Minutes of College of Forest Resources All­College Faculty meeting of March 18, 2003. Attendees: Bare, Briggs, Brubaker, Chalker‐Scott, Ewing, Fridley, Greulich, Gustafson, Hodgson, Johnson, Lippke, Manuwal, Marzluff, Northey, Perez‐Garcia, Reichard, Ryan, Schiess, Schreuder, Sprugel, Turnblom, D. Vogt, K. Vogt, Wagar, Wolf, Zabowski. (During Spring Quarter, there are 48 faculty who are eligible to vote.) Also present: Green, Morgan, Trudeau. Paper Science and Engineering (PSE) Curriculum Revision
A motion was made and seconded to change the curriculum of the Paper Science and Engineering pursuant to the listing and information prepared and distributed via email to all faculty prior to the meeting [see attachment 1 following the main text of the minutes]. The discussion on this motion was lead by Kevin Hodgson, who pointed out the highlights of the proposed revised program. Most requirements of the new curriculum are in the junior and senior years. The seminar series will serve to unify the program; it replacing a similar non‐mandatory offering. He noted that the ABET accreditation review had recommended fewer required courses to give more flexibility to the program. Other favorable input was received from exit interviews and graduating students and interviews of former graduates. The Washington Pulp and Paper Foundation curriculum committee had also consulted on the revisions. To develop the plan, the participating faculty had started with a half‐day retreat, sub‐groups came to agreement on the various elements, which were then presented to the entire PSE faculty for acceptance, and industry curricular feedback was incorporated in the final plan. Higher enrollment in the courses should be realized, because Chemical Engineering has agreed to accept three of the 400 level courses as alternated for some of their requirements. In addition, restructuring the PSE 302 and 406 courses will make them more useful and suitable for non‐PSE students. The vote was taken by a show of hands. Of 26 faculty present (25 were eligible to vote), 25 voted to accept; there were no negative votes and no abstentions. Name of the non‐PSE undergraduate curriculum A motion was made and seconded to rename the non‐PSE undergraduate curriculum “Environmental Science and Resource Management.” The discussion was lead by Jim Fridley, who noted that there had been 31 responses to the initial email request for naming suggestions and another 26 that had ranked the proposed names. This name was clearly the most popular on the email responses and also from the survey of students. (See attached chart of expressed preferences.) Several points were made in the discussion. The name is NOT in reference to either the name of the graduate program or the College. The name will have to be approved by upper campus. The Program On the Environment (POE) might not be supportive of using “Environmental Science” (but POE does not have a degree program at this time). There was further discussion of the potential political ramifications of the name. The vote was called; on a show of hands, there were 16 yes, 4 no and 5 abstentions. Masters degree in Forest Management A motion was made and seconded to approve professional Masters degree in Forest Management, as outlined in the draft distributed March 7 (“Draft 7,” attached). David Briggs led the discussion of the professional Masters, based on the draft distributed March 7 (“Draft 7”). One issue of concern is SAF accreditation. This model would maintain the College association with SAF and its accreditation program, but at the graduate level, rather than the undergraduate. After some discussion, there was a consensus that Forest Economics should be added to the requirements. The vote was called; on a show of hands, the motion passed with 25 yes votes and no abstentions. Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry A motion was made and seconded to change the name of the current MFR in Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry to Masters in Environmental Horticulture (MEH). Linda Chalker‐Scott led the discussion. The goal is to have the name reflect what is actually encompassed by the program and is an equivalent degree designation to the new Masters in Forestry. On a show of hands, the vote was 24 yes, 1 no, with no abstentions. Designations and coursework structure for the graduate programs Two motions were presented and seconded. Linda Brubaker led the discussion. As background, she explained that, based on a meeting with the Provost and the Provost’s staff, it is clear that the College needs to further reduce the number of emphasis areas in the graduate programs, just as has been done at the undergraduate level. Accordingly, the ad hoc committee has developed a proposal for a common graduate program for both the MS and PhD degrees, including a common course work structure. Motion 1: The current UW administrative designations for our graduate programs will be deleted, resulting in separate UW designations for only the MS, PhD and professional masters degree programs. A vote was called; on a show of hands, the motion passed with 25 yes votes and no abstentions. Motion 2: The coursework structure for the College’s Master of Science and Doctoral degrees shall be: 1) Masters degree Orientation: • 1‐2 credits: single course taken by all incoming graduate students Disciplinary Knowledge: • Minimum 10 credits (400 – 500 level): menu driven Research Design and Quantitative Analysis: • Minimum 8 credits (400 – 500 level): menu driven Social and Natural Sciences Applied to Natural Resource and Environmental Issues: • 3‐5 credits (400 – 500 level): single course or (short) menu driven Current Topics: • 2 credits (500 level): topics vary from year to year Thesis research: • CFR 700 (9 credits UW minimum) 2) Doctoral Degree Same as for Masters Degree with one additional course in each of the categories: Research Methods/Statistics, Current Topics and Fundamental Knowledge, plus 27 credits of CFR 800. A vote was called; on a show of hands, the motion passed with 25 yes votes and no abstentions. The meeting was adjourned at 5:05.