Role
The Arts Standing Committee on Academic Planning and Priorities (Arts APP) is the Faculty’s committee that considers high-level curriculum initiatives and priorities. Arts APP is responsible for vetting program designs or changes, reviewing Program Review quality assurance plans, and making recommendations about changes to Arts curriculum. All of these recommendations are guided by values within the Faculty of Arts, as determined by consultation and the Arts Academic Plan (forthcoming). Arts APP is a faculty-led body, with Dean’s Office and Arts advising representation. Unlike AFC, Arts APP does not have representation from every department. For that reason, members are expected to represent the best interests of the entire Faculty of Arts, as opposed to their specific departments. Arts APP has no delegated authority, and only recommends and advises AFC. ASCC also make recommendations to AFC about programs, and they do have delegated authority so it’s not clear why Arts APP does not report to ASCC. However, to rectify this communication problem, the current Arts APP chair is required to write an informal report over the weekend anytime Arts APP reviews a program to ensure the ASCC knows what we have decided.
Membership
- Four faculty member AFC representatives and a maximum of 3 additional faculty members
- Chair or vice-chair of AFC
- One Dean’s Office representative
- One BA Advisor
- One student representative
- Administrative support
Faculty representatives serve three-year terms.
Current Chair: Dr. Kristie Dukewich(Psychology) – Kristie.Dukewich@kpu.ca
Meetings
Arts Faculty Council normally meets once per month, on Fridays (excluding July and August).
A Year in Review
Arts APP recommended a number of programs for approval to AFC. Several changes were made to the review process to help clarify to faculty program leads how Arts APP evaluates program changes. In addition, Arts APP also lead a robust consultation process in order to inform the development of the new BA Framework.
Highlights:
- Development and adoption of Arts APP’s Rubric for Evaluating Program Proposals (New Programs & Revisions)
- Development of the Arts APP D7 Memo to ASCC/AFC to provide rapid communication between Arts APP and ASCC/AFC regarding recommendations about D7 proposals (note that committee minutes would serve this purpose if the meetings were not on back-to-back Fridays)
- Consultation around the new BA Framework including a student focus group, two faculty town hall meetings, an online video and blog, and requests for AFC reps to collect feedback from their department
- A formal report to AFC on the BA Framework Timeline since 2014 to address complaints about the lack of prior consultation
- A Draft Recommended Model of the New BA Framework
Looking Ahead
The major goal of Arts APP this year is to get the new BA Framework through University governance for adoption in fall 2021. The Arts AGM is a last opportunity to collect feedback and make revisions to the Draft Recommended Model.
Arts APP intends to present our final recommended model to AFC in October, with a plan to bring the framework to Senate in the new year. Arts APP will also be working with the Dean’s Office and various university-level supports to collect and develop resources to help faculty and departments with the transition.
Arts APP will also be developing the new eportfolio initiative. Feedback during the consultation process indicated strong support from faculty and students for integrating eportfolios into the new BA Framework. However, the straw models presented during consultation were viewed as weak and too disconnected from the programs. Arts APP saw this as an opportunity to grow the infrastructure around eportfolios while including longer-term plans for faculty to determine how best to integrate eportfolios into their programs.
This first phase on eportfolio adoption will have the following criteria: optional for students, optional for faculty, integrated into curriculum for students who opt-in. Longer-term, departments will be asked to develop a plan for how to more robustly integrate eportfolios into their programs during the cyclical program review process.