Subcommittee on Core Curriculum Minutes 2015-01-30

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

Agenda

The agenda was approved as distributed.

Minutes

The minutes from the January 23rd meeting were approved with one correction.

Information Items

The Area B modification form has been posted to the intranet. Because this was a procedural item, it does not require a vote.

Kay Anderson noted that the training for the INGRESS/e-Core integration was released yesterday. She should be able to provide an update at the next meeting.

Kay proposed some potential changes to the registration process for 1Y and 2Y courses. She has discussed these issues with Dr. Ormond, who has been charged with overseeing these courses, and asked for SoCC’s feedback. The first change was to move from enforcing first year and second year cohorts on these courses, which was required by the Provost when we first put these courses online, and move to a model in which the courses are restricted to freshmen and sophomores by hours. This would remove the need for some substantial coding by the Registrar’s Office each term. It would also allow students who were moving through their curriculum at a slower pace (students who were part-time or taking reduced loads for other reasons), to continue to enroll in these courses beyond their fourth semester as long as they were still sophomores by hours. Because registration is controlled by hours earned, it would not provide them with ability to register ahead of other students or provide them with an earlier opportunity to enroll in desired sections. The second change was to remove the prerequisite of 1Y from the 2Y courses. This is already being enforced through POUNCE registration and advising. This prerequisite is used only for sequencing and is not a content-based prerequisite. Having it requires the Registrar’s Office to enter overrides prior to registration for all transfer students or other students who enter with an Area B course that fulfills 1Y so they do not have issues during the registration period. Committee members asked for a little time to consider these changes. This topics will be a discussion item at next week’s meeting.

Julia Metzker will send a request for volunteers to work on a state of the core report, using information from the core survey and other core assessments. She would like to have a small group of three to four

Julia also distributed pamphlets from AACU for their problem based learning institute.

Action Items

Discussion continued on last week’s review of the GC2Y 2000 Math and The House of Wisdom. Issue #2: Is the course appropriate for non-majors? Several members noted that they were not able to judge because they were not familiar with the content or readings. Brandon Samples stated that he thought that that information was appropriate; he has also discussed this with the submitter. On a vote, the decision to ask for a revision was 1-9.
Issue #3: Do the course objectives support the unique liberal arts experience? On a vote, the decision was 0-10 in favor. Issue #4: Is the 4th hour sufficient? The committee agreed that the proposal as sufficient, 10-0. Issue #5: Requesting a rewording in the outcomes. On a vote, the committee decided not to request a revision, 10-0. The learning beyond the classroom component was also addressed. There were some concerns that the main out of class experience was focused on research and group problem solving sessions. Brandon suggested that this was generally outside the norm for Mathematics courses. The committee began discussion recommending that this concern be passed on to the submitter as a friendly recommendation. Before that discussion ended, Cara moved to vote on the course. Joe Mocnik seconded the motion to call the question and ending discussion. Motion carried 11-0. Upon a vote, the course as currently presented was approved, 9-2.

Discussion Item

A question came up as to whether we could require faculty to attend the meeting at which their proposal is being reviewed. The general consensus was that we could not, but they are always invited to attend.

Next Meeting

The committee’s next meeting will be Friday, February 6, 2015, at 1:00 p.m. in Arts & Sciences 2-51.

Adjournment

The committee adjourned at 2:02 p.m.