Abstract of Jan. 25, 2012, UPRC meeting

Note: The UPRC meeting scheduled for January 18, 2012 was cancelled due to snow and ice. Discussion items: The UPRC met with Dr. Mary Baroni, director of nursing at UW Bothell, who is serving as a consultant for Western, to discuss issues related to the creation of a self-supporting RN to BSN completion program. Dr. Baroni discussed the needs for the BSN degree, both in the local region and throughout the state, and she outlined the requirements for a BSN program to become accredited. The Council then discussed the challenges of integrating the program and the program faculty into Western so that the program meets the standards and expectations of a Western degree. The plan is to start the first cohort of students in fall 2013, and the expectation is that there will be 3.0 FTE faculty (including the director) associated with the program by that time. Before then, however there are many issues to resolve such as the courses and number of credits in the program and the granting of credits for passing the nursing licensing exam based upon the practicum required for the RN degree. The Provost has appointed a task force to work with Dr. Baroni to begin to address the issues of the program that are specific to Western, so more information will be available as this group continues its work. At its next meeting on Feb. 8, the UPRC will begin to review minor capital project proposals that are programmatic (as opposed to preservation) in nature. This discussion is expected to take three meetings and conclude with recommendations from the council by the end of the meeting on Feb. 22. More information on all of these items is available at the Faculty Senate website, the UPRC minutes, and from your UPRC representative. Please let your UPRC representative know what you think about these issues and what you would like more thoroughly explained.