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Undergraduate Curriculum Forum (UCF)

Minutes 9/12/02 (amended)

Present: C. Wieder, T. Vu, J. Stenzel, R. Glinka, S. DiFrancesco, H. Podnar, J. Fopiano, J. Tait, J. Mills, B. Achhpal, N. Marano, N. Wilder, D. Soneson, C. Lukinbeal, T. Paddock, M. Thompson, N. Disbrow, W. Shyam, J. Fields, K. Burke, R. Page, S. Lueder, T. Gemme, S. Bochain, J. Dolan, C. Durwin, S. Selenskas, V. Breslin, J. Bloch, E. Johnston, W. Elwood, A. Kumar, L. Lancor, C. Ogbaa, C. Barrett, R. Cretella, J. DeMarco, L. Kohrn, M. Heidmann, K. Mauro

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

II. Announcements

  • If you did not receive mail from UCF, please forward your new e-mail address to the new UA, Christine Stanton: stantonc1@southernct.edu
  • The new mailing address for UCF is now - EN 21
  • The UCF website has been transferred to the SCSU server and will be updated shortly
  • Room 206 in the University Student Center will be made available to the UCF as an alternate meeting site if the Pinciaro Room becomes no longer available

III. Approval of Meeting Minutes: The minutes of the previous UCF meeting(5/16/02) were approved with the following amendments:

  • Announcements Section: Theatre Department course numbers should be reversed to show "THR 298 to THR to 296 and THR 398 to THR to 396".
  • Subcommittee Reports Section: Under NMC subcommittee report add, "the request was approved"

Paperwork today included:

  • UCF Agenda 9/12/02
  •  UCF Fall 2002 Meeting Dates
  •  UCF Goals/Business for 2002-2002 Academic Year

IV. Subcommittee Reports:

The Steering Committee met.

No other subcommittees met.

V. Standing Committee Membership

J. Tait, UCF Chair, reviewed the role of each of the subcommittees and their roles to include: Program Review and Assessment (PRAC), New Programs and Innovations (NPIC), Notifications Management (NMC), University-Wide Impact (UWIC). Subcommittee chairs also summarized responsibilities of individual committees to allow for UCF membership to be informed in order to select on which subcommittee they may wish to serve.

 

VI. Review Business for Coming Year

J. Tait reviewed and summarized the Goals/Business for the 2002-2003 Academic Year.

A draft of the completed Constitution was given to the Senate president.

The Gen Ed Task Force is still accepting names for any UCF members who may wish to participate. UCF Chair is particularly interested in recommendations for names of students to join this group.

Remediation Committee was an Ad Hoc committee formed to look at students who may need support in preparing for academic success. This group will continue to examine these issues.

The Library Science department presently has an online program. M. Brown, chair of library science program, has been invited to return to the general body of the UCF to make a second presentation to share with the membership ideas on how to establish standards for an online program.

Departments are recommended to take the major responsibility for new course proposals. From there it is appropriate for the School's Curriculum Committee to review the proposal. The flow of new course proposals may need to be re-articulated and shared.

The SCORE program is being reviewed.

Paperwork has been automated. J. Fields has been instrumental in making forms available to the University community online.

UCF will be discussing issues of curriculum quality; including such issues as class-size.

Commentary, questions and suggestions from the UCF body on the upcoming goals were heard.

VII. Academic Strategic Plan

There is now a faculty committee to draft an academic strategic plan within the Senate. This body can incorporate feedback. Concerns were expressed that the present draft appears as a business model that may not be appropriate for an academic institution.

T. Paddock will accept comments from the UCF membership and pass them on the committee.

A member finds improvement from the last draft seen. It was noted that "peer institutions" is a phrase that appears over and over. It may be difficult to identify "peer institutions" and agree to qualifications. It can be a very subjective process. They need to define what the criterion is for defining a peer institution. How we define them will have a large impact on the strategic plan.

A member adds that many ask this question and want the definition of what are the peer institutions and what defines them.

Other comments include: "What is the spirit of the core of a program? All models are bad, but some are useful. Can tinker with the notion of a peer group, but it gives you more leverage than picking out a target out of the air. The application of these models can be flawed, but still can be useful. Peer institution, for me, is a very useful concept. Is there any possibility of getting a document written in English? It would be so much easier to read. There is too much jargon."

VIII. Adjournment:

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

The meeting was adjourned at 10:45 am.

Minutes recorded by:

Joy E. Fopiano

Department of Counseling and School Psychology