Besant presented her findings regarding the recommended sets of courses for specialization in the LS program. It was determined that several were missing and others needed to be examined for currency. She has made efforts to contact knowledgeable faculty to complete this list. It was also noticed that there were apparently no equivalents for the IS specializations. As the upcoming Faculty Advance will deal with substantially with the Master's program, copies of what currently exists will be available for discussion. The sense of the Team is that these lists of recommendations would be avabilable to the advisors only, out of concern that students would regard them as mandatory sets of courses within specializations rather than recommendations as intended.
Conaway presented a draft set of guidelines for Individual Studies courses for master's and specialist students. This was discussed at some length and edited by the team. A copy of the agreed upon final document will be prepared by Conaway for presentation to the Faculty at the December 10th meeting, as there are some policy considerations that should be made before the use of the document becomes part of the procedures of the School.
>No specific motions will be made by the Team at the upcoming Advance. As of the time of the Team meeting, and agenda had not been distributed, but the expectation was that it would deal substantially with the Master's Degree and it's majors.
The Team members noted that there was under-respresentation of faculty with primary responsibilities in the IS major. The Associate Dean responded that this was not unintentional, but it is not made clear why this was thought desirable. If the Team is to discuss matters dealing with the whole Master's and Specialist program, a realignment of membership to make it more representative would seem to be desirable.
>A motion will be made at the upcoming Faculty Advance to bring the Specialist Program requirement for an on-campus residency into consistency with that of the Master's Program. The proposal will be that there be no mandatory residence requirement for either of the programs.
>A suggestion from Alice Robbin to look at the relationship between GPA and the components of the GRE as admission requirements was reported. The overall goal is to be more selective in admission to the master's program. This is seen as a desirable matter to condsider at an upcoming meeting of the Team.
>The role of the GA assigned to assist the Team was discussed. Ms. Forster is assigned 10 hours per week to the team, but this was not known by the current Team leader. The Associate Dean will look into the matter, regarding scheduling and alternative assignments to allow her to "make up" hours during the upcoming term break, if necessary.
Agenda Posted by Charles Conaway (conaway@lis.fsu.edu) on 11/03/1999 at 07:35:09