Resolution from the Committee on Academic Policy and Planning

April 22, 1998

WHEREAS President Mortimer has called for a review of Executive Policy E5.209 on University of Hawai'i System Student Transfer and Inter-campus Articulartion, and the System Academic Affairs Council has prepared a draft revision date 4/3/98. and

WHEREAS the Board of Regents Bylaws and Policies says in Chapter 5 Academici Affairs, paragraph f, on page 5-9

The transfer experience should be made as simple and predictable as possible. Unreasonable institutional barriers to transfer should be eliminated

and

WHEREAS the draft policy emphasizes making trasnfer very simple and "predictability" is best served by providing good information, and students are best served when they are well prepared to transfer, and

WHEREAS the faculty desire that the students be well served and given a solid, well grounded education, and

WHEREAS the Joint Statement on Transfer and Award of Credit adopted by the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, and the American Council on Education is Appendix A of Executive Policy E5.209 and this Joint Statement says,

Basic to this statement is the principle that each institution is responsible for determining its own policies and practices with regard to transfer and award of credit.

and

WHEREAS the Board of Regents' Policy also says in Chapter 5 Academic Affairs, paragraphf, on page 5-9,

As a unified system of postseconary education, it is important that the maximum degree of coordination and cooperation exist among campus instructional units in order to ensure the efficient utilization of available resources.

and

All University and campus policies and practices affecting courses transfer shall be periodically reviewed to ensure that they are ounded on sound academic principles...

and

WHEREAS coordination and cooperation and such reviews are best facilitated by regular discussion among faculty at the discipline level, and

WHEREAS the University of Hawai'i Transfer Agreement dated July 22, 1994 (Appendix B of Executive Policy E5.209) says,

that a primary objective of articulation is to assure that transfer students are prepared for work at their receiving campus

and

that the quality of a degree earned through matriculation at two or more institutions within the system should be comparable to a similar degree earned at a single campus

and

that the faculty will be directly involved in the process of articulation since they are the experts as to what constitutes comparable course work, and that the faculty will meet regularly with faculty from other campuses to discuss curriculum

and

WHEREAS Section 1-10, "Regents' Policy on Faculty Involvement in Academic Decision Making and Academic Policy Development" of the Board of Regents' Bylaws and Policies, states,

It is the policy of the University to maintain and strengthen organized and systematic involvement by faculty in academic decision making and policy development.

THE MANOA FACULTY SENATE HEREBY RECOMMENDS that Executive Policy E.209 be revised

• to more fully support the provisions of the transfer agreement
• to emphasize involvement of faculty at various campuses in decisions on articulation and transfer
• to emphasize coordination and cooperation among faculty at various campuses in order to better serve the students
• to preserve campus authority over degree requirements
• to ensure that each course description in each catalogue carry information about transferability of the course to other campuses

and

THE MANOA FACULTY SENATE FURTHER RECOMMENDS that Executive Policy E5.209 be revised to include the attached revisions and in accordance with the attached comments.

Comments and Revisions to Executive Policy E5.209 Draft dated 4/3/98

Comments

First, the faculty agree that it is extremely desirable to establish a policy to facilitate transfer of students among campuses. Moreover, it is desirable that the policy provide predictability for students anticipating transferring within the University system. Students deserve accurate and timely information about the transferability of their credits in order to make sound educational decisions. A good web-based information would take care of some of problems and we hope the policy encourages its development.

Second, we agree wholeheartedly with Joint Policy Statement of Transfer and Award of Academic Credit, attached as Appendix A to the existing Executive Policy E5.209. We hope that any revisions reflect the spirit and intent of that policy statement. Importantly, we want to ensure that the receiving institution remains "responsible for determining its own policies and practices with regard to the transfer and award of credit". The receiving institution's interest in determining whether to award transfer credit protects the transfer student from being inappropriately classified and recognizes the receiving institution's obligation to protect its own standards and requirements. The first is essential to the educational success of our transfer students; the second is essential to preserving the quality of each institution and the degrees they confer. We hope that the revised policy will enhance faculty participation in this matter.

Third, we agree with the existing E5.209's intent to ensure faculty an important role in establishing articulation policies and agreements. In practice, however, the faculty has had less of a voice than we believe is appropriate or desirable and therefore are pleased that revisions are underway. We hope that the new policy, from its inception, is collaborative and gives a voice to faculty and departments. We believe that articulation should be occurring at the faculty and departmental level with the executive providing the structure and process to do so. In particular, we hope the procedures in section V are streamlined and enhance faculty involvement.

Fourth, problems can be "solved" by fiat or through cooperation and coordination. The faculty hope that the policy is revised to strongly emphasize cooperation and coordination.

Several specific problems have been brought to our attention, and we hope these will be addressed in the revisions:

1. the currently stated policy that the Associate of Arts degree from a community college satisfies the general education core requirements is too broad. Some AA's may not satisfy the general education core and may contain some non-baccalaureate course work which should not earn credit or satisfy Manoa's core.
2. The policy should ensure that the Manoa Core Committee and the faculty, at the department level, have a regular and key role in making determinations regarding transfer credits, including a course by course articulation among campuses.
3. When the need arises to clarify issues among the colleges concerning implementation of the policy, a process for resolution needs to be stated so that the various campuses do not remain at an impasse
4. There needs to be a process established for periodic review of articulated courses at the departmental/faculty level to ensure that the list of articulated courses keep apace of curricular changes on the campuses.

Revisions

1. The UH-Manoa Faculty Senate should appoint three (3) faculty to the University Council on Articulation (UCA).
2. Section V.F. creates standing committees in specific, broad areas and ad hoc committees. This section should also create specific standing committees of faculty in each discipline. These new committees should consist of those faculty having immediate responsibility within their departments or divisions for the undergraduate curriculum in the relevant subject. These committees should handle course articulation and other curricular matters. A majority of the faculty on each committee should come from baccalaureate degree granting campuses. The committees should meet at least once a year.
3. The (new) last paragraph to section II.B.7 should be dropped. Better words could be chosen, and a better idea could be chosen. The emphasis should be on speedy clarification, cooperation and coordination.
4. The words "provided they do not violate a basic campus policy or degree requirement" are scheduled for deletion from the first sentence of Section IV.B.2. These words should be retained.
5. Better yet, section IV.B.2 should be dropped. This section attempts to take care of a specific issue by fiat. It would be better to take care of this issue by articulation, coordination, cooperation, and providing students with good information as to transferability in each course description in each catalogue.
6. Since Section IV.B.3 says that an Associate in Arts degree shall be accepted as having fulfilled the general education core at all UH baccalaureate degree granting institutions, there needs to be establihsed a mechanism for coordinating and cooperating on each component of each such degree, and it should be faculty doing the coordination and cooperation on degree requirements, and they should be appointed by their respective faculty senates.
7. Section IV.A.1.c should be dropped because this constitutes a change in admissions policy without faculty oversight or input, and at UH-Manoa faculty oversight of admissions has been established in part in response to the previous WASC accreditation report.
8. Section IV.B.[6]7 should be dropped, and this issue should be handled by cooperation, coordination, and giving students good information.