UNDERGRADUATE COUNCIL MEETING                            

January 14, 2008

Johnson Hall Conference Room

 

Present:

Andrew Bonamici, Herb Chereck, Hilary Gerdes, Dave Hubin, Andrew Leavitt, Karen McLaughlin, Ron Severson, Karen Sprague, Arkady Vaintrob, Kate Wagle, Alan Kimball, Paul Engelking, and Jim Imamura

 

Absent:

Gavin Bruce, Elizabeth Jarvis, Anne Laskaya, Dean Livelybrooks, Alexandra Marcus, Lyllye Parker, Steven Pologe, Malcolm Wilson, Bill Rossi, and Elizabeth Reis

 

 

Minutes:

 The Chair called the meeting to order and asked for a motion on the minutes of November 15 and November 29, 2007

           

            The motion was made to accept the minutes from the November 15 and November 29, 2007 meetings.

 

            Moved:           Jim Imamura

            Seconded:       Karen McLaughlin

            The motion to accept the minutes passed unanimously.

 

 

Agenda

            Announcements-

            The Chair informed the Council that the Classroom Committee will be reformed and Ken Doxsee, Director of Educational Technology, is seeking a representative from the Undergraduate Council to serve on the Committee.  The Classroom Committee works on short-term resolutions to technological issues in classrooms. Recently, the Committee has worked on enhancing technology in out-of-pool departmental classrooms.  They have also worked on providing information to faculty on the technological capacities of various classrooms.  The Committee plans to meet once a month, if possible. Karen McLaughlin volunteered to represent the Undergraduate Council on the Committee.

 

            Marian Friestad of the Graduate School has inquired as to whether or not the Undergraduate Council wishes to continue participating in the departmental  review process, which is being significantly revised.  The Chair observed that the review process, both for programs and departments, appears to be moving toward a process with simultaneous steps, rather than sequential steps.  The Council discussion focused on how it would design its own involvement in the revised process.

            Karen Sprague explained that the goal of the revised process is to simplify Program Review,  rather than produce extensive reports that are not used effectively.  The Undergraduate Council could focus on departments’ contribution to the General Education curriculum.  For instance, this could be a way of monitoring departments’ responses to Council recommendations for the design and description of  Group-satisfying courses and Multicultural courses.  Alan Kimball also pointed out that this participation would enable some efficiencies in committee reviews and help eliminate overlaps and redundancies.

 

            The Council viewed its participation as occurring in two steps:

            1. In advance of the review, the Council would pose specific questions about the department’s General Education curriculum;

2.  As part of the review process, departmental representatives would meet with the Council to respond to these questions and discuss their approach to General Education.

 

            The Chair previewed the topics to be addressed by the Council during the 2008 Winter term:

 

Ø  College of Education proposal for new undergraduate major (revised);

Ø  Revisions in COLT Program major;

Ø  Add/Drop Deadline from the Office of the Registrar;

Ø  Multicultural Requirement issues and recommendations; this would include reviewing the International Studies Proposal from last year and perhaps inviting Kathie Poole to make a presentation;

Ø  Grade Inflation; this would be arriving at some conclusions about the issue and formulating next steps;

Ø  Expanded Course descriptions; 60-70 courses are still lacking their expanded course description.

 

 

College of Education Proposal for new Undergraduate Major

            The revised proposal from the College of Education was distributed to Council members.  The Chair explained that the Council’s primary concern regarding the middle school/secondary track in the original proposal was addressed by eliminating the track from the revised proposal.  The new proposal also changed the name of the major from “Educational Studies” to “Educational Foundations.”

 

            Upon reviewing the revised proposal, Council members were still confused by the list of approved science courses. Because it is limited to 100-level courses, there was concern that it could discourage science majors from considering teaching.  All agreed that the opposite is intended. In addition, the language of the proposal that refers to the approved science courses is not clear. Specifically, are pre-requisite courses and the courses required for the program itself to be selected from the same or different lists?.

 

            The Chair called for a motion upon the proposal.

 

The Undergraduate Council endorses the revised proposal from the College of Education to create a new undergraduate major with an elementary education emphasis entitled "Educational Foundations".

 

The Council’s endorsement includes the recommendation that the description of science pre-requisites for entering the program (p. 9) be changed to something like the following:

 

                        "Students will take either the 1st year entry-level courses (3) for a science major (in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, or Geology) OR three science courses from the following approved list:"

           

 

The reference on page 20 to "Three more science courses chosen from a selected list of courses" should be clarified by specifying the list. The statement should also explicitly encourage students to take the highest level science courses of which they are capable.

 

            Motion made:  Paul Engelking

            Seconded:         Karen McLaughlin

 

The endorsement for the proposal with the Council’s recommendations passed unanimously.

 

 

The meeting was adjourned.

The next UGC meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 29, 2008, 12:00pm at Rowe Conference Room, the Knight Library.