A&S; Curriculum Committee Minutes, 10/08/02

Members Present: G. Barnes, A. Kolers, R. Luginbill, J. McLeod, M. Rohmann, E. Segal (Chair), B. Wright (A&S; Student Council), W-B Zeng

Members Absent: R. Taylor

Guests: P. DeMarco (Psychology)

The following course actions were approved, effective Fall 2003 unless otherwise noted:

TA 315: Speaking English as a Second Language (delete)
TA 515: Advanced Speaking English as a Second Language (delete)
TA 520: Acting Workshop (prerequisite change)
TA 546: Stage Make-up (change from 2 to 3 credit hours)
ENGL 101: Intro. To College Writing (remove prerequisites) effective Fall 2002

A proposal for a B.S. program in Psychology was discussed and returned to the department for possible changes. The Committee was concerned that a foreign language is not required, that there are so few hours required in the major as compared with the B.A. program, and that the requirements for supporting courses are not more specific.

The remainder of the meeting was a continuation of the discussion of the ramifications of plus/minus grading for designation of dean's scholars/dean's list and the effect of plus/minus grading on academic actions. It was decided not to change the present policy, i.e., that in order to be named a dean's scholar, the student must have all grades of A and that an A- would disqualify the student. In order for a student to be eligible for dean's list, the student would have to complete in one semester twelve or more graded credits in courses numbered at the 100-level or above with a GPA of 3.5 or above and no grades of C- or below or I, X or U. The catalog copy would need to be changed to make these distinctions.

It was also decided that a grade of C- would be calculated as such (1.7 GPA) and could therefore be the means of suspending a student on probation who did not earn a 2.0 GPA that semester.

It was also noted that a comparison of numbers of suspensions after this semester and past semesters and the numbers of students named dean's scholar and dean's list would be helpful to the committee for future discussion.