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Undergraduate Curriculum Forum

Minutes
Adanti Student Center, Room 301A
Thursday, February 12, 2009


Present: Deborah Weiss (Chair), K. Skoczen, R. Vaters-Carr, Y. del Amo, S. Grace, M. Das, O. Gulacar, S. Felsenfeld, R. Glinka, L. Foss, A. Abugri, N. Marano, M. McClain, C. Coron, T. Fleming, M. Fede, E. Schmitt, E. West, B. Nakamura, T. Radice, C. Simoneau, M. Hartog, W. O'Brien, E. Frank, R. Cain, D. Pettigrew, K. Gatzke, K. Cummings, K. Marsland, D. Smith, M. Kiarie, G. Adams, M. Cameron, E. Cornwell, T. Lin, J. Mielczarski, G. Cochenet, A. Marsoobian, K. Rondinone, M. Shea, D. Tomasko, A. Todaro

Absent: M. Narumanchi, I. Antonios, J. McGinn, R. Kustin, J. Irving, L. Rebeshchi, D. Flynn, J. O'hara, P. Kahlbaugh, J. Tait, J. Sullivan, K. Barnett, J. Fields, S. Graves, K. Laing, D. Bentley-Drobish, K. Mauro, Q. Bright


I. Call to order at 9:40am.

II. Announcements
• T. Lin announced the 6th annual 64 days of nonviolence with presentations and talks starting with the first talk on Feb 18th from Amy Kesselman on the hidden history of the Women's movement in New Haven.
• D. Pettigrew announced the Cinema du Monde Spring schedule, the 11th annual faculty research conference (Whither the Humanities?) on March 7th, and the remembrance of the Holocaust the week of April 20th with a school wide reading and presentations.
• Several new members were recognized.

III. Approval of UCF minutes of December 11, 2008
• Minutes were approved with 2 abstentions.

IV. Standing committee reports (minutes and committee motions)

a. NPIC - minutes received
b. NMC - minutes received
• Motion to approve the following new courses, revised courses, and revised program proposals as a block:
New Course Proposals:
ANT 252 - Introduction to Forensic Science
ANT 352 - Crime Scene Investigation
MDS 375 - Television, Comedy, Culture

Revised Course Proposals:
ANT 422 - Human Osteology
EDU 492 - Mathematics (Secondary School)

Revised Program Proposals:
B.A. Anthropology
B.S. Anthropology

• All proposals were approved with 5 abstentions.

c. WACC - minutes received

• Motion to approve the following new W courses:

Course:  PHI 321: Philosophy of Science
Faculty:  Heidi Lockwood

Course:  CSC 400: Computer Science Project Seminar
Faculty:  John DaPonte

Course: PSY 393: Experimental Methods
Faculty: Lawrence Brancazio

Course: SOC 370 Methods of Social Research
Faculty: Astrid Eich-Krohm

Course: SOC 235, Environmental Sociology
Faculty: Westerly Donahue

Course: ENG 301, Introduction to Literary Analysis and Critical Theory
Faculty: Karen Remedios
• All approved with one abstention

Reminder: all W courses for the Sp 2010 are due by April 1, 2009.
The writing contest has begun - submissions from Spring, Summer and Fall 08 are being accepted.

d. PRAC - minutes received
e. UWIC - minutes received
• Motion:
• That the name of the Department of Foreign Languages be changed to the Department of World Languages and Literatures
• All approved motion.

V. Ad hoc reports (per committee request) - no reports at this time.

VI. New Business - Presentation of GETF revisions to Liberal Education Proposal
• J. Tait made a presentation to UCF on the latest revisions to the Liberal Education Proposal (LEP).
• The task force (GETF) created a chart of five possible curriculum maps for 85% of Southern students. This outlined what courses students would take during the first two years at Southern and their progression throughout the GenEd courses.
• The GETF decided to combine ENG 111 & FYE into a course that incorporates learning to write for oneself into one course to eliminate credit concerns.  Only students taking ENG 110 or ENG 112 (a combined 10% of the 85%) would be taking FYE and an English course.
• R. Gilliand had several questions that J. Tait (and others) responded to:
o Is Tier III a senior capstone course? Yes, but some programs are credit heavy during their senior year and students in these programs may need to take this early (i.e., Nursing) so they will be able to take their capstone when they have completed 7 out of 9 Tier II courses.
o What are the other 15% of our students doing?  Several outlier categories are here: 6% taking ENG 112 and a math below 103, 5% taking ENG 110 and a math 103 and above, and 3% placed out of ENG 112 or placed lower than ENG 110.
o Why is technological fluency Tier I instead of Tier III? This is a skill they need for success in the programs so it needs to be addressed early (but can be moved to sophomore year if necessary).
• A colleague raised the concern that her ENG 112 students were resistant to clustering and she was concerned about cliques hampering class dynamics.
• M. Shea responded that the retention rate with clustering was higher than no clustering but FYE was still discussing the issues of clustering.
• A. Marsoobian responded that the two chances for departments to see freshmen (elective course and FYE) may be hampered by the concern that FYE is now fulfilling goals of ENG 111 as well as FYE and feels that some professors may not wish to participate.
• R. Vaters-Carr requested a copy of ENG 111 goals to help UCF alleviate concerns about the partnering of the two courses.
• J. Tait recommended that departments speak with Winnie Yu to determine their ability to get their majors to graduate in four years.
• K. Cummings asked what happens when students fail FYE.
• T. Bennett (GETF member) said that there is a state mandate that if students fail the developmental math or English courses they are not allowed to remain full-time students until they complete these courses (within a certain time period).
• J. Tait explained changes to Tier III. Departments will be able to offer a Tier III capstone to their students and it will need to have 3-6 values in the program to give credit heavy departments greater flexibility and allow LEP to integrate with their major program. They will also be allowed to take their Tier III course when they have completed 7 of 9 courses.
• The timeline will be as follows: Tier I - Fall 2011, Tier II - Spring 2012, Tier III- Fall 2013 with full implementation in Fall 2014. This will provide faculty with time to integrate the new ideas into AUR courses and create new LEP courses.
• J. Tait showed us the draft of the form for LEP courses and what kinds of things they are looking for in terms of competencies, areas of knowledge and discussion of values.
• All of these items (forms, charts, powerpoint presentations) will be on the UCF website for more information.
• J. Tait asked us to leave with this thought: The GETF has created their best work and presented it to UCF for approval so that the faculty can vote on it. He asks that we vote to approve a proposal that we deem as a reasonable program for faculty to vote on.
• Due to lack of time, the rest of the discussion will be tabled until the next meeting.
VII. Adjournment at 11:08am

Minutes respectfully submitted by Kathleen Rondinone.