2008 Woodie Awards
Open Letter to the Simpson Community
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: Perspectives
This open letter to the Simpson College community is being written to clear-up any potential misunderstanding about the recent activities of the Educational Policies and Curriculum Committee and the Learning Programs Working Group. First, a bit of background might be helpful.
The EPCC is the faculty committee responsible for vetting potential changes to the curriculum of the college before they are sent to the full faculty for approval. The committee meets at least twice per month throughout the academic year. It is made up of faculty, administrators and students. Changes in general education requirements, majors, new courses and other academic issues must normally pass through EPCC before the faculty vote on them. The LPWG is a special task force created by me to address the issues raised in last year's strategic planning process and to review the state of our current academic program. It is made up of faculty, members of the student development area, and administrators. We recently added students. The LPWG has been meeting since September 2007.
Early in this semester, the LPWG sent the EPCC a list of proposals it believed that would strengthen the academic program and the Simpson Experience for students. The proposals were essentially ideas for future exploration that the LPWG felt faculty should discuss and indicate whether or not they (the faculty) believed were something that might work at Simpson College. It was not the intention of the LPWG that the proposals if approved by faculty would be immediately implemented. The EPCC reviewed the proposals, suggested some changes, and forwarded them to the faculty for discussion and a vote. This is the normal process of making large changes to the curriculum at Simpson College and other institutions. Both the LPWG and the EPCC knew that much more information would need to be collected before the ideas in the proposals could be implemented. The decision to take the proposals to the full faculty was a request to find out if the proposed changes were headed in the right direction, and to hear the concerns of the community, should the proposed changes be implemented. This discussion and vote happened on April 2, 2008. This letter is to bring you up to date on what happened and where we are now.
The EPCC is the faculty committee responsible for vetting potential changes to the curriculum of the college before they are sent to the full faculty for approval. The committee meets at least twice per month throughout the academic year. It is made up of faculty, administrators and students. Changes in general education requirements, majors, new courses and other academic issues must normally pass through EPCC before the faculty vote on them. The LPWG is a special task force created by me to address the issues raised in last year's strategic planning process and to review the state of our current academic program. It is made up of faculty, members of the student development area, and administrators. We recently added students. The LPWG has been meeting since September 2007.
Early in this semester, the LPWG sent the EPCC a list of proposals it believed that would strengthen the academic program and the Simpson Experience for students. The proposals were essentially ideas for future exploration that the LPWG felt faculty should discuss and indicate whether or not they (the faculty) believed were something that might work at Simpson College. It was not the intention of the LPWG that the proposals if approved by faculty would be immediately implemented. The EPCC reviewed the proposals, suggested some changes, and forwarded them to the faculty for discussion and a vote. This is the normal process of making large changes to the curriculum at Simpson College and other institutions. Both the LPWG and the EPCC knew that much more information would need to be collected before the ideas in the proposals could be implemented. The decision to take the proposals to the full faculty was a request to find out if the proposed changes were headed in the right direction, and to hear the concerns of the community, should the proposed changes be implemented. This discussion and vote happened on April 2, 2008. This letter is to bring you up to date on what happened and where we are now.
Be the first to comment on this story