Minutes of Educational Policies Meeting Sept. 7, 2004

Members Present: Ragene Gwin, Bill Hixon, Mara Adams, Martin Hansen, Tom Hill, Kari Rogers, David O’Connell, Brenda Peters, Lori Rodriguez-Fisher, Barb Weise

Absent: Kim Bennett

Guest: Mike Hustedde

Randy Richards, 2003-04 chair called the meeting to order and presided over the election of the chair for the current year. Bill Hixon was elected chair and Corinne Winter secretary.

It was agreed that beginning Sept 21, the committee will meet weekly with a meeting cancelled if it is not needed. Meetings will be scheduled for 3:15 – 4:15 and business that is not completed within that time will be tabled until the next meeting.

There was a brief discussion of the issue of Program Review submission. The experience of the committee last year was that some reviews came in as a large number of distinct documents and that made the process of reading the reviews quite cumbersome. Bill Hixon will contact the chairs of departments scheduled for review this year both to ascertain the schedule for those reviews and to go over directions for submission of a few documents.

It was also proposed that the committee members review proposals in time to email Bill about concerns. Bill will then summarize those concerns in an email to all members. It is hoped that the emails will facilitate more efficient work on proposals. It will also require that proposals from departments be submitted in a timely manner. Bill will try to insist that any proposal to be discussed at one meeting be received by the preceding Tuesday.

The committee had received one proposal from the Nursing department for WI designation for Nursing 300, Health and Physical Assessment.

Motion to accept: Ragene Gwin, Second: Barb Weise

Mike Hustedde reviewed the ways in which the course does meet new WI guidelines that are intended to meet diverse needs for writing skills and practice in different disciplines. Mike’s understanding was based on several meetings with the faculty member who will teach the course and he was convinced that the writing assignments in the course will include elements of the writing process including peer review and development of narrative as well as the kind of precision that is needed in the nursing profession.

Lori Rodriguez-Fisher was able to provide the committee with further insights about the kind of writing skills that nursing students need to develop during their education and the reasons those are important.

A question was raised about the need for kinds of writing needed to prepare for graduate work. SAU nursing students should be prepared for graduate work, but further skills necessary for that pursuit should be developed in Nursing 400 and are not necessary in Nursing 300.

A question was raised about the need for IRB approval since the students are gathering patient information. This gathering is done in a clinical setting and is destroyed immediately upon the conclusion of treatment. It is never published and therefore does not need IRB approval.

Does Nursing have sufficient faculty to offer Nursing 300 with a cap of 18 students per section? Yes.

Based on information provided by Mike Hustedde and Lori Rodriguez-Fisher, the committee felt able to vote on the proposal at this meeting. The motion passed.

The committee omitted the approval of the last minutes from 2003-04 so those along with the current minutes will need to be approved at the next meeting.

Next meeting is Sept. 21.

Motion to adjourn: Barb Weise; Second: Ragene Gwin Adjourned 3:55 p.m.

Submitted by Corinne Winter