What Is the Most Important Business of the Academic Senate?

Undergraduate teaching is the most important business of the Academic Senate; many times more important than either Division I athletics or the parking and transportation on campus. Yet, for many years, the Academic Senate has neglected the issue of Academic Probation, Disqualification, and Minimum Progress in spite of the fact that more than 30 percent of our students is involved in academic difficulties (this number is explained below).

Now that 3200 eligible freshmen have been rejected by UC and UC Davis has reduced its enrollment significantly, it is painfully clear that we have traded potentially good students for a substantial number of non-performing students. Students who fail Minimum Progress take longer than expected to graduate and contribute to crowding out the eligible freshmen. Between 10 and 20 percent of UCD students fail to make Minimum Progress on any given quarter. Seventy percent of these students are different from those who fail qualitative standards.

The Academic Senate, and only the Academic Senate, is in charge of defining the rules of Academic Probation, Disqualification, and Minimum Progress. In these matters the administration acts only as its delegated agent. If the agent does not perform according to the established rules, effective steps should be taken with urgency to correct such a non-performance.

The data presented in the Undergraduate Council report are incomplete in spite of the request made to the administration almost a year ago by the Chair of the Academic Senate, Bruce Madewell. For example, students on Academic Probation are not reported. Fortunately, the College of Engineering has published the following table:

Quarter	Enroll- ment	Academic Probation, AP	Probation Continued, PC	Subject to Disqualifi- cation, SD	Dismissed, D	Total AP,PC, SD,D	Total AP, PC,SD,D/ Enrollment
Fall 2002	2919	210	19	303	30	562	19.25%
Winter 03	2854	136 _	38	258	28	460	16.12%
Spring 03	2722	147	29	246	56	478	17.56%

Hence, in order to have a better idea of the magnitude of the problem at the Campus level, the percentage figures in the SD/E column of the Undergraduate Council's report must be augmented by about 10 percent. The College of Engineering does not report the number of students who fail Minimum Progress, but from the data of the other colleges we can infer that between 25 and 35 percent of its students are in academic difficulty. The problem is staggering.

The recommendations of the Undergraduate Council should be revised and strengthened to meet the responsibility of the Academic Senate and the urgency of the matter. Hence, the following recommendations are offered as substitute motions:

Recommendation 1. The Undergraduate Council and the Executive Committees of the various colleges should join in establishing with urgency a single permanent committee for the purpose of developing improved uniform record keeping methods and reporting formats and for supervising the implementation of the Academic Senate rules on matters of Academic Probation, Disqualification, Dismissal, and Minimum Progress. In this committee the College Assistant Deans (CAD) will participate as ex-officio members.

The Academic Senate Bylaws call for an annual report from the various colleges to the faculty on the numbers of students in academic difficulties. But, given the long-term neglect, the importance of the issues involved, and the fact that colleges do compile data by quarters,

Recommendation 2. Using methods established following Recommendation 1, College Assistant Deans should produce a quarterly report to be submitted to each college executive committee, the Chair of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate, and to the permanent committee established in recommendation 1.

Recommendation 3. The permanent committee established in Recommendation 1 will report annually to the Representative Assembly.