Last semester, the SGA senate passed a resolution recommending the availability of a course catalog to accompany registration so students can make a decision based on assignments, attendance policies, required materials and more.
Jacqueline Keck, academic affairs committee chair, said she and her committee are working closely with administration to make this possible so it benefits students and is feasible for professors.
“What that is, is that when students register, they have information from the syllabus and so what we’ve done is we kind of went down the road of we want grading policy, attendance policy and all of these things listed that we wanted, but it turns out it’d be easier to use the old syllabus,” Keck said. “The college of business has that currently.”
After taking a survey last semester about what students wanted out of a course catalog, the committee began working with administration, according to Keck.
“We sent out a survey and from that we’ve just been working with administration,” Keck said. “The senate passed the bill calling for this, and we’re basically telling administration, ‘Hey, this is what we want, and we as students think we need this.'”
Keck said one challenge her committee is facing is personalizing programs for each college while keeping the system uniform.
“We’re figuring out the logistics of what that’s going to look like for every college, so we’re hoping to make a system that’s easy so every college can implement that system there,” Keck said. “If we can create a uniform system to have that done, then that’ll be great.”
Keck said her committee is hoping that by having a course catalog available, based on the previous semester’s syllabus, students can prepare for classes and know if they have the means to obtain all necessary materials.
“If you need an iPad or something like that, you can see that on your syllabus, so on the first day of class it’s not like, ‘Oh hey, by the way you’re going to need an iPad,'” Keck said. “It helps you be better prepared for your classes.”
There are several areas to cover to make this a reality, according to Keck.
“Roll out for this is going to look different for each college, so for smaller colleges it will be easier and for colleges that are little more broad it’ll be difficult because you have a lot more classes and majors to cover,” Keck said.
Keck said making this system a reality will help reinforce the academic affairs committee vision statement.
“Academic affairs will be engaged and approachable not only to the students within in our academic fields, but to all Auburn students,” Keck said. “As a committee, our goal is to actively write policy that enables students to reach their full academic potential and to foster strategic partnerships with campus administrators to reach our goals.”
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