Curriculum Committee Minutes
January 16, 2001
Present: Barry, Beck, Breitenbach, Clark, Kirkpatrick, Kontogeorgopoulus, Lenderman,
Livingston, Mehlhaff, Neff-Lippman, Pinzino, Stevens, Tomhave, Warning, Washburn.
Newly elected Chair Warning called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. Warning expressed his
delight at beginning this semester's meeting cycle and with the committee members. Warning
announced that the duties of secretary will rotate in alphabetical order pending the return of newly
elected secretary Pasco-Pranger. Committee members introduced themselves as Betsy
Kirkpatrick and Curt Mehlhaff are joining the committee for Spring semester. Warning announced
that Kirkpatrick and Mehlaff will take the subcommittee duties of Warning and Pasco-Pranger who
have accepted the offices of committee chair and secretary, respectively.
The minutes of the December 5, 2000 were approved.
Announcements:
Warning reviewed the committee's tasks for the semester. Departmental reviews will be a
priority. Two new sub-committees have been formed: Japanese Studies (Members: Konto,
Pasco-Pranger, Mehlhaff) and CMTN IIA (Members Niff-Lippman, Beck, Kirkpatrick). Warning's
suggested strategy for the semester includes starting at 9:00, sending out material in advance so
no new material is introduced during the meeting, and sticking closely to the committee's charge.
Pinzino asked if sub-committee reports would fall under the rubric "new things." Warning replied
that sub-committee reports were not new things in his mind but that the process of sub-committee
reporting may be helpfully rethought.
Barry encouraged all sub-committee to get together soon to continue their work. Washburn
noted that many departmental reviews needed to be completed prior to the March catalog
deadline.
Barry distributed a report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Assessment of Education Goal G/7:
The development of a system of persona values. He encouraged members to read it silently on
their own and to notify him if they were interested in the design of focus groups around the issues
raised by the survey.
Continuation of Consideration of Revisions to Curriculum Statement:
Barry reviewed the areas of the Curriculum Statement that still require committee attention.
Mehlhaff asked for an explanation of the rationale for this process. Barry stated that the
rationale is two-fold. First, the changes in the core necessitate changes in the curriculum
statement. Second, It is necessary to prepare a statement that is well-framed to facilitate faculty
discussion.
Mehlaff asked if there was a deadline for finishing the curriculum statement deliberations.
Barry noted that he hoped we are done before the 1st faculty meeting on the core (February 13,
2001).
At Breitenbach's suggestion it was agreed to start at the beginning of the document and work
through unresolved issues.
The committee began with the second paragraph of the first section. Committee members
asked clarifying question. ACTION: Neff-Lippman M/S/P to accept the changes to the
paragraph made by Barry.
The committee moved to Section III G. Neff-Lippman asked if the foreign language course
could be taken pass/fail. Stevens asked if any core course could be taken pass/fail. The
question was deferred to the faculty. ACTION: Livingston M/S/P to accept section III G as
revised and to remove H.
Page 6, Section IV B was the next item addressed by the committee. Mehlhaff inquired
regarding the consequences of the word "will" in a statement of sequence. Breitenbach stated
the "will" is imperative and the phrase "is expected to" might be more appropriate. Stevens noted
that the Freshman experience should be done in the first year. Breintenbach considered that it
would be impractical to deny graduation to a student because Freshman requirements were not
completed in the 1st year. Warning wondered if the language does not already allow for
exceptions. Neff-Lippman warned against opening up the requirement too much and making it
subject to abuse. Tomhave suggested that the Academic Standards Committee would rather not
entertain petitions to take a core course out of sequence and that it is advisors, not students who
generally make use of these guidelines. Kirkpatrick clarified that we were taking only about
sequence. ACTION: Kontogeorgopoulus M/S/P that the word "will" be replaced with the
phrase "are expected to" and the phrase "the eight" be inserted into the opening
paragraph.
The committee next considered replacing "third or fourth" with "Junior or Senior" in the final line
of section IV B. ACTION: Breitenbach M/S/P to substitute "junior or senior" for "third or
fourth" year.
At 9:50 a.m. Stevens M/S/P to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted,
Terence Beck
Secretary Draftee