Search
Southern Home PageAbout Southern Connecticut State UniversityAcademicsAdmissionsStudent LifeResearchAthleticsHuman Resources at Southern
Southern Connecticut State University LibraryMySCSUSouthern DirectoryCalendar of EventsTechnologyContact Us
Department Banner

Undergraduate Curriculum Forum


Minutes
Adanti Student Center 301A
Thursday, February 07, 2008


Present:  D. Weiss (chair), G. Cochenet, S. Grace, G. Kowalczyk, S. Felsenfeld, R. Glinka, S. DiFrancesco, M. Generali, S. Grubacic, N. Marano, T, Fleming, E. West, B. Nakamura, T. Radice, J. McGinn, C. Simoneau, R. Mugno, R. Conforti, K.Laird, R. Kustin, L. Rebeschi, D. Flynn,  K. Gatzke, K. Cummings, K. Marsland, P. Kahlbaugh, R. Hunter, M. Cameron, J. Sullivan, T. Lin, J. Mielczarski, M. Shea, K. Rondinone, A. Marsoobian, K. Laing, A. Scott, K. Mauro, M. Heidmann

Absent:  M. Narumanchi, J. Manzella, , I. Antonios, A. Abugri, N. Henderson, C. Coron, T. Fleming, D. Marino, E. Schmitt, M. Fede, N. Disbrow, J. Irving, D. Pettigrew, J. O'Hara, J. Terpstra, C. Rosado, S. Graves, J. Fields, D. Tomasko, M. Geelan, C. DiSano


The meeting was called to order at 9:40 am.

Announcements

  • Mark Heidman announced that after 8 years of being responsible for the W-Course waivers for the university, Kelly Ritter, the interim writing director has taken over that role.  Dr. Heidman's dedication to the task was acknowledged with thanks and a round of applause.
  • Tricia Lin announced that Women's Studies has kicked off their program of 64 days of Non-Violence.  Dr. Lin encouraged everyone to participate.
  • On Friday, February 8, 2008 from 2:30pm - 4:00pm, the first candidate for the position of Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences will meet with the search committee in EN B121A&B.
  • Kate Marsland announced that there is a new form for Independent Study for W courses. The form will be available on the new Writing Across the Curriculum website.
  1. UCF Minutes from December 13, 2007 were approved with three abstentions.

Standing committee reports and acceptance of minutes; votes on standing committee motions

  • NMC - minutes received
    Correction: MIS 398 - MGT 398; passed with one abstention
  • NPIC - minutes received
    Five courses were presented and logged.
  • UWIC - no minutes; committee did not meet
  • PRAC - minutes received
  • WACC - minutes received

Motion: to accept the following "W' courses:

HIS 201:  U.S. History Through Film
Faculty: J. Madison

GEO 270: Maps and Map Interpretation
Faculty:  E. West

Motion: approved with one abstention

Ad-Hoc Standards Committee - No report

Old Business - Committee members had no follow-up questions on for Assessment and Program Review 

New Business - Discussion of role of deans in Flow of Proposals

Dr. Weiss briefly went over the Flow of Proposal process.

A discussion regarding the role of the deans in the process ensued.  Some members felt that the deans should have some awareness of curriculum changes, wondering how faculty would know if there are enough funds to run a program. It was pointed out that although the deans do not sign the proposals, the Provost or Academic Vice President does and that person ultimately controls the resources.  One suggestion was that an additional box be added to the proposal form stating "department needs additional resources" to inform the deans. 

Several members pointed out that the School Curriculum Committees (SCC) informs the deans regarding curricular matters that come before the committees.  This led to a discussion of the discrepancies between the SCCs, including whether committee members are elected or appointed by the Dean (as in Arts & Sciences).

Discussion will continue at the next UCF meeting following the gathering of some historical and operational information on the SCCs.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:52 am.
 

 

UCF Chair's Report - February 21, 2008

                                                         
On February 17, I met with the chairs of the School Curriculum Committees (SCC).

ATTENDANCE

• Arts & Sciences - Matthew Enjalran
• Business - Richard Kustin
• Communication, Information, and Library Sciences - Klaus Peters
• Education - Gary Morin
• Health and Human Services - Diana Newman
• UCF Chair - Deborah Weiss

INPUT FROM CHAIRS OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM COMMITTEES

It became evident that the SCCs operate quite differently from one another:

• Size - The SCCs vary in size from four to nine members.
• Membership - Three of the five committees have some type of election process that loosely consists of electing members departmentally, with the chair subsequently elected by the SCC.  In A&S the Dean asks for volunteers and chooses from the volunteers.  If enough faculty have not volunteered, the Dean appoints members.  In CILS, volunteer's names are submitted to the Dean's secretary, but the selection process (i.e. number of names received, who chooses the members, etc.) is unclear. 
• Workload - By far the workload of A&S is the heaviest with weekly meetings (currently) and an average of 10-20 proposals of various types for each meeting and subsequent follow up.  Other committees meet biweekly or according to need (based upon receipt of proposals).
• Procedures - Handling of the proposals varies by committee with some returning the approved proposals directly to the UCF office and others returning the proposals to the department to be submitted to UCF.
• Responsibilities - The consensus of the SCC chairs is that the primary role of the SCCs is review of curriculum proposals.  Several chairs discussed secondary responsibilities or possible responsibilities that are currently not being executed.
• Purpose/Role - The purpose/role of the SCC was described by several members as one of proof-reading/editing and quality control.  The group was split on whether the SCC role includes critical review of the proposals and the ability to return the proposal to the department for major revision.  One chair described the committee as having "no teeth" and felt that the committee had been "slapped down" in the past for attempting critical review.
• Role of Dean - With the exception of H&HS, no deans attend the SCC meetings or participate in the curriculum proposal decision process.  H&HS, however, does not have a formal role for the dean in its bylaws.
• Record Keeping and Dissemination of Information - Several, but not all committees take minutes.  For several committees the minutes are disseminated to various relevant parties, which vary from committee to committee. 

CURRENT ISSUES FOR CONSIDERATION

Regardless of why the SCCs initially were formed and included in the process of curriculum revision, the UCF should review the process and decide:

• Is the role of the SCC an important one in the flow of proposals and should it be continued?  Consensus of the SCC chairs appeared to be that the SCC role should continue.
o Pros:  quality assurance, extra set of eyes, possible closer level of familiarity with proposals than would be found in NMC (although probably not for A&S)
o Cons:  slows process down, additional layer of peer review which may not provide additional input to NMC, more paper, additional faculty time spend in a possible redundant process

• Should the SCC have the authority of critical review or is the role primarily one to grossly screen the proposals and edit/proof read them?

• Should the SCCs have common guidelines and operations?
Consensus of the SCC chairs seems to be that each school should have the autonomy to decide issues such as committee size, role, etc., but that there should be certain common bylaws, including:
o All schools should elect members to the committees and there should be some type of common process for doing this.
o Faculty only should attend meetings, other than by invitation.  It was felt that the presence of deans at the meetings might cause committee members, especially non-tenured ones to be less objective.
o Handling of proposals should be standardized (see Procedures above).

 

HISTORY

Some relevant history and motions follow:

UCF was founded in 1997, replacing two committees that both dealt with curricular issues. 

UCF minutes - 9/18/97 - NMC reported work on rules of operation, role, curriculum proposal process, etc.  It was noted that two schools, Professional Studies (now defunct) and Arts & Sciences did not have school curriculum committees.

UCF minutes - 10/2/97 - A motion was approved as follows:  The School Curriculum Committees shall scrutinize all proposals to ensure that the proposals contain all requested information and materials.  The rationale given in these proposals shall receive special attention and shall delineate the academic merits of the request to the University community at large. 

UCF minutes 11/13/97 - Announcements - D. Freedeen (chair) announced that each School curriculum committee should operate on their own and not wait for UCF direction when to begin.  Announcements - D. Freedeen announced that faculty from the School of Professional Studies voted to establish a school curriculum committee.

UCF minutes - 2/12/98 - Discussion occurred about the role of the school curriculum committees and all university requirements.  A motion was passed unanimously as follows:  If an existing course is to be considered as an all university requirement, it shall be forwarded to the Steering Committee and then the UWIC.  The school curriculum committee shall be notified at the beginning of the process. 

UCF Minutes 3-12-98 - Update on School Curriculum Committees:
a.   S. Jensen reported the following:
• Arts and Sciences: in process of electing a committee and waiting
Senate approval
• Professional Studies: in process of electing a committee and waiting
Senate approval
• Business committee: in place and approved
• Communication committee: in place and approved
• Education: a ballot is currently being put out to poll faculty as to
whether a committee is wanted
b. Discussion occurred about the role of the school curriculum committee, including:
• communication between UCF committees and school curriculum committees
• establishing a protocol so that a cooperative effort between UCF and school curriculum committees is established
• for schools without a school curriculum committee, department chairs will be invited to talk with UCF committee chairs

A motion was made, seconded and passed unanimously that the standing committee chairs shall meet with school curriculum committees at the beginning of the academic year to facilitate communication and expectations.

Flow of Proposals:  Version 12, Spring 2003 - Role of the Deans in the Curriculum Governance Process
A. The department may give the dean the opportunity to review the proposal at the development of the proposal
B. If, during the development of the proposal, the appropriate dean does not have an opportunity to review the proposal, the SCC shall submit a copy of the proposal to the appropriate dean.
C. In either case, the dean may draft a written response to the proposal.  This response shall be forwarded by the dean to the UCF and SCC, and it shall be attached to the proposal.
D. A negative response by the dean shall not stop a proposal from going forward through the curricular process.
E. Deans shall have the opportunity to speak at thorough review sessions occurring at any level.

UCF Minutes - 3/2/06 - The following amendment to a motion was passed:  In the review of curricular proposals, School Curriculum Committees (SCCs) shall abide by published UCF standards and guidelines.

Respectfully submitted,

 


Deborah Weiss, UCF Chair