Hello Anteaters! We hope that your winter break is going well! The ASUCI Academic Senate under the Office of Academic Affairs would like to publish its second biquarterly notes for the Fall quarter in regards to information discussed in UCI Academic Senate meetings. The notes comprise of the following councils here at UCI :

Council on Educational Policy
Council on Research, Computing, and Libraries
Council of Teaching, Learning, and Student Experience
Assessment Committee
Subcommittee on Courses & Continuing, Part-Time, & Summer Session Education
Subcommittee on International Education

If there are any questions about the information or you’d like more information, please reach out the ASUCI Academic Senate at academicsenators@asuci.uci.edu

Council on Educational Policy
November 2, 2017
CEP Review of the External Review Report for 2016-2017 Summer Session
o Points discussed include TA salary, faculty salary, class size, and financial aid
o Summer Session currently does not handle TA salary for Summer Session classes.
CEP expressed interest in why salaries are lower for TAs for summer classes.
o Faculty salary is also not where it should be – there will be a presentation and
discussion with Associate Deans to discuss why this is the case.
o Classes with less students are possible during Summer Session but they must be funded.- Students are concerned with the financial aid they are receiving for Summer Session courses. The new system might affect students’
abilities to get an estimate for financial aid.
– CEP Proposal: Enroll students in Summer Session and allow them to defer payments to address this. Although this new system is not guaranteed, CEP wants to discuss other ways for students to find out their financial aid for Summer Session.

CEP Review of the 2017 APRB External Review Report
This review brought up concerns such as the TA to student ratio, increase of funding for hands-on laboratory classes, suggestions for the Department of Physical Sciences
o The report found a high student to TA ratio and suggested we need more TAs to alleviate this. CEP discussed using upperclassmen as TAs to assist this issue. An incentive for this would include being given units in exchange for enhancing student learning. Some faculty members brought up if more TAs would actually help students as there is no research or study suggesting this is the case. Individual schools are responsible for TA assignments and training – how will these new upperclassmen substituting for TAs be trained?

CEP Response: Departments suggesting ideas to improve their departments should also
submit plans for how they will combat their specific issues.

Request from CTLSE (Student Course Feedback Forms)
Discussion of the Student Course Feedback forms was talked about, including the
effectiveness of the forms.
o Learning outcomes and assessments are being evaluated by students. There was
discussion that students should not be able to evaluate the effectiveness of instructors by these forms. Student learning outcomes are sometimes difficult to achieve and if they are, they could receive backlash from students, resulting in negative comments for instructors. Discussion was also raised that the course feedback forms were the same questions but worded differently, and thus were not effective for evaluations.CEP Response: They want to see more engagement with schools with explicit course model outcomes. This will be worked on throughout the year. More research is needed with this topic.

Testing out of Writing 39B
This pilot program was implemented for a cohort of entering freshmen for Fall 2017. It allows for students to receive high AP exam scores (4 or 5) in one English exam to skip Writing 39B. It was created to save time and space for the already impacted Writing 39 series. It tests if skipping Writing 39B is effective or non-effective in students’ writing ability for their college career.
o Students in this cohort must be done with Writing 39C before the end of the academic year or they will take Writing 39B in the next academic year. This is because the program is only occurring for one year.
o There was a concern of the purpose of Advanced Placement exams and Writing 39B in terms of the taught material. Evaluations suggest that students are benefiting from 39B, regardless of passing the AP exam or not.
o Evaluation of this pilot program was discussed, including that it should focus on 39C performance as well as students’ abilities to write in an upper division
writing course.
o A one year pilot is not enough to gather data and most members agreed that more data is needed for this topic.
o General thoughts: Writing 39B is important to undergraduate education and caution should be set about changing this. CEP suggested a policy for the cohort in the current study that fail 39C are not restricted to taking 39B. This motion will be made next meeting.

Council on Educational Policy
December 7, 2017

CEP discussion of Upper Division Writing

o CEP wishes for courses to advertise the Writing Center as a useful resource as well as data on how the Writing Center assists in writing abilities.
o Discussion of creating a professor dashboard to provide instructors information about available resources such as the Writing Center, LARC, etc

CEP Vote on language that would allow students in the current Writing 39B pilot program that have failed 39C would not be required to complete 39B
o CEP Decision: Voted yes on motion but wanted the language to be revised. The following language is as followed.
– “For Fall 2017 students who earned an AP score of 4 or 5 on English Language or Literature but did not complete Writing 39C (grade C or better, or Pass) by end of the academic year (June 30, 2018) that credit for Writing 39B be marked as passed out via their AP score.”

o CEP voted yes on this language.
Proposal to reduce school requirements for students majoring in majors in the
School of Social Ecology
o Excellence in Research was discussed – this is an honor/award that goes on student transcripts if received. It must be passed through CEP.
o CEP Decision: lowered the research requirement from two to one quarter.

Input on possible approaches to reviewing some aspects on online learning
o Brought up study showed that there is a lower quality concerning online concerns.
There was discussion on how online courses can take advantages of the opportunities it has.

Council on Research, Computing, and Libraries
November 16, 2017

Internet Safety
o Discussion of more involvement of Academic Senate in regards to Internet safety. Faculty should work more with the IT department regarding security issues.

Library Reports
o We have installed a kiosk to allow students to check out laptops in Langston Library. You check out a laptop with your student ID for a three hour time period. After the laptop is turned in, the history on the laptop gets deleted. There are currently 12 laptops in one kiosk. Discussion of similar kiosks in other libraries was mentioned and possible costs for maintaining kiosks.
o Collaboration zone: With the influx of students, Langston Library was upgraded with glass walls that students can write on and movable white boards.

Organized Research Units (ORU) and Campus Centers
o ORU is an academic unit established by the University to provide and focused and supported infrastructure for inter-, cross-, and multidisciplinary research complementary to the academic goals.

o Members want non-stem majors and their research to be given attention, not just STEM.

UCI Libraries Luminos Open Access
o Want to keep creating and publishing books so they are readily available for people outside of campus

Institute for Software Research
o Has been very beneficial for the campus as they added many subfields such as computer games, human-computer interaction, information visualization, privacy and personalization, programming, security…. etc.

Council on Teaching, Learning, and Student Experience
November 6, 2017

Canvas Transition Update
o The transition is increasing with a 29% adoption of the website.
o Canvas has more features than EEE, but familiar features such as Rapid Return,
Class mailing lists, and evaluations/surveys are kept. The quiz system in Canvas
is much better than that of EEE.
o Discussion of making Canvas a new sufficient training model.
o EEE is being replaced because of its old design, function, and code.

Teaching Evaluation Data
o Discussion of who owns teacher evaluations and who has access was discussed.
Currently OIT has the data and the Associate Dean of each school can determine who sees the teacher evaluation data. Professors can see numerical data for each question but comments are NOT seen.
o Teaching evaluations get submitted to the Council on Academic Personnel for instructor review.

Council on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools
November 14, 2017
Admissions Update
o More applications will come in the last 48 hours of the deadline. This is the final
stretch!
o The audit of what occurred with Fall 2017 freshmen this summer is online here:

Click to access I2018-602%20_Admissions_and_Enrollment_Final_Report.pdf

o There are some students that enrolled in Fall 2017 who have not turned in their transcripts – these students will not be able to register for winter courses.

Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) update

o Area D requirement: adding the third science course in this area. Broadening wording of “science” to engineering, computer science, and earth science. UCI CUARS was in the minority of opposing Area D requirement

Questions related to Admissions for Schools
o Are there any needs from schools in regards for freshmen and transfer admissions?
o CUARS wants to create a bridge between board and school faculties in regards to this. Wants to encourage people to reach out to the chairs of each school about talks regarding admissions.

Anteater Leadership Academy Discussion
o Would not be continued after this year. UCI students currently enrolled in this
program are considered extension students.

UCI Dreamers
o We have the most DREAMERS than any other UC campuses. Discussion of
forms to make these students considered as California residents.

Council on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools
December 12, 2017
Internal Audit Report
o Academic Credit Review – Example : someone has not taken a visual arts requirement in high school but has performed at Carnegie Hall. Most UC campuses accept these students because there is proof that the student has performed a visual art. However, UCI consider these students “ineligible” because they haven’t taken a visual arts requirement in high school.
o We should go more detailed into this application and be more transparent in what we’re looking for. UCI will partner with a consulting company to assist in these applications. UCI will also work with high schools who need more help academically with this application.

Academic Task Force
o In the process of verification. After students have been accepted, how do you verify that they are keeping up with their requirements? It is UCI’s responsibilities to provide notifications for students to keep on track

Admissions Update
o We have the third highest applications in the UC system. We are a second choice for California residents. GPA average for Fall 2017 applicants increased as well as standardized testing scores.

Assessment Committee
December 14, 2017

Discussion of graded Major Assessment reports from ICS and Physical Sciences Majors
o Physics & Astronomy
o Had a well developed assessment process following the Senior Commission of the
Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
o Chemistry
-Did not submit a report. Recommended that they submit so we have more
data for the WASC review every 10 years instead of yearly reviews. Want
to create a culture of reviews where we are constantly assessing our
courses.

o ICS reports – suggested more data, but submitted average reports for WASC review

Discussion of GE 7 Reports
– Courses in this category that submitted syllabi for review met requirements. Some courses have been noted for further review. It was suggested that CAC provide a template for professors to follow for their review of their course for GE 7.
– CAC is trying to collect more data from professors by sending a survey asking for syllabi and exam scores to evaluate if students are meeting learning outcomes and if the course is satisfying GE 7 requirements.

Subcommittee on Courses & Continuing, Part-Time, & Summer Session Education
November 14, 2017
Biological Sciences adding in more math courses and removing some math courses for major requirements. Adding in Bio Sci 2B, a freshman seminar.
APPROVED COURSES:
o SSCI 185W: People in Society
o EURO 10: Historical Foundations
o PUBH 30: Intro to Urban Environmental Health
o EDUC 127A and B: Moral Education for Youth Development II
o EDUC 25: solid for GE III
o PSB 192B : The Science and Practice of Compassion
o Public Health 115
o Public Health 196B
o SOCL 173W: Social Inequality

Subcommittee on International Education
November 13, 2017
University of California Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) Participation Rates
o UCEAP is a UC system wide study abroad program that gives credits based upon program options. There are also non-credit given options for study programs to work, intern, volunteer, and study abroad.
o The UC system wants a 30% participation goal but we are currently at 15%. The
UCI senior participation rate was below average at 12%.

o Not many faculty members are aware of abroad courses that are UC approved.
Communication between faculty and students must be improved.

Study Abroad Center Faculty Liaisons
o Liaison Duties: to advise prospective students on recommended EAP or International Opportunities Program (IOP) programs, courses, internships, or research programs and to advise students who have returned from these programs
to utilize what they have experienced in current UCI classes/research. Liaisons must do a better job in communication between their duties and the student body.

o Discussion if student abroad presentations in major required courses encourage students to apply. There were also concerns for specific UC Study Abroad programs such as the Korean Summer Study and the Sussex Physics Program
o Many UC schools have a higher participation rate in study abroad as opposed to UCI.
o Suggestions from faculty to encourage study abroad include resources for students to learn about the program earlier, UROP partnership, and more attention from higher ups about this issue

Revised by Angeline Phan, 12/22/2017