Associate Professor Andrew Morehead
Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Chemistry
Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences
East Carolina University
Science and Technology, Rm. 564
Greenville, NC 27858-4353
252-328-9798 office • 252-328-6210 fax • moreheada@ecu.edu
MEMORANDUM
To:
Rose Allen, Chair
Graduate Curriculum Committee
From:
Andrew Morehead, Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Chemistry
Date:
October 12, 2011
Subject:
Explanation of proposed curriculum changes
I am pleased to submit to the Graduate Curriculum Committee the following proposal to establish a new nonthesis track in the MS in Chemistry degree program. This new track will require the creation of one new
course, CHEM 6998. The course proposal form is also included in this package.
The addition of the non-thesis track has been prompted by several developments. The graduate faculty of the
Department of Chemistry have been concerned for some time that a number of our better students have been
departing the program (usually for medical school or PhD programs in Chemistry or Biochemistry) without
graduating. These students usually have completed all their course requirements, but are unable to complete
the experimental work necessary to write a high quality thesis before moving on. As these students
adversely affect the productivity (in degree terms) of the program, the graduate faculty have voted to include
a non-thesis track that will give us an “exit strategy” for this type of student.
The second development is that a number of employees of the local chemical companies such as Metrics and
DSM have been taking online graduate courses through UNC-Wilmington. This track should allow us to
perform a valuable service for such students by allowing them to take the courses locally and use their
current research (through CHEM 5993-Industrial Internship and CHEM 650x-Chemical Research) to fulfill
the requirements for this new degree, while increasing the number of students in the MS Chemistry Program
here.
Students in the non-thesis track will have the same minimum number of credit hours required (30 s.h.) as the
other tracks within the degree, but will be required to take one additional course (elective) and three fewer
research hours. Students in this track may substitute 6 s.h. of research for that course (thus requiring 33 s.h.
minimum to graduate). This policy is to assist students in the first case discussed above whom often have
accumulated 10+ s.h. of research.
The new course proposed is CHEM 6998-Research Project. This course will be the substitute for CHEM
7000-thesis for the non-thesis track. In consultation with their advisor, the student will select an appropriate
area of interest, prepare a comprehensive review, listing of research skills acquired in the program, and
prepare an original research proposal. At the completion of the course, the student will have prepared the
comprehensive review (10-30 pages), listing of research skills (2+ pages), and the original proposal (5-10
East Carolina University is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina. An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
pages). The student will then defend this combined document to an examining committee (Advisor + 2
additional Graduate Faculty members).
An additional graduate catalog change (revision of CHEM 9000) is proposed. Assessment by the
departmental graduate faculty identified the need to change the number of s.h. allowed to count towards the
Ph.D. degree from 18 to 36. This change was necessitated by the increase from 59-66 to 67-84 s.h. required
for the Ph.D. degree. Both of these changes were due to a change in ECU’s requirement that full time
students must register for at least 9 s.h. which is an increase from the 3 s.h. previously required.
East Carolina University is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina. An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.