Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee
Minutes from the March 21, 2007 Meeting
Present:
Prabhat Hajela
David Hess
June Deery
Sharon Kunkel
John Schroeder
Mike Wozny, chair
Lee Odell
Ken Warriner
Dick Smith
David Spooner
Regrets from Kevin Craig and Sam Wait
1) The minutes from the February 21, 2007 meeting were approved unanimously.
2) School of Engineering (SoE)- Dick Smith provided an overview of proposed course
changes:
 MANE 4260 Design of Mechanical Systems
description change
 MANE 4860 Intro to Helicopter Design
description change
 MANE 4230 Air Vehicle Design
title change
Course deletion:
 DSES 2010 Statistics for Management
The Committee accepted the changes and deletion as presented.
3) School of Science (SoS) - Dave Spooner presented some course changes.
 BIOL 4400 Bioterrorism–change in credit from 3 to 4 credits
 ISCI 4510 Origins of Life Seminar- change in grading from S/U to regular letter
grades. It needs an Academic Integrity statement.
 BIOL 1010 – Introduction to Biology-new description which includes the
laboratory component. This format will put greater demand on the current
classroom and lab facilities used for the course. The SoS is committed to do what
needs to be done to offer it in this format.
Course Deletion:
BIOL 1020- Intro to Biology Laboratory
All of the changes and the deletion were approved subject to the minor changes
suggested by the Committee.
4) School of Humanities and Social Science (SoH&SS) - Lee Odell provided the Committee
with the rationale for their proposed changes.
 A new concentration for the BS in Communication called Graphic Design: Theory,
Research, Practice. The courses have been taught and there is enough faculty to
teach the courses regularly. The template should be corrected to note that MATH
1500 is Calculus for Arch, Mgmt and H&SS.
 Minor in Game Studies- L. Odell presented changes to the minor in Game Studies.
The Committee recommended a change to the text “3 courses may include an
independent study in one of the following areas”.
Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee
March 21, 2007
The FSCC unanimously approved the concentration and revisions to the minor in
Game Studies subject to the suggested changes.
5) School of Architecture (SoA)- Ken Warriner distributed a minor template change for the
B. Arch program. The change was approved unanimously.
6) ABET Outcomes in Engineering- Dick Smith reviewed the ABET accreditation criteria for
Program Outcomes and Assessment. He summarized how the SoE has met the ABET
requirements.
 Objectives are broad statements that describe the accomplishments you expect your
graduates will achieve. The SoE uses an alumni survey and other survey
instruments as well as an advisory council. The program outcomes are what we
expect students to know and are able to do when they graduate. These are more
difficult to measure and ABET wants colleges to use direct measures. Our
Engineering departments are using specific language and have included statements
in the catalog to help with this assessment. Rensselaer can determine the criteria
but ABET will map it to their defined program outcomes. Some criteria is more
difficult to measure than others. The process is very similar to what has been
discussed for the Institute, so the SoE is not uncomfortable moving to this campuswide.
7) Core Outcomes and Assessment in H&SS- David Hess distributed a proposal that the
SoH&SS departments have been developing. The proposal is oriented to the Middle States
Outcomes and it has been an iterative process in the School. He’d like some feedback so
the SoH&SS will have a sense if they are on track. A discussion followed:
 Pg 1, item 3: Students who have completed the H&SS core should be able to: Make
informed and principled choices and to foresee the consequences of these choices. This
statement needs context. The word “principled” may define this outcome too narrowly.
There are many principles based on business or country etc.
 Assessment- This component of the proposal seems to make sense. The Committee
suggested a better last sentence.” Assessment will be conducted at a program level for the
effectiveness of the H&SS core as a whole, not for individual courses. The four types of
assessment will take place on a rotation. For example, one type might occur once each
year”.
 P. Hajela has recommended establishing a central assessment office on campus. D. Hess is
worried about the faculty losing control if there is a central office. Faculty would need to
be part of this kind of office. Their buy-in and support is critical. Providing faculty release
time if they are staffing an assessment office might be an option.
 Getting graduates to respond to surveys is difficult. A conference for different programs
to survey the students would yield a better response. It might be possible to use the annual
reunion or invite alumni here during the year which would give the undergraduates a
chance to interact with them.
 A portfolio can be done but it is time intensive and students are not always
honest/reflective about their portfolio. Students have to be taught how to evaluate their
own work honestly.
 D. Hess would like to see a similar document coming from the SoS for the science core
and perhaps at the major level. He suggested parsing these into 3 groups which will make
it easier to understand who is doing what. From that we could identify any Institute wide
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Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee
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March 21, 2007
outcomes. The more overlap the better. D. Hess agreed to parse the outcomes into 3
groups and will bring them back to the Committee for further discussion.
It’s important to keep this initiative on track. One suggestion was to hold a series of
hearings sponsored by FSCC with a goal to produce a document by year end.
J. Deery suggested developing a sample or template process to help.
D. Spooner will see if he can provide something from SoS for next time. K. Warriner will
see what he can do for the SoA. Management and Architecture don’t offer core courses so
they will look at their programs.
No action was taken. The Committee will discuss further.
8) M. Wozny distributed the No Solicitation/No Distribution policy for information purposes.
It will be discussed at the Faculty Senate meeting.
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