Academic Senate Committee on WID/WAC 02/17/2021

The Academic Senate Committee on Committee on WID/WAC met on 02/17/2021, 12:45 pm, via Zoom

Committee Members in Attendance:

1. Elise Denbo (WID/WAC)
2. Jeff Hall (Committee Chairperson, History)
3. Sanjay Koul (Biological Sciences and Geology)
4. Carla McIntosh (Academy Advisement)
5. Rommel Robertson (Social Sciences)
6. Christi Saindon (Committee Secretary, Speech Communication & Theatre Arts)
7. Ian Schanning (Physics)

Liaisons in Attendance:

Arthur Corradetti, Dean for Institutional Effectiveness (Liaison to OAA)

Business:

The meeting was called to order at 12:45 pm

1. Approval of minutes of December 9, 2020 meeting.
   • Approved by unanimous consent
2. Approval of agenda.
   • Approved by unanimous consent
3. Activity since last meeting:

• WI waiver petitions
  • Andres Gonzalez (approved)
  • Brandon Camacho, waiting for completed waiver petition (pending)
  • Anthony Phan (disapproved petition)
• WI recertifications
  • Kwai Chiu (Mathematics and Computer Science)
    • Has received checklist and waiting for more from Prof. Chiu

4. WI waiver petition issues
   • Student waiver requests, some ideas for discussion:
     • No harm in students taking additional WI courses
     • Maybe at least “one WI course must be completed at QCC”
     • Classes accepted from other institutions should be designated as WI
     • Possibility of sending list of WI courses to academic advisors
       • Who would be responsible for creating the list to be available for students and/or advisors?
       • Can students/advisors just use the dropdown menu already located in the CUNY First search function to find WI courses?
     • Not much frequency with student requests for WI waivers, so maybe continue to use the current system of committee review and vote on a case-by-case basis
       • The number we’ve had to date seems average (3-4/semester)
     • Can we make the course attribute (WI) more noticeable in the online registration system?
       • Can we invite the Registrar or the Academic Advising office to share:
         • What students see when they are registering for courses online
         • If there is a way to modify the online registration system to make it more user-friendly for students

5. WI waiver petition form
   • Converted to Word file.
   • Suggested to put on committee website
   • Student completes the form, sends it back to WID-WAC chair, committee reviews and votes, then back to Dean of Faculty, and finally, WID-WAC committee chair notifies student directly of approval/denial.
   • Jeff will put together document outlining steps for future committee chair.
6. WI recertifications, Spring 2021
   • Do we have a list of who has been certified/recertified?
   • How should we proceed with recertification?
     • Artie: The WID-WAC committee has already reviewed 1/3 of faculty; move on from people who did not respond to the next 1/3 of faculty; respond accordingly (recertify or suggestions) to folks who submit; submit those responses to Dean of Faculty who will contact faculty; then move to next 1/3 of faculty.
     • Remember: purely voluntary, WID-WAC committee cannot require faculty to recertify.
       • Department chairs will be notified of nonresponsive recertification requests.
     • For the next 1/3 up for recertification, Jeff will contact Meg Tarafdar in CETL for the list of faculty who need recertification.
       • Then will contact committee to complete recertifications.

7. Old business

• Proposal to Bylaws Committee (Dec. 2020)
  • Revisions to WID-WAC committee charge sent to Steven Dahlke; will follow up.
• DeVor Rainey waiver (Oct. 2020)
  • Returning student with 160 credits; trying to verify if student has completed any WI credits.
  • Carla will check-in with the advisor.

8. New business
   • Be thinking about serving as Chair or Secretary next academic year
9. Adjournment
   • Adjourned at 1:37pm

Respectfully submitted,

Christi Saindon
Committee on Committee on WID/WAC, Secretary

Minutes typed on February 17, 2021