Memorial Hall, where the EAC meeting on Tuesday was held, and where many committee members’ offices are.
MARY HALEY / THE QUADRANGLE
By Mary Haley, Marketing Chair / Asst. Features Editor
The second Educational Affairs Committee (EAC) meeting of the semester was held on Nov. 5 to discuss updates to the university’s academic policies, including transfer credits, a new block schedule proposal, summer session start dates, academic integrity warnings and more.
According to manhattan.edu, the EAC, “Shall make recommendations on the following matters, subject to the approval of the Provost, and shall inform the Senate of its recommendations which are then forwarded to the President.”
These recommendations include, but are not limited to, standards for academics, the status of schools and departments and grading systems.
Chairs, deans and representatives from different schools, departments and committees were present at the meeting to present updates on certain policies and the state of their departments.
The first order of old business approved by the EAC was the transfer credit policy. Historically, the university has limited transfer admissions by accepting only about 50 credits, considerably fewer than peer institutions. This year, however, in response to both competitive pressure from the decline of higher education and smaller class sizes, the university has revised its transfer credit policy. The updated guidelines, which are reflected in both catalog and marketing materials, aim to increase the number of transfer students.
Rani Roy, Ph.D., interim provost and executive vice president of Manhattan University, led the conversation on how this will benefit the number of transfer students and how the change would align the school better with regional institutions, like Fordham University and Fairfield, to improve competitiveness in recruiting transfer students.
“There has been significant pressure to up the transfer numbers based on our smaller incoming classes, especially last year and this year,” Roy said. “The transfers really are helping to make up some of that budget.”
With a majority vote from the EAC, the policy will be passed onto the interim president, Frederick Bonato, Ph.D., and if approved by him, will be put into place.
The next order of business was the proposal of a new block schedule. The university currently runs on a block schedule of various class times scheduled for five days of the week. The proposed new block schedule would include two new 75 minute class meeting times, which would be from 4:30 pm to 5:45 pm and 9:00 am to 10:15 am two or three days a week.
This schedule would open up student’s flexibility, especially commuters, who sometimes have to wait hours between their classes in a day. Additionally, there’s a common period planned for each day, likely between 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm, though the exact timing may vary once finalized.
Marcy Kelly, Ph.D., dean of the Kakos School of Arts and Sciences, spoke at the meeting about how the EAC has revised this proposed schedule to mimic Drexel University’s block schedule, which balances both student and professor needs and benefits classroom scheduling and utilization. This proposal was also drafted based on a survey sent to all Manhattan University students about their preferences in classes.
“Students’ lowest ranking area to prioritize is classes before 8 am,” Kelly said. “Commuter students overwhelmingly want the block schedule we consider, and part of that is because they experienced large gaps during the day. Of the students who voted no to revise the block schedule, the majority are residents or live within walking distance of the campus, and full-time and part-time faculty both prioritized more two day course schedule options for three-credit courses…I created and shared with the committee a proposed block schedule… it basically has five days a week, a common period [between] 12:30pm and 1:30pm every single day.”
Another major proposal on the academic integrity issue of the meeting were the revisions of the record-keeping system for offenses of plagiarism.
According to the record-keeping area of the Community Standards and Code of Conduct page on Inside Manhattan, “This information will not be shared except when the student applies to post-graduate institutions and those institutions require disclosure of the information.”
This situation applies especially when undergraduate students are applying to graduate school where they are required to take the BAR exam for law school or are interested in applying for the FBI.
The change will involve taking this note away about internal record keeping being shared to BAR examinations and the like.
More proposals on academic affairs and updates on the departments within the university will be discussed again at the EAC’s next meeting on Dec. 3 at 3:30 p.m.