February 9th, 2011
Attendees: Ed Taylor, Mel Wensel, Carrie Perrin, Dave Drischell, Cynthia Caci, Jennifer Grahl, Dan Feetham, Mary Tillotson, Debbie Weigand, Robin Boddie, Susan Inman, Janet Germeraad, Michelle Hall, Aley Mills, Erin Dana, Connie Montgomery
Absent: Patsy Wosepka
Guests: LeAnne Wiles and Becky Corriell (First Year Programs)
During the first order of business, Becky Corriell and LeAnne Wiles informed the council of the changes that were made to the FIG program and addressed the following brainstorming questions:
What are some ways that your faculty might be willing to collaborate more intentionally with the FIGs in their classes?
- Organize around links; try to include classes from the same link
- Make sure course content is appropriate for frosh
- Move away from the 1 size fits all model
- Knowing that faculty engagement is the critical question, address the scale (which some would say is the biggest challenge)
- Make sure engagement and intro to inquiry for students is clearly the payoff for doing a fig
What are some themes that you feel would be beneficial to include in a FIG cluster?
Are there any classes that your department offers which could help create a theme-driven FIG?
- Make it easy for advisors to articulate to faculty what the “glue” is between the classes
- Capture space for students interested in particular majors who might be ready to apply more quickly (esp. AP/IB/Running Start students)
- IWP is a better fit for FIGs than EWP is.
What are some strategies that would enable FIGs to provide a wider range of options for our advanced student population? (high achieving, running start, AP/IB)?
- Stand along GEN ST 199?
- Soph-level business pre-reqs?
- Make sure there are options for high achievers in the Gen St 199; bimodal distribution of students
Are there additional ways that you would like to collaborate with the FIG Program?
- Need to address question of 12 cr vs. 17 cr FIGs
Next, Mel and Debbie informed the council on the AP/IB proposal moving through FCAS discussing different factors that take part in a student’s satisfactory progress.