A&S Curriculum Committee Minutes Dec 12 2008

College of Arts and Sciences

Curriculum Committee Minutes

December 12, 2008

Members present: B. Bradley, J. Burnet, C. Hanchette (Chair), N. Polzer, M. Rohmann, R. Taylor, B. Willey

Members absent: A. Miller, R. Smith (A&S Student Council)

Guests: A. Harris (Anth), T. Rajack-Talley (PAS), R. Roebuck (CML), N. Theriot (WGST), C. Tilquist (Anth)

The minutes of the meeting of December 5, 2008, were approved as distributed.

The committee set meetings for the Spring 2009 semester for Thursdays, 2:30-4:00.

Action was deferred on six course requests from the Department of Chemistry until the committee received answers to questions relating to the proposed changes.

Course actions are effective Summer 2009, unless otherwise noted.

ML 350/HUM 350: The Literary Fairy Tale was approved as a new course.

Changes were approved to the placement scores in Spanish. The new cutoffs are:

Below 295 Spanish 121 or 141

295-369 Spanish 123

370-439 Spanish 201

440-599 Spanish 321 or 322 or 355

600 or above consult with departmental advisor

As a result of these changes, descriptions and/or prerequisites reflecting the new cutoffs were changed for the following: SPAN 121, 123, 141, 142, 201, 202, 321, 322, and 355.

The awarding of credit for AP exams was also changed. The new guidelines are:

Test: Spanish Language, score of 3 equals credit for SPAN 122 (4 hours)

Test: Spanish Language, score of 4 equals credit for SPAN 123 (4 hours)

Test: Spanish Language, score of 5 equals credit for SPAN 201 and 202 (6 hours)

Test: Spanish Literature, score of 3 equals credit for SPAN 313 (3 hours)

Test: Spanish Literature, score of 4 or 5 equals credit for SPAN 313 and SPAN 202 (6 hours)

SPAN 590: Senior Capstone was changed to 1 credit hour. As a result of this change, the total number of hours required in the language in the major changed from 36 to 34.

SPAN 499: Special Topics in Spanish Culture, Literature, and Linguistics was approved.

The following course action in Anthropology were approved:

ANTH 342: Museums, Culture, and Nationhood (new course) [It was noted that the syllabus for this course needed a grading scale.]

ANTH 343: Folklore of the African Diaspora (new course)

ANTH 488: History of Anthropology (number change to 508 and addition of graduate credit option)

ANTH 371: Ethnographic Methods (number change to 511 and addition of graduate credit option)

ANTH 376: Archaeological Theory and Methods (number change to 509 and addition of graduate credit option)

The following course actions in Philosophy were approved:

PHIL 306: 19 th Century Philosophy (new course)

PHIL 307: 20 th Century Philosophy (new course)

PHIL 502: Capstone Seminar (new course)

Additionally, the committee approved the department’s proposal to increase from 24 to 33 the number of hours required in the major in the Humanities and Social Sciences concentration, with a proportionate decrease of 9 hours in supporting courses. Changes were made to the history of philosophy component and new areas of distribution requirements were added, as was the new capstone seminar. The concentration in Bioethics remains unchanged.

The committee approved a request from the Department of Military Science for authority to substitute MILS 410 for the military history requirement (HIST 418 or 419) of the minor as needed.

Changes were approved to the BA and BS in Women’s and Gender Studies which will eliminate the 9-12 hour “concentration” within the major and require instead one course in women/gender and race, one course in women/gender history, and one elective in WGST for the BA and two electives in WGST for the BS. The hours required in the major will remain the same. Additionally, the requirement for departmental diversity courses will be eliminated. These changes do not affect the minor in Women’s and Gender Studies.

Proposals for a minor in African Studies and a minor in Caribbean Studies in the Department of Pan African Studies were approved. (The committee noted that some of the course listings in the proposals were incorrectly numbered and needed to be corrected.) Professor Rajack-Talley agreed to the suggestion that a student should not be allowed to double count more than 6 hours toward the minors, as many of the same courses could be used in both minors.

The Committee briefly discussed the Assembly’s decision to return the proposed policy on conflict of interest in educational materials for revision. Professor Wiley volunteered to draft materials for the committee’s consideration and Professor Bradley volunteered to investigate the preparation of a conflict of interests document as an approach to the issue.