Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee
Minutes from the Meeting of March 2, 2005
Present :
Lindsey Bachman
June Deery
Jeff Durgee
Ted Krueger
Sharon Kunkel
Prabhat Hajela
Amir Hirsa
Lee Odell
Dick Smith
Christoph Steinbruchel, chair
David Spooner
Sam Wait
1) The minutes from the meetings of 2/16/05 and 2/23/05 were approved with the following
minor corrections noted: From 2/23/05 pg 1, item 1 it should read append not amend and
from 2/16/05 pg 1, item 1 should read see not se.
2) Communications Requirement Update- Lee Odell distributed an email and questions from
the chair of the Faculty Senate regarding the proposed Communication requirement. The
Committee read and offered some editing comments as well as suggestions in order to
respond to the questions. The suggestions and discussion included the following points:
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The proposal recommends 2 writing courses, should one be intensive?
We don’t want to minimize the requirement
The requirement is called a communication requirement not a writing
requirement
 Feedback indicates one course should be a how-to-write course
 Communication should be pervasive throughout the curriculum
 Need a subcommittee to regularly review the courses to make sure they meet the
criteria
 Need to structure courses so individuals and teams write well
 The requirement should be stronger to help RPI lead in this area
 RPI needs a more comprehensive approach
 Can we implement without adding immensely to the burden on the faculty?
 There are ways to teach graduate assistants. Non-native speakers make the
challenge greater.
 To ensure that there is feedback, need more than just 2 courses
The Committee endorsed the suggested responses. L. Odell will send them on to Bruce
Nauman and forward a copy to the Committee.
3) Course Changes
 School of Engineering- D. Smith presented a course description change for ECSE
4460 Control Systems Design
 School of Science – S. wait presented course description change for PHYS 6590
Statistical Mechanics
 School of Management and Technology-J. Durgee presented 2 course deletions:
MGMT 4200- Financial Accounting and Reporting 1
MGMT 4210- Auditing for Managerial Control
Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee
Minutes from the March 2, 2005 meeting
4) Core Outcomes Discussion (Continued) – A copy of the Georgia Tech General Education
Mission Statement was distributed for information. There was some discussion of this
document. There was a consensus that understanding the terms used is critical i.e.
Outcomes vs. objective vs. performance measures vs. assessment. We need to define what
the core is. Is it the first 2 years or all 4 years? Not everything can be covered by a course.
After some further discussion, the Committee agreed to go back to the original outcomes
approved by the FSCC and rather than the points developed by the Faculty Senate. At the
next meeting the Committee will try to develop a revised set of outcomes.
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