The Student Association discussed potential resolution ideas regarding the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ plan to eliminate zero-credit course options Monday night.

Ann Clarke, dean of VPA, announced Thursday that the school might eliminate the option of zero-credit classes, which would make them available for one credit. Offering the classes for one credit instead of zero may make it more difficult for some students to register for all of their desired classes without going over their credit limit.

SA members, including President Jon Barnhart and assembly member Alec Sim, expressed disappointment over VPA’s lack of communication with students. The assembly wants to do more than simply condemn VPA administrators – the resolution needs to be more proactive, Barnhart said.

In March 2009, administrators decided to cut the surface pattern design major from the school with short notification. SA wrote a resolution in which it condemned VPA for its lack of communication with students and expressed its belief that ‘students should be included in these types of decisions from the beginning.’

‘After the SPD (major was cut), we thought they understood; obviously, they didn’t,’ Barnhart said. ‘The students were informed after the fact.’

Sima Taslakian, the parliamentarian, will set up a meeting in VPA to increase students’ interest on the issue.

The Committee of Academic Affairs will handle the issue from this point forward, but assembly members discussed what could be included in a potential resolution.

Assembly members suggested that the amount of credits could be based on a student’s schedule. If a student has room in his or her schedule, they can use the one credit. If not, the student could still take the class for zero credits. Tricia Kwakye, a College of Arts and Science assembly representative, suggested that the credits could be dependent on financial need.

SA also discussed its financial vision three weeks earlier than usual for the coming semester. The financial vision is a set of guidelines for the Finance Board to follow during budget season.

Other orders of business:

– Oren Paley, a freshman in the College of Visual and Performing Arts; Taylor Carr, a sophomore in the College of Human Ecology; and Lianxin He, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, were elected as administration operation members, whose job is to make sure SA abides by its codes.

– Chris Jennison, a sophomore in S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, was elected as an assembly representative.

lgleveil@syr.edu

Published on February 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Laurence: lgleveil@syr.edu | @lgleveille