Undergraduate Academic Council
Meeting: UAC Meeting Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 12:30-1:30pm
Room: Undergraduate Ed Conference room LC31J.
Present: Maria Brown, Steven Doellefeld, Sue Faerman, Rick Fogarty, Timothy
Groves, Vincent Idone (guest), Bob Keesee, Maria Moon, and Joan Savitt (Chair).
Review of the minutes: Minutes from March 4th meeting were approved as
amended.
Report from the Chair:
The Chair submitted a report to the Senate, mentioning the Women’s
Studies Major changes, which could serve as a model for other
departments. She also reported to the Senate the UAC approval of the
Criminal Justice Honor’s program pending some course renumbering;
work on the Transfer Credit Appeals process mandated by SUNY; and
the interpretation of when the Dean’s List revisions passed in UAC in
the fall semester should go into effect. She also reported the Vice
Provost’s office’s initiative in going with the spirit of the University’s
“Going Green” project, where the Office of Undergraduate Education
will no longer be printing the Dean’s List certificates, and instead,
sending students an email from the Vice Provost congratulating them
on being named to the Dean’s List and telling them that a notation of
this accomplishment is being placed on their official transcripts. Also
reported were UAC’s recommendations for departments to use smaller
numbers of credits over several terms to report credits earned by
students in multi-term projects; UAC’s discussion of implications of
class size regulations; and UAC’s discussion of students taking
sequential courses out of sequence.
The Senate approved the Second Bachelor Degree with some minor wording
changes. The primary change related to the use of the term “four year degree” in
reference to the bachelor’s degree. It was acknowledged that in some cases, a
degree is granted for less than 4 years of studies (particularly international
universities), and in other cases, a degree might require more than 4 years. It
was agreed that the words, “baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution
of higher education” would be substituted for the original “four year degree
from an accredited institution.”
New Business: The UAC reviewed the proposed Curriculum Revisions
for the Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science and the related items
in the Atmospheric Science major and minor. Professor Vincent Idone attended
as a guest to answer any questions that the council had regarding this proposal.
The department is restructuring the curriculum to increase the rigor of the
program in an effort to attract and retain strong candidates for their majors and
minors. These changes will take effect Fall 2009. Students already enrolled in this
major will have the opportunity to continue their studies under the existing
graduation requirements. The council noted the revisions to the major included
the elimination of courses in Public Policy and learned that at least one student
had completed a minor in that area in addition to this major. Continued
collaboration between the two areas was urged. The proposal was approved.
The Curricular committee has some other pending curriculums which should
come to UAC soon.
Next meeting will be March 18th in LC31