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Educational Policy Committee

Meeting Minutes: Friday, October 26, 2007

Download minutes in Word format (DOC)

Committee Members:

Present:
Stu Goldstein, Robin Wright, Sarah Corrigan, Janaki Paskaradevan, Frank Barnwell, Samuel McCabe, Aaron Broege, Alexis Powell, Paul Siliciano, Leslie Schiff, Pete Snustad, Rogene Schnell, Nikki Letawsky-Shultz, Sue Wick

Not Present:
Jane Phillips, Jean Underwood, Elizabeth Lockamy

Minutes:

Minutes from 10/12/2007 were reviewed and two corrections were indicated:

Stu indicated that the spelling of Sarah’s and Pete’s names needed to be corrected in the minutes from 10/12/2007

Line 46, correction the class is not writing intensive.

The minutes approved unanimously.

Old business

Status of Nikki’s Deans’ Scholars program course

(Jean Underwood/Nikki Letawsky Shultz)

Nikki presented the committee with five documents describing the program and scheduling (Appendix I). Nikki also gave a verbal description of the program.

The Deans’ Scholars Program course is a four year personal development program to develop leadership and service in undergraduates. The cohort of students includes: students with high academic qualifications, students with an interest in leadership and service and students that are deemed to be at risk. This program was aimed at developing leadership and service skills both within and outside of the classroom and to promote retention.

As part of the program, students were paired with a mentor and had meetings once per month.

Sam was a mentor in the program and commented on his meetings with students. He made meetings informal, such as taking the students to Applebees. At these meetings he would encourage and promote discussion of situations students may be faced with in the future. For example, what would you do if you were offered a low paying, interesting job and a high-paying boring job.

Nikki described the first student retreat (see schedule in Appendix I). The retreat focused on leadership and team building. Peer mentors facilitated events at the retreat. The Novembers leadership seminar will cover the topic of bioethics. In the spring semester, students will develop their own service project based on their own interests.

Following Nikki’s description of the program, there was an open discussion.

Paul asked if there is an opportunity for transfer students to take this course.
Nikki responded, involvement of transfer students is not yet implemented but is possible in the future.

Stu indicated that Deans is plural and wondered if there was interaction with other colleges.
Nikki responded that the program is limited to CBS and that Bob and Robin are the deans [plural].

Paul asked if participation in this program will this show up on diploma.
Nikki responded, not yet but she will look into this possibility.
Robin added that participation in the program can go on a student’s resume and they will get a certificate for participating.

Stu asked if students progress up leadership rungs.
Nikki responded, hopefully.
Sam responded that there have been changes in the group he is mentoring. They appear increasingly comfortable with college life.
Nikki added that student mentors are better able to identify students having problems integrating into college life.

Robin closed by formally thanking Nikki for her work developing this program.

WI Fund Disbursement (Jean Underwood/Leslie Schiff)

Summary:

The committee passed model 2 for the disbursement of WI finds. Leslie stated her objection to this model of disbursement.

Details of the Committee Discussion:

Robin indicated that the college has $38,000 to disburse to fund writing intensive courses.

Jean distributed a document indicating how this money would be distributed under different models.

Robin wanted the committee to discuss which model is most fair to decide how to distribute money across departments. The disbursement was retroactive to cover costs for last year.
Stu wanted to know what was the rationale for not including 1002.
Robin responded that Biology has a larger budget and more resources for TAs. Excluding 1002 would mean more money for other departments.

Robin indicated that the fourth model was used last year [2006].

Pete S. asked why directed research was left out
The explanation was that it was better to allocate of funds to TAs that teach large numbers as one-on one contact does not tax [financially] departments very much.

Paul Indicated that 1002 is first contact with writing that many students have. He wants more TAs that specialize in writing. He feels that the money earned by 1002 should go towards the unit that generated the money.

Pete S asked, if you [Paul] did not hire anyone to teach writing last year, why do you need the money since the disbursement is for last year.

Robin indicated that there is $500,000 set aside for foundations for TAs. Some of this money could be used for writing-specific TAs. 38,000 will not hire 2 TAs for a year.

Stu asked, is this money is for last year?
Leslie indicated that we are using what money we get for this year.
Stu asked, so this is a way of gauging what you will need for this year and will the 2002/2003 courses need money for writing instruction?
Robin, Yes.

Robin tried to re-focus the discussion on deciding on a disbursement model.

Leslie indicated that this is a short-term decision and that 15 years from now the university will have a different writing model. Writing intensive courses be discontinued, writing will not all be lumped in a single course.

Paul [to Leslie], what do you do with the money.
Leslie responded, we hire people to do this [evaluate writing]. We don’t have students that are capable of doing this work [evaluating writing] within CBS. We hire post-docs or others with more experience.
Leslie explained that these people run small group discussions, have contact hours, teach and do some grading. She tried an experiment using a rhetoric major to evaluate student writing in CBS. She [the rhetoric major] could not understand the material so could not comment effectively on student writing. She [the rhetoric major] would read the papers but I [Leslie] would also need to read the papers.
Leslie indicated that she needed the money otherwise would not be able to teach her class

Sue proposed a vote for model 2.
Paul seconded the motion.

Stu asked if there was any further discussion.

The proposal of model 2 was voted on by the committee. The motion carried with one opposing vote [Leslie]

Leslie stated for the record that model 2 does not leave her with enough money to run her program.

IDL Courses

Summary:

Following a series of e-mails suggesting changes and additional revisions to the IDL policy, the committee voted on additional changes to the policy. The committee agreed on changes proposed by Sarah and Jean. (Appendix II)

The core courses list [provided by Jean] was incomplete.

[Sarah] students with fewer than 9 months before graduation should not sign up for courses that last longer than nine months.

Paul’s concern was the issue of high failure rates for IDL courses.

Paul indicated that Biochem 2003/2004 have IDL students enrolled in not term-limited sections. He wants this to be a term limited course to motivate students to finish the course.
Paul indicated that he does not understand the rationale for non-term limited courses and would like to see 4003/4004 changed to term limited.

Robin indicated that the point of the IDL policy was to exclude students who should not be in these courses i.e. students that are already struggling or have failed lecture sections.

Paul wanted to know why Cell Biology and Genetics are offered under the IDL model. He wanted the committee to address why these courses are offered as IDL courses.

Robin indicated that the success rate in IDL courses lower than in regular courses. Often specific student will take and fail multiple IDL courses.

Stu indicated that this pattern [high failure] is seen often [with IDL] courses. For some students this model works well. As a college we need to weed out students who should not be in IDL courses.

Alexis asked, how does this affect enrollment?
Rogene indicated that we are dealing with a small number of students.

Paul indicated that for the [biochemistry] 4000 level course since there is small enrollment the committee should be fixing the problem of high failure rate. He asked, is this not within the power of the committee?

Stu indicated that Rob can teach whatever course he wants since IDL courses are within the university rules of courses that can be offered.

Sarah [indicated] that there were not online lectures for Biochemistry 3021.

Robin indicated that this [Biochemistry] is basically a mail order course.

Paul indicated that we have the responsibility for courses offered with BIOL designator and need to take the danger away for students.

Stu responded that we are trying to fix this [taking the danger away from students] by restricting access to IDL courses.

Paul responded that if there is a course where half the students are failing then the onus is on us to do something about this.

Robin indicated that for the average course offered by CCE in IDL format, the average success rate is 50%.

Rogene indicated that for CBS IDL courses the average success rate is 61-80 %.

Sarah indicated that when we get extended semester courses there is the issue of new courses starting with old courses still in full swing. This can create problems for students. The extended term works for a few students.

Rogene asked, should we address the issue of extended term courses?

Sarah responded, I tried taking an IDL economics course as an experiment. This is an extended term course. During the term she bought a house and had to ask for an extension.

Robin indicated that the most successful IDL course is medical terminology. This is a hybrid course where students have to come in regularly for exams.

Sam and Janaki indicated that for the medical terminology course, the content is not very hard and is mostly memorization.

Sarah indicated that people in scholastics committee would be happy if this policy weeds out the students who failed the first time and then want to take the IDL version of the course [which they are likely to fail].

Stu indicated that students take IDL courses to save money. They plan to do the work over the summer [while avoiding registration fees]. This is when students run into trouble

Sam indicated that it is this is fairly common [for students to take IDL courses to save money].

Stu presented a motion that core course be included in IDL and to adopt Jean’s modification of the wording with Sarah’s modification that exclude students with less than 9mo left.

The motion passed unanimously.

New business / Announcements

Graduation and Retention Analysis (Robin Wright)

Robin indicated that Claudia Neuhauser had been looking at transcripts from students in CBS and found that they are not taking a lot of BIOL courses.

Robin summarized her findings on graduation and retention rates in CBS.

For the 05-06 year, the university mandated goal was a 5year graduation rate of 75%. On average 66% of fall 05 seniors graduated in 05-06. Only 35% of EEB majors graduated compared with 73% of BIOL majors.

Sue indicated that these percentages reflect very small numbers of students and wondered about the effects of these small numbers on percentages.

Robin indicated that CBS has improving graduation rates. The 4 year graduation rate for 2002 was 37.7% and was 61.5% for 2007. This figure surpassed the 60% goal.

Rogene these numbers indicate that students enter CBS and graduate with a degree from the University [not necessarily from CBS].

Robin’s presented statistics on graduation rates for 05-06. Most students are graduating with a single major (378 students), a smaller number graduated with a minor (61 students with a minor)

Spring 06 what happens to students 38 of 260 in professional schools?

Only 22% of CBs grads in Spr06 transferred to the U of M from another institution (26 students)

For 49% of the Spr06 grads, CBS was the first college they attended after high school.
1/3 of the student body is intra-college transfers.

For fall06, students admitted to CBs as ICT students graduate at higher rates than expected based on proportion in the student population.

Robin summarized cumulative GPA by primary major. CBS Spr06 graduates BIOL major has a wider range of GPAs and some of the lowest GPA values.

Robin addressed what she termed The Neuhauser Conjecture that something wrong with the Biology Major program as indicated by the [low] number of BIOL credits taken by biology majors.

Robin indicated that biology is not far off from other programs in terms of biology credits. Student credit hours appear to be off in CBS. Most credit hours are from intorductory biology courses. On average biology graduates have about 33 credit hours from CBS. Biology majors on averages are taking fewer biology credits
 
What is the explanation for why biology students are taking fewer biology credits?
Robin presented some case studies were students graduated with a degree from CBS with only limited credit hours from CBS. In an extreme case a student was able to get 15 credits from CBS and graduate with a degree from the U of M. Most of this student’s credit hours were transfer credits from Metro State.

Robin indicated that this was not a systemic problem with how the program is set up and does not address the issue of how to increase the CBS credit hours.

Proposals for increasing student credit hours in CBS.

1. Set a minimum number of CBS credits for all CBS degrees.
2. Review biology electives.
3. Review electives in general (i.e. physiology)
4. Require career courses
5. Offer upper division seminars (lab meetings, supergroups, departmental seminars)
6. Examine physical science/math requirements and alternatives

Enrollment in Summer Session Courses (Robin Wright)

Not addressed at this meeting.

Appendix I: Deans’ Scholars Program Documents

CBS Deans’ Scholars First-Year Program Components

Academic

Becoming a Reflective Leader (1 credit)
Course credit is a special opportunity for Deans’ Scholars, allowing students to learn more about themselves and to explore what constitutes effective leadership. This eight-week course will prepare students for leadership experiences through engaging in activities that allow students to develop their personal leadership philosophy.

NOL Study Group Leadership
Deans’ Scholars will have the opportunity to engage in hands-on leadership immediately by conducting a study group of their peers during the fall semester. Through facilitating the learning of themselves and their peers, Deans’ Scholars will be able to enhance their academic success and leadership skills.

Personal Development

Mentor Program
Students will have the opportunity to build relationships with their first-year peers and an experienced student peer as they navigate through their first-year. Groups of five first-year students will be paired with a peer mentor. Scholars will meet regularly with their small group during the fall semester and have individual contact their mentor. In addition, each small group will perform a collaborative service project in the spring.

Fall Retreat
Deans’ Scholars and their mentors will attend the Fall Retreat, which is designed to help students develop leadership skills by participating in an outdoor adventure program and engaging in self-exploration exercises. Scholars will learn about communication, trust, interpersonal relationships, and personal risk-taking as they participate in a series of games and problem-solving initiatives. In addition, students will work together as they examine issues of multiculturalism, inclusion, civic and community participation.

Cohort Seminars
Deans’ Scholars will participate in engaging leadership and personal development seminars throughout the academic year which allow students to reconnect with their Scholars cohort.

Service

Service Project
Recognizing service and community involvement as an invaluable part of the undergraduate experience, Deans’ Scholars will have the opportunity to demonstrate their leadership and collaborative skills to fulfill a community need. This is a student-led project which allows students to apply their learning to solve real-life problems and become active contributors to their community.

College of Biological Sciences
Deans’ Scholars Program

“Building tomorrow’s future through today’s leaders”

The College of Biological Sciences Deans’ Scholars is a unique four-year personal development program that combines academic and co-curricular components to assist selected students in developing their leadership potential. Deans’ Scholars are chosen based on academic achievement, and demonstrated leadership and community engagement while in high school. Through participation in the program, Deans’ Scholars will have a foundation to assume leadership roles within their campus and broader communities, and to make meaningful contributions to society in their chosen professions and communities after college.

Deans’ Scholars Program Goals:

• Create opportunities for students to gain confidence in their own abilities
• Increase interaction between students, staff and faculty through out-of-class leadership and service experiences
• Allow students to build relationships and connect with fellow students
• Provide leadership experiences on campus and in the community that will prepare students for citizenship and community involvement after college
• Prepare students for the responsibilities of leadership and service within their communities

In addition to their academic curriculum, Deans’ Scholars participate in a variety of leadership, service learning, and co-curricular activities that enhance their personal potential and development. Students will immediately engage in leadership within the College of Biological Sciences through leadership seminars, personal reflection, and hands-on experience. An essential part of the program is working with a Deans’ Scholar Mentor that will support students as they address various transition, leadership and self-development issues.

The benefits of becoming a Deans’ Scholar are numerous:

• You will meet others that share your passion for leadership, service, and fun.
• You will learn about yourself and develop your leadership potential.
• You will be recognized as one of a select group of outstanding students in CBS.
• You will learn to think intentionally about your education, your life, and your future in terms of the talents you can share to bettering your .
• You will make a difference in the lives of others.

Deans’ Scholars Retreat

October 8, 2007

5:30  Check-in & Dinner
6:00  Welcome & Retreat Overview
6:15  Icebreakers
6:45  Team Course Challenge
7:45  Team Course Challenge Processing
8:00  Final Activity & Reflection
8:30  Thanks for your participation!

Biol 1301: Becoming a Reflective Leader
Course Syllabus
Fall 2007

Instructor: Sara Johnson
Course Day/Time: Tuesdays – 3:30 – 4:50, September 11th through October 30th
Office Location/Phone/Hours: 229 Snyder Hall, 612-624-3458, Office hours by appointment
Email: john6461@umn.edu
Email is the instructor’s preferred method of communication.

Course Description:
This course is designed for Deans’ Scholars students to learn about leadership theory and concepts, explore their personal views on leadership, and understand the value of self-reflection in their personal development. The theory-related content and teaching methods employed in this course will provide you with a framework to increase your understanding of leadership and examine how you can be more intentional about your leadership development.

Course Objectives:
You will achieve the following objectives upon completion of the course:

• Explain basic principles of fundamental leadership theories
• Construct a personal mission statement and leadership philosophy
• Articulate the importance of responsibility and service
• Develop a personal leadership action plan

Course Text:                  
Komives, S. R., Lucas, N., & McMahon, T. R. (2007). Exploring leadership: For college students who want to make a difference (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Supplementary Text (recommended but not required): Strunk, W. Jr., & White, E.B. (2000). The elements of style (4th ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Accomodations:
It is University policy to provide, on a flexible and individualized basis, reasonable accommodations to students who have documented disability conditions that may affect their ability to participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact Disability Services for a confidential discussion of their individualized needs for accommodations. Disability Services is located in Suite 180 McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak Street. Staff can be reached by calling 612-626-1333 voice or TTY. Students who are physically or otherwise challenged should also contact the instructor of this course to discuss teaching strategies that might best facilitate their learning.

Assignments & Grading:
This course is graded Pass/Fail (S/N). You must earn a minimum of 80 of 106 possible points to earn a grade of “S” for the course. Points can be earned as follows:

Attendance & Participation (56 points)
Class attendance and participation are required to be successful in the course. Instructor consent is required before missing a class. Please contact me as soon as possible if there is an emergency. Participation includes completing readings on time, being involved in class exercises, and being engaged in large group and small group discussions. You will be awarded seven participation points each class. I will provide you with a mid-semester summary of your participation points the fourth week of the course.

Reflective Writing (10 points each)
There are three reflective writing assignments throughout the semester. These papers should be 2 pages in length, typed, and double-spaced. One inch margins should be used for the paper with Times New Roman 11 or 12 point font. Specific questions to address in each paper will be handed out in class based on course topics. See the course schedule for due dates.

Final Paper (20 points)
The final paper is a synthesis of the ideas discussed throughout the semester and a formal articulation of your leadership philosophy. The paper should describe your current state of development in your overall personal leadership journey and your action plan for the future.  Additional guidelines will be distributed for the assignment later in the semester.  You will also give a brief five minute (maximum) presentation regarding your leadership philosophy. Your paper should be 4-5 pages in length, typed, and double-spaced. Due by November 21.  

Late Work: All assignments must be submitted on time. Late work will not be accepted, unless you have contacted the instructor before the due date and made prior arrangements. Please note: Missing a class session does not excuse you from completing any future assignments on time.

Academic Integrity:
Academic integrity is essential to a positive teaching and learning environment. All students enrolled in university courses are expected to complete coursework with fairness and honesty. Failure to do so by seeking unfair advantage over others or misrepresenting someone else’s work as your own can result in disciplinary action.

Within this course, a student responsible for scholastic dishonesty can be assigned a penalty up to and including an “N” for the course. If you have any questions regarding the expectations for a specific assignment, please ask!

Class Etiquette:
You are expected to exhibit courtesy and respect toward your instructor and fellow students. It is important to be tolerant of different viewpoints, values, and opinions in order to create a positive learning environment for everyone. Please keep in mind the following expectations and values during class discussions:

• We are all teachers, and we are all learners
• Each of us brings valuable contributions to this course
• We grow and move forward based on our interactions as a class
• What we learn in this course is determined by our mutual contributions, interactions, and relationships
• Each of us may have different leadership styles and our leadership experiences may take many shapes, but we are all leaders in very important ways

You can expect me, your instructor for the course, to do my best to answer your questions, provide assistance, challenge your assumptions, and respect your opinions. I will do my best to make sure I am accessible to you throughout the class and consider your feedback and goals when making plans for our time together. Please feel free to contact me at any time if you think there are opportunities to improve the course.

Please remember this syllabus is a working document to guide us during the semester. There may be times we decide to pursue different subjects than what are directly stated in the syllabus. There will be additional readings and assessments distributed by the instructor in class. Guest speakers will also be included in the class throughout the semester. Therefore, this document is subject to change.

Week 1

Week 2                                       

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Submit final paper to Sara’s office in 229 Snyder Hall or email Sara your paper by 4:30 PM on November 21.

Appendix II: IDL Policy E-mails

Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:15:41 -0500
Subject: Re: IDL Policy - possible amendment
From: Paul Siliciano <pauls@umn.edu>
To: Jean Underwood <jmunder@umn.edu>,
  Robin Wright <wrightr@umn.edu>,
  Rogene Schnell <schne006@umn.edu>,
  Stuart Goldstein <golds004@umn.edu>,
  D Snustad <snust001@umn.edu>,
  Jane Phillips <janep@umn.edu>,
  Aaron Broege <broe0034@umn.edu>,
  Leslie Schiff <schif002@umn.edu>,
  Janaki Paskaradevan <paska007@umn.edu>,
  Susan Wick <swick@umn.edu>,
  Sarah Corrigan <huhta001@umn.edu>,
  John Soechting <soech001@umn.edu>,
  Nikki Letawsky-Shultz <nlshultz@umn.edu>,
  Franklin Barnwell <fhb@umn.edu>,
 Alexis Powell <apowell@umn.edu>,
  Brett Couch <couch005@umn.edu>,
  Samuel McCabe <mccab091@umn.edu>

I would like to discuss this policy in more detail. Bob Roon, the
instructor of BioC 3021 IDL, looked up the grade distribution for the past 3
semesters (as long as he has been teaching it). Of the 131 students who
have taken the course within the last 3 terms, 70% have earned a C or better
(Ws are included in the denominator). This is not very different from
classroom-taught 3021. I think we should focus on why students in IDL 4003
and 4004 do so poorly, and how to correct this. One possibility is to make
4003/4 term-limited.

Paul

On 10/24/07 11:44 AM, "Jean Underwood" <jmunder@umn.edu> wrote:

> Dear Members of EPC.
>> As I was working to get the new IDL policy implemented with CCE, I realized
> that we are only specifying that CBS students be restricted from taking IDL
> versions of Biology 4003 and 4004. We refer to Bio 4003 and 4004 as core
> courses yet there is another at least one other course that is considered core
> to the curriculum. I am thinking about Biochem 3021.
> > If we believe that students who are on probation or have previously received a
> D or F in the course or those whos registration would exceed 20 credits with
> the addition of an IDL version of a CBS course, should this policy be extended
> to all CBS courses that count for a CBS major.
> > Before going further with CCE to implement the policy that was approved by
> EPC. I would like to propose an amendment to the policy. The new wording I
> propose follows.
> > Please let me know your thoughts so I know how to proceed.
> > Thanks,

> Jean> > > Independent and Distance Learning (IDL) Policy for CBS Resident Students
> Approved by EPC, October 12, 2007
> > CBS students must receive special permission to register for the Independent
> and Distance Learning (IDL) version of Biology 4003 (Genetics) and Biology
> 4004 (Cell Biology) core CBS courses. Currently these courses include Biology
> 4003 (Genetics), Biology 4004 (Cell Biology) and BioChemistry 3021
> (Biochemistry). If in the future, other core courses are added to the
> curriculum, they will be subject to this policy. Access to these core classes
> in the curriculum is restricted to students who can demonstrate a solid
> academic foundation for success in an IDL course and have a compelling
> academic reason to engage in off-campus learning. Requests will be denied
> from students whoare currently on probation,have previously received a D or
> F in the course, either on-campus or through IDL, and whose registration would
> exceed 20 credits with the added course.> > Effective date of policy, January 1, 2008.
> > > >> > Jean Underwood, Assistant Dean
> Undergraduate Curriculum
> College of Biological Sciences
> University of Minnesota
> 124 Snyder Hall
> St. Paul Campus
> 612/624-4964 (P)612/624-2785 (F)
> jmunder@umn.edu
>>> >>

______________
Paul Siliciano
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Associate Department Head for Education
Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
University of Minnesota

Office: 6-110 Molecular and Cell Biology Building (612) 625-4928
420 Washington Avenue SE
Lab: 6-210 MCB (612) 626-2150
Fax: (612) 624-0426
Mailing Address:
Department of Biochemistry
6-155 Jackson Hall
321 Church Street
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Re: IDL Policy - possible amendment

I would like to discuss this policy in more detail. &nbsp;Bob Roon, the instructor of BioC 3021 IDL, looked up the grade distribution for the past 3 semesters (as long as he has been teaching it). &nbsp;Of the 131 students who have taken the course within the last 3 terms, 70% have earned a C or better (W&#8217;s are included in the denominator). &nbsp;This is not very different from classroom-taught 3021. &nbsp;I think we should focus on why students in IDL 4003 and 4004 do so poorly, and how to correct this. &nbsp;One possibility is to make 4003/4 term-limited.

Paul

On 10/24/07 11:44 AM, Jean Underwood wrote:

Dear Members of EPC.

As I was working to get the new IDL policy implemented with CCE, I realized that we are only specifying that CBS students be restricted from taking IDL versions of Biology 4003 and 4004.? We refer to Bio 4003 and 4004 as core courses yet there is another at least one other course that is considered core to the curriculum. I am thinking about Biochem 3021.

If we believe that students who are on probation or have previously received a D or F in the course or those whos registration would exceed 20 credits with the addition of an IDL version of a CBS course, should this policy be extended to all CBS courses that count for a CBS major.

Before going further with CCE to implement the policy that was approved by EPC. I would like to propose an amendment to the policy.? The new wording I propose follows.

Please let me know your thoughts so I know how to proceed.

Thanks,
Jean

Independent and Distance Learning (IDL) Policy for CBS Resident Students
Approved by EPC, October 12, 2007

CBS students must receive special permission to register for the Independent and Distance Learning (IDL) version of Biology 4003 (Genetics) and Biology 4004 (Cell Biology) core CBS courses. Currently these courses include Biology 4003 (Genetics), Biology 4004 (Cell Biology) and BioChemistry 3021 (Biochemistry). If in the future, other core courses are added to the curriculum, they will be subject to this policy. Access to these core classes in the curriculum is restricted to students who can demonstrate a solid academic foundation for success in an IDL course and have a compelling academic reason to engage in off-campus learning.? ?Requests will be denied from students who?are currently on probation,?have previously received a D or F in the course, either on-campus or through IDL, and whose registration would exceed 20 credits with the added course.??

Effective date of policy, January 1, 2008.

Jean Underwood, Assistant Dean
Undergraduate Curriculum
College of Biological Sciences
University of Minnesota
124 Snyder Hall
St. Paul Campus
612/624-4964 (P)??612/624-2785 (F)
jmunder@umn.edu

______________
Paul Siliciano
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Associate Department Head for Education
Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
University of Minnesota