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Undergraduate Curriculum Forum (UCF)

Minutes 11/4/99

Present: G. Gurka, B. Horn, C. Serchuk, D. Levine, S. Martinelli, J. Stenzel, G. Puerschner, P. Cascella, S. DiFrancesco, E. Aboelala, D. Savage, J. Mills, M. Macomber, P. Palma, L. Yacher, P. Beals, F. Harris, K. Swenson, J. Fields, R. Page, D. Chevan, B. Madara, M. Tackett, D. Pettigrew, J. Dolan, B. Gelbach, W. Sherman, P. Gallup, C. Mindell, J. Bloch, K. Skoczen, L. Rebeschi, C. McDaniels, L. Lancor, R. Cretella, L. Kohrn, R. Gerber, M. Heidmann, S. LaRocco

I. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by C. Serchuk at 9:35 am.

II. Announcements:

  • The Faculty Senate voted that it will consider the reauthorization of UCF instead of putting the topic to a faculty referendum.
  • It was announced that the Banner student module representative did not welcome input from faculty at the meeting on 10/27/99.

III. Approval of Meeting Minutes: The minutes of the previous UCF meeting (10/21/99) were approved. Paperwork today included:

  • UWIC minutes, 10/28/99
  • Status of UCF Actions on Bulleted Items, 11/4/99

IV. Committee Reports:

Steering Committee: The Steering Committee is working on changes to the constitution and obtaining equipment for the UCF university assistant.

Notifications Management: There was no report from this committee.

University Wide Impact: (see minutes, 10/28/99) M. Macomber highlighted these minutes. The minutes were accepted.

New Programs and Innovations: D. Savage reported this committee will meet on Thursday, 11/11/99 in Seabury.

Program Review & Assessment: B. Madara reported this committee is working on a grid so that outside examiners can provide results on a uniform form.

Remediation: There was no report from this committee.

V.  Freshman Requirements Committee: (see Status of UCF Actions on Bulleted Items, 11/4/99)

B. Horn initiated the ongoing discussion about freshman requirements for English. The discussion began with dialogue about bullet #4.

Motion 1: A motion was made, and seconded

the text of the Freshman Requirements report shall include the following statement in the form of a suggestion: to help balance the number of sections in the fall and in the spring semesters, students with 500 or above on the verbal section of the SAT should begin their English sequence in their second semester.

Discussion followed about: student retention, whether this action penalizes students, the impact of this action, and the wording of "should".

The question was called and the motion was passed, with twelve (12) in favor and nine (9) opposed.
The discussion continued on the contents of bullets #5 and 6. Topics which arose during this discussion included: whether to combine the content of these two bullets; the use of the word "must"; and which university office is responsible for sending out the acceptance and advising letters (admissions).

Motion 2: A motion was made and seconded:

to combine the contents of bullet five (5) (in the acceptance and advising letters, notify incoming students with SAT verbal scores below 500 that they MUST take the placement examination before registration) with bullet six (6) (in the acceptance and advising letters, notify students with SAT verbal scores below 500 that if they do not take the placement examinations they will be placed in ENG 098, a non-credit course) and add a statement that failure to do so will cause students to be registered in ENG 098

Friendly Amendment 1: A friendly amendment was made and accepted:

to rephrase this motion to include: if students have a verbal SAT score below 500, students shall be placed into ENG 098 unless they have taken the placement exam and are waived into ENG 100.

Discussion followed about this motion and friendly amendment, including the following topics: whether ENG 098 is being used as a punishment for not taking the placement exam; the implementation of this action for students admitted for January if no placement exam is available; having students take placement exams on the first day of classes; creating a grid in which SAT verbal scores automatically place students into particular ENG courses; and assigning students who have not taken the placement exam a late registration priority date.

Friendly Amendment 2: A second friendly amendment was made and accepted:

to amend the previous friendly amendment to state that the motion be moved into the text of the document as a suggestion; to let the ENG department develop the policy for failure to take the placement exam; and to give late priority dates to students who have not taken the ENG placement exam.

The discussion continued with the following topics: making available the placement exam in area high schools; making ENG 098 a credit class; making the university responsible for ongoing test availability; and the teaching of writing across the curriculum, not only in ENG courses.

A motion was made to table this discussion until the next UCF meeting.

VI. Adjournment:

1. A motion to adjourn the meeting was made, seconded and passed unanimously.

2. The meeting was adjourned at 10:50 am.

Minutes recorded by:

Paul W. Cascella

Department of Communication Disorders