Subcommittee on Core Curriciulum MInutes 2014-10-17

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Julia Metzker at 1:00 p.m. in Arts & Sciences 2-51.

Attendance

Voting Members Present: Nancy Beasley, Roberta Gorham, Mary Magoulick, Cara Meade, Julia Metzker, Joe Mocnik, Patrick Simmons, Amy Sumpter, Sheryl Winn, Dana Wood
Regrets: Ruth Carter, Brandon Samples
Non-Voting Member Present: Kay Anderson

Agenda

The agenda was approved as distributed.

Minutes

The minutes from the October 3 minutes were distributed. The committee suggested a few revisions; these will be revised, redistributed, and approved next week. The October 10 and 17 minutes will be distributed this week.

Discussion Items

Survey Update. Cara received some feedback about the survey and will relaunch it to give everyone an opportunity to respond. The data from the survey will be used as a first step to inform a Provost-appointed committee on reviewing the core.

Update from Meeting with Dr. Dorman. Julia met with Dr. Dorman to discuss the two issues he had regarding the amendment to the SoCC bylaws that were proposed and approved by University Senate last year. Together they drafted a possible definition to use for teaching representative that would address the first issue. This will be shared with ECUS, who will then make a determination about how to proceed. The second issue dealt with a non-Senator chairing SoCC. The President was willing to compromise on this issue if the SoCC chair was confirmed by CAPC. This could work logistically if SoCC and CAPC met together to elect officers when committees first meet each year. Julia will also share this option with ECUS, who will take the next steps on this issue as well.

Questions about Core Course Substitutions. Arts and Sciences Dean Ken Procter recently contacted the committee regarding substitutions for core courses, particularly in Area B. Prior to the implementation of the “new” core, all core courses were housed in the College of Arts and Sciences. As such, the A&S Dean was required to approve all core course approvals. Now the core includes courses from other areas, including several GC1Y and 2Y courses that are from areas outside of A&S and for which A&S chairs and faculty have no direct expertise and courses in areas such as Computer Science. Dean Procter questioned whether these should be routed through other deans instead. Kay Anderson explained that this was a deficiency in a form that existed prior to the “new” core and that had simply not been updated, and that her office would work to address this issue to ensure that these courses were routed to the most appropriate deans.

Minor changes to existing 1Y and 2Y proposals. Two faculty have recently expressed interested in putting through minor changes to their core courses, one involving a change in a course title and one to bring back a 2Y course that was approved and then deactivated because it had not been taught. In the past, we have had similar questions about changing course descriptions or adding approved faculty to a course. The committee discussed the process needed for this. In the past, we have simply used email and saved that communication. The committee determined that a simple form – perhaps with only two fields that requested the original information and the revised information – would make this process easier for faculty and easier to record and document. Amy Sumpter volunteered to draft a form. The committee also discussed the process for these changes and whether SoCC, CAPC, and University Senate needed to be involved. The consensus was that SoCC needed to be involved since it originally approved the course, and that these changes needed to be communicated as information items to keep everyone on campus informed.

Next Meeting

The committee’s next meeting will be Friday, October 24, 2014, at 1:00 p.m. in Arts & Sciences 2-51.

Adjournment

The committee adjourned at 2:00 p.m.