May 3, 2019
Anthropology, Economics and Geography Department meeting
Friday, May 3, 2019
HLC Room 2404
10:00am-12:00pm
The Anthropology, Economics and Geography Department met Friday, May 3, 2019 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM at the Highland Learning Campus in Room 2404. The following faculty members were in attendance: Geoffrey Andron, Luke Armstrong, Jessamine Dana, Iris Diamond, Stuart Greenfield, Cedric Grice, Francis Hattoh, Sherry Heiden, Don Jonsson, Livingstone Kumassah, Paul Lehman, Lizzie Pintar, Carleen Sanchez, Alec Slivinske, James Sondgeroth, Ian Strachan, and Daniel Waktola.
1. Approve agenda
Agenda approved.
2. Approve the minutes of last meeting http://www2.austincc.edu/SOCSCI/Minutes.html
Discussion: Minutes are subject to edit for grammar and clarity.
Action: Minutes approved.
3. Discuss and take action on accepting D’s in non-major courses
Discussion: Task force considered various minimum GPA requirements while considering accepting D’s, both D’s transferred from other institutions and those earned at ACC, on non- major course work. A minimum GPA was not included since the college already requires a minimum 2.0 GPA to be eligible for graduation.
Decisions on acceptance of D’s are as follows:
Anthropology AA and Archaeology AS
No D’s will be accepted in major courses and in science courses.
Economics AA
No D’s will be accepted in major courses, math and business courses.
Geography AA and Geography AS
No D’s will be accepted in major courses and science courses.
4. Econ degree plan change
Discussion regarding Field of Study and changes needed to math requirements in Econ degree. Proposing changes to the ECON degree plan https://www6.austincc.edu/cms/site/www/awardplans/awardplan.php?year=2019&type=CC&group=TFSSE&nid=23516&apid=4844) in order to incorporate the state-created ECON Field of Study (http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/reports/PDF/12119.PDF?CFID=94894388&CFTOKEN=86343657) and also as a result of some changes to the MATH courses offered at ACC. Here is a summary of the changes, which will likely be proposed to the C&P this summer:
In Semester II of our degree plan, we replace "MATH 1324 or MATH 2412" with "BUS2305 or MATH 1342"
In Semester III, we list MATH 2413, but then MATH 2313 (a new 3 hour Calculus I class that the MATH department will be offering) can be taken instead.
In Semester IV, we continue to list MATH 2414.
We replace footnote 6 with "Students must meet course prerequisites before taking MATH 2413 Calculus I or MATH 1325 Business Calculus"
In footnote 7, we amend to allow TXSU transfers to sub MATH 1324 for MATH 2313/2413.
In footnote 8, we amend to allow TXSU transfers to sub MATH 1325 for MATH 2414.
5. Presentation by Carleen Sanchez regarding Quality Matters and teaching Distance Learning courses.
Carleen explained that a stipend will be received by those currently teaching a distance learning class that attend the OCRA training, redesign their course to meet QM standards(12 weeks to do so) and become QM certified through a peer review process. The total stipend is $1,000 upon completion unless faculty members are working together on the same course in which it will be split between them evenly. The template will be provided to the instructor and then the instructor supplies the content.
Those instructors that have not completed OCRA and QM Training, Redesign and Certification will be unable to teaching distance learning classes. Carleen will post Distance Learning Handbook on departmental drive. Department Chairs will receive a report indicating who has completed this process so please start implementing these changes now.
6. Discuss creating a Certificate in Archaeology.
Discussion of difficulty with DAC in Archaeology and the need for a different DAC assessment. Discussed the Pima Community College’s efforts there to establish an Archaeology Certificate. Existing certificates at ACC tend to have requirements of 16-40 credit hours. Lizzie will talk to several businesses in town and gage interest in the certificate. Discussed including Geog 2470 as a requirement and other speciality courses, for example Texas Archaeology, that meet the needs of the students. Jessamine, Paul and Steve said they would like to help. Discussed eventually removing the Archaeology Associates Degree as an approved degree.
7. DAC remember to enter results. Need for consistent DAC assessment in Anthropology, Economics and Geography for Fall 2019 and requires instructor participation. Please enter your results at the end of the spring semester. Lizzie requested help in Anthropology DAC and asked that Carleen communicate the assessment requirements to instructors in Anthropology, request results and then enter them. Lizzie asked Don to loop Daniel in on the DAC assessment. Don will accept all Geography evaluation results and will communicate to instructors what the assessment is and when it is due. Luke will continue to coordinate the Economics DAC assessments. Several requested to meet separately by department to discuss the results of the DAC and ideas on how to implement the assessment successfully in class.
8. Updates:
- ANTH 2101 (Physical Anthropology lab), a one hour lecture to accompany ANTH 2301, was approved to be required of all Anthropology majors at the March 29 C&P meeting. Thank you to Carleen for her hard work and attendance at C&P meeting for Anth 2101.
- ECON: - Faculty position/ hiring update
The Hiring Committee has finished the interview process and names have been sent forward to the administration. There are two positions available and we hope to find out in June who was selected.
- GEOG 2470: unique needs renewal update
Three universities where our Geography students transfer to have agreed to accept GEOG 2470 as a required course. These universities wrote letters in support of our application for renewal of unique needs status for Geog 2470. Thank you to Daniel for his hard work on this.
- AEG Website
We have a new AEG website which contains helpful links for instructors to items such as the master syllabi, Departmental web pages, Professional Development website, and task force minutes. Please visit our new website and let us know if you have suggestions. The minutes are still on our old website however we are working to have them all moved to the new one.
https://sites.google.com/austincc.edu/aegdepartment/
9. Reminders:
- Attend graduation on Friday, May 17, 2019, 5:30pm at the Frank Erwin Center
10. Adjourn