Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee

Minutes of the meeting of Nov. 13, 2007

Convened at 3:32 p.m. in CNS 100

 

Present:  Professors Steven Bayne (chair), Sara Brill, Jessica Davis, Shannon Harding, Olivia Harriott, Laura McSweeney, Joan Weiss, Maggie Wills; Dean Raymond Poincelot

 

1. Announcements.

Prof. Bayne announced that a proposal for the Master of Arts in Communication is forthcoming. 

 

2. Approval of minutes of October 16, 2007.

Moved by Prof. Brill and seconded by Prof. Harding.  Prof. Weiss jokingly commented that the minutes stated that meeting ended at 5:24p when the committee adjourned at 5:07p.  The last sentence in the minutes will be removed to eliminate the confusion.  The amended minutes were approved unanimously.

 

3. Update on course approvals for American Studies and Math Master's programs

Prof. Bayne met with Sue Peterson, Prof. Schlichting (Director of the American Studies Master's Program) and Prof. Fine (Director of the Mathematics Master's program). For the math program, all but 6 courses had course descriptions and syllabi that were included in the original Master's program proposal.  Prof. Fine was unsure if those courses received course approval then, but since the department had discussed those courses when the original proposal came through, Prof. Bayne was willing to treat those courses as approved. Of the 6 courses that weren't approved, four were discussed by the Math Department in the spring.  The continued discussion of these 4 courses is on the Math Department agenda for its meeting on 11/27/07. The other two courses (an independent study and capstone course) will be brought to our committee by the May 2008 deadline. Also, Prof. Fine will write a proposal for the Certificate in Financial Mathematics and send it through the proper channels for approval.

 

In American Studies, Prof. Schlichting brought a proposal which stated that the American Studies Curriculum Committee (AMSCC) will review all current courses and sunset any courses that have not been taught in the past 5 years.  The AMSCC hopes to send us the minutes of their discussions and copies of the syllabi for our December meeting.  The proposal also stated that any new course would be discussed by the AMSCC and then the new course proposal form would come to our committee.  There was discussion that this does not follow the procedure for new courses.  The college procedure states that the department or program faculty must meet, discuss and approve the course. Also the minutes from the department/program meeting are required by the course proposal form.

 

Motion:  The ASCC accepts the procedures outlined in the Review of Graduate American Studies courses proposal with the modification that 2a be changed to read "be reviewed by the American Studies Curriculum Committee and the American Studies faculty using the new course proposal procedures/forms".

Motion made by Prof. Brill and seconded by Prof. Wills.  The motion passed unanimously.

 

4.  One Time Approval for SA 133 Photography I.

The photography course needs to be switched from using traditional cameras to digital cameras due to liability issues associated with developing the film.  The new course that uses the digital format was allowed to run in the fall with Dean's approval under the assumption that the new course would go through the standard approval process before it could be run again. Prof. Yarrington is asking that the old course (SA133) be allowed to be run in the spring.  The content of the course for the spring is similar, but the format will be digital instead of traditional film.  Prof. Bayne stated that he was willing to let this run for one more semester, but he wanted the department to review the new course and to verify that the content of the new course hadn't really changed with the transition to digital photography. 

 

Motion:  The committee recommends that SA133 (Photography I) be allowed to run one last time in Spring 2008. However, the new course would need to go through the standard approval process before the course could run again.

Motion made by Prof. McSweeney and seconded by Prof. Weiss. The motion passed unanimously.

 

5. New Course Proposals.

A. MFA in Creative Writing Courses.

1) Residency Courses: ENW 444 (Fiction), 445 (Non-fiction), 446 (Poetry)

Prof. Weiss asked how these courses could contribute to the American Studies, Irish Studies and Women Studies programs when these are graduate courses.  There was a discussion of the grading criteria (pages 104, 114, and 124). More information is needed to clarify what is meant by "successful completion of both workshops". 

 

Suggested corrections: 

1.) Pages 103, 113 and 123, the 17th line down.  The word "peer" should be "peers".

2.) Pages 102, 112, 122, the 2nd line after 6a.  The students receive "three credits for each of the first four residencies, or a total of 12 credits" should be "six credits for each of the first four residencies, or a total of 24 credits".

 

Prof. Bayne said that he would check the most current version of the proposal to see if these changes have already been made.

 

Motion: The committee approves ENW 444, 445 and 446.

Motion made by Prof. McSweeney and seconded by Prof. Brill. The motion passed unanimously.

                    

2) Independent Studies Courses: ENW 447 (Fiction), 448 (Non-fiction), 449 (Poetry)

Prof. Weiss noted that on page 134 and 152 under the Requirements section, the course numbers are incorrect.  They should be just ENW 444 on page 134 and ENW446 on page 152.  Prof. Harding pointed out that the prerequisites were listed correctly in the course proposal form.

 

Motion:  The committee approves ENW 447, 448 and 449.

Motion made by Prof. Davis and Prof. Weiss.  The motion passed unanimously.

 

B. LAC 373 Internship in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Prof. Harding wondered why the original proposal was not approved last spring.  Prof. Weiss commented that the other course was more service oriented.  She also stated that she would have liked to have seen the service evaluation form that is mentioned in the grading section. Prof. Wills mentioned that this evaluation form is worth 30% of the grade, but there is no description of it in the syllabus.  Prof. Harding wondered about the "scientific research" option and whether the student could write up a lab report or paper on his/her work.  There was discussion about how this course could count for credit in another department, for example Biology.  While the proposal lists several disciplines where LA373 could be counted, there is no mention in the proposal about how this would be done.  It also was unclear whether these credits would be double counted. Prof. Weiss mentioned that independent studies can not count towards the major. Dean Poincelot stated that students with an individually designed (ID) major would need to get approval by the ID committee before this course could count towards the ID major.   Prof. Weiss said that while the course was exciting, she wondered how students could afford to take this class.  There was a consensus that Prof. Sourieau should be invited to our next meeting to answer questions and concerns that the committee has about this course.  Prof. Bayne will provide her with a copy of our discussions so that she will be aware of some of the issues and questions the committee has.

 

Suggested corrections:

1.)  On page 1 of the syllabus, in the paragraph above the Eligibility section:  "Communications" should be "Communication".

2.) In the Grading section of the syllabus, change "20% Portfolio" to "20% Portfolio or Report"

3.)  On #6a and #11 of the proposal form on the 2nd to last sentence, the word "intents" should be "intends".

 

Motion:  Table the approval of LAC 373 so that the committee can get more information.

Moved by Prof. Brill and seconded by Prof. McSweeney. The motion passed unanimously.

 

 

 

 

6. Biochemistry Major Proposal

Prof. Davis gave an overview of the proposal.  The work on this proposal began during the 2002-2003 academic year and was chaired by Prof. Coleman.  This major would replace the current major in Chemistry with a Biochemistry Option.  While the Biochemistry major would be housed in both Biology and Chemistry departments.  The Biology and Chemistry departments have worked together to revamp the introductory courses and this new major should increase the amount of interdisciplinary work between the departments. This proposed new major was brought about by student demand and also because many comparable schools have such a major.  About half of the current Chemistry majors have chosen the Biochemistry option.  It is the hope that this program will increase the number of majors in both departments.  Presently, all courses for the Biochemistry major are being offered.  This has been helped by recent hires in Biology and Chemistry.  

 

Prof. Weiss asked whether students would be Biology or Chemistry students. Prof. Davis stated that their degree would say "BS in Biochemistry", but for administrative purposes students would be listed as both biology and chemistry majors.  Dean Poincelot felt that this major would be attractive to Biology students.  Prof. Weiss asked how feasible it is for students to complete the Biochemistry major since it requires 132 credits.  Prof. Davis said that students would have to come into the program as freshman. She acknowledged that the program was challenging.  Several people commented that this major was a long time in coming.

 

Suggested Changes:

On page 4 in item 7, Change "Co-Directors" to "Associate Directors".

 

Motion:  Moved to approve the major in Biochemistry.

Motion made by Prof. Harriott and seconded by Prof. Weiss. The motion passed unanimously.

 

7. Compensation/Credit for independent study & student research

Prof. Weiss asked whether this issue fell under the purview of the committee.  Prof. Bayne felt that this topic was more appropriate for the Teaching Equity subcommittee, although this subcommittee is no longer.  He discussed this with Prof. DeWitt, current Chair of the College, and they both agreed that there is no real College committee for which this issue would be appropriate. Prof. Weiss stated that it is really a resource issue. Prof. Harding asked where this issue should go.  Prof. Bayne said that he thought it is probably a College faculty issue. The committee decided to continue this discussion at our next meeting.

 

8. Adjournment

There was a motion to adjourn.  Moved by Prof. McSweeney and seconded by Prof. Harding.  All were in favor. The committee adjourned at 5p. 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Laura McSweeney (Secretary pro-tem)