Undergraduate Curriculum Forum (UCF)

Minutes 11/13/03 (amended)

Present

E. Emenyonu, J. Manzella, C. Wieder, G. Kowalczyk, G. DeJarnette, S. DiFrancesco, R. Glinka, H. Podnar, J. Tait, C. Coron, B. Eldridge, B. Achhpal, N. Marano, M. Shea, N. Wilder, E. Schmitt, L. Berman, M. Thompson, N. Chrissidis, C. Kim, W. Shyam, J. Fields, R. Mugno, M. Moss, S. Bochain, K. Gatzke, H. Applewhite, C. Novosad, S. Jackson, C. Dellinger-Pate, W. O'Brien, C. Ogbaa, C. Barrett, J. Mielczarski, N. DeCrosta, K. Mauro

I. Call To Order

The meeting was called to order by Jim Tait at 9.43 a.m.

II. Announcements

M. Thompson announced the Asian Academic Society's Taste of Asia program will be held on Wednesday November 19, from 11:30a.m. to 1:30 p.m., room 207 Student Center. She further announced that the Writing Across the Curriculum Committee has two proposals that came in before the WACC committee started meeting. The two proposals were included in the catalog before being submitted to the UCF. She announced that provisionally the course will be allowed to run for Spring but not beyond that time without due approval. Jim Tait announced that UCF members should convey to their departments regarding the need to have L courses approved before being offered.

III. Approval of Meeting Minutes

The UCF minutes of October 30, 2003 were approved, subject to correction of 3 members who were present but were not listed as such, namely: B. Achhpal, M. Moss, and L. Berman.

IV. Standing Committee Reports

Steering Committee

Jim Tait gave an oral report that the Steering Committee discussed the BOT resolution.

Notifications Management (NMC)

J. Fields gave a brief oral report and subsequently, the NMC minutes of 11/6/03 were received. The motions contained in the report of NMC were unanimously approved.

New Programs and Innovations (NPIC)

A brief oral report was given on the NPIC meeting of 11/6/03, and the minutes of 10/23/03 and 11/6/03 were received. The NPIC motion from 10-23-03 was withdrawn.

Program Review and Assessment (PRAC)

The minutes of PRAC meetings of 10/23/03 and 11/6/03 were received.

University-Wide Impact (UWIC)

The minutes 10/9/03, 10/23/03 (as amended), and 11/6/03 (as amended) were received. Regarding the sentence contained in the minutes of 11/6/03 with respect to the lack of quorum, J. Fields asked whether UWIC has any bylaws. Jim Tait commented that no UCF committee has any bylaws. He encouraged UCF committees to try to come up with bylaws. The motion contained in the UWIC minutes of 10/23/03 motion was approved.

In response to a question regarding the status of the General Education Task Force, J. Tait commented that General Education Review Committee was a Sub Committee of UWIC. It was decided to move the General Education Task Force out of UWIC and make it a Sub Committee of UCF as a whole.

Michele Thompson suggested adding question 5 from the UWIC meeting minutes of 11/6/03 (dealing with plagiarism) to the UCF agenda for discussion at a subsequent meeting.

V. Discussion

A member pointed out that there are incongruities with respect to what constitutes Special Topics Courses and how they are approved. For instance, there have been instances when one department cross listed a Special Topics Course with a regular course offered by another department. The other problem is how the Special Topics Courses get into the schedule of classes bulletin. There have been some courses that are running without going through the UCF. The question to the UCF is, is this serious enough to address and should we get some input regarding how to address this issue before NPIC looks into it? M. Thompson commented that courses being offered without going through NPIC or the UCF Chairman is analogous to L Courses being offered without passing the courses through WACC. M. Shea commented that in the old days it used to take a long time for courses to be added and that not many new courses were being added. The idea was to allow the Department some flexibility in offering new courses by submitting the paperwork to the UCF after the course has started running, with the condition that the course can only be offered three times. This is not analogous to the L Course issue he maintains. S. Jackson attempted to explain the circumstances surrounding the cross-listing of a course offered by another department as a Special Topics Course as simply an honest mistake made by someone who was relatively new to campus.

Bob Eldridge asked whether, as a campus, we want to have a dual track for accepting courses. If we want to have the dual track, then the NPIC committee cannot be responsible for the logging and monitoring of new courses.

Jim Tait responded that when UCF voted to allow chairs to sign off on courses, it had in mind providing for last minute situations. Whether it has been signed of by the Chair of the Department, it still has to go to NPIC for recording.

J. Tait asked whether UCF should receive the paperwork before a course has to be included in the schedule of classes. Mike Shea suggests that the gatekeeper of the class listing schedule should require that the paperwork be submitted to him/her before listing the course. A member commented that it is important for the UCF and the gate keeper to communicate properly. The procedure at this point is that you fill out a form and mail it to UCF (Christine Stanton), who forwards it to NPIC.

Motion: That all Special Topics course proposals come directly to NPIC for the initial UCF review.

It was suggested that NPIC consider discussing this motion further before presenting it to UCF. The NPIC chair withdrew the motion for further discussion.

Bob Eldridge spoke against having a dual track system.

VI. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 10.47 a.m.

Minutes recorded by:

Emmanuel N. Emenyonu