A&S Curriculum Committee Minutes September 22, 2010

Minutes of the September 22, 2010 meeting of the College of Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee

Members present:  R. Carini, G. Leichty, A. Miller, S. Rabin, M. Rohmann, K. Schuler (A&S Student Council), R. Taylor, B. Willey, B. Williams (Chair)

Guests:  J. Dietrich (Dean’s Office)

The minutes of the meeting of April 6, 2010, were approved as distributed.

Kyle Schuler, a senior Political Science major, was introduced as the A&S Student Council representative.

The following course actions were approved, effective Summer 2011.

  • HIST 690:  Studies in Middle Eastern History (new course)
  • JA 580:  International Service Learning:  Criminal Justice Seminar (with recommendations to the department regarding the course’s goals/objectives)


Action was deferred on JA 578:  Criminal Justice Leadership (WR credit) for additional discussion with the department.

Professor Dietrich discussed the state-wide Student Learning Outcomes for General Education categories with the committee.  The SLOs grew out of meetings convened by the CPE in response to HB 160 during the Spring 10 semester, in which representatives of all state institutions participated.  She explained that the outcomes are couched in very general language and that individual institutions may continue to establish more specific outcomes for their courses.   The Curriculum Committee saw no problem with articulation between UofL  general education learning outcomes and the state-wide outcomes.

The committee approved a proposal to allow students who have taken courses at UofL as Metroversity students to count any such hours toward the requirement of 60 hours in residence for eligibility for graduation with honors, should the student subsequently transfer to UofL in an A&S degree program. This policy would go into effect with the 2011-12 catalog.

The committee approved a proposal which would permit students readmitted  to Arts and Sciences following a period of academic suspension to apply toward an A&S degree hours completed at an accredited institution during the period of suspension.   This replaces the current College policy that no work completed at another college during the period of suspension will be accepted for credit in the College.  This policy would go into effect with the 2011-12 catalog.

The committee approved the following policy statement on conflict of interest in adoption of educational  materials, which will be presented to the Faculty Assembly at its October meeting:

“In order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest or impropriety, the College of  Arts and Sciences requires all faculty to report annually for the previous twelve months whether  they required students  to purchase any educational materials from which they them selves  gained financially.

Faculty who gained financially from such materials must report the following to the Dean’s Office:  (1) the semester, course number and title, enrollment and the required materials from which they gained financially; (2) a good-faith estimate of the financial gain realized from the assigned materials; and (3) steps that were taken to mitigate any financial gain.

Class syllabi must include steps taken to mitigate potential earnings from required materials.”


[09/24/10]