College of Arts & Sciences Curriculum Committee Meeting

April 13, 2010

 

Present: Shannon Harding, Manyul Im, Danke Li, Elizabeth Petrino,Vin Rosavich, David Sapp, Les Schaffer, Roxana Walker-Canton, Joan Weiss, Qin Zhang

 

Guest Present: Gisela Gil-Egui, co-director Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) program

 

Absent: Bob Epstein (excused), Jessica Davis (excused)É

 

Meeting was called to order at 3:30 pm in BCC 204.

 

 

1.  Announcements

 

Harding: Potential May meeting: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 3:30-5:00pm

 

2.  Approval of the minutes from the ASCC March 16, 2010 meeting

 

Vote: 5 approve, 1 abstention

 

3.  Rewording item 9b on the course proposal form

 

Info: – two typos noted by Harding and Rosavich to be corrected; Harding – is an announcement necessary? Rosavich – maybe a simple announcement; Harding – seems like a good revision

 

Motion to approve revision as corrected: Sapp, second Zhang; seven approved (unanimous)

 

4.   New course proposal: LACS 399 Independent Study

 

Info: Harding – Sabo informed Harding that this course had not been approved, so one-time approval was granted by Dean; proposal is now available for approval

 

Motion to approve: Rosavich, Schaffer second

 

Discussion: Sapp – apropos 9b, there is an existing practice in departments for accumulating credit for independent studies, though IDPs do not; but isnÕt there a way to use the department practices to get the credit, through departmental approval? Li – a similar problem occurs in Asian Studies, but the departments donÕt always (History, e.g.) approve AN independent studies for departmental purposes; Rosavich – maybe we could form a subcommittee to look into the matter; Harding and Sapp – weÕve already been through this process; Rosavich – problem exists in a lot of IDPs; Li – it needs addressing at a serious level; Sapp – the proposer of LACS 399 should open a dialogue with her department about possibility of compensation so that approval of this course does not set the precedent for no compensation ever for this course; Sapp – College policy is that 20 independent studies earns a course release; Harding – the number Ō20Õ was negotiated out of the policy so that there is more flexibility; Shaffer – why are independent studies in IDPs different, i.e. not counted for credit toward accumulation for compensation; Sapp – chair of ASCC should recommend to the proposer that if she wishes to explore issues of compensation, she should consult chair of her department; called motion to question, seconded by Rosavice; unanimous approval

 

Vote: 8 in favor, 1 absention

 

5.   Changes to the Minor in LACS

 

Informational session with invited guest present: Gisela Gil-Egui, co-director LACS; Gil-Egui – minor was too diluted, so language courses were removed and course addition was added; Weiss – proposal makes the workload extensive; proposal was difficult to figure out; what are the 18 credits going to be? Dean and Weiss were concerned with 18 credits of ŅrealÓ courses—why not have fewer alternative experiences count? Gil-Egui – internships count and are important and newly created independent study will also count and be potentially valuable; Weiss – will increase make recruitment for the minor more difficult? Gil-Egui – this was discussed in program meeting, but the substantive increase seemed important for pedagogy and more coordinated and better recruitment plan with IS will likely offset it; also, long-term plans for inclusion of Latino studies will also help in the future; Sapp – how many interns typically per year and who is in charge of them? Gil-Egui – typically 2, Brian Walker is usually in charge of the internships; Sapp – are you sure you want us to approve an 18 credit minor? Gil-Egui – the wishes of the faculty in the program are clear and definite, even though there is a risk of recruitment drops because we are committed to new more effective strategies of recruitment; Rosavich – the routing of the proposal needs to go through the ASCC, then the DeanÕs office, then the UCC; Sapp and Im – the next meeting of UCC is in May, past the Catalog deadline for the changes, so it will not be possible to go through approval process for next year.

 

Motion to approve – Rosavich; Sapp second

 

Discussion – Harding – steering committee has put thought into the proposal and we should look upon the proposal positively; Sapp – the program has strong leadership in GilEgui and Walker, and the faculty are committed, so the proposal should be looked upon favorably; Li – IÕd like to respect the steering committeeÕs decisions based on their expertise; Petrino – it is an attempt to make the program more rigorous so it should be looked upon favorably; Rosavich – we should respect the expertise and decisions of the people who are directly involved with the program and approve the changes as recommended by the steering committee; Shaffer – I support the motion; Weiss – I support the motion but have concerns about the increase in credits which seems less than rational for the goal of increasing rigor, given the recruitment risks and the extra workload potential for the faculty; Zhang – I support the motion and we should respect the expertise of the steering committee.

 

Vote: 8 (unanimous) approve

 

6.  Oversight of certificate programs offered in the college

 

Information: Harding received an email from Jill Deupi about certificate programs—who is eligible and who oversees the process. Weiss – policy for oversight process in College programs was issued last year by the committee: departmental approval, ASCC approval, then deanÕs approval; Sapp – courses offered in College, but all certificates are given by UC, which is not really under our purview; itÕs a marketing strategy used by UC; Weiss – some certificates are offered by departments within the college (e.g. in Mathematics); Im – if it isnÕt a certificate offered by a department in the college, itÕs not under our purview; Harding – the question should go to Edna Wilson, the dean of UC.

 

  1. Adjourned 5:00 p.m.

 

Submitted by Manyul Im