Tuesday’s faculty senate meeting focused primarily on amending the interterm requirements and wording in the current course catalog.
Susan Emel, professor of mass media and communication, viewed the motion to amend the interterm program and its present requirements especially for transfer students.
“Transfer students have always been something the faculty needs to pay attention to,” Emel said. “It is hard to do, but this program change is a good step to take.”
Assistant Professor of Education Merrie Skaggs sees flaws in the old interterm requirements also. Especially when it comes to graduation for some students who might be held back because of a missing interterm.
“Students transferring in with 45 credit hours were required to take three interterms, but only had the chance to take two before graduation in May,” Skaggs said.
Under the new proposed interterm program and requirements freshmen or any student admitted as a first-time degree seeker must complete at least three interterms.
All freshmen must also be enrolled in an interterm their first year. Students who transfer as sophomores must complete two. Transfer students who enter Baker as a junior or a senior must complete only one interterm in order to graduate.
Students who are in specific programs at Baker, such as the pre-engineering program, will see benefits from the revision as well.
“Specifically for students in the pre-engineering program, who can transfer out after two and a half years, it would be fair to forgo the third interterm requirement process and to have that change,” Ran Sivron, associate professor of physics and engineering, said.
The senate also discussed a revision in how the enrollment process is conducted for interterm. Currently, students who are placed as ineligible to enroll for spring classes are still allowed to enroll for interterm, even though a grade earned in an interterm class will not change their academic standing.
This is the same concept when ineligible students at the end of spring semester begin to enroll in summer classes.
The proposal is to enable any student who has been registered as ineligible to enroll to still make a petition to the Academic Standards and Enrollment committee.
However, these students may not enroll in any Baker classes until after the petition review process is complete and where they stand academically is determined. <br/>This will not be voted on until the March meeting.This will not be voted on until the March meeting.
This will not be voted on until the March meeting.
