Curriculum Committee Minutes
November 9, 1999
Present:
Barry, Breitenbach, Cooper, Ives, Kerrick, Kontogeorgopoulos, Livingston, Mitani,
Neff-Lippman, Neshyba (chair), Pasco-Pranger, Stevens, Warning, Washburn
Neshyba called the meeting to order at 4:04 p.m. The minutes for the meeting of November 2
were approved as posted.
Announcements. After distributing a table of committee members’ teaching schedules, Washburn
announced that the committee needs to select a meeting time for Spring 2000.
Report of the Historical Perspective Subcommittee. ACTION: Pasco-Pranger M/S/P that
History 254 (African American Voices: A Survey of African American History) be approved
as a Historical Perspective Core course. Pasco-Pranger declared the subcommittee to be
thoroughly satisfied that this course meets the guidelines for Historical Perspective, and she
praised in particular the ways that it enabled students to place themselves in a historical
continuum of past and present.
Report of the Humanistic Perspective Subcommittee. ACTION: Warning (chair) M/S/P that
Religion 290 (Mysticism and Esotericism) be approved as a Humanistic Perspective Core
course. Warning stated that this course was thorough in its treatment of the requirements for
Humanistic Perspective courses and that the instructor had agreed to include a discussion of the
Core goals in the course syllabus. Breitenbach asked if it was now committee policy that course
syllabi be expected to contain an explicit discussion of Core guidelines and goals. Stevens
observed that there has recently been a general movement toward such an expectation. Ives
noted that the guidelines for some Core rubrics—for example, Comparative Values—seem to
require that instructors provide definitions and assumptions relevant to the Core guidelines.
Presumably the syllabus would be one way to convey this information to students. PascoPranger noted that instructors who submit their Core courses for reapproval during the “fallow
year” have an opportunity to provide supplementary statements explaining how their courses
meet Core guidelines. Neff-Lippman said that this issue was part of a broader expectation that
instructors be explicit with students about the learning outcomes and goals in courses. Stevens
suggested that it might help students if the complete guidelines for Core rubrics were published in
the Bulletin. Barry said that non-majors, who were enrolled in a course to satisfy a Core
requirement, would benefit from having an explicit discussion of Core goals in the course
syllabus. Breitenbach noted that over the years one of the main causes of faculty exasperation
with the Curriculum Committee has been the feeling that instructors are being required to prepare
syllabi to meet the demands of the committee rather than the needs of the students. If in fact the
committee believes that students are the principal beneficiaries when instructors are explicit
about Core goals, the committee needs to communicate this message to the faculty who propose
courses for the Core, lest those faculty feel that they are being forced to jump through hoops.
Warning began to submit for reapproval a list of current Humanistic Perspective Core
courses. A question was raised about how to handle the reapproval of Core courses that have
multiple instructors, when the syllabi from some instructors do not meet the guidelines. After a
brief discussion, Warning decided to postpone his motion for reapproval until a later meeting.
Continuation of Calendar discussion. Having approved at the last meeting Calendar Option 2,
which creates two additional days in the fall semester, the committee returned to its discussion of
how to apportion those two days. Four possibilities were proposed and discussed: (1) Adding
one and one-half days to the existing fall break and adding one-half day to the Thanksgiving
break, (2) adding one day to the fall break and one day to the Thanksgiving break, (3) adding one
day to the fall break and one day as an additional class day, and (4) adding two days to the
existing fall break. Neshyba then led the committee through a series of straw votes, which
revealed that the second and third possibilities had the most support, and of those two, the former
was preferred. Members decided to postpone making a final decision about the calendar until the
next meeting, which will be held at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 16.
Washburn distributed a list of fall-semester starting dates for the years until 2020 and an updated
list of committee members. At 5:02 p.m. Stevens M/S/P to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted,
William Breitenbach
Secretary