University Curriculum Committee Minutes 2011-10-27

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by John Swinton at 8:30 a.m., in Arts & Sciences Room 315.

Attendance

Members Present: Martha Allen, Esther Lopez, Mary Magoulick, Cara Meade, Stephanie McClure, John Swinton, and Kay Anderson

Discussion Items

Strategic Revision of Core Curriculum (Cube) Outcomes
Cara Meade distributed a proposal to strategically reduce the number of student learning outcomes and reconsider the inclusion of the writing and speaking overlays in the current core curriculum. This proposal would:

1. Remove the writing and speaking overlays from the new core curriculum (Cube) and eliminate student learning outcomes 12-18.
2. Continue requiring that Area B1 courses have an additional writing or speaking component.
3. Continue requiring that Area B2 courses have an additional writing component.
4. Eliminate the additional exposure to either the writing or speaking overlay beyond exposures provided in Areas A and B.

Discussion followed. One issue with the continued inclusion outcomes 12-18 is that we would need to specifically assess all of them in our assessment efforts, while limiting the outcomes regarding writing and speaking to only outcome 1 allows us broad scope in how and what we can assess according to our needs at any point in time. Another question arises regarding the increased emphasis on these two areas of learning, versus other areas – such as quantitative reasoning – which we also value for our students. Arguments for continued inclusion of outcomes 12-18 include the importance of writing and speaking skills across the curriculum, and the importance of keeping these outcomes to ensure that writing and speaking are included in departmental and disciplinary curricula.

Stephanie McClure moved to send the proposal forward to CAPC for consideration. Kay Anderson seconded the proposal. Upon a voice vote, the proposal passed without dissent. Mary Magoulick and Esther Lopez asked to have their abstentions recorded in the minutes.

GC2Y Fourth Hour
The committee discussed the fourth credit hour associated with the GC2Y courses, which will first be offered in Fall 2012. These classes are planned to meet for three, 50 minute hours per week (or two comparable 75 minute sessions), with a significant out of class component that merits the inclusion of the fourth hour of credit. As these classes are offered, the University will need to demonstrate that comparable activities are occurring to justify the fourth hour of credit. It will also be important to identify what these activities are, and when they will occur, in advance of registration so that students know what will be expected in each of these courses. How this fourth hour is handled also has potential implications for faculty load and scheduling.

Since fifteen, 50 minute contact hours are generally required to receive one hour of credit for a standard lecture course, the committee felt it was appropriate to require fifteen, 50 minute hours of additional contact between the instructor of record and the students in the class to meet the requirements for this fourth hour. This contact could be comprised of a variety of activities, including additional class meetings, trips, field research, service learning projects, etc. These additional expectations, as well as any specific dates on which these activities would be held, would need to be outlined when faculty submitted their course descriptions prior to registration so that students would have this information prior to signing up for the course.

John Swinton and Kay Anderson volunteered to draft wording for this proposal. It was also suggested that faculty teaching GC2Y courses might find it helpful to come together prior to completing their syllabi to get more information on the fourth hour and to share ideas and resources with one another.

Action Items

GC2Y 2000 This Island Earth an Area B2 Section (Resubmission)
During discussion, the committee expressed concerns that the outcomes needed additional revision to be assessable. The committee requested that the proposal be resubmitted following further revision.

Announcements

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, November 3, at 8:30 a.m. in Arts & Sciences 315.

The IDST 2305 section which was approved for the global overlay at the September 22 meeting has been pulled. The submission was only one section of the course, not the entire course. Approvals for overlays must include all sections of the course, not just a specific section or topic.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 a.m.