Welcome to the Academic Affairs Committee!

Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) is the Student Union committee responsible for handling all concerns academic, such as advising, study spaces, as well as investigating grade deflation. We have several initiatives running this year, and would love for interested students to attend our meetings or contact the AAC if you would be interested in participating.

Chairperson: Owen Scmitt
Meetings: Mondays @7pm in the GSU Backcourt

Current and Past Initiatives:

Real Time Review – A proposal to change class surveys so that they happen 2-3 times per year and are online. The proposal, suggested, created, and written by Ema Alsina, makes environmentally friendly surveys and serve as a communication tool for students, professors, and departments. For more on this document, please check out the Real Time Review webpage, or feel free to contact Ema at emalsina@bu.edu or James Sappenfield at jmsapp@bu.edu
University Registration Policy Proposal – A proposal created and sponsored by Anant Shukla(Representative CAS Forum), goals for the proposal include creating a more efficient and more equitable registration process. This proposal addresses the two issues currently present with the registration process: class holding and partial registration. It suggests a credit-based registration system that is both more fair and causes less registration issues. For more on this document, please check out the University Registration Proposal Webpage, or feel free to contact Anant at shuklaa@bu.edu.
Course-ware Policy – Currently the Academic Affairs Committee is working on an analysis, report, and policy position on all course-ware used by the university. Course-ware is defined as a digital learning environment, and includes Sakai-based smgtools, Blackboard, and WebCT. The goal of this initiative is to determine the best use and distribution of course-ware across the university and to produce a proposal as to changes to be made to better suite the classroom environment. This initiative began as a joint project between the Academic Affairs Committee and the Technology Committee of the Student Union. The current coordinator for the course-ware initiative is Julianne Corbin. To get involved or to find out more, please contact Julianne at jcorbin@bu.edu.
Cooking Class Proposal – During discussion in a committee meeting last semester, the committee recognized a need for a general cooking class targeted at non-SHA majors. This class would allow for hands-on cooking sessions and would help educate students on vital skills necessary for living independently in today’s world. Both in-house options and outside options are being explored for this initiative. This initiative is currently being coordinated by James Sappenfield, who can be contacted at jmsapp@bu.edu
Major’s Exposition 2009 – The Major’s Exposition is a tradition within Boston University now in it’s third year. Organized by the Academic Affairs Committee of the Student Union, the exposition is one of the flagship programs for advising within the university. Major’s Expo brings together representatives from all academic schools and departments within the university as well as representatives from several service-based offices to better inform students as to their options, choices, and possibilities within Boston University for academic growth, exploration, and support. This year, the Academic Affairs Committee is pushing to combine Major’s Expo with CAS’s Major Choices to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of both programs, and to reduce redundancy. Further, we aim to provide the best peer services possible at Major’s Expo both in terms of program coordination and in terms of peer advising services. For more information regarding Major’s Expo 2009, please check out the Major’s Expo 2009 Webpage.
Grade Compression Report and Proposal – Great attention has been placed this year on producing a report on the grading policies of Boston University. The goals of this report are to address concerns among the student body about Boston University’s policies in light of prevalent grade inflation surrounding universities within the United States. The committee hopes to produce a policy recognition proposal that will address both student’s and administrative concerns within the university and that will most accurately reflect student’s hard work outside of the university. The two students serving as coordinators for this report are Sarah Chibani, schibani@bu.edu , and Henry Chen, chuanyao@bu.edu . For any questions regarding this initiative, please feel free to contact either coordinator.
Fun at Finals Program – Fun at Finals is a program that the committee is looking into organizing on a university-wide basis. Fun at Finals will be organized, study break oriented programming near the final period. It will be managed individually by each school government and jointly-advertised by the Student Union. Where it is applicable, tutoring services will be provided for students to help answer last-minute questions. To find out more about this program or to become involved with organizing it, please contact James Sappenfield at jmsapp@bu.edu .
WR100 and WR150 Course Description Initiative – Currently the committee has received several complaints about the fact that course descriptions for writing classes are currently not listed in detail on the registration system. While a catalog can be found at http://www.bu.edu/cas/writing/courses.html , the committee has begun an initiative to match detailed descriptions to each individual class. Yi Zhe Wu. For more information on this, please contact Yi via academicaffairs@bustudentunion.com.
Expanded Library Resources – The committee has continued to take a look at the resources available to students on campus, and has particularly decided to focus it’s efforts on creating the best study space possible at Mugar Memorial Library. This includes: a) Expanded Hours similar to 111 Cummington b) Expanded IT and Workspace Support and c) Team Room Support. For more details, please consult the Library Resource Initiative Webpage. Alanna Kahn, the Coordinator of Student Resources, can be reached at alannak@bu.edu.
Development of a Sustainability Curriculum – The Academic Affairs Committee has been working with various departments and schools to investigate, construct, and propose a shift towards a curriculum that includes discussion on issues of sustainability. The bulk of our work to date has been on the creation of a sustainability major and the creation of an entry-level math course designed to impart the skills to model resources use and waste, but we are constantly expanding departmental involvement on both the advising and designing aspects of this initiative. The initiative aims to produce an inter-disciplinary curriculum that will prepare any student for both the practical and philosophical application of analysis on questions of sustainability. The curriculum is currently designed to be highly customizable and to offer discipline-specific tracks. A team of coordinators are working towards the creation of a sustainability curriculum, and more details can be found on the Sustainability Curriculum Webpage.
Reviving SourceGuide and BUCOP Websites Initiative – Source Guide, a website that allows students to rate, review, and view statics for courses has fallen out of vogue and we would like to see it running again. Also of interest, we would like to see a BUCOP webpage that aggregates all of the BUCOP information from every website. We are constantly working with Boston University Office of Information Technology to acheive this reality.

Your Goals!

AAC represents you! If you have academic concerns or initiatives, feel free to participate and introduce them in committee. We can support you in your goals, put our stamp on positive initiatives, and help with legwork and provide manpower, and show you the general ropes of dealing with the administration!

Advising Resources

Below is a list of Advising Resources to help point you in the right direction of how to get help in advising/academics.

Advising Report – a report published by Student Union providing a list of all the kinds of advising resources available to students

BU@iTunesU – The Boston University iTunes podcast page for recorded BU lectures

CourseSearch – A web search engine designed to search the full repository of BU Courses. Want to take a course on robots and kittens? Search for it!

ERC – The ERC offers Peer Tutoring, the Writing Center, Language Link conversation groups, Organic Chemistry Preparatory Course (Orgo Prep), Workshops, and the Contingent Aid Program.

Contact

If you can not make meetings, but would like to participate, please contact academicaffairs@bustudentunion.com and we can arrange to keep you in the loop through separate individual meetings or through email.

Welcome to the Academic Affairs Committee!

Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) is the Student Union committee responsible for handling all concerns academic, such as advising, study spaces, as well as investigating grade deflation. We have several initiatives running this year, and would love for interested students to attend our meetings or contact the AAC if you would be interested in participating. Our meetings are every Monday at 7:00 in the GSU Backcourt, and we can be contacted at academicaffairs@bustudentunion.com

Current Accomplishments and Initiatives:

Real Time Review – A proposal to change class surveys so that they happen 2-3 times per year and are online. The proposal, suggested, created, and written by Ema Alsina, makes environmentally friendly surveys and serve as a communication tool for students, professors, and departments. For more on this document, please check out the Real Time Review webpage, or feel free to contact Ema at emalsina@bu.edu or James Sappenfield at jmsapp@bu.edu
University Registration Policy Proposal – A proposal created and sponsored by Anant Shukla(Representative CAS Forum), goals for the proposal include creating a more efficient and more equitable registration process. This proposal addresses the two issues currently present with the registration process: class holding and partial registration. It suggests a credit-based registration system that is both more fair and causes less registration issues. For more on this document, please check out the University Registration Proposal Webpage, or feel free to contact Anant at shuklaa@bu.edu.
Course-ware Policy – Currently the Academic Affairs Committee is working on an analysis, report, and policy position on all course-ware used by the university. Course-ware is defined as a digital learning environment, and includes Sakai-based smgtools, Blackboard, and WebCT. The goal of this initiative is to determine the best use and distribution of course-ware across the university and to produce a proposal as to changes to be made to better suite the classroom environment. This initiative began as a joint project between the Academic Affairs Committee and the Technology Committee of the Student Union. The current coordinator for the course-ware initiative is Julianne Corbin. To get involved or to find out more, please contact Julianne at jcorbin@bu.edu.
Cooking Class Proposal – During discussion in a committee meeting last semester, the committee recognized a need for a general cooking class targeted at non-SHA majors. This class would allow for hands-on cooking sessions and would help educate students on vital skills necessary for living independently in today’s world. Both in-house options and outside options are being explored for this initiative. This initiative is currently being coordinated by James Sappenfield, who can be contacted at jmsapp@bu.edu
Major’s Exposition 2009 – The Major’s Exposition is a tradition within Boston University now in it’s third year. Organized by the Academic Affairs Committee of the Student Union, the exposition is one of the flagship programs for advising within the university. Major’s Expo brings together representatives from all academic schools and departments within the university as well as representatives from several service-based offices to better inform students as to their options, choices, and possibilities within Boston University for academic growth, exploration, and support. This year, the Academic Affairs Committee is pushing to combine Major’s Expo with CAS’s Major Choices to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of both programs, and to reduce redundancy. Further, we aim to provide the best peer services possible at Major’s Expo both in terms of program coordination and in terms of peer advising services. For more information regarding Major’s Expo 2009, please check out the Major’s Expo 2009 Webpage.
Grade Compression Report and Proposal – Great attention has been placed this year on producing a report on the grading policies of Boston University. The goals of this report are to address concerns among the student body about Boston University’s policies in light of prevalent grade inflation surrounding universities within the United States. The committee hopes to produce a policy recognition proposal that will address both student’s and administrative concerns within the university and that will most accurately reflect student’s hard work outside of the university. The two students serving as coordinators for this report are Sarah Chibani, schibani@bu.edu , and Henry Chen, chuanyao@bu.edu . For any questions regarding this initiative, please feel free to contact either coordinator.
Fun at Finals Program – Fun at Finals is a program that the committee is looking into organizing on a university-wide basis. Fun at Finals will be organized, study break oriented programming near the final period. It will be managed individually by each school government and jointly-advertised by the Student Union. Where it is applicable, tutoring services will be provided for students to help answer last-minute questions. To find out more about this program or to become involved with organizing it, please contact James Sappenfield at jmsapp@bu.edu .
WR100 and WR150 Course Description Initiative – Currently the committee has received several complaints about the fact that course descriptions for writing classes are currently not listed in detail on the registration system. While a catalog can be found at http://www.bu.edu/cas/writing/courses.html , the committee has begun an initiative to match detailed descriptions to each individual class. Yi Zhe Wu. For more information on this, please contact Yi via academicaffairs@bustudentunion.com.
Expanded Library Resources – The committee has continued to take a look at the resources available to students on campus, and has particularly decided to focus it’s efforts on creating the best study space possible at Mugar Memorial Library. This includes: a) Expanded Hours similar to 111 Cummington b) Expanded IT and Workspace Support and c) Team Room Support. For more details, please consult the Library Resource Initiative Webpage. Alanna Kahn, the Coordinator of Student Resources, can be reached at alannak@bu.edu.
Development of a Sustainability Curriculum – The Academic Affairs Committee has been working with various departments and schools to investigate, construct, and propose a shift towards a curriculum that includes discussion on issues of sustainability. The bulk of our work to date has been on the creation of a sustainability major and the creation of an entry-level math course designed to impart the skills to model resources use and waste, but we are constantly expanding departmental involvement on both the advising and designing aspects of this initiative. The initiative aims to produce an inter-disciplinary curriculum that will prepare any student for both the practical and philosophical application of analysis on questions of sustainability. The curriculum is currently designed to be highly customizable and to offer discipline-specific tracks. A team of coordinators are working towards the creation of a sustainability curriculum, and more details can be found on the Sustainability Curriculum Webpage.
Reviving SourceGuide and BUCOP Websites Initiative – Source Guide, a website that allows students to rate, review, and view statics for courses has fallen out of vogue and we would like to see it running again. Also of interest, we would like to see a BUCOP webpage that aggregates all of the BUCOP information from every website. We are constantly working with Boston University Office of Information Technology to acheive this reality.