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Undergraduate Curriculum Forum (UCF)

Minutes 3/31/05

Present 

B. Horn, B. Phelan, R. Vaters-Carr, J. Feng, G. Kowalczyk, G. DeJarnette, R. Glinka, H. Podnar, A. Abugri, N. Marano, N. Henderson, E. Schmitt, N. Chrissidis, W. Shyam, L. Bier,  J. Fields, R. Mugno, K. Burke, C. Dellinger-Pate, R. Kustin, K. Gatzke, K. Cummings, K. Buterbaugh, K. Marsland, M. Vancour, R. Hunter, S. Jackson, J. Tolis, W. O'Brien, C. Kim, C. Barrett, J. Mielczarski, K. Laing, L. Kohrn, M. Heidmann, K. Mauro, T. Lin

I.          Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 9:40 a.m.

II.        Announcements

There is a faculty mentoring workshop tomorrow, Friday, 4/1, from 8-10.
Mark Heidmann announced that Faculty Development has developed The Writing Support Committee who will be producing a newsletter called "The Write Stuff," containing tips, ideas, and links for teaching writing in the classroom.  They would like faculty to submit ideas.
The L-course student writing contest will be held this year, though it is happening at the last minute, so faculty should watch their boxes for flyers and encourage students to submit essays ASAP.  The deadline will be April 15.
The chair announced that a going away party for Christine Stanton was planned for today, but unfortunately she could not attend due to illness.
 

III.       Approval of UCF Minutes of 3/10/05

The UCF minutes of 3/10/05 were approved unanimously with one abstention.

IV.       Reception of Standing Committee Minutes and Approval of Standing Committee Motions
Steering Committee

No report.

Notifications Management (NMC) 

NMC Minutes of 3/17/05 received.

Motion:

Revised course PCH 362: Public Health Management be approved

Motion approved unanimously.

New Programs and Innovations (NPIC)

NPIC Minutes of 3/17/05 were received.

Program Review and Assessment (PRAC)

PRAC minutes of 3/17/05 were received.

PRAC asked us to consider whether or not we would like them to recommend adding assessment-related terms, such as "measurable student learning outcomes," as well as more detailed descriptions of evaluation tools related to the objectives to the updated proposal guidelines.

University-Wide Impact Committee (UWIC)

UWIC minutes of 3/17/05 were received.

UWIC presented a recommended timeline for course proposals as a suggestion for updated course proposal guidelines. The timeline was designed to help ensure that new and revised courses would make it into the upcoming catalogue.  There was some concern about the expectations such a timeline would set and concern about the timeline causing a flood of proposals at certain times, burdening the committee. 

Writing Across the Curriculum (WACC)

WACC minutes of 2/17/05 were received.

Mark Heidmann pointed out that the minutes contained possible errors of fact that should be noted.  He was concerned that some language suggested faculty were required to take workshops before teaching an L-course, misrepresenting the policy already approved in which workshops are recommended, not mandatory.  He was also concerned that the language suggested WACC was continuing to debate the issue of whether or not L-courses are approved by course or by instructor.  He pointed out that the policy requires instructors to be approved to teach an L-course.   Kevin Buterbaugh assured us that the committee is aware of these policies, and that the language wasn't meant to suggest otherwise, noting the factual errors.

V.        Revision of Foreign Languages program in German

Dan Soneson presented the issues surrounding the recent proposed change in the Foreign Language program in German.  He explained the philosophy behind the new program, particularly that learning a language does not take place sequentially, but by content-based exposure.  In response to this, the new program offers a set of three content-based courses from which students choose two, rather than progress through a linear set of courses, as is currently in place.  A concern is that it will appear as if students have to take more German courses than other Foreign Language courses.  Although students still take the same number of courses they do in other programs, the new choose-between-three-course system means that the catalogue, CPR forms, and CAPP will have to state that the university requirement is six, rather than three (as appears in other programs because of hidden prerequisite) credits.  Although this represents only the appearance of more courses required, the concern was that this might dissuade students from choosing to study German.  A variety of suggestions were discussed to combat this problem, including the suggestion by Kate Marsland that the actual number of courses students must take be more transparent in all cases by outing the hidden prerequisites, which would also make the requirements clearer.. 

Motion:

The Foreign Language requirement in German for the BA program be 201 and 202, 201 and 203, or 202 and 203.

Motion approved unanimously with two abstentions. 

VI.       Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 10:45 a.m.

Minutes recorded by Nicole Henderson, Secretary for UCF