Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
September 24, 2015
Minutes
Approved: 10-8-2015
Attending: Katherine Miller, Shawn McEntee, Christine Smith, Tom Calo, Jackie Maisel, John
LaManca, Elizabeth Curtin, Beth Skoglund, Melissa Boog
Absent: Carly Berkowitz, John Lee
1. Approval of minutes from Sept. 10, 2015 – minutes were approved without changes
2. Announcements from the Provost Office –
The committee was asked to consider the issues regarding the “double dipping” of credits
in regards to students taking minors. Some minors are so closely related to some majors
that students can get the minor by simply completing their major.
Potential solutions were discussed and a solution suggested as a place to start the
conversation with departments. A letter will be crafted and sent to department chairs for
discussion and feedback. (see attached email)
3. New Curriculum:
a. Packet 7 – note: this packet has some organization issues but it looks like all of
the information is there after a quick scan.
i. Creative writing – change concentration – this section of packet 7 was
tabled until the catalogue copy could be clarified
ii. ENGL 496 new course - approved
iii. ENGL 498 new course - approved
iv. ENGL 415 course change - approved
v. ENGL 416 course change - approved
vi. ENGL 417 course change - approved
vii. ENGL 455 course change - approved
b. Packet 8
i. SOCI 321 – course change - approved
ii. CADR 321 – course change - approved
4. New Business: Social Work program revision
Melissa Boog advised the committee that Social Work was revising their program in
order to move to the 4 credit model. Questions the department had about what constituted
an enhanced course and what was not an enhanced course was answered. It was noted
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that courses in which an online component was acting as “lecture” with a specific seat
time was considered not an enhancement, but was to be counted as seat time.
Letter to Deans, Department Chairs and James Buss (with my thanks to Melissa Boog for crafting the
policy language):
Dear Colleagues,
The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee was asked by the Provost to examine the issue of how many
credits earned for a major should be applied to a minor (“double dipping”). The committee examined
the rules for applying General Education credits to a minor and crafted a policy based on those rules. In
our examination, we felt that the rule for General Education also needed revision in recognition of the
many 4 credit courses that are now offered. The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee is soliciting
feedback from all of the Deans and Department Chairs in regards to the proposed changes.
I ask that you email me (Katherine Miller, Chemistry) and cc. Melissa Boog on your correspondence.
Sincerely,
Katherine Miller
UCC Chair
Proposed Policy Changes:
Part 1: General Education – Currently, the University requires that “at least 15 credits applied toward
the minor must be coursework which is not used to satisfy General Education requirements.” Since all
minors require a minimum of 18 credits, UCC believes that the intent was that a student could use one
3-credit Gen Ed class toward the minor and that the remainder had to be new coursework.
With so many courses now being offered for 4 credits, UCC proposes that “15 credits” be changed to
“14 credits” allowing students to use one 4-credit Gen Ed class toward the minor.
Part 2: Majors – Currently there is no policy that limits the number of credits from a major that can be
applied to a minor. In other words, if there is a major that requires (or allows) courses from a different
discipline to fulfill the major requirements, the student can use as many of them as he/she wants to
earn a major. In some cases, just one extra class will give them a minor.
In the course catalog, it states, “Salisbury University provides undergraduates with an opportunity to
develop special competencies in a variety of areas outside their major fields of study.” This implies that
a minor should be something more than the major. In turn, the UCC proposes that a new minor policy
state that “At least 14 credits applied toward the minor must be coursework which is not used to
satisfy major requirements.” That allows one major course to apply to the minor.
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