Undergraduate Studies
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA 95192-0030
Voice: 408 924-2447
Fax: 408 924-2444
Undergraduate Studies Committee
Minutes
2 September 2009
Representatives:
Present: Ravisha Mathur(Chair), Damian Bacich, Chris Gonzales, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Jaehne,
Resa Kelly, Wei-Chien Lee, Weider Yu
Ex-officio: Steve Branz
Visitors: Natalie Boero (Sociology), Debra David (FYRST), Gloria Edwards (UGS)
I. BS, Sociology, concentration in Family name change (Natalie Boero)
Sociology has three concentrations: Criminal, Social Change and Family. Family is the smallest
concentration and was not attracting students due to an outdated vision of the subfield.
With the addition of 3 new faculty in the past 5 years, the term “Family” doesn’t reflect the
expertise of the faculty. The new focus is around micro-sociological traditions and
understanding of core sociological principles. For example, media, youth, LGBT studies are all
part of what has been called the “Family” concentration. The new concentration name,
Institutions, Interactions and Identities is felt to be a better fit.
The Committee had some questions/clarifications that need to be answered or resolved before
the new concentration name can be approved. These include:
1. The UGS Academic Major/Minor program modifications cover sheet for the new
concentration includes SOCI 170 as one of three options. It should be removed to reflect
SOCI 171 or SOCI 173. There should only be two options for that part of the
concentration.
2. Title of the new concentration should be “Institutions, Interactions, and Identities.” In some
places Interactions is not plural.
3. The Roadmap shows 19 classes for GE. Physical Education is not GE. There are only 13
GE classes that need to be completed at SJSU. Sociology needs to revise the GE classes on
the roadmap (across all concentrations). In addition, it is not clear from the roadmap how
the revised concentration classes are taken (i.e., the units do not add up on the roadmap).
4. What have other institutions done? UGS requests a comparison of concentrations in other
CSUs and area institutions.
5. Does the department have enough tenured and tenure-track faculty to support this
concentration?
One of the things to think about is that this name may be internally rather than externally
focused. Institutions, Interactions and Identities may not have much meaning outside of the
discipline. What about the idea of keeping the word “family” in the concentration?
Action Item: The Committee asks that the Sociology Department clarify the issues noted
above and come back to the committee. Once all of these issues have been attended to and the
Committee approves the new concentration name, the information will be forwarded to the
Curriculum & Research (C & R) Committee for final approval.
II. Foreign Language name Change (Damian Bacich)
The recommendation of the Program Review process in 2008 was that the department name
“Foreign Languages” was out-of date and that the department should consider a name change.
Responding to the Program Review recommendation and wanting to reflect that many of the
upper division courses include literature, the Department is asking for the name to be the
“Department of World Languages and Literatures.”
While supportive of the department name change, the Committee would like to see the
following before sending the proposal on to C & R:
1. An endorsement from the College Curriculum Committee.
2. An endorsement from the Department of English agreeing to this name change.
3. A comparison of department names from other CSUs or area universities.
Action Item: The Committee asks that the Department of Foreign Languages answer the
questions above and come back to the committee. Once all of these questions have been
answered and the Committee approves the new concentration name, the information will be
forwarded to the Curriculum & Research (C & R) Committee for final approval.
III. Unfinished Business
1. Change of degree name from B.S., Business Administration, concentration in Management
Information Systems to B.S., Business Administration, concentration in Information
Systems.
2. Minor Art Education, approval pending the addition of the names of the classes being
provided in the chart and other editorial changes.
3. Justification of BS, Chemistry concentration to exceed 120 units.
Action Item: Resa will investigate and let the Committee know the status of the
justification at the next meeting
IV. FYE (Debra David)
The FYE Course Policy passed last year. The Undergraduate Studies Committee now is part of
this process and a procedure needs to be developed. The UGS Committee will need to decide
on the process for course approval—one-time or continuing? Should UGS follow a protocol
similar to BOGS?
Part of this process will need to be developing guidelines for all FYE courses. For example,
should they all have some aspect that addresses continued contact with students after the course
is completed?
Currently MUSE classes are the only ‘official’ FYE courses. Other classes that are in the process
include Humanities Honors, SCI 002, BUS 012, etc. In addition, at present, all of these classes
are GE. However, the policy does not required that an FYE class be a GE course. They must
meet the student learning objectives, a specified number of contact hours with the faculty in a
group of no more than 20 students, and they must have co-curricular activities in the course.
Action Item: Debra David will provide statistics to the Committee on the effectiveness of
MUSE classes.
V. Special Major (Debra David)
Due to the push to graduate students with greater than 120 units, the Special Majors may be
expanded. How should the Special Major be expanded?