Jerry Johnson
Per your request, please find below a report on the
progress made in the Political Science Discipline regarding transfer
issues. If you have any questions or would like any
additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
A. Identified
Issues
Political Science faculty from across the MNSCU institutions met on several occasions in 2002 to discuss transfer issues. From these meetings, a number of issues emerged as key to “seamless” transfers for students, faculty and staff. They are: (1) a simply process for transfer, (2) lower v. upper division course transfer into political science major programs, (3) cross-MNSCU faculty communication.
These issues emerged from Political Science faculty
meeting, first of all, at the April 2002 “Cragun’s”
session. At this meeting, in
particular, a number of important issues emerged.
For instance, the issue of lower division courses from two year
institutions counting toward a Political Science major constituted one
of the primary issues between the two and four year institutions. It
also became clear that there is a need to improve cross institution
communication by developing a comprehensive list of Political Science
faculty at each institution.
The discussion of these concerns and issues were continued
at the October,
Finally, at the November meeting, the Political Science
faculty further elaborated on these issues and discussed strategies
and action steps for dealing with faculty concerns.
B. Activities
The Political Science discipline group had a busy and
constructive fall. Based on previous
meetings and discussions, the faculty group determined that the following
activities should be undertaken:
- Review all current Political Science course offerings at MNSCU institutions.
- Identify the transferability into the major for these courses.
- Develop a template and data base to hold the most commonly transferred courses into the Political Science major.
- Construct
a system wide Political Science faculty contact list.
After the October meeting, a list of political science
courses taught at all MNSCU institutions was mailed to members of the
faculty group. As the facilitator, I took the lead and developed a set
of categories for these courses. Since
the primary concern was transferability of two year institution courses
into four year institution political science major programs, I divided
the courses into introduction and topics or advanced courses.
From this division of courses, it was clear that while most institutions
offer introductory courses, only a small percentage of two year institutions
offer advanced or topics courses.
Prior to the general meeting in November, the lead
faculty group first met and discussed the nature and scope of the political
science courses taught across the MNSCU institutions.
The group then took their suggestions to the larger group meeting
of political science faculty. Because
of the categorization of courses, it was easier for the larger group
to identify the courses that may offer students a smooth transfer and
those that may be more difficult.
After much frank discussion, the group proposed the
development of a database of political science courses taught at MNSCU
institutions. This database would
be constructed from a template that we designed at the meeting. Data would be inputted into the template by
faculty currently teaching the course.
With this understanding, it was recognized that there probably
would be no need to establish articulation agreements between institutions
(unless there were particular circumstances that warranted one). As well, information entered into the template
could be used to construct a contact list to enhance communication between
political science programs. The
group was hopeful that this is a major breakthrough for transfer issues
in the political science discipline section.
The felt that this could be a model used by other disciplines in the
MNSCU system.
C. Future Work
Future work for the political science group centers
on the development of the template and data base.
At the November meeting, it was agreed that we would need to
input sample data and test run the template and database. Most of this work could be done via the internet
and e-mail messaging.
However, the political science Program Transfer and
Collaboration Liaison has informed us that there may be some technical
issues concerning the development and implementation of the template
and database. Due to these concerns,
the group will hold a meeting in January 2003 to discuss the technical
issues and make recommendations for the next steps to be taken.
Future work would also include further discussion of
course content. Two year institutions,
in particular, would like to have more face-to-face meetings with four
year institution faculty to discuss course content.
While all faculty raised concerns over
academic freedom when teaching their courses, it was agreed that common
expectations were desirable. Therefore, the group agreed that an additional
meeting may be called to further clarify course content inputted into
the template.
While, the group plans on meeting in one or two face-to-face
meetings, the group recognizes that most of our discussions will be
on-going over the internet.
D. Current Work Plan
E. Additional Items
See attached draft template.