A&SCC End of Year Report: 2008-2009

ARTS AND SCIENCES CURRICULUM COMMITTEE

ANNUAL REPORT, 2008-2009

Meetings

The ASCC met seven times during the academic year: 9/30/08, 10/21/08, 11/11/08, 12/15/08 2/10/09, 3/17/09 and 4/14/08.

Committee Membership

The members of the committee were Robbin Crabtree, Jessica Davis, Robert Epstein, Shannon Harding, Manyul Im (Replaced by Nels Pearson, Fall '08), Danke Li (Replaced by Les Schaffer Fall '08), John Miecznikowski, Elizabeth Petrino (Chair, Fall '08; Replaced by Michael Pagano Spring '09), James Shanahan (Chair, 'Spring 09), Joan Weiss

New Course Proposals:

This year the ASCC considered and approved 37 new course proposals.

Report of the Subcommittee on Internships, Independent Studies, and Supervised Research (Steve Bayne and Beth Boquet)

Profs. Steve Bayne and Associate Dean Beth Boquet reported from the Subcommittee on Internships, Independent Studies, and Supervised Research. The subcommittee forwarded to the Dean its findings on the need for consistency, encouraging the departments to have discussions on issues of organizing credits. The report included the proposal that such credits could be "bundled" together, and that a bundle of 15 would count for the equivalent of one course. If the bundled credits were the responsibility of more than one instructor, and if a department had a large number of such credits, then there should be a professor officially in charge of them, and this position should be rotated. The person deemed by the department to be the professor of record for a given semester should have additional responsibilities, including communicating with other instructors and coordinating the student work. Finally, the report also included a suggestion for a "banking" system, by which an instructor could receive one point for each time he or she supervises a student receiving 3 credits of work. Once the instructor reaches 20 points, he or she would earn a one-course teaching reduction.

The following MOTION was made:

That the ASCC endorses the report of the subcommittee, with the understanding that its numbers are contingent and subject to review by the Dean, and that the report be passed on to the departments within the College with the encouragement that the document be used as a starting point for discussions of teaching load and credits.

The motion passed: 8 votes in favor, 1 abstention.

In a subsequent meeting, this MOTION was changed to:

That the ASCC endorses the report of the subcommittee with the understanding that its contents (in particular its numbers) are contingent upon and subject to review by the Dean.

The motion carried with 4 in favor, 4 abstaining.[1] The Dean did not vote.

Graduate American Studies Curriculum Review

The ASCC invited Prof. Kurt Schlichting to speak to the ASCC on how the Graduate American Studies program was developed and its current curriculum review procedure.

Prof. Schlichting reviewed the history of the program and offered responses to a variety of concerns that were raised by the ASCC in past years. Primarily these concerns related to whether various courses had been approved by the ASCC. Prof. Schlichting informed the committee that the Graduate American Studies Curriculum Committee is aware of the need to pass courses through normal channels, and that this is now occurring. The committee and Professor Schlichting agreed to maintain open channels of communication, with all new courses coming through ASCC and the American Studies committee reviewing existing courses as necessary.

Guide for Academic Program Review in the College of Arts and Sciences

Prof. Miecznikowski reported on academic program review to the ASCC. A document containing principles for academic program review had been circulated by the Dean; the ASCC was given the document for comment. The Dean had asked that "The ASCC members should discuss the program review document, and collect any suggestions or changes to send back up to me and the task force. In particular, ASCC should be sure it's comfortable with the various places for its role in the program review process." The ASCC was also asked to endorse the document, which it did unanimously.

ASCC subcommittee on graduate course review

Prof. Peter Bayers reported from a subcommittee that discussed how new graduate courses would be proposed and reviewed. He submitted a new form for submission to ASCC, which is a modification of the undergraduate form. The ASCC unanimously agreed to accept the new form. It is affirmed that graduate programs are under the purview of the ASCC, although the Dean is in the process of convening other group(s) to advise her on matters relating to the growing graduate programs in the College.

Dept. Of Mathematics And Computer Science: Four-Course Certificate Program In The Mathematics Of Finance

The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science presented a proposal to formally approve a certificate in the Mathematics of Finance. The certificate was already being offered; this proposal was in response to a request from the ASCC to formally approve the certificate.

The ASCC agreed that it would recommend an approval process in the College of Arts and Sciences for certificate programs that requires department, ASCC, and CAS Dean approval. The following MOTION was made:

That all certificate programs in the College of Arts and Sciences must be approved by their administering departments/programs, the Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee, and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. This motion was approved unanimously. The certificate program was also approved unanimously after this process was adopted.

Shanahan reported on this new process to the College at the final faculty meeting.

Items Pending before the Committee:[2]

Due Fall 2009: Major in New Media Film, Television, and Radio five-year review.

Due May 2011: Irish Studies five-year review.

Due May 2011: Catholic Studies five-year review.

Due May 2011: Master of Arts in Communication Corporate Cohort Program five-year review.

Due May 2013: MFA in Creative Writing five-year review.

Due May 2013: BS in Biochemistry five-year review.

Due May 2013: On campus MA in Communication five-year review.

4/4 student, 3/2 teaching load (tabled September 2005; no due date).

Report of the subcommittee on cross listing.

Respectfully by,

E. Petrino & J. Shanahan

Chairs, 2008-2009 [3]

[1] See minutes of 11/11/08 for details.

[2] The status of some of these items is not clear to the current committee. The ASCC for 2009-2010 will need to review these items, along with program reviews that may come online as a result of the new process installed by the Dean.

[3] Petrino was chair in Fall 2008; Shanahan was chair in Spring 2009.