Spring 2020 Faculty-to-Faculty Conference

February 21, 2020

Just a quick disclaimer: I am openly talking about this conference because it was open to the public and the Department of Education even openly invited prospective students to it on their website.

Before the conference broke into the specialty groups there was a panel of academic advisors that were answering questions. I asked how their schools handled course subs. They all seemed a little skittish about this subject and said that academic advisors do not advise on this at all and they leave it up to the academic departments to even suggest this idea to students. I found this interesting, because this is what I was used to. Some of my background is in the for profit/private sector where degrees are very prescriptive. There is a list of courses you have to complete and students only see these courses. Then there are additional courses for that are specific to a certain topic that are approved alternatives and the students only have those options if they really complain about not wanting to take a certain course. An example of this is that 1 American History course shows to the student, but there are 3 other history courses the student could take (or transfer in). They would not allow subs for this course in a subject that was not history related in some way. I used to think that restricting students this was a bit much, but now after working in higher education for over a decade and learning about the Guided Pathways model that it is actually good.

The Guided Pathway model is intended to help students to only take classes that apply to their program and be smart about the electives they take. I am aware of some schools (both 2 year and 4 year schools) out there that are doing/approving weird course subs. This normally is for not only for say 2 different types of sciences, but way out there ones like a liberal arts course for a science course. Right now Guided Pathways is a big buzz at the community college level, and is starting to move to the 4 year schools. At the same time, course subs that are way out there go against this model. This basically means that schools that are doing this are not practicing what they preach and could also be breaking their educational contracts with both the Department of Education and their accrediting bodies. For non-educators reading this, what is printed in a school’s catalog (like a degree program outline) is a contact that must be enforced. I will talk more about this in a later article where I cover how students need to know how to advocate for themselves. I will fully admit that for my Biology minor I got a course sub in which I replaced Human Anatomy with Domestic Animal Gross Anatomy. Both of these courses were Biology courses and covered anatomy with a lot of bodily systems overlapping. I do understand that course subs in situations like this can help students with both time and money, but allowing a course from a different subject could negatively impact a student. Some jobs still want a copy of transcripts and if they see important courses missing and then other random courses on the transcript it could also impact the person from getting a job. There are a lot of larger issues that educators need to think about when doing course subs.

Another issue that was raised in some of the panels I attended is that the 4 year schools are not following/accepting the degree with designation as dictated by the state law. An example of this is victimology which is on the Criminal Justice degree with designation. At least one 4 year schools is not allowing this course to transfer in as their victimology course because of it being a lower number in the numbering system. What does this mean? 100 and 200 level courses are considered lower level where 300 and up are considered upper division courses. Even though the course material is basically the same, the 4 year schools are not giving students credit for courses they have taken. They will throw this course into the elective pool and then the student must either retake the course there or take a different course to complete that section of the degree check. This is a huge disservice to students and needs to be looked into.

I was very happy with the cooperation that I saw between the 2 year schools and the 4 year schools in the Anthropology panel. This was a huge difference than my experience at the last Faculty 2 Faculty conference. At the last conference I experienced aggressive arguments between schools. I will entirely blame Anthropology’s openness on the very subject matter they teach. For those who don’t know what Anthropology is, it is very person focused. I don’t want to say that they were willing to work together in the best interest of the student (the person) based on their training, but that is what it basically was. My experience with the sciences is that each thinks it is better than the others and people in the field think that they know better than their peers. In Anthropology they are more open to others’ ideas and willing to cooperate. I will admit I am more than a little partial to Anthropology since my first BA was in it, but I have 2 degrees in science and an additional minor in Biology. I think my experience on both sides has helped me understand why each side does what they do.

As to the venue, it was much better than the last venue. The food could be argued to be better…but please no more Qdoba. We in education are getting tired of eating it at every meeting…. I will admit that there was a lot of walking that could also be hard for people with disabilities. I parked in one of the lots that was recommended and the first thing that came to my mind as I was walking up to the building was that it was not very handicap friendly, and there was not a lot of handicap parking (to be truthful I didn’t see any handicap parking, but I’m hoping that I just didn’t see them).

Overall it was a very enlightening conference, and I hope that good things will come out of it.

P.S. There is a rumor that a cyber-security degree with designation could be in the works!

P.P.S. On a personal note as a professional I love the unexpected things that can happen at a professional conference. In one panel I sat beside a gentleman I had never met before and he turned out to be the professor for the current online class I am taking and is the Chair of the department for my current graduate degree. Education is truly a small community and you never know who you will bump into.