University Studies Committee Meeting
Minutes (taken by AP)
11-11-09
In Attendance: Amanda Boomershine, Deron Fort, Ken Gurganus, Woody Hall, Kemille Moore, Chris
Orton, Anne Pemberton, Kim Sawrey, Linda Siefert, and Alison Taylor
Committee action items are in red
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Discussion of new website (http://uncw.edu/universitystudies)
o Links on left side of template (site navigation) can only be changed by Marketing and
Communications
o Concern about other pages not being completed
 This page is not currently linked anywhere else
 The site is not linked from anywhere currently
o AB and KS will draft sentences for sections for parents, students, advising, etc.
o Colored boxes at bottom:
 KS suggested linking to Synergy (common reading program), applied learning,
international programs
 These are connected to University Studies but not “controlled” by University
Studies
 We can link to these for now and make changes as needed
o Primary focus needs to be on faculty “page” right now as other information will be
completed later
 Specific url for faculty site can be sent to faculty when ready:
http://uncw.edu/universitystudies/faculty.html
o “What’s New” section discussion
 AB added links but these can be changed
 The page does not look good without text or an image in this location
 The links AB added are relevant
 Perhaps we might add, “Call for Proposals” as one of the links in this section
 New courses might be highlighted here as well
o Final Report
 There is a reformatted report on the Senate website:
http://www.uncw.edu/facsen/. This can be accessed as a .pdf file or a Word
document. These have the amendments noted:
http://www.uncw.edu/facsen/documents/SenateapprovedB.S.Reportwithchanges.pdf
 A final version of the report needs to be created that can be put on the website
and available to faculty
 The report can be linked in multiple places
 The report needs more consistency especially with common requirements
 It needs to be clear what departments need to know/do
 KS will work on this
 Eventually the final report may need to be broken up for public consumption
o
Hints and Tips document (Created by KM)
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KM used some of the information available on the Eastern Michigan website to
create this document (http://www.emich.edu/gened/)
Encouraging faculty to know the curriculum
• Where will curriculum information “live” on the website?
• This can be put in multiple places
• Initially, it should reside on the faculty page
Need to encourage faculty to propose courses fit in multiple components
• Ideally, a course would satisfy more than one component
• Fear that faculty will only consider the component related to their
discipline/department
• Departments need to propose courses for information literacy and writing
intensive in addition to others
o Need to make this clear for departments
Need to balance encouragement and support with an overwhelming amount of
directions
Edits to hints and tips document (KM edited during meeting):
• Need to change deadline to 3/31
• Create internal references within the document as needed
• Information about double counting is listed at the end of the document
KM will continue editing and will send this out tomorrow
o
Discussion about submission process
 Submissions will go to Danette Brown
• KS needs to make sure Danette has access to e-mail
(universitystudies@uncw.edu) to receive submissions
 Danette will route them to us or to CAS
o
More on report, forms, website, etc.
 All labels need to be consistent to avoid confusion
 “Course Proposal Cover Form” versus “University Studies Course Proposal
Form”
o
Discussion about sizes of boxes on proposal forms
 Concerns about limiting the amount of text faculty may include
 AT was able to include 5 SLOs and this only took up half the size of the box
 KG will attempt to put his SLOs into the box to determine how much space is
available
 Will see if there are problems and address them if they arise
o
AT passed out her example form that she completed for BIO 201 (this was sent via e-mail
previously)
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Rubric
 LS discussed the University Studies Course Proposal Rubric which will be used
to evaluate submissions for preliminary approval
 LS made modifications to the rubric to provide consistency in wording and to
match the four boxes required on each proposal form
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LS has put this on SharePoint and will e-mail this to the committee
LS and KS will review AT’s proposal based on the rubric
 This will help evaluate both the rubric and the proposal
Additional minutes taken by AT:
Proposal Examples:
KS, KM and KG will complete drafts of their example proposals and circulate via mail and
Sharepoint ASAP. AT will also upload previously circulated BIO example on Sharepoint. All
examples will be reviewed and scored with rubric by as many members of the committee as possible, with
a consensus on these being agreed via email to expedite the process by the end of this week. Those
using the rubric will, if necessary, feedback comments on it to LS.
Website:
AB will modify the 'Faculty' page so that instructions are positioned above the forms.
Capstone component form link needs to go live.
Other:
AT requested clarification on the 'Experiences Beyond the Classroom' component and whether
Departments should expect to identify and propose suitable offerings during this first submission round to
meet the 2011-2012 catalogue deadline. Although a similar approach to that taken in developing the
'Capstone' category forms (i.e. use the US Report to identify a universal SLO) was considered, the
general consensus was that the committee was unlikely to accomplish this in the near future, and the
EBC category would not be part of this initial US submission cycle.