Undergraduate Academic Council
Meeting: UAC Meeting Wednesday, April 22nd 2009, 12:30-1:30pm
Room: Undergraduate Ed Conference room LC31J.
Present: J. Philippe Abraham, Maria Brown, Yu-Hui Chen, Steven Doellefeld,
Sue Faerman, Timothy Groves, Jane Kessler, Maria Moon, Sue Phillips, Joan
Savitt (Chair), Greg Stevens, Dan White and Bob Yagelski.
Review of the minutes: Minutes from April 15th meeting were approved as
amended.
Report from the Chair: During the Executive Senate meeting the Chair
talked about the proposal for transfer of credit for students with an
International Baccalaureate Degree who meet proposed guidelines. She will
bring this back to the Senate once a small part of the proposal is reworded.
The Chair also presented the Education Studies Minor proposal. This proposal
generated many reactions in the Senate; some members felt that what the
School of Education was requesting was fair including the required 3.00 GPA
as well as the School’s concern regarding their resources. It was not clear in
the rationale what will happen to students who are enrolled in the program
who are part of the Middle Earth Program, and other programs. UAC
members commented that this proposal is in line with other minors that also
have a GPA requirement of 3.00 or higher. The Chair noted that this will be
discussed in the final Senate meeting, and the entire matter is likely to be
referred to UPC for additional consideration.
The Chair said that the Community Rights and Responsibilities text is going
to be revised (it has not been updated for a very long time). She encouraged
members to take a look at it and identify any outdated information so that its
content can be properly updated.
The Chair will bring to the next Senate meeting the new Psy-Bio
Neuroscience Minor proposal.
Old Business:
Review of the proposal for admission of students with an
International Baccalaureate degree. The Council again revised this
proposal and did some rewording for clarity. Some members suggested that
since this proposal will give 6-18 credits which will be assigned to CAS 010Z,
UAC should check with the General Education committee to make sure they
will not have a problem with these students receiving credit for Writing
Intensive. Working under the presumption the GE committee will concur with
the spirit of this proposal; members of the Council voted and approved the
proposal. This proposal will take effect Fall 2009. It will be presented to the
Senate for vote on May 4th.
New Business:
Revision of the Informatics Minor: The College of Computer and
Informatics is proposing two revisions to this minor: 1) They are adding five
departments: Arts, Computer Science, Economics, Physics and Women’s
Studies. 2) They are proposing a modified way for enrollment courses taught
in the School of Business: they want to replace B ITM 331 in their core
requirements with I INF 202. Also they want to remove B ITM 330 from their
upper division courses. Their reasons for changes are as follows:
“The rationale for both changes is the same: At the time of creation of the
Minor (AY 2005-06), the Department of Information Technology Management
(ITM), School of Business, was willing to allow unrestricted access to ITM 331
for students in the Minor and to waive the prerequisite of ITM 330. With the
benefit of subsequent experience, ITM concluded that this was not feasible
because of accreditation-related GPA restrictions for the School and because
of inadequate preparation of the non-Business students in the Minor. The
same GPA-threshhold issue applies for ITM 330. Hence, unlike the rest of the
Minor, these two courses are not generally available to all students at the
University”.
Each area added within the minor has a course in common with the major
(but not double counted with the major). Some members did not see the
connection between some of the courses listed in the cognate and the
proposed revised minor. It was agreed that the School should provide
justification on how these courses will be connected to the proposed minor.
Dr. DeLong will be contacted to have him explain this part of the proposal.
Once he responds, the committee will try to vote on this revised proposal
next week or via email so it can be reported to Senate at its last meeting,
May 4th.
Neuroscience Minor: The minor will consist of 21 credits and will be
composed of preexisting courses in both Biology and Psychology. This minor
will only affect these two departments. They are proposing only one new
course which will be a 3 credit, 400 level course, cross listed with both
departments. This minor will not require any Biology labs as a prerequisite.
The proposal is trying to “promote an interdisciplinary approach to learning
that crosses traditional department lines”.
Some members were wondering what would be the value of this minor to the
university or to these departments. C&H members will review this minor and
then UAC will try to vote via email or at the next UAC meeting so that a bill
can be brought to the Senate.
Meeting adjourned at 1:30pm.
Next meeting will be April 29th from 12:30 to 1:30PM in the Terrace LoungeCampus Center.