Oakland University Senate
October 22, 1963
Agenda
MEMORANDUM
October 15, 1963
TO: All Members of the Senate
FROM: Donald D. O'Dowd, for the Steering Committee
RE: Agenda for Meeting of October 22, 1963
The next meeting of the Senate will be on Tuesday, October 22, 1963, at 4:00 p.m. in room 130 of the Oakland Center.
A. New Business
1. Recommendations from the Steering Committee (Mr. O'Dowd)
a. The following charge is recommended to replace the existing charge of the Academic Affairs Committee:
To recommend academic policy on the baccalaureate curriculum, and to propose curriculum changes.
b. The following charge and membership specification is recommended to replace the existing charge and membership specification of the Committee on Instruction:
To review and propose changes in ongoing academic regulations, to rule on petitions of exception and requests for grade changes.
Membership will consist of four faculty members and the Dean of Students.
c. It is recommended that the membership of the Retention Committee be changed as indicated below, that the following charge be adopted and that the committee be officially renamed.
COMMITTEE ON ACADEMIC STANDING AND BACCALAUREATE HONORS
To review, propose, and implement policies concerning academic probation, separation, and readmission; to present to the Senate the Registrar's list of candidates for graduation with any recommendations for deletions or additions to the list, and to review and transmit to the Senate nominees for University and Departmental Honors.
Membership will consist of three faculty members, the Dean of Students, and the Dean of the University.
d. The following charge is recommended to replace the existing charge of the Developmental Programs Committee:
To subject all phases of the University operation to continuous consideration and to reflect imaginatively upon all ways in which Oakland may improve itself.
e. The following membership specification is recommended to replace the current membership description of the Publications Committee.
Membership will consist of four members.
f. It is recommended that a new standing committee of the Senate be established.
Committee on Advanced Study
To serve as liaison body (or to designate within its membership liaison officer) with national graduate scholarship and fellowship granting agencies, to constitute from within its membership--drawing upon the faculty at large when requisite--screening and interviewing subcommittees to assess student applicants for first-year graduate study awards, to maintain a current file, available to students and faculty alike, of announcements, application forms, and general information concerning annual graduate study scholarship and fellowship competitions, and to publicize widely throughout the University the terms and dates of these competitions.
Membership will consist of four faculty members.
(The Committee will not concern itself with, nor will it be held responsible for information concerning, programs of first-year graduate study in the separate disciplines in different Universities, normally the continuing responsibility of Departments to their interested and qualified majors.)
g. It is recommended that a new standing committee of the Senate be established.
Committee on Commencement
To advise on commencement activities and ceremonies, to consult with the Chancellor with regard to speakers and candidates for honorary degrees.
Membership will consist of five faculty members.
h. The Steering Committee recommends the acceptance by the Senate of a report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Comprehensive Examinations. A copy of the report accompanies this agenda. Members of the committee are Mr. Mobley, Mr. Haden, and Mr. Hetenyi, chairman.
i. Nominations for Membership of Standing Committees of the Senate for 1963-64.
See the attached slate of nominees prepared by the Steering Committee.
2. Recommendation from the Ad Hoc Committee on Revision of Senate Constitution and Bylaws and Election Procedures. (Mr. Hoopes)
a. In order to establish a procedure whereby the organizational document of the Senate may be amended, it is recommended that the following motion be approved:
Amendments to and revisions of this document shall require an affirmative vote of at least twenty-four senators for ratification.
3. Report of Steering Committee Activities. (Mr. O'Dowd)
a. The Steering Committee has appointed an Ad Hoc Committee on Continuing Education, charged with responsibility to explore the desirability of establishing a standing committee of the Senate on Continuing Education and report its findings to the Steering Committee at an early date. Membership consists of Mr. Haden, Mr. Hammerle, Mr. Eklund, and Mr. M. Brown, chairman.
DDO'D:ird
MEMORANDUM
March 19, 1963
To: Dean O'Dowd
From: Ad Hoc Committee on Comprehensive Examinations
Subject: Report of the Committee
In accordance with its charge, the committee has considered the issue of comprehensive examinations in the curriculum at Oakland.
I. As part of graduation requirements examinations of a comprehensive kind have been urged by several departments. The most widely cited reasons for requiring such examinations included:
(1) The purported integrative effect preparation for such examinations provides.
(2) The emphasis on attainment rather than time-serving.
(3) The possibility of requiring students to prepare themselves in areas not covered by prescribed courses.
(4) The impetus purportedly provided for independent study in order to pass examinations transcending single courses.
(5) The possibility of proper placement and acceleration of well prepared or unusually capable students.
Arguments against comprehensives as part of graduation requirements centered around the following:
(1) Such examinations tend to be meaningless (cf. experience at Colby) as criteria for graduation. Either they merely confirm success in courses, or students are passed anyway--if not on the first, then on a subsequent attempt.
(2) The results at a variety of institutions (based on personal experience of committee members) suggests that little, save rote memorization, is promoted for students in the period of preparation for the examinations
(3) In many, if not most, disciplines significant outcomes of the educative process were deemed not subject to measurement by comprehensive examinations and the stress placed on areas which are so measurable exerts a negative effect on the university's program.
(4) The construction and/or grading of such examinations is a wasteful use of faculty time.
(5) As customarily planned and administered, comprehensives would be more confessions of failure of the program and means of avoiding improvement, than positive pedagogical devices.
II. Weighing these and other factors, the committee recommends that comprehensives not be made part of the graduation requirements (in any major) at Oakland University.
III. It was recognized, however, that several purposes for which comprehensives were suggested are valuable ones, but the committee feels that, in the existing framework, provisions already can be made to achieve these purposes. Thus:
(1) Independent study, study in depth, or integrative study can be fostered in most courses. For special emphasis on this work, various departments (such as philosophy) have already instituted special "problems" or "research" courses which, in the judgment of the committee, achieve the desired ends better and with fewer , if any, harmful side-effects, than do comprehensive examinations.
(2) Provisions for recognizing advanced standing and unusual academic progress (both with and without credit) already exist and should be continued. This report is not to be construed as opposing these procedures.
IV. Comprehensive examinations which serve special functions, but which do not determine whether a student will obtain his degree, may well serve useful functions. For example:
(1) The committee recommends that standardized examinations (such as the GRE) may profitably be employed on a university-wide (or more limited) basis in order to gain information about the effectiveness of policies and procedures of the institution. Should it be deemed desirable, students may be required to participate in such examinations without, however, making graduation dependent on the results achieved.
(2) The use of special examinations (comprehensive or intensive) to determine awards, privileges, and honors is judged to be within the province of those units of the university (departments, divisions, committees, etc.) responsible for conferring or recommending such awards, privileges, and honors. This committee suggests no uniform prescription or prohibition.
For the Committee,
Laszlo J Hetenyi, Chairman