University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Curriculum Proposal Form #2
Change in Degree, Major, or Submajor
Effective Term:
2147 (Fall 2014)
Type of Action:
Change in Major
Degree:
BS
Program Title:
Communication Sciences and Disorders
GPA Requirement for the Major/Submajor: 2.5
Sponsor(s):
Roxanne DePaul
Department(s):
Communication Sciences and Disorders
College(s):
Education
Consultation took place:
NA
Yes
(list departments and attach consultation sheet)
Departments:
Proposal Information:
(Procedures for Form #2)
Total number of credit units in program:
Before change 42 Major Requirements + 15 Unique Requirements
After change
48 Major Requirements + 15 unique Requirements
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1. Exact description of request:
From
To
(Please note that as of today (Oct 1, 2013), the catalog
information was incorrect. The information in this section
was taken from the AAR)
(to be listed in catalog and on AR)
VII. COMMUNICATION SCIENCES AND
DISORDERS BS (2137)
> Units: 42.00 required
1. COMDIS 240, COMDIS 270, COMDIS 272,
AND COMDIS 278
2. COMDIS 340 AND COMDIS 380
3. COMDIS 426, COMDIS 481, COMDIS 482,
COMDIS 483, COMDIS 484, AND COMDIS 494
4. COMDIS 424 OR COMDIS 477
VII. COMMUNICATION SCIENCES AND
DISORDERS MAJOR - BS (2137)
Units: 42.00 48.00 required
1. COMDIS 210, COMDIS 240, COMDIS 270,
COMDIS 272, AND COMDIS 278
2. COMDIS 340, COMDIS 371 AND COMDIS 380
3. COMDIS 426, COMDIS 481, COMDIS 482,
COMDIS 483, COMDIS 484 AND COMDIS 494
4. COMDIS 424 OR COMDIS 477 WITH
PERMISSION OF DEPT
5. COMDIS 210 COMDIS 485 OR COMDIS 460
WITH PERMISSION OF DEPT
6. ENGLISH 370 OR ENGLISH 372
7. ENGLISH 281
5. COMDIS 210 OR COMDIS 460 WITH
PERMISSION OF DEPT
6. ENGLISH 370 OR ENGLISH 372
AN APPROVED MINOR IS RECOMMENDED FOR THIS
MAJOR
2. Relationship to mission and strategic plan of institution, and/or college and department goals
and objectives:
Relationship between our curriculum (with these changes in place) and the University’s mission and
strategic plan, college and department goals and objectives will remain the same.
3. Rationale:
a) Add COMDIS 210
This course has been a required course in our program for many years but was inaccurately listed
as a College Requirement. Last year, we made significant changes to our curriculum. This course
was deleted from the list of College requirements and should have been listed as a major
requirement. We are requesting that this error be corrected.
b) Add COMDIS 371
We offered this course for many years as an introductory clinical practicum course for students
planning to enter the field of speech pathology when it was possible to work with only a
Bachelors degree. The course remained in the undergraduate curriculum when the entry level
degree for practice became the Master’s degree. When we submitted our curricular revisions, we
dropped the course from the curriculum stating that most of the course content was offered at the
graduate level. The course is still being offered for those students who are completing the old
curriculum. But over the past year, we have realized that the better course of action was, not to
drop the course but, to revise the course content. Instead of this being a preparatory course for
those going on for graduate school in speech pathology, we would like the course to address the
LEAP essential learning outcomes providing students with clinical knowledge and skills they
could use in a broader range of contexts.
c) Add ENGLISH 281
We have been advising our students to take this course for many years because it provides them
with the foundation knowledge in linguistics necessary to understand content in their upper level
courses in language development and disorders. We would like to include this course as a
required course for our major.
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d) Change COMDIS 494 to COMDIS 485
As part of our curriculum revision last year, we added a senior seminar as a major requirement in
keeping with the LEAP initiative and because such a course is considered a high impact practice.
However, Dr. Greg Cook recommended that we do not use COMDIS 494 course number because
it is a seminar course and would need to request the course every year. Therefore we have
submitted a new course request for a capstone seminar (COMDIS 485) and ask that COMDIS
485 replace COMDIS 494. We would like students to be able to take this course for variable
credits (1 to 3 credits). In most cases, students will take this course for 1 credit which will count
towards total credits in the major. This 1-credit seminar will provide Communication Sciences
and Disorders majors in their senior year an opportunity to reflect on their specific postgraduation plans including preparation of a professional CV and/or graduate school applications,
exploration of post-graduation career choices, and a capstone written project and oral summative
presentation on a designated department senior day. However, with the flexibility of extra credits
we can create an individualized plan for any student who may need to complete or would benefit
from completing a more extensive program of pre-clinical observation, rotations, and or clinical
experiences
e) Add a recommended minor
We would like to recommend a minor because it increases the breadth of our students’ education
in keeping with the spirit of the LEAP initiative and because it increases their options postgraduation. Many students are already choosing to complete Psychology or Spanish minors.
Taking the minor does not increase the number of credits to degree and their degree program can
be completed within 4 years. However, we realized that we still need to provide degree
completion without a minor due to the number of transfer students in our department who want to
complete our undergraduate major requirements. Many of these students come with an array of
credits (sometimes over 60) and they simply want to complete their degree in Communication
Sciences and Disorders in order to apply to graduate school. We feel that requiring a minor would
impede timely degree completion for those students. Hence, we would like to recommend but not
require a minor.
4. Cost Implications:
There are no cost implications since changes in the major will be covered as part of load by current
faculty.
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