College Advisory Council
Sciences Committee
Minutes
November 10, 2011
Scheduled Meeting Time: 3:30 – 5:00 PM
341 Strong Hall
Present: Angell (BIO), Edwards (CHEM), Ikeji (COSC), Clark (GEOG&GEOL),
Rescorla (MATH), Behringer (PHY & ASTR), Nord (Science DH), Tornquist (CAS
Dean’s Office)
1. Clark moved to approve the Sept minutes. Seconded and approved. Unanimous
approval.
2. Report circulated on the Oct actions: Christine moved to approve report. Discussion:
“Nice report. Had all the details.” Passed unanimously.
3. Old business:
 GEOG 376 Geographic Information Systems Analysis & GEOG 476 Advanced
Geographic Information Systems: Hugh Semple says that he is willing to deal
with the fallout of students from different cohorts having inverted courses (e.g., a
student from an old cohort repeating a course that now has a new number that is
the same as another course the student may already have taken).
Motion approved.
 GEOG 678 still tabled until feedback from Computer Science is received.
New Business
1. ESSC 101 Introduction to Weather and Forecasting
-Comments:
+ Committee: “There is a lab with the class, but no cost analysis with the
lab.”
+Clark responded for the instructor and suggested the following: Lab
costs are expected to be low due to the fact that students will use
computers for these labs.
+ Move to approve, Motion passed (new course approved unanimously).
2. ESSC 324 Weather
-Comments:
+ None.
-Revised Course approved with one abstention.
3. Earth Science Minor ESSC Secondary Ed Minor
-Comments
+ Committee: “Why do this?”
+ Clark’s response: This change has been proposed because it is thought
that adding a class in HYDO and 324 Meteorology will help students pass
their certification exam. Wanted to make the Earth Science Minor
accessible to Math and Science majors (not majors who do not have a
strong background in math or physical sciences). The program wanted to
make “Weather” and “Intro Hydro” courses required. This would increase
the credit hours for the minor by 6 credits (or nine if they don’t have
math). Hopefully, this change will facilitate students successfully passing
the teaching certification exam.
+ Clark reported us that the dept. had approved this change (even though
the application did not have this information).
+ The submitted materials indicate that students must take MATH 105,
but students can take other math classes to fulfill this requirement (this
should be made clear).
Motion approved with comments (unanimous).
4. GEOG 150 Sustainable Development
+ Comments: Title overlap (proposed course title is too similar to ENVI 105
Introduction to Environment and Society)
+ Offical Comment: Name does not reflect the proposed course description.
+ Committee suggested some potential titles:
1. Sustainability and Society
-- or -2. Introduction to Sustainability
Committee voted to send the proposal back to the Department with the suggested
name change.
5. Geo Tourism Concentration name change request.
+ Approved (unanimous)
6. GEOL Geology Minor – Program Revision + Motion to approve revision passed unanimounsly. 7. We discussed the following program revisions as a group: GEOL General Concentration – Program Revision (4 pp.) GEOL Hydrogeology Concentration – Program Revision (4 pp.) GEOL Professional Concentration – Program Revision (5 pp.) Comment: Proposals rejected because there is only one writing intensive (WI) course presently being offered even though the proposal suggests to students that more than one WI course exists. Committee recommends that the proposal be resubmitted once an alternative writing course is on the books. (send it back when you have an alternate WI course, or if the language about an unspecified WI course is removed). (1 abstention). +Also, although the officially submitted proposals were incorrect, Christine had the correct documents and the committee reviewed these instead of the submitted materials. The documents that were officially approved by the department were considered (not the submitted documents). 8. PC 540 UV-­‐Cure Coatings Commments: + Cover letter says it was received by 9-­‐30. Why did the Science Subcommittee not have these documents until the November meeting? This proposal could have been reviewed in October, but we were not given the opportunity to do this for reasons that are unclear. + The proposal has internal inconsistencies concerning how many semesters this course covers even though it is a 2 credit course. + Evaluation is internally inconsistent (quizzes are listed without being mentioned in other grading descriptions). This will require a program revision at some point if they want it to count as a restricted elective. + Catalog description needs editing. Proposal Returned (unanimous vote) 9. COT Information Assurance Concentration + Two new concentrations within the existing Master’s Program for Information Security (to renamed Information Assurance) are proposed. + Two concentrations have very similar names (Information Assurance and Information Assurance Management). + The description of the proposed concentrations is not complete (courses in the proposed concentrations are not specified). + The Science Subcommittee would like to see the MOU that states the CAC agrees not to be privy to the curriculum of this program. + The proposal only lists three concentrations, but the concentration they are attempting to revise is not listed. Proposal returned (unanimous vote) Respectfully submitted,
Stephen Jefferson
Sciences Committee Secretary
With amendments by Ernie Behringer (Sciences Committee Chair)