COMMITTEE: Admission and Retention Committee
MEETING DATE & TIME: November 6, 2006 (4:05-5:10 PM)
PERSON RESIDING: Wendy Sharer
REGULAR MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: John Kerbs, Natalie Stewart, Xiaoming Zeng, Lee Grubb, David Siegel
EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: N/A
OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: Shelley Meyers from Academic Advising, Angela Anderson from the Registrar's Office, Anita Boyce from the Athletics Department.
_______________________________________________________________________
ACTIONS OF MEETING
Agenda Item: Approval of minutes from meeting on October 2nd, 2006.
Discussion: None
Action Taken: Lee Grubb made a motion to approve the minutes. The motion was seconded by John Kerbs and unanimously approved.
Assigned Additional Duties To: N/A
_______________________________________________________________________
Agenda Item: Plus/Minus Draft Document.
Discussion: Wendy Sharer asked Anita Boyce and Angela to discuss their thoughts about the grading change. Anita Boyce expressed her concern that implementing a plus/minus system would negatively impact student athletes who were on the borderline with their GPA's, ultimately affecting their eligibility. She brought up the concern that a former "C" or "D" student could now receive a "C-" or "D-" causing their overall GPA to be lower. Wendy Sharer said that the committee did consider the effect that the new grading system would have on students' GPA's. She brought up the studies done at other universities, which show that there is no significant difference in student's overall GPA's. Sharer said that the only difference might be at the top of the scale where some "A" grades would become "A-" grades. John Kerbs said that changing to a plus/minus grading system would put ECU in line with most other universities. Kerbs also mentioned that individual professors could still choose to maintain the current "A-B-C" grading scale.
Angela Anderson discussed the implementation of the Banner System in Fall 2007. She said that if there was a problem with the new system, if would be easier to find and fix the problem if the grading scale was still "A-B-C, etc". If the plus/minus grading system were adopted, she felt that it would be ideal for her office if it were implemented in the Summer of 2008. In addition to the summer sessions having a smaller population of students, this would give her office two semesters to work out any problems with the new Banner system before changing to a plus/minus grading system.
The discussion finished, and Anita Boyce, Angela Anderson, and Shelley Meyers left the meeting.
Action Taken: None at this time.
Assigned Additional Duties To: N/A
_______________________________________________________________________
Agenda Item: Adjustment of Dean's List and Chancellor's list with the new plus/minus grading scale.
Discussion: The committee discussed whether the current policy should be changed.
Action Taken: John Kerbs motioned to retain the current grade points for inclusion on the Honor Rolls. The motioned was seconded and past unanimously.
Assigned Additional Duties To: N/A
_______________________________________________________________________
Agenda Item: Whether the current Grade Replacement Policy should be changed to accommodate the new plus/minus system.
Discussion: Wendy Sharer passed out a hand out that showed the current policy, and the committee discussed it. The current policy reads that students who earn a "grade of D or F" may replace the grade. The proposed plus/minus document would now read that students earning a grade of "D+ or lower" may replace the grade. The committee discussed this change.
Action Taken: John Kerbs made a motion to keep the language as Sharer had stated it in the plus/minus document ("D+ or lower"). The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Assigned Additional Duties To: N/A
_______________________________________________________________________
Agenda Item: Academic Eligibility Standards.
Discussion: The committee discussed whether the current grade points should be changed. John Kerbs suggested making the grade points more specific by adding a zero (i.e., changing "1.6" to "1.60").
Action Taken: Lee Grubb motioned to change all tenths to hundredths on all documents, while keeping the original GPA numbers. John Kerbs seconded this motion, and it passed unanimously.
Assigned Additional Duties To: N/A
_______________________________________________________________________
Agenda Item: Forgiveness Policy.
Discussion: The current Forgiveness Policy forgives a "D or F". The committee discussed whether or not that policy should be modified to include a "D+".
Action Taken: Natalie Stewart made the motion to include a "D+" in the forgiveness policy, so it would now forgive a "D+ or lower". Lee Grubb seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.
Assigned Additional Duties To: N/A
_______________________________________________________________________
Agenda Item: New Grading System.
Discussion: The committee discussed whether or not to approve the new plus/minus grading system for inclusion in the catalogue.
Action Taken: Natalie Stewart made the motion to approve the new Grading System policy, John Kerbs seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.
Assigned Additional Duties To: Wendy Sharer will make editorial changes to the document and revise the grade points to include hundredths. The committee will formally discuss the revised document at the next meeting.
_______________________________________________________________________
Agenda Item: Adjournment.
Discussion: None.
Action Taken: Natalie Stewart motioned to adjourn the meeting, Xiaoming Zeng seconded the motion, and the meeting was adjourned at 5:10 PM.
Assigned Additional Duties To: N/A