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UNDERGRADUATE
COUNCIL MEETING
June 10, 2002
Members Present:
John Nicols, Craig Hickman, Hilary Gerdes, Dave Hubin, Gail Unruh, Wendy
Mitchell, Karen Sprague, K J Park, Bob Zimmerman, Kathy Roberts, Scott
Pratt, Steve Ponder, Jim Imamura
Members Absent:
Anne Leavitt, John Postlethwait, Herb Chereck, Marian Smith, Paul Engelking,
Kate Kranzush, Faye Chadwell
New Members:
Deborah Baumgold, Lowell Bowditch, Sherrie Barr(absent)
Three-Hour/Four-Credit
Document
A set of three proposals dealing
with the relationship between credit and contact hours had been distributed
to council members electronically and was provided in hard copy. These
were:
- The proposal favored by the
Undergraduate Council at its last meeting (5/13/02), referred to as
“Proposal 2” in the minutes of that meeting.
- A proposal presented by the
Dean to the College of Arts and Sciences department heads (5/06/02).
- A revised proposal from John
Nicols for discussion by the Undergraduate Council (6/10/02).
All three proposals are available
on the Undergraduate Council website by clicking on Resources and Links.
John Nicols mentioned that some
groups on campus want the same rules to apply to upper division as well
as lower division courses. Council members re-affirmed their endorsement
of the previously adopted May 13, 2002 proposal, but asked that it be
revised to include two additional points:
- The effect of credit hour
reduction on group status
- The need for uniformity among
different offerings of the same courses
The document will also need to
include a new deadline for requests for exception, since the one originally
suggested (June 15, 2002) is obviously impractical. After circulation
to council members for final approval, the revised document is to be
forwarded to Provost John Moseley. The final version of the document,
as forwarded to the Provost, is given below.
Memorandum
June 13, 2002
TO: Provost John
Moseley
FROM: John Nicols, Chair, Undergraduate
Council
Karen Sprague, Vice Provost for
Undergraduate Studies
SUBJECT:
Credit/Contact Hours
Over the last few years, the curricular committees and Undergraduate
Council have expressed concern about the increasing number of courses
at the lower division level that are scheduled to meet for fewer hours
than the credit hours they award. The general rule is that all courses
should be scheduled to meet for as many hours as the credit hours they
award. However, it is also generally agreed that “seat time”
is not the only measure of student effort and learning and so the University
has made some provision for particular courses to meet for fewer hours
when they include substantial additional outside work. At present, there
is little oversight of courses that meet for fewer hours. In addition,
current written policy is anachronistic because it is based on a curriculum
composed largely of 3-credit courses, rather than the present one where
4-credit courses predominate. In light of these concerns, the Undergraduate
Council proposes the following approach to granting and monitoring exceptions
to the general rule.
Principle for granting exceptions to the General Rule: A lower
division course may be scheduled to meet for fewer hours than the credits
it awards if the course includes a set of distinct out-of-class assignments,
as well as evaluations of them, that are appropriate to the discipline
and that provide students with additional learning opportunities judged
to be equivalent to the unmet credit hours. The following guidelines
(based on University Assembly legislation, 1992) should be used to make
this judgment:
1 unit of credit requires 3 hours of work per week (or 30 hours per
term), normally including one hour of class time and two hours of outside
work per week. Courses that seek to award more credit than the number
of hours the class meets (normally a difference no greater than 1) must
demonstrate that the average student will need to spend the appropriate
number of additional hours in study or other preparation. Specifically,
such courses should require one of the following:
1.Significant weekly assignments that cannot be completed in the total
hours of work per week that are associated with contact hours.
2.Major out-of-class projects (for example: research papers, field trips,
or data analysis) that constitute some 30 hours of student effort per
term.
Review Procedure: Departments will submit the following information
to the appropriate college or school curriculum committee by December
6, 2002:
1. A general statement of departmental standards regarding
courses that are scheduled to meet for fewer hours than the credit hours
they award. Departments should take care that multiple offerings
of the same course adhere to the same distribution of credit and contact
hours.
2. For each lower division course that
is scheduled to meet for fewer hours than the credit hours it awards,
- a description of the additional work that
is required,
-
an explanation of the means by which the student's performance
of the additional work will be evaluated.
Review Outcomes: Based on their review of the department reports,
the school and college curriculum committees will recommend that particular
courses be allowed to meet for fewer hours than the credit hours they
award. The committee recommendations will be forwarded to the University
Committee on Courses for a final decision. If a course is not approved,
its credit hours will be reduced to the number of hours it is scheduled
to meet. Courses awarding fewer than 4 credit hours will not satisfy
group requirements. A course that is not approved may be revised
by the department and submitted for reconsideration.
Ongoing Review: Following the initial review, the University
Committee on Courses will prepare a list of all courses that may meet
for fewer hours than the credit hours they award. All new courses of
this sort will be reviewed in the ordinary course review process. If
new courses are approved to meet for fewer hours, they will be added
to the annual list. The Registrar’s office will be responsible
for monitoring courses offered and will notify departments if unapproved
courses are scheduled to meet for fewer hours than the credit hours
they award. The credit associated with such courses will be reduced,
and their group-satisfying status withdrawn, until they have been examined
through the review process and returned to the approved list.
Make-up Exam Policy
Wendy Mitchell would like the
council to recommend a general university policy on make-up exams.
Wendy, Herb Chereck, Hilary Gerdes and Steve Ponder will form a sub-committee
to draft such a policy.
Introduction of New Members
John introduced the new Undergraduate
Council members, who will serve three-year terms from June 2002 to June
2005. They are:
Scott Pratt, Marian Smith and
Bob Zimmerman’s terms expire at the end of June 2002. Craig Hickman
will be on sabbatical during the next academic year. K J Park will
resign his Undergraduate Council membership as of June 2002, since he
will be retiring from the UO during the next academic year.
Election of New Chair
Bob Zimmerman suggested that
a new procedure be adopted whereby the council elects a chair and vice-chair.
The vice-chair would then serve as chair the following year. Of the
council members eligible to serve as chair, all declined to serve.
Karen Sprague is willing to chair the Undergraduate Council but suggested
another strategy. Karen would like to see the council develop the same
relationship the Graduate Council maintains with Richard Linton, Vice
President for Research and Graduate Studies. That council serves as
an advisory group to Vice President Linton. It is convened by him but
is chaired by an elected faculty member. Dave Hubin recalled the restructuring
of the Undergraduate Education Policy and Coordinating Council (UEPCC)
to form the Undergraduate Council, and noted that the intent was for
the Undergraduate Council to be modeled after the Graduate Council.
Undergraduate Council members expressed enthusiasm for such a working
relationship. John Nicols suggested that the council postpone the nominations
for chair and vice-chair and that Karen convene the first council meeting
in the fall. The meetings will be every other Tuesday at 8:30 am.
Meeting adjourned at 8:45
Undergraduate Council, 5256 University of Oregon • (541)
346-1221 • Last Update:
June 28, 2002
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