Minutes 11/16/11

College of Arts and Sciences
Curriculum Committee
Minutes
November 16, 2011

Members present:  R. Carini, G. Leichty, J. Li, S. Rabin, R. Roebuck (Chair), M. Rohmann, R. Taylor, B. Williams

Members absent:  A. Mehta (A&S Student Council)

Guests:  T. Adams (A&S Advising), J. Braun (A&S Advising), S. Bourassa (UPA), L. Erickson (Career Development Center), B. Hirsch (A&S Advising), W. Hoston (PHYS), C. Jayanthi (PHYS), E. Patton (HUM/LING), D. Simpson (UPA), T. Soldat-Jaffee (HUM/LING), T. Stewart (HUM/LING), E. Wise (HUM)

The Committee gave general approval to the proposal for a B.A. in Sustainability, noting that the department would need to make some format changes to the degree program to conform to the catalog format.  CIFs will need to be submitted for specific SUST courses.  The Committee also recommended that the department designate and submit a course for its Culminating Undergraduate Experience while the program is being developed.

GEN 201:  Career Decision Making and GEN 202:  Occupational Exploration were approved as new courses, contingent on revised syllabi and CIF course descriptions more clearly differentiating their content.

Action on GEN 205:  Collegiate Success (new course, intended for students who have been suspended) was deferred for additional discussion.

Changes were approved to the B.S. in Physics.   The  concentrations in Applied Optics, Computational Science, and Materials Science were deleted.  PHYS 390 was deleted from and PHYS 350 and 530 were added to the core courses for the B.S.  These changes do not affect the B.A. in Physics.  The department was asked to assign a more specific name to the new “flexible” concentration.

Changes were approved to the B.S. in Atmospheric Science.   PHYS 461 and 462 were removed from the Atmospheric Science core and PHYS 360 and 469 were added to the core.

The following course changes in Physics were approved.

  • PHYS 360:  Intro to Weather Analysis (new course)
  • PHYS 450:  Introductory Mathematical Physics  (description and prerequisite change)
  • PHYS 461:  Synoptic Meteorology I (delete)
  • PHYS 462:  Synoptic Meteorology II (delete)
  • PHYS 465:  Dynamic Meteorology I (prerequisite change)
  • PHYS 530:  Thermal Physics (title/description change)
  • PHYS 547:  Fundamental of Lasers (new course; cross-listed with ECE 540)

Final action  was deferred on PHYS 350:  Differential Equations for the Physical Sciences and PHYS 469: Synoptic Meteorology pending receipt of revised syllabi.

A proposal for a minor in Linguistics was approved.  It was noted that the department needed to review and correct the cross-list status of some of the Linguistics courses.

[11/17/11]