University Curriculum Committee Minutes 11/17/2010

University Curriculum Committee

11/17/2010

In attendance: Ken Farr, Kay Anderson, Caralyn Zehnder, Steve Elliott-Gower, Cara Meade, Deborah Vess, Ryan Brown

Notes approved from 11/3 and 11/10 (with minor revisions).

I)              Ryan discussed with the committee the recent BOR decision that our core was not approved ‘as is’ in that ENGL 1102 must be a prerequisite for any literature course and it was not included as a required course in the revised core. The revised core included realigned Rhetoric courses to include in area A1 instead but the Board of Regents is clear in their desire that 1102 be required in A1.  Discussions on how to proceed are underway.

II)            Discussion of last week’s meeting and decisions made.

III)          Ken is working on revising forms and documents that are on the UCC website.  There are several changes that need to be made for clarification and correctness as they have evolved since they were first posted.  Ken will get these revised and reposted.

IV)          Discussion of the fact that we need a procedure in place for informing faculty as to what Area B courses are approved to be offered since they will not be in the catalog. How will faculty know what is being approved as they attempt to build and propose courses?  We need to try to assure transparency so that content is not repeated in Area B or across areas for that matter.

V)            Discussion again of ‘ownership’ of Area B sections.  How will assurances be made that the departments proposing the courses get teaching credit? Also of concern is the issue of faculty credentials for those chosen or requesting to teach a particular section. Who ‘owns’ the section and who gets to make the final decision as to who teaches? What if someone outside of the department is qualified to teach a section and desires to teach it, will the department who owns the course possibly deny them the opportunity to teach it?  How will this be organized and kept straight as far as record keeping?

VI)          Can we post on the website somewhere courses that were approved each week? Steve will create a form to post for public view that will inform the campus community of approvals made by UCC. Can we provide links to the UPS links per course and also perhaps for the proposal forms submitted? We’ll look into how much we can post per each course approved and the easiest way to post.  Deb will look into this. Can we use the new CMS system and seek help from Barbara Monnett? This may be the best option.

VII)        Discussion of the name change for GC1Y: Critical Thinking: Global Issues proposal. Committee suggested the name GC1Y: Critical Thinking: Seven Revolutions. The committee voted to approve this course with this name change. This will segue nicely into a Seven Revolutions II course in area B2.

VIII)      We need to seek additional guidance as far as SACS credentialing as far as approving courses that may be proposed by faculty member who does not seem to be credentialed to teach it.  What do we do with such a proposal? Is that within the scope of this committee to address?

IX)          UCC members, please send implementation issues that have arisen to Kay, either those that have come up in our meetings or those that have cropped in your own schools.

X)            We do not have a quorum today to vote on proposals.

XI)          Last meeting, December 1, will be committed first to addressing pending and new proposals. 

Meeting adjourned.