Curriculum Committee Minutes
March 6, 2001
Present: Barry, Beck, Breitenbach, Clark, Kirkpatrick, Kontogeorgopoulos, Hale, Livingston, Mehlhaff,
Stevens, Sugimoto, Tomhave, Warning (chair), Washburn
Warning called the meeting to order at 9:00 am.
Approval of Minutes
Approval of the minutes was deferred to our next meeting because last week's meeting had not yet been
posted.
Discussion of new program in Japanese Studies
Breitenbach reported that the Japanese Studies program had withdrawn their proposed major from
consideration and was proposing a new minor. The proposed minor would require 5 units in Japanese,
201 or above, with at least one unit at the 400 level to be taken at the Tacoma campus. Much
discussion ensued about the issue of starting the requirements for foreign language minors at the 201
level. This entry point includes a prerequisite of the equivalent of 4 years of that language in high school
or two semesters in college. Mehlhaff argued that starting at 201 was the equivalent of requiring 6-7 units
for the minor, adding that the committee has discussed putting a cap of 6 units on minors.
Kontogeorgopoulos pointed out that minors in all the other foreign languages (except Chinese) start their
requirements at 201, and that the Japanese minor was designed to be consistent with that model. Barry
supplied the data that of the present 29 minors in Japanese, 7 of them had started at the 201 level,
whereas about half of students in European languages start at the 201 level. Sugimoto indicated that
some of those who started below 201 were probably capable of starting at 201. Barry suggested that test
scores could be used to place students and not give credit to students starting below their placement
level. Mehlhaff asked whether Japanese should be considered under the same model as the European
languages because the difficulty level is higher. Sugimoto concurred with that assessment, but indicated
that the fluency expectations for Japanese 201 were therefore lower than for those in the European
languages at the 201 level. Barry pointed out that the Foreign Languages and Literature departmental
review is coming up in 2002-2003 and we can reassess the issue of starting point consistency at that
point. Action: Breitenbach M/S/P approval of the new Japanese Studies minor as proposed. There
was one dissenting vote and one abstention.
Report of Comparative Values subcommittee
Sugimoto reported that the subcommittee recommended approval of Garratt's proposal, on behalf of the
Doliver Faculty Seminar, for Humanities 304: Ancients and Moderns for CV core status. There was some
discussion of how similar different versions of this course would be, whether they should all be approved
for CV status, and whether students should be allowed to take the course more than once for credit (as is
done with the various sections of some of the SCXT courses). It was agreed that all offerings of the
course would use the course description, and therefore should all be granted CV status. There was also
general agreement that the course was proposed as a single course with no intent or expectation that
students could take it more than once for credit. Action: Sugimoto M/S/P unanimously to approve
Humanities 304 for Comparative Values status.
The subcommittee also recommended reapproval of Philosophy 386: Existentialism, which had been
deffered from consideration during our fallow year. Sugimoto M/S/P unaimously reapproval of Phil 386
for CV status.
Report of Society subcommittee
Sugimoto M/S/P unanimously reapproval of CTA 442: Persuasion and Social Influence for Society
core status without discussion.
Report of the International Studies subcommittee
Barry M/S/P unanimously that PG 341: Mondern Political Theory be reapproved for International
Studies core status.
Report of the Natural World subcommittee
Barry M/S/P unanimously that Physics 106: Historical Development in the Physical Sciences:
Modern Physics be reapproved for Natural World core status.
At 9:50, dual motions adjourned the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Betsy Kirkpatrick
Temporary Secretary