FACULTY SENATE CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
Minutes from the meeting April 28, 2004
Present: Tom Apple
Lindsey Bachman
June Deery
Gary Gabriele
Mike Goldenberg
Amir Hirsa
Carl McDaniel
Kim Herkert
Chris McDermott
Robert Messler
Lee Odell
Bob Sands
David Spooner
Christoph Steinbruchel, chair
Mike Wozny
1. The minutes from the meeting of April 14, 2004 were approved unanimously. The discussion
on the H&SS Core requirements will continue in Fall of 2004.
2. Rensselaer at Hartford-
Rensselaer at Hartford is cutting back the number of courses they offer. As a result, there are
three proposed changes to the existing MS degree in Computer Science. The first being the
addition of three new course: ECSE 6770 (Software Engineering I), ECSE 4670 (Computer
Communications Networks) and CSCI 4380 (Database Systems). The second change is revising
the culminating experience (CISH 6900) to 3 credits. The last change is to modify existing course
credits and return to 3 credit versions of CSCI 4210 (Operating Systems) and CSCI 4380 (Database
Systems) to be taught at Hartford. R. Messler suggested converting these courses to CISH to
alleviate confusion with Troy campus courses and the difference in credit hours. The MS in CSCI
at Hartford was approved unanimously.
3. School of Humanities and Social Sciences- Life Science Requirement
A memo from H&SS was distributed with the proposed Life Science requirement for H&SS majors.
The memo should list BIOL 1010 (Introduction to Biology) not BIOL 1040 as the requirement. C.
McDaniel commented that advanced placement credit for the Biology AP exam does not replace
BIOL 1010. The Biology department does not accept AP for intro courses because they are not
equivalent to college courses and do a disservice to the student. He recommended that if a
student receives a score of 5, the student could get 3 credits of Biology elective. Lee Odell agrees
and will try to get the Curriculum Committee to change the recommendation. Bob Messler
commented that the purpose of Life Sciences is to expose all undergrads to a course in modern
biology because high school biology does not. He agreed with Carl McDaniel that it leaves the
student feeling ill prepared.
4. School of Humanities and Social Science
The Cognitive Science department proposed a change in the subject designation of graduate
courses from PHIL/PSYC to COGS. The following new number changes were approved
unanimously:
COGS 6940- Readings in Cognitive Science
COGS 6960- Topics in Cognitive Science
COGS 6980- Master’s Project
COGS 6990- Master’s Thesis
COGS 9990- Doctoral Thesis
Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee
Minutes from April 28, 2004
5. Academic Integrity Statement
C. Steinbruchel is looking to come to some closure on this issue. There are two basic principles.
The infractions should be listed in as much detail as possible and sanctions should be listed in as
much detail also. L. Odell would like to see an explicit statement from the instructor regarding
plagiarism. G. Gabriele indicated that those two pieces are consistent now with the policy in the
handbook. L. Odell indicated that there is a statement in the handbook; however, it says the exact
opposite of what we are trying to say. He’d like to see the Dean of Students Office (DOSO) look at
the sentence structure again and correct the statement. C. McDaniel suggested that L. Odell email
the statement to Travis Apgar to review.
Several issues were raised in the discussion:

If infractions aren’t spelled out, then we couldn’t hold students to them.

It doesn’t seem to be a problem on campus yet.

There is appropriate and inappropriate collaboration, and there are different degrees
of plagiarism.

Acceptable collaboration is based on the individual course.

If an instructor encourages collaboration then it must be described what is allowed
and what is not.

All infractions should be referred to DOSO

Be more explicit on the policy about homework collaboration and what is allowed.
The Committee voted unanimously to approve a motion recommending that every academic
integrity statement should include the following:
1) examples of infractions
2) list of sanctions
3) a statement indicating that all infractions will be reported to DOSO
Gary is meeting with Mark Smith on April 29 and is planning a workshop for faculty. J. Deery
suggested this is a good opportunity to issue guidelines and recommendations and maybe even
templates of infractions to try to streamline process. She also is curious about how we monitor
this. M. Goldenberg feels the major problem is not cheating on tests but on homework (file
sharing). He says faculty should speak on the first day of class to academic dishonesty and not
skim over it. B. Messler said he has the students sign their work saying “this is my work”. He
believes it instills in the student pride in their work. C. McDaniel asked if we are asking to move to
adopt an honor code. C. Steinbruchel would like to see some agreement without approving an
honor code.
J. Deery suggested an on line site for faculty to reference guidelines and questions (info sharing).
C. Steinbruchel recommended asking the schools to come up with list of guidelines and poll their
faculty to eliminate ambiguity in guidelines. Bob Messler suggests that maybe a joint meeting
should happen with the Faculty Senate and the Student Senate to start thinking on an honor code.
Gary Gabriele says this did happen four years ago but nothing moved forward. B. Sands
suggested clarifying guidelines for new faculty exposed in orientation, and June Deery suggests a
refresher for others by memo. A motion by Lee Odell to ask the Faculty Senate to establish a
website for faculty on academic integrity policies and procedures was approved unanimously.
6. New Business
Gary Gabriele indicated that a chair for next year had not yet been elected. He would like to see
the term run for more than a year with chair-elect in place by December to give that individual a
year of experience before assuming chair. He recommended asking Christoph Steinbruchel to say
on another year and elect new chair before the start of spring semester. R. Messler seconded the
2
Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee
Minutes from April 28, 2004
motion. C. Steinbruchel accepted and agreed to stay on another year. G. Gabriele indicated that
it would be helpful to know when members are coming on and going off. Gary Gabriele proposed
the chair should elected for two years and a chair-elect elected the second year to give the chair
elect six months overlap before assuming the chair position. The motion was approved and
Christoph Steinbruchel will chair the Committee another year.
7. Comments on Next Year
On the agenda for next year is a discussion of writing and the H&SS 24-credit core.
Gary Gabriele would like to see this happen with a proposal that is similar to the Biology proposal.
L. Odell asked for a task force to work on these two separate issues. The Committee unanimously
approved a motion from C. McDaniel: “The FSCC recommends a broad-based institute task force
should be appointed by G. Gabriele to look at the communication requirement”.
3