hill remains inconvenient, but the Downtown campus is
not. Few of the Edmonds House group utilize it, but the Brock House and Confe-
deration House groups feed happily into it, and the downtown and North Shore
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elderlies rejoice in it.
One course for senior citizens only was offered at the Downtown campus in
semester 80-3, and two in semster 81-1. They achieved enrollments approximately
equal to those of the courses given in the same semesters in senior citizen
centres. Three courses are being offered at the Downtown campus in semester
81-3 speci
f
ically for senior citizens, but open to all students. (Two of them
are financed by Continuing Studies stipends: one is on departmental load.) The
initial enrollment particulars run thus, not counting special audit students:
CHIN 341
17 seniors
5 others
total 22
POL 222
12
11
10
u
22
PSYC 101
18
11
14 "
32
Totals
47 seniors
29 others
76
This experimental beginning thus provides a measure of age-integration not
approached elsewhere on campus. Additionally, it spreads the cast of the Senior
Citizens Certificate Program over a wider area; it helps to utilize the Downtown
facilities during the day time, when they would otherwise be almost empty; and
it increases the number and variety of courses which the university is able to
offer to students of all ages on its Downtown campus.
And it would not
in this memorandum be
were strictly limited
or to any other pre-d
Proposed change 2
be feasible, nor would any of the other benefits outlined
attainable, if the courses to be offered to senior citizens
to those now listed on page 518 of the current calendar
termined list of "core' courses.
That the Certificate Program for Senior Citizens he
revisci
by deletion
of Note (Ii) on current (1981-2) calendar page 518.
The Rationale
The calendar entry proposed for deletion reads as follows:
(ii) A maximum of 12 credit hours completed after reaching
age
60
or over
but prior to formal enrolment in this Certificate Program may be
applied toward the Certificate requirements.
This requirement was apparently designed to serve the purpose of preventing
students over
60
from shifting from anot}ir rogran into the Senior Citizens
Certificate Program if the.- so wish. It is an unfortunate requirement to impose
on a group of people for whom flexibility is particularly important. The most
recent student for whom the Steering Committee has recommended the award of the
certificate is 77 years old. Certainly it does not seem unreasonable for students
of advanced age, because of health changes or changes in interests, to decide
on short notice that their original goal of obtaining a B.A.
is no
longer feasible
and that they wish to shift their goal to obtaining a Senior Citizens Certificate.
In
nevoral. oae8 In
tho
jt ,he
Steering Committee has
granted
exemption of
this requiremont to individwl it'.1eflt5
on such prnunda.
.
Notes
(i, (ill),
and (iv), which will be retained, respectively assure that
credits applied toward the Senior Citizens Certificate may not be applied toward any
other certificate or diploma, that not more than (; semester hours of trarsfer
credit may be counted, an that. program requirements normally must he ccnipleted
within 5 years. The Steering Co:amittee feels that these three notes are
sufficient
iirantee the jgrjtr of the
Senior
Citizens Certificate.
Continuing
Studies 111
CERTIFICATE PROGRAM FOR SENIOR CITIZENS
The purposes of the Program are to provide interested members of the senior
citizen population (those aged 60 years and over) with opportunities to par-
ticipate in university life, to undertake a program of study which is relevant to
their life goals, and to gain recognition for their academic achievements.
The Program is advised by a Steering Committee. Recommendations for the
award of the Certificate are made through this Committee.
Admission
Current admission regulations apply. It is expected that most persons will
apply either as secondary school graduates or under the terms of the "Mature
Student Entry". (See p. 16 of this Calendar.) Also, applicants shall consult a
Program Adviser concerning the demands of the Program and their educa-
tional objectives.
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
(1)
The successful completion of 30 credit hours of prescribed study.
(2)
At least 15 of the minimum 30 credit hours normally from the following
courses:
ENGL 101-3
Introduction to Fiction, or
ENGL 102-3
Introduction to Poetry
PHYS 001-3
The Nature of Physical Laws, or
CHEM 005-3
The Chemistry of Life
PSYC 106-3 Social Issues
PHIL 100-3 Human Knowledge, Its Nature and Scope
POL 121-3 The Canadian Polity
(3)
An additional 15 of the minimum 30 credit hours selected by the student
in consultation' with an academic adviser.
(4)
Exception to the above requirements will be made for senior students
wishing to complete Certificate requirements on campus and/or under-
take a different program of study. In such cases, the following will apply:
(a)
30 credit hours of approved and prescribed study completed at
age 60 or over;
(b)
enrolment in the Certificate Program prior to the completion of 12
credit hours being applied to the Program;
(c)
Program Adviser approval of selection of courses to be completed
for the Certificate.
Notes:
(i)
Credits applied toward this Certificate may not be applied toward
any other Simon Fraser University certificate or diploma, but may
also be applied toward Major program or Minor program require-i
ments or toward a Bachelor's degree under the normal regulations
governing those programs.
(ii)
A maximum of 12 credit hours completed after reaching age .60
or over but prior to formal enrolment in this Certificate Program.
may be applied toward the Certificate requirements.
(iii)
Normally all courses used toward the Certificate must be taken
through SFU and not more than six semester hours of approved
transfer credit for university/college work may be applied toward
Certificate requirements.
(iv)
Program requirements normally must be completed within five
years of admission;
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