SEPC
From BenningtonWiki
Fall 2008
The Student Educational Policies Committee (SEPC) is a group of students--two for each discipline--who represent the student body in issues affecting academic life at Bennington. These SEPC representatives, who are elected by the student body, serve as a liaison among students, faculty, and administration. The SEPC also coordinates mid- and end-term course evaluations that provide a forum for students to critique their courses. In addition to evaluating individual courses and teachers, the SEPC also considers larger questions of academic policy and articulates their concerns and interests to the campus community.
Discipline representatives also have the ability to mediate problems between faculty and students, facilitate emergency SEPC class meetings, and communicate issues to faculty if the students do not feel comfortable doing so.
Contents |
[edit] Announcements
[edit] Registration
[edit] Discipline Rep, Class Rep Meeting Notes
DR-CR Meeting Suggestions (Word document)
Class Rep Election Forms (Word document)
[edit] New End-of-Term SEPC Evaluation Forms
[edit] Disciplines
- Center for Creative Teaching
- Dance
- Drama
- Foreign Language
- Literature
- Music
- Science and Mathematics
- Social Science
- Visual Arts
[edit] Issues
- What would you like to see happen in your discipline this term and how are you going to do it?
- How can we help people through the Plan Process? How can we best address their questions and concerns?
- How can we get a hold of and possibly "train" (for lack of a more appropriate word as of yet) class reps? Should freshmen be allowed to be CRs?
[edit] By-laws
[edit] SEPC Body Meetings
Meeting Agendas
Meeting Minutes
9/25/08
We decided that Elaine, Hanna, and Caitlin will come with Cathy and me to the APC meeting.
Concern raised about "midterm" conversations for 7 week classes.
Began discussion of whether freshman should have priority over seniors in introductory classes in technical fields (i.e. film). No decision was reached.
Voted to prohibit any student who is in his/her first term at Bennington from acting as a class rep unless the class in question has only freshman enrolled in it.
10/2/08
The Foreign Language faculty has encouraged us to create different end of term forms for tutorials because not all of the present questions are relevant to these classes, and some issues highly important to tutorials are not addressed. The issue will discussed more in depth later in the term.
We discussed the new plagiarism policy the Dean's Office is working on, which, in sum, is aimed at making plagiarism seem like less of a legal offense and more an issue of academic integrity. The body suggested only minor edits to the draft provided by the Dean's Office, which will voiced to the comity reviewing the policy by Cathy McGath.
We discussed various methods we could use to provide training to class reps which includes giving a list of suggested questions to each class rep before the midterm discussion and encouraging them to ask the faculty member for any talking points s/he wants feedback on.
Also, we are brainstorming ways for SEPC to help students working on their plans (if you have any suggestions, please get in touch with your discipline representatives) but for the time being please feel free to ask us any questions you may have.
10/9/08
Discussion of midterm conversation. Decided to both distribute detailed paper sheets and email essential info (such as suggested questions) to class reps by Monday.
Question posed about whether we should try to streamline the end of term forms like we have streamlined the gathering of class rep forms (i.e. have all the forms go to one person instead of to all the different discipline coordinators). Question deferred.
Suggested revisions to module and Design lab evaluations, specifically getting rid of the numeric scale as the primary answer form.
Plan sheets will be distributed to sophomores and transfers after long weekend.
10/16
Recapped meeting with APC. Discussed the sheet APC proposed as "Expectations of a Bennington Education." Concerns were raised that they document might constitute a shift in policy and not just a clarification of already existing, but "hidden", requirements.
10/23
Cathy announced that she will distribute the plan reminder sheet soon.
We will all receive an email containing the comments Cathy will send (after we have time to look them over) to Robert Ransik about the document "Expectations of a Bennington Education".
We discussed (at some length) the tutorial evaluation form, using a sample submitted by Jonathan Pitcher as a conversation starter. We want to have an end of term form specifically for tutorials because teachers are given no extra compensation for doing tutorials and what we, as students, can do is at least give them constructive feedback. There was some question as to whether tutorials were supposed to be specifically geared for senior projects. The answer is no; tutorials give the opportunity to do any form of advanced work outside the curriculum. There was also a question about how much students know about the tutorial process (i.e. that they exist, how to set them up, what is expected of the student in developing the course, etc.). The only general guideline we could come up with was that it varies from teacher to teacher. Although the tutorial process should be brought up in the plan meeting, there was a suggestion that it also be incorporated into the advising process.
We took a survey to see which disciplines have a class on the curriculum for senior projects. All disciplines but Drama, Math & Science, CCT (although this isn't really applicable), and not most sections in Social Sciences.
10/30
Because of all the emergency meetings in Science and Math we talked about the form to record such meetings that Reid developed. The proposal is that they be filled out by the discipline rep and then checked over by the class rep (not the other way around). They will provide a paper trail should any serious concerns arise.
The question of how faculty are select was raised and deferred until a later time.
We went over Wendy's proposed changes to the plan meeting sheet. We also decided that there should be a different sheet for plan confirmations, which will be distributed next term.
Because Wendy asked us to hold off sending out the plan meeting sheet for the first plan meeting, we wondered if it would be worth it send out this term or if we should have some kind of in-house conversation (maybe after coffee hour) to get the information out but keep it informal.
Connie proposed a Freshman Forum, to be held in the UpCafe, as a venue where freshman can bring questions and concerns to address to members of the SEPC body.
Cathy brought up Eva's idea about academic integrity posters, which was swiftly (though not unanimously) shot to pieces. Other ideas for getting information about plagiarism out to students include faculty presentations/conversations, adding it to the advising process, or including it in orientation. We also suggested that perhaps DRs should be included in the judicature or plagiarism cases to make the process more transparent.
11/6/08
The issues in science were discussed again. Tambu did not have anything conclusive to say but was going to forward to Cathy the email the class rep had sent to her.
There was some confusion about the CCT--specifically about having to teach in Vermont before the certification was valid elsewhere. Apparently there is also a rumor circulating that the 5th year of the teaching program is paid for by your undergraduate tuision. This is a lie.
There was also a question about how SILO works. No one had any idea.
A serious issue that will need to be addressed in the future is how the Dean's Office is requiring teachers to offer classes that will "fill seats" instead of offering advanced classes. This problem is most obvious in small disciplines (i.e. physics). Our primary concern is that all students are allowed to do advanced work in their field of study each term. The underlying issue may be with Admissions, specifically what that office says people can study and how many students they are admitting.
We outlined the agenda for our meeting with CPC next week. We will exchange agendas and ask the faculty if the midterm conversations went more smoothly this term.
Cathy showed the edits to the plan proposal sheet, which we will not be distributing this term. Chris brought up an objection to editing out any mention of advanced work from the sheet, a concern which was generally supported.
Connie has reserved the UpCafe on Wednesday 19th from 7-8pm to hold a freshman forum. The idea is to give freshman an opportunity to bring their questions of concerns to a panel of upperclassmen.
Eva suggested that we change our mission statement to give SEPC a more public face on campus. Cathy distributed copies of the modified bylaws for the members of the body to read and comment on.
[edit] Contact
- Head: Cathy McGath
- Secretary: Glen Heinrich-Wallace
- Freshmen-at-Large: Connie Panzariello
Feel free to also contact anyone of us individually. Discipline Representatives' information is located in the discipline pages themselves. Through the coffee hour minutes, we will let you know what we are working on.
The SEPC is looking for ways to increase communication with the general student body. Please feel free to give us suggestions.
