THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE

 

                                                                                                                                                                       FACULTY SENATE

 

 

Senate Document Number     2109S

 

Date of Senate Approval      01/22/09

 

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Statement of Faculty Senate Action:

 

 

APC Document 9:                                             Change AP credit awarded for CHEM 132

 

Effective Date:  Fall 2009

 

1.         Delete:  On page 38, the listing for AP credit for CHEM 132:

 

Chemistry               4, 5                               3                      CHEM 132

 

 

            Add:     On page 38, in place of deleted entry:

 

Chemistry               4, 5                               4                      CHEM 111 and 132

 

 

Impact Statement:

This change will affect a small number of students (0 to 5) each year who seek “credit” for their AP laboratory experience and will greatly simplify registration and advising for these students since CHEM 111 will now appear in their academic history. I am now starting my fifth year as Chair of Chemistry and I have yet to see a student AP laboratory portfolio not exceed, let alone meet, the CHEM 111 experience at UNCA. Since the students in question do not take CHEM 111, this will not cost UNC Asheville student credit hours, and I am, therefore, confident that this change will have only a positive impact on the institution.

 

Rationale:        

As was mentioned above, only a handful of students seek “credit” for their AP laboratory experience each year. Since the listing in the AP section of the catalog lists only CHEM 132, students currently cannot be given official academic credit for CHEM 111, even though an evaluation of their laboratory materials demonstrates their AP laboratory experience was at least equal to, and usually greater than the laboratory experience in CHEM 111. The best that can be done for the students is to waive the requirement of CHEM 111.

 

While the Chair of Chemistry is charged with evaluating the student’s experience, (s)he cannot waive requirements in the seven departments (ATMS, BIOL, ENGR, ENVR, IEMT, MATH, and PHYS) that require CHEM 111. This confuses both students and faculty and unnecessarily complicates registration and advising. It also creates problems for students applying to graduate programs outside of chemistry and health profession programs that require a certain number of credit hours of general chemistry. The waiving of CHEM 111 leaves these students one credit hour short of what is required even though they have had the required experience. The proposed change will alleviate all of these problems.