April 14, 2015 Meeting Minutes University Studies Advisory Committee Meeting 4/14/2015 11:00 to 12:30 Pm Education Building Room 229 Meeting called by: Mahnaz Moallem Attendees: Thomas Coombs; Steven Emslie; Anita McDaniel; Paul Townend; Walker, Brad; Brandi Crowe; Rob Morgan; Cara Cilano; Michelle Vliem March Motions Announced that both USAC motions were approved by Faculty Senate in their March meeting. One of the motions was to request a year of reflection for USAC. One item on the motion is  Stop accepting or reviewing new course proposals for one academic year (2015‐
2016), except where need is strongly demonstrated by department/program. The committee discussed the need to create a form that makes it possible to decide whether a strong need is demonstrated for the submitted proposals for reviews. The committee agreed that Mahnaz and Cara work on drafting the form with a list of criteria before the semester ends and then have the committee members review and vote on it through e‐mail. The approved form by the committee will then be sent to the dept. chairs for their next year submission of the proposals that the need for reviewing them are strongly demonstrated. It was also discussed that the dept. chairs should be informed of the “first Monday of Sept. 2015” deadline for submitting their proposals for which the need is strongly demonstrated (using the new form that will be developed). It was suggested that the deadline information can be sent with the new form. Elect Chair for 2015‐2016 academic year The committee discussed the nomination of Paul Townend ‐‐who is currently Assistant Chair‐‐ to be the chair of the committee for the next academic year. Paul agreed to serve and the committee approved. At the beginning of the next academic year, the committee will elect an assistant chair. Cara provided results of this year’s assessment and explained that this year the focus will be on “critical thinking.” 1 The committee discussed the following issue and decided that the decision should be postpone to the next academic year when the committee’s self‐
study identifies the gaps.  At present, students can only double count either LDN or LGS once if the course also counts for another approaches and perspectives component.  However, students who take SPN 215/315 can use these courses to count for FLL/LDN AND can double count another course out of approaches and perspectives to the remaining LDN req. In other words, students enrolled in any of these four courses get to fulfill both LGS LDN through double counts. The following issue was also brought to the attention of the USAC. The current 2014‐5 catalog has the following inconsistencies related to ENG 210 and CLA 210 which are cross‐listed courses. CLA 210 is Writing Intensive. ENG 210 is not. ENG 210 is in the cluster: Ancient Thought and Culture, but CLA 210 is not. The committee recognized that there might be similar issues in the courses that have been approved, so next year’s reflection and self‐study is appropriate to identify the issues and gaps. For this item, Cara will check to see why ENG 210 is not listed as a Writing Intensive. 2