The 539th Keene State College Senate meeting brought crucial modifications to policies in consideration of student academia.
The KSC Senate Executive Committee held a meeting on Monday, Dec. 2, to discuss making the descriptions of the college-wide learning outcomes (CWLOs) rubrics more accessible.
These changes were approved at the December 9 senate meeting.
The KSC Senate is the policymaking and legislative body for the college with regard to all matters that impact the quality of academic life.
Associate Professor of Chemistry and KSC Senator Jesse Marcum sparked the first debate about acknowledging the need to correct wording within the CWLOs rubric.
CWLOs are in effect to change the following prompts within the rubric. Changes are to be made to communication, inquiry, intercultural perspectives, and sustainability and well-being.
These substitutes are to ensure the rubric can be properly understood.
In addition, the KSC Senate Executive Committee had a review of majors and stated that there has not been a large-scale review of majors since the decrease in Keene State faculty and undergraduate student enrollment.
With this, they have a goal of evaluating majors and decreasing their complexity and intricacy to guide a pathway to positively impact graduation rates.
Later in the senate meeting discussions of changes to the Dean’s List and President’s List were made.
As a result of student feedback, changes are to be made to the lists. The Academic Policy Committee (APC) has made changes to the policy on requiring legal names within the lists.
According to previous reporting by The Equinox, transgender and gender nonconforming students were negatively impacted by the practice of requiring legal name display on the lists, or an opt-out.
The APC has since learned there is no specific legal requirement that legal names appear on these lists as reflections of transcripts.
For this purpose, a change to the policy has been made from legal to chosen names. Students who have a chosen name on file will be presented as such.
Students who wish to not be listed in these ways have the option of completing a privacy form.
This adjustment was voted on and approved by the KSC Senate, effective immediately.
Katie Aguilar can be contacted at
kaguilar@kscequinox.com
