. ?

DRAFT UNTIL APPROVED BY SENATE

Minutes of a Meeting of the Senate of Simon Fraser University held on

Monday, January 5, 2004 at 7:00 pm in Room 3210 WMC

Open Session

Present: ?

Stevenson, Michael

President and Chair of Senate

Absent:

Atkins, Stella

Apaak, Clement

Brennand, Tracy

Beynon, Peter

Budd, James

Dunsterville, Valerie

Clayman, Bruce

Fizzell, Maureen

Collinge, Joan (representing C. Yerbury)

Gill, Alison

Copeland, Lynn

Gordon, Robert

da Silva, Gisele

Grimmett, Peter

D'Auria, John

Higgins, Anne

Dickinson, John

Krane, Bill

Driver, Jon

Lemay, Joanne

Fung, Edward

Mauser, Gary

Giacomantonio, Chris

McArthur, James

Gregory, Titus

Naef, Barbara

Gupta, Kamal

Thandi, Ranbir

Haunerland, Norbert

Tombe, Trevor

Heaney, John

Van Aalst, Jan

Hira, Andy

Wessel, Sylvia

Honda, Barry

Wong, Josephine

Horvath, Adam

Wong, Milton

Kaila, Pam

Woodbury, Rob

Kalanj, Tiffany

Yoo, Rick

Lewis, Brian

Love, Ernie

McFetridge, Paul

Percival, Paul

In attendance:

Peters, Joseph

Bell, KC

Pierce, John

Blackman, Roger

Plischke, Michael

Denham, Judy

Rozell, Sara

Krebs, Dennis

Sears, Camilla

Woodham, Amanda

Scott, Jamie

Shaker, Paul

Smith, Don

Waterhouse, John

Weeks, Dan

Heath, Nick, Acting Registrar

Watt, Alison, Director, University Secretariat

Grant, Bobbie, Recording Secretary

S.M. 5 January 2004

Page

Approval of the Agenda

The Agenda was approved as distributed.

Approval of the Minutes of the Open Session of December

1, 2003

The Minutes were approved as distributed.

Business Arising from the Minutes

There was no business arising from the Minutes.

Report of the Chair

Referring to the weather advisory regarding the possibility of a significant snowfall,

Senate was advised that information about closure of the University would be

distributed through the media and be announced on the University's web site and

on the road conditions phone line.

Senate was advised that the Government had made changes to the University Act,

the majority of which reflected minor legal housekeeping issues. However, some

of the changes affected the membership of the Senate and the Board of Governors.

Order-In-Council appointments on Senate have been eliminated. Current OIC

appointments will continue until the expiry of their term but will not be replaced so

Senate will gradually lose four members. In addition, it will no longer be a

'requirement for faculty and students to be 'full-time' in order to be elected to

Senate and the Board of Governors, and Board members no longer need to be

resident in British Columbia. There was also a slight change in wording with

respect to the authorization required to run a deficit.

question Period

No Pre-requisite checks following submission of final grades for Fall

2003

semester.

It was noted that the new student information system was not capable of

automatically dropping students who have an incomplete prerequisite for a course

for which they have enrolled before the release of grades for the prerequisite

course, and it was now the student's responsibility to drop the course voluntarily if

he/she does not meet prerequisite requirements. Recent experience in some

departments has indicated that students are not dropping and N. Haunerland

questioned what was being done to mitigate this problem.

Senate was advised that this issue was a known gap in the functionality of the new

system that had been identified early, but that was not easily fixed because

prerequisite checking was an on-line process that existed only at the time the

enrolment request was made. There were plans to provide departments with

reports identifying students in this situation early in the semester but the reports

were not yet available. Various suggestions were made about how to manage this

S.M. 5 January 2004

Page 3

. situation including getting instructors to make announcements or sending a

university-wide email about not continuing in courses if the students hadn't

satisfactorily completed prerequisites.

The Chair reported that this issue had been discussed at length by Chairs and

Directors and reported that it appeared to be a matter of great concern particularly

within the Faculty of Science. As a result of those discussions, the Chair reiterated

his understanding that reports identifying some of the problems would be available

to departments. However, because of the various types of prerequisite structures,

these reports would not identify all cases. It should be ascertained when that report

would be available and information should be conveyed to instructors advising

them that there is this problem in the new system and there may be students in

their course that have not fulfilled the prerequisites. It was also the Chair's

understanding that specialists attached to the SIMS team would be in contact with

individual departments where this was a problem to review the extent of the

problem, the nature of the special complicating factors that wouldn't be caught by

the basic reports, and then a general report on what should be done would be

prepared.

The Chair felt it was important that the basic reports be made available to

instructors quickly and requested the Vice President Academic to convey the

discussion and concerns of Senate to the Chief Information Officer. The Chair also

indicated that this issue would be reported back to Senate.

4. ?

Reports of Committees

Undergraduate Curriculum Implementation Task Force

Paper S.04-1 - Discussion Paper on the Implementation of University-wide

Writing, Quantitative, and Breadth Requirements

The following members of the Committee were in attendance in order to respond

to questions: Dennis Krebs (Chair), Roger Blackman, and KC Bell.

In order to permit wide-ranging discussion, the chair suggested that Senate move

into a Committee of the Whole

Moved by P. Percival, seconded by D. Smith

"that Senate move into Committee of the Whole"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

• ?

Discussion began with an overview of the process by the Chair of the Task Force.

Senate was advised that the heart of the recommendations passed by Senate in

S.M. 5 January 2004

Page 4

principle were unchanged. However, the exact ways in which to achieve those

goals have slightly changed. The Implementation Task Force feels strongly that

students need to be prepared to take writing and quantitative courses and that

quantitative courses ought to be defined broadly to include courses that were non-

mathematical in nature. However, the earlier committee suggested that students be

admitted to SFU in the current way and then students who did not receive high

grades in English 12

or in the Math 11 or

would then have to take an English or

a Math proficiency test as a prerequisite for entering the university level writing or

quantitative course. The present committee felt that students ought to be screened

prior to admission to identify those students who had not made satisfactory

progress in English and recommends that all students applying to Simon Fraser,

except those who obtain excellent grades in English

(or equivalent), be required

to take a language proficiency test. The Learning Proficiency Index (LPI) has been

identified as the most appropriate test, particularly since it is used by both UBC and

UVic and most students already take it. With respect to the assessment of

quantitative abilities, the Implementation Committee recommends that instructors

of first year Q courses be encouraged to develop tests that assess the abilities

necessary for their course and require their students to take those tests prior to or at

the first course session. The main reason for the deviation from the previous

committee's recommendation in this regard pertains to the special kind of

quantitative courses envisioned for students in the Humanities. In addition, the

implementation Task Force recommends that only students who can be helped

with writing or math be admitted and, in conjunction with this recommendation, is

the creation of a Student Learning Centre and a foundational writing course.

The following points are a summary of the lengthy discussion.

• Reference was made to page 8 of the report with regard to the W course

requirements. The original recommendation, which was approved in principle

by Senate, required six credits of courses that fostered writing ability. The

present recommendation specifies that at least one of the courses should be an

upper division course. Opinion was expressed that this was a significant

change from the original recommendation. In response, it was explained that

the committee had two competing lines of thought. On one hand, it was felt

that completing the writing requirement at the start of the student's program

would benefit the student the most; on the other hand, it was felt that it would

be more beneficial if the writing experience was done in conjunction with their

major. Since two courses were required, the committee felt it was a reasonable

solution to require one lower division and one upper division course.

• While in agreement that entry requirements with respect to quantitative and

writing ability for university admission were essential for all disciplines, opinion

was expressed that once students were admitted they should be allowed to

chose their own breadth courses. It was pointed out that different Faculties have

S.M. 5 January 2004

Page 5

. different needs and what may be valuable in some Faculties may not be

beneficial in others and having inflexible, overall requirements for all students

in all faculties was believed to be a major flaw in the recommendations.

• Disappointment was expressed about recommendation three concerning

quantitative proficiency which recommends that instructors be encouraged to

develop tests to test specific knowledge. Opinion was expressed that this

proposal went against the spirit of the original recommendation which

suggested that SFU adopt minimum standards in three areas - writing,

quantitative and breadth so that the University can guarantee that SFU students

meet certain minimum standards, and encouraging faculty to develop

quantitative proficiency tests will not guarantee minimum standards. Opinion

was expressed that the original concept seems to have been abandoned and it

was suggested that the committee reconsider this recommendation.

• Concern was expressed with respect to recommendation six which implied that

the University would be responsible for providing remedial courses for students

admitted under this category and clarification was sought as to why this

recommendation was necessary in light of recommendation one which would

require students to reach a certain level of proficiency prior to admission.

Recommendation six was intended to help students who are admissible but

. have been identified as having marginal writing skills and the foundation course

would ease their transition into the required writing course. Although course

instructors would give some remedial assistance, the design of the course would

teach students to write at a university level. It was the Committee's belief that

the University should not be admitting students who require more remedial

work than the University could provide and the University should not be in the

business of providing a lot of remedial assistance.

• Referring to the recommendation concerning post-admission tests of

quantitative proficiency, it was suggested that the tests should be pre-admission

and that the arguments for having post-admission tests were unconvincing. It

was also suggested that if standardized tests were not acceptable for Humanities

then Humanities students could be exempt from the tests or tested in another

way rather than making a change which affects everyone else.

• The level of writing skills of international students was raised as an issue by

several Senators and it was suggested that more attention should be paid to this

matter. It was suggested that international students be offered the option of an

in-depth linguistic and cultural orientation preparation, such as the English

Bridge Program, rather than simply requiring a particular level in an English

proficiency test.

S.M. 5 January 2004

Page 6

• Suggestion was made that the University should have a regular writing centre

that was discipline specific and also geared toward graduate students.

• Reference was made to the Centre for Writing Intensive Learning. It was

suggested that expectations in terms of faculty requirements to create writing

intensive courses were onerous and may be affecting the number of courses that

could be offered under this initiative.

• Concern was expressed that there was no mention of additional TA support in

the documentation, especially in relation to writing intensive courses. It was

noted that the Committee has recommended that TAs be given additional

support and that recommendation has already been implemented. It was also

pointed out that the possibility of providing training to TAs to give writing

intensive courses, and the development of graduate courses for teaching

assistants in writing within their discipline were also being considered.

• Concern was expressed that the recommendations could be implemented

without the creation of the student learning centre and it was suggested that one

should not happen without the other. It was acknowledged that having both

occur concurrently would significantly increase the costs and it was hoped that

the extra funding needed would be sought and not be drawn from the current

operating budget. Senate was advised that meetings had already taken place

with the Vice President Advancement about raising funds for a student learning

centre. Suggestion was made that consideration be given to how a student

learning centre located on campus would be able to serve non-traditional

students and students not taking courses at the Burnaby location.

• It was suggested that the proposed Task Force should have student

representation.

• Opinion was expressed that there appeared to be an imbalance between

Faculties as to modifications. Reference was made to the change concerning

the requirements for the quantitative proficiency test as a result of objections

raised by the Humanities but when concerns were expressed by the Faculty of

Science with regard to the breadth requirements it was pointed out that no

changes were possible because they were part of what Senate had approved. It

was suggested that the Task Force should be prepared to revisit this issue and

consider some flexibility within the requirements.

In response to an inquiry as to whether it was possible to make changes to the

recommendations, Senate was advised that consultations were ongoing and that it

was the intent of the Task Force to meet with all of the Faculty Curriculum

Committees, have open forums, and meet with as many departments and programs

as possible over the next couple of months. Recommendations would be revised in

S.M. 5 January

2004

Page

• light of these consultations and a revised document would then be distributed to

the University community and to Senate to allow comment on the revised

recommendations. Following that final consultation, the recommendations would

come back to Senate for approval.

Moved by T. Gregory, seconded by C. Sears

"that Senate move out of Committee of the Whole"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

On behalf of Senate, the Chair thanked members of the Committee for their

participation at Senate and for their ongoing work on this project.

B) ?

Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies

Paper

S.04-2 -

Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Applied Sciences

Moved by

Dickinson, seconded by B. Lewis

"that Senate approve the change to Grade 11 Admission

. ?

Requirements in Kinesiology for British Columbia and Yukon

applicants, as set forth in

S.04-2,

effective

2004-3"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

Senate received information that the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies,

acting under delegated authority, deleted one course, approved four new courses,

and approved minor revisions to existing courses and programs in Kinesiology and

Communication.

ii)

Paper S.04-3 -

Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Education

Senate received information that the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies,

approved four new courses and minor revisions to existing courses and programs in

the Faculty of Education.

iii)

Paper

S.04-4 -

Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Science

Senate received information that the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies,

acting under delegated authority, approved six new courses and minor revisions to

existing courses and programs in Biological Sciences, Mathematics, Molecular

Biology and Biochemistry, Physics, Statistics/Actuarial Science.

S.M.

5 January

2004

Page

C) ?

Senate Committee on Continuing Studies

Paper S.04-5 -

Criteria and Guidelines for the Establishment of Certificates

for Successful Completion of Non-credit Courses

Moved by

Coll inge, seconded by

Waterhouse

"that Senate approve the revisions to the Criteria and Guidelines for

the Establishment of Certificates and Diplomas for Successful

Completion of Programs of Non-Credit courses as set forth in

S.04-5"

Question was called, and a vote taken.

MOTION CARRIED

ii)

Paper S.04-6 -

Annual Report 2001/2002

and 2002/2003

(For Information)

The Annual Report of Senate Committee on Continuing Studies for the years

2001/2002 and 2002/2003

was received by Senate for information.

iii)

Paper

S.04-7 -

Report - Non-Credit Certificate for the Object Technology

Program (For Information)

J. Denham and A. Woodham, Program Directors for Applied Science Programs in

Continuing Studies were in attendance in order to respond to questions.

Senate received a report on the Non-Credit Certificate for the Object Technology

Program for information. This report was submitted in compliance to Senate's

request that a report on the academic and financial aspects of the program be

provided to Senate following three years of operation.

D) ?

Senate Graduate Studies Committee

Paper S.04-8 -

Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Applied Sciences

Senate received information that the Senate Graduate Studies Committee, acting

under delegated authority, approved four new courses and minor revisions to

existing courses and programs in Computing Science, Kinesiology, and Resource

and Environmental Management.

ii)

Paper

S.04-9 -

Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Arts

Senate received information that the Senate Graduate Studies Committee, acting

under delegated authority, approved four new courses and minor revisions to

existing courses and programs in Criminology, Economics, and Psychology.

S.M. 5 January

2004

Page 9

iii)

Paper

S.04-10 -

Curriculum Revisions - Faculty of Science

Senate received information that the Senate Graduate Studies Committee, acting

under delegated authority, approved four new courses and minor revisions to

existing courses in Biological Sciences.

Other Business

There was no other business.

Information

The date of the next regularly scheduled meeting of Senate is Monday, February

2004.

The Open Session adjourned at 8:35 pm and moved directly into Closed Session.

Alison Watt

Director, University Secretariat