Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee
Minutes of the meeting of April 10, 2007
The meeting was called to order at 3:35 p.m.
Present at the meeting: Peter Bayers, Steve Bayne, Ron Davidson, Olivia
Harriott, Ray Poincelot (Assoc. Dean CAS), Vincent Rosivach (Chair),
Ron Salafia, Tim Snyder (Dean of CAS) , Joan Weiss.
1. Announcements
The Chair announced that there definitely will be a May meeting, with
changes in the Theater program and Black Studies proposed, as well as
other business.
The Chair also called attention to the question of changes in major and
minor requirements. Right now the rule of thumb is that
substantial changes must come back through this committee, whereas
minor changes can simply come to the chair, who will decide whether to
bring them to the full A&SCC.
The chair wondered if we should we have a policy? The committee
deemed that the current situation appeared acceptable and would leave
the decisions to the chair's discretion.
a. Petition for immediate hearing.
Dean Snyder petitioned for an immediate hearing on the situation in the
photography classrooms in Loyola. Around one to three photography
classes are offered per semester between CAS and University
College. The University has spent money to keep the studios safe,
but the specter of increasing costs as well as observations from the
Fairfield Fire Marshal and the requirement of an exterior environmental
audit indicated sufficient challenges that required the AVP to cancel
photography classes for next semester.
Both the Dean of University College and Professor Jo Yarrington
(Director of the Studio Program) proposed the conversion of the course
from film to digital. However, the current photography course
description indicates work with film and developing processes, which
would be replaced by digital manipulation and post-exposure software
processing.
Questions and discussion ensued about the proposed transition from film
cameras and processing to digital photography, the question of student
cameras (SLR or not) and the position of photography in the Studio
Program.
The Chair then asked if A&SCC will support the Dean's proposal that
the photography course be allowed to run under a different number (to
distinguish it from the previous course) on a one-semester Dean's
approval, with the understanding that the new course will be brought to
the A&SCC in the fall for the standard approval process. The
committee agreed that it would be the correct course of action.
2. Approval of the minutes of February 13, 2007
Salafia moved to approve, Bayers seconded. The minutes were
approved with one abstention.
Salafia moved to reorder the agenda, to consider the report of the
Subcommittee on Teaching Credit, given the presence of a visitor, Dr.
Linda Henkel. Harriot seconded the motion, which was approved.
3. Report of the Advisory Subcommittee on
Internships & Independent Studies about proposals for teaching
equity.
Olivia Harriott reported that the subcommittee was formed as a result
of a motion of A&SCC on October 11, 2005, and consisted of Dean T.
Snyder, Professors Johanna Garvey, Phil Lane and Olivia Harriott, with
the mandate to collect data on the degree to which departments have
internships, independent studies and research study activities, as well
as departmental plans for equity, if any.
In October of 2006, a questionnaire was distributed, with responses
from twenty-six departments and programs in CAS. The responses
were tabulated by Harriott and a spreadsheet was developed. Three
handouts were distributed by Harriott to the A&SCC at this time:
the section of the 10/11/05 minutes, the questionnaire and the
Psychology Department plan for equity (including summaries of other
departments' plans).
Harriott: Some programs and departments have large numbers of students
in such activities, with approximately 250 internships per year,
140-160 independent studies and research studies. Most faculty
indicated that these activities do not contribute to their scholarship,
with the exception of some faculty in the Department of
Communication. Most internships are not paid internships,
but in terms of credits, most are three credit courses, depending on
the student need. Responses indicated that, in terms of faculty
involvement with students, one-to-one meetings are the norm.
The Dean mentioned that there was a subcommittee formed to address
equity in internships, because of variation in requirements, and so
forth. Some internships are within the CAS curriculum, some are
not. But because of difficulties among the subcommittee members,
no report was issued.
Harriott indicated that faculty responsible for a small number of
students are generally not receiving compensation. Moreover,
there is a need to distinguish between supervised vs. independent
research. While full-time faculty do not necessarily receive
compensation for this extra teaching, some adjunct faculty do get
stipends for independent study courses. Solutions to inequity
cannot be uniform, because different departments have different needs,
and we cannot increase the adjunct pool. Options for equity
include remuneration, plans for course release for faculty, or for
departments to seek grants, donations or other external funding.
Professor Linda Henkel was invited as a guest to review the Psychology
Department's teaching equity plan.
Professor Henkel explained that faculty in Psychology do a lot of
student research advising, but are not compensated for it and seldom
does it contribute to their scholarship. The Department put
together a plan, based on their survey of various departments having
student-based research in CAS and in view of the Council on
Undergraduate Research Survey on Compensation for
undergraduate/graduate research mentoring. Some places count a
research course as a low enrollment course, or have a banking system
for accrual of points, or may have small stipends, or competitive
grants for course release time.
There are two main pieces to the Psychology Department plan.
First, a banking system; given that 15 students constitutes a class,
faculty may receive credit toward course release, building up to
fifteen units, with a weighted system depending on the level of
supervision needed in each course. Several safeguards are built
in for the needs of the department. The estimate is that in five
years, there may be eight course reductions, while still meeting the
overall curricular needs of the department.
The second part applies to faculty regularly teaching 10 credit
hrs./semester, vs. the normal nine, and is precipitated by the 4 credit
lab courses. Again the system is weighted, similar to the
Math plan that allows accumulation of the courses, but again there are
safeguards. The Psychology Department felt the banking system to
be the least taxing on the university as a whole.
Rosivach: When students are doing independent study, they are
paying tuition for that, so there should be some method of faculty
compensation in some manner.
Harriott: For some depts., if a student wants to get credit for summer
internship, then the student pays tuition, and a small stipend comes
back to the faculty member, because it goes through University College.
Rosivach: Where shall we go from here? There is a lot
here, a lot to read. Perhaps we should post as much as possible
on the college website, ask for feedback, and get back to it in the
fall.
Henkel: One reason that we did it in Psych is that there seems to be an
institutional inertia, so the department went through the process of
formulating a plan.
Salafia: I move that we put the Psychology Department plan on the floor
for the next meeting as a point on departure. Seconded by Weiss.
After some discussion, it was realized that there are many factors to
consider.
Rosivach: I suggest that we have a motion to table the motion by
Salafia and that as a second step post the material on the college
website and invite comment, and thirdly, have a chance to think about
how to move it forward to the May meeting.
Harriott: This Psych proposal is the only one that seems to make sense.
Rosivach: We are just unprepared to discuss this intelligently, without
advance preparation.
The prior motion withdrawn by Salafia and Weiss.
Salafia: I move that we put this on the agenda for discussion for next
time, with the relevant documents posted on the CAS website.
Davidson seconded. Approved by five yeas, one abstention.
4. Approval of new courses
a. AE 288 Ethical Dimensions of Global Humanitarian
Policy
Weiss moved to approve, Salafia seconded.
Discussion ensued about minor inconsistencies in the proposal and
irregularities in the manner of its initial listing in the university
catalogue. AE 288 was approved unanimously.
b. CO 348 Risk Communication
Bayers moved to approve, Weiss seconded.
CO 348 was approved unanimously.
c. GR 328 Advanced Greek Readings IV
Weiss moved to approve, Bayers seconded.
GR 328 was approved unanimously.
5. Report of the Subcommittee on Cross-listing
Bayers and Salafia are not yet ready to report, pending information
from Pat Newell on cross-listing. The members hoped to
continue it to a further time.
6. Query on changing course credits
The chair referred to the 4/5/07 email communication from Matt Kubasik,
about the desire for the Department of Chemistry to change the credit
assigned to Organic I Lab and Organic II Lab (Chem 211/Chem 212) from
two units to one, and to change the credit assigned to
Instrumentation-Analytical Lab (Chem 326 Lab) from two units to
three. This requested change would not change the credit
requirements for the major.
The Chair asked if we need to discuss this change of credits
process? It raises the larger question of changing credits for
courses, in some measure complicated here because it is credit neutral
for the major.
Dean Poincelot: In terms of the Chemistry Department, the request is
innocuous, and brings them in line with normal institutional
requirements.
Weiss: As this is not a new course proposal and demonstrates a good
rationale, there should be no objection. But it seems that all
these kinds of things should come to the committee.
Rosivach: May I suggest that Joan Weiss volunteer to make a proposal at
the next meeting: Should the ASCC be concerned with credit changes and
how we go about it?
Salafia. Narrowly and without establishing any precedent, I move that
we approve the credit changes requested by the Department of
Chemistry. Bayers seconded, and the motion was approved
unanimously.
7. Other items. Amendment to the Special Topics
Courses proposed guidelines, to be brought before the CAS faculty at
the next meeting.
Rosivach: In the February 13, 2007, A&SCC meeting, the
Special Topic Courses guidelines proposal was revived, having already
been approved by A&SCC on May 7, 2002, but never brought to the CAS
faculty. However, at the February meeting there was a question as
to whether or not the first paragraph precluded the possibility of
maintaining one-time dean’s approval for courses. The chair
volunteered to rewrite the first paragraph, and that is now on the
table. Here, the only thing that is an issue is the deletion of
the words "There may be merit in" and insertion of "We recommend that
'dean's approval' " in their place.
Salafia moved to approve the change of language and Weiss
seconded. The motion carried unanimously.
8. Bayers moved to adjourn, Weiss seconded. The
meeting was adjourned at 4:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Ronald M. Davidson, recording secretary.