Academic Affairs Committee Meeting #2 — Minutes (02/24/26)

This document is from a previous session and is kept for the record. It may have been amended or replaced since.

Attendance Present: Kevin, Tola, Ella, Excused: Veda, Isaac, Kai, Gao, Ella Unexcused: Tarini, Emin Key Updates ● Upcoming dean meeting confirmed for Feb 23, 4:00–4:45 PM. Discussion Summary ● Identified two main academic concerns:

Ongoing/overlapping midterm periods.
Heavy reliance on a small number of high-stakes exams.

● Proposed approaches include encouraging good teaching practices (e.g., smaller assessments, attendance/assignment components, revision or retake options, and discouraging competitive curves). New Initiative Proposal ● Student-built, SGA-backed tool to increase transparency by publishing anonymized grade distribution data (e.g., % of students below a B by course/section), using student-submitted transcripts with privacy protections. Next Steps ● Refine initiatives and prepare materials for presentation to the deans.

Summary

These committee minutes record academic concerns, proposed teaching approaches, and a student grade-transparency initiative.
An upcoming meeting with the deans was confirmed for February 23 from 4:00 to 4:45 PM. 1Upcoming dean meeting confirmed for Feb 23, 4:00–4:45 PM.
The committee identified overlapping midterm periods and heavy reliance on a small number of high-stakes exams as academic concerns. 2Identified two main academic concerns: 1. Ongoing/overlapping midterm periods. 2. Heavy reliance on a small number of high-stakes exams.
Proposed teaching approaches include smaller assessments, attendance and assignment components, revision or retake options, and discouraging competitive curves. 3Proposed approaches include encouraging good teaching practices (e.g., smaller assessments, attendance/assignment components, revision or retake options, and discouraging competitive curves).
A student-built, SGA-backed tool was proposed to publish anonymized grade-distribution data by course and section using student-submitted transcripts with privacy protections. 4Student-built, SGA-backed tool to increase transparency by publishing anonymized grade distribution data (e.g., % of students below a B by course/section), using student-submitted transcripts with privacy protections.
The next step is to refine the initiatives and prepare materials for presentation to the deans. 5Refine initiatives and prepare materials for presentation to the deans.

People named

Tola Alaofin — Present
Tarini Basireddy — Absent
Ella Chon — Present, Excused
Andrew Gao — Excused
Veda Kommineni — Excused
Kai Martin — Excused
Emin Soguktas — Absent
Kevin Xu — Present, Drive owner, Last edited
Isaac Zhang — Excused

Drive file created by kevinxu0628 · last edited by kevinxu0628