Undergraduate Academic Council
Meeting Date:
Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 12:00 Noon-1:02 PM.
Present:
J. Philippe Abraham, Scott Barclay, Maria Brown, Ivan Edelson, Sue Faerman, Susanna Fessler,
Carolyn MacDonald, Carolyn Malloch, John Monfasani, Dan Smith, Brian Tregerman, Lisa
Trubitt, Daniel Truchan. Guests: Anne Hildreth, Sue Phillips
Minutes:
Minutes from the March 20, 2007 meeting were reviewed and corrections acknowledged. Those
minutes, with required updates, were approved.
Follow-Up to the Revisions to Medieval and Renaissance Studies Major and Minor:
A few changes were added to the proposal. The words “when appropriate” were changed to
“approval required”. The requirement of a minimum of 36 credits was included under the
“General Program B.A.” section. Susanna will electronically forward the updated the corrected
version for inclusion into the minutes. The Council voted to support the revisions and proposal.
Continued Discussion of the Changes in the Gen Ed Program:
A member mentioned discovering the explanation difficult and questioned whether it would be
less complicated if Global and Cross-Cultural Studies could be combined with Regions Beyond
Europe. He mentioned that in his view U.S. Diversity & Pluralism is redundant with U.S.
History. The changes we have agreed on in our discussion thus far bring our social sciences,
natural sciences, and foreign language requirements in line with the minimum SUNY mandates.
We should do the same with U.S. Diversity & Pluralism. One member mentioned that the way
U.S. History courses are taught today avoids a narrow political history and instead emphasizes
gender, race, ethnicity, etc., and argues that U.S. History and Regions Beyond Europe classes
would not be taught without diversity. It was pointed out that currently there is virtually no
overlap between courses that satisfy U.S. Diversity and Pluralism and those that satisfy the U.S.
History requirement, suggesting that U.S. Pluralism and Diversity in not redundant with U.S.
History. Another member noted that the U.S. Diversity & Pluralism category is not supposed to
cover only a historical perspective. Last year and the year before, course availability was an
issue that several units on campus were focused on. Our current available software allows us to
locate gaps, add courses, and mount additional courses, and so we have been able to make
considerable progress on the course availability problem. If we find in the future that demand
outpaces seats and that students have to fulfill too many gen ed requirements for graduation, we
need to review the situation. A member mentioned that having increased the number of available
seats along with eliminating native and transfer discrepancies has resulted in a more equitable,
efficient status between the University and other SUNY campuses. . One member asked that we
be clear about whether we are evaluating the General Education program from an efficiency
point of view or from the perspective of its intellectual content. A member mentioned that
having the U.S. Pluralism & Diversity requirement would help students understand the diversity
of the world. The previously reviewed handout for unmet gen ed requirements was referenced.
Among the three categories on which the discussion was focused (Global & Cross Cultural
Studies, Regions Beyond Europe, and U.S. Diversity & Pluralism), U.S. Diversity & Pluralism
had the highest proportion of students who had met the requirement. Regions Beyond Europe
seems to be the gen ed requirement with the greatest enrollment pressure for students. A
member mentioned that if an overlap between History and US Diversity and Pluralism occurs it
UAC Minutes, 3/27/07
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may be because the knowledge of one area builds upon the knowledge in the other, and that
History courses can provide information that is expanded upon and developed in a deeper and
more critical way in a US Diversity and Pluralism course. Only after a more thorough
examination of these issues in the US context can students appreciate the comparative details.
Some members believe that if diversity was not locally-mandated, many students would not
register for diversity courses, but that would also be true for math, language, etc. Although we
want students to learn about the U.S. experience, we also want them to learn other countries of
the world as well. A student representative mentioned his discussions with other students. Many
transfer students were shocked that the University had reduced gen ed requirements. Other
students’ perspective is that they should not be forced to complete gen ed requirements which are
not a part of their major, since they want to graduate in four years. The more education on
diversity groups that is received, the more diversity appreciation a student can obtain. Currently,
Regions Beyond Europe requires knowledge of the distinctive features of one region (e.g., His
177). No classes currently double count as both Regions Beyond Europe and Global and CrossCultural Studies. The current proposal modifies the learning objectives so that courses in the
Region Beyond Europe category can include more than one region and so courses will be able to
double count with Global & Cross Cultural Studies.
The Council voted on the following:
Eliminate U.S. Diversity & Pluralism and then combine Global and Cross-Cultural
Studies with Regions Beyond Europe: rejected by a 2-10 vote.
- Combine Global and Cross-Cultural Studies with U.S. Diversity & Pluralism into a new
category entitled “Global and Pluralism”: failed by a 5-7 vote.
-Change the learning objectives for Regions Beyond Europe to allow for courses to cover
multiple “regions”: passed unanimously.
The Council voted unanimously to approve the amended proposal.
-The Council voted unanimously that changes should become effective Summer, 2007 for all
enrolled students.
Next Meeting:
The next Undergraduate Academic Council meeting will be held Tuesday, 4/17/07, 12:00 Noon,
LC-31J.
Minutes Taken:
Notes taken by Joanne Baronner, Undergraduate Education.