Undergraduate Curriculum Forum (UCF)

Minutes 4/20/06

Present 

J. Manzella, B. Phelan, R. Vaters-Carr, G. Kowalczyk, D. Weiss, R. Glinka, S. DiFrancesco, H. Podnar, A. Abrugi, B. Achhpal, N. Marano, N. Henderson, M. Shea, C. Coron, M. Fede, E. Schmidt,  E. West,  N. Chrissidis, N. Disbrow, J. Fields, R. Mugno, K. Burke, C. Dellinger-Pate, J. Goralski,  R. Kustin, S. Bochain, M. Vancour, K. Gatzke, C., K. Marsland, R. Hunter, M. Kiare, T. Lin, J. Tait,  W. O'Brien, N. Bobrek, K. Laing, B. Galla, K. Mauro, M. Heidmann

I.          Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 9:47 a.m.

II.        Announcements

Senior Art shows will taking place during the next two weeks in Earl Hall
Wes O'Brien asked us to all take a minute to remember Lisa ...., a southern graduate of the media studies program who passed away recently.
There was a good turn out for the library survey
An upcoming Faculty Development seminar will feature a speaker from the University of Stockholm speaking on language acquisition and age.  The seminar will take place on May 8, from 4:30-6 in ENB220.
Wes O'Brien will be hosting the Cinema De Monde this Monday night.
The chemistry club will host a speaker this Friday from 1-2 in Jennings 127.
The CSU Assessment Conference will be held Friday, April 28 at CCSU. 
Happy Birthday to Aya Jensen.

III. Chair's Report

None

IV.       Approval of Minutes of 3/2/06, 3/16/06, and 4/6/06

The minutes of 3/2/06 were approved with one abstention pending a change in spelling of John Mattia's name and a clarification of the L-course transition on page 3.

The minutes of 3/16/06 were approved with one abstention pending the correction of a typo in a date and the addition of the course title for PSC 308.

The minutes of 4/4/06 were approved with one abstention pending a correction on page 3 about who called the question.

V.        Approval of standing committee minutes of 3/9/06

New Programs and Innovations (NPIC)

NPIC minutes from 4/13/06 were accepted.

NPIC logged the following New Special Topics course:

• JRN 298: Television Sports Features

Program Review and Assessment (PRAC)

PRAC minutes from 4/13/06 were accepted.

PRAC will hold the next assessment workshop on May 3 during community hour. 

University-Wide Impact Committee (UWIC)

UWIC minutes from 4/13/06 were accepted.

Writing Across the Curriculum Committee (WACC)

WACC minutes from 4/13/06 were accepted.

The following motion was approved unanimously:

• PCH 358: Health Policy, as proposed by Dr. Peggy Gallup be accepted for "W" designation.

Ad Hoc Committee on the Standards Document

The Ad Hoc committee minutes from 4/13/06 were accepted.

General Education Task Force

The task force recently had a retreat, at which they worked on defining the process and establishing a time frame.  They came to consensus and Jim Tait is in the process of composing a document to be circulated to all faculty.

Notifications Management (NMC)

NMC minutes from 4/13/06 were accepted.

The following motions were approved with one abstention:

• Approve new course, HON 275: Science and Writing
• Approve revised course PCH 340: Public Health Research
• Approve revised course PHI 303: The History of Islamic Thought
• Approve revised course PHI 309: Women and Religion: The Old and New Eve
• Approve revised course PHI 310: Women and Philosophy
• Approve revised course PHI 324: Computer Ethics
• Approve revised course PHI 326: Business Ethics
• Approve revised course PHI 327: Moral Problems in the Law
• Approve revised course PHI 370: Philosophy of Education
• Approve new course REC 341: Outdoor Group Management

VI.       Presentation by Marianne Kennedy on NSSE & HERI

Marianne Kennedy and Michael Benevieve presented results from the NSSE student survey and the HERI faculty survey. She agreed to return to answer more questions at a later date.

VII.     Old Business: Motion Regarding approval of MDS 150 as a Social Science B All-University Requirement course

Discussion ensued regarding the motion left on the table at the last meeting:

Motion:  To designate MDS 150 as satisfying the Social Sciences B AUR

The discussion concerned the following:

Availability of the MDS 150 AUR course proposal to members of the UCF body.  Charlie Dellinger-Pate clarified that although she did not distribute it to members, she had made it available to all members in the UCF office
The setting of a precedent that courses are approved by the whole UCF body rather than in subcommittees.
Whether or not what we were discussing was a turf war.  Joe Manzella clarified that it wasn't a turf war, but a question about the SSB AUR requirement itself, which, he said, attempts to present the whole nature of human experience to students through a variety of theoretical and methodological points.
Ro Conforti, chairperson of Media Studies, urged us to vote on the motion, pointing out that the discussion was rehashing the issues from last time.
 

Wes O'Brien called the question.

There was an objection to calling the question.

A vote was taken as to whether the question would be called.

Yes 16

No 8

The question being called, we proceeded immediately to a vote on the motion.

To designate MDS 150 as satisfying the Social Sciences B AUR

The vote was taken by secret ballot.

Nicole Henderson, Ray Mugno, and Nikos Chrissidis counted the ballots.

Yes 11

No 17

Abstentions 2

The motion was not approved.

VIII.    Address by Provost Williams

Provost Williams's address included the following:

Course approvals must receive all applicable signatures, including that of the Provost before courses are scheduled.
General Education: NEASC needs to know where we stand in our efforts to reform the Gen. Ed. program.
Because curricular proposals sometimes have an impact on resource allocation, the Provost would like to see the deans involved in the approval process at some point.  Jim Tait mentioned that the current Flow of Proposals document includes a section on the roles of deans in the process.
 

The meeting was adjourned at 10:55 a.m.

Minutes recorded by Nicole Henderson, Secretary for UCF