A&S; Curriculum Committee Minutes, 10/1/98

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
CURRICULUM COMMITTEE MINUTES

OCTOBER 1, 1998

Members present: J. Hart, T. Mackey, S. Maloney (Chair), M. Rohmann, R. Sahoo, M. Stenger, R. Taylor

Members absent: R. Baldwin

The minutes of the meeting of April 20, 1998, were approved as distributed.

HPES 100: Skills for Healthy Lifestyles was approved to fulfill the physical education requirement for students graduating in the College of Arts and Sciences. As a 2-hour course, it would meet the requirement without students taking an activity course. T he approval is effective 98F and would apply to students taking the course this semester.

The title of PARA 305 was changed FROM Domestic Relations TO Family Law, effective 99U.

The committee examined the request to designate PAS 520: Black Family in American Society a WR course. Action was deferred until a departmental representative could be present to provide additional information.

Changes in the M.A. in English were approved and will be forwarded to the Graduate School. These changes included:

ENGL 601: title change FROM Approaches to Scholarship and Research TO Introduction to English Studies.
Deletion of ENGL 591 as a requirement for the M.A.; ENGL 691 to be required in its place.
Deletion of ENGL 522 as a requirement for the M.A.
Changes in area requirements: FROM coursework in four of six specific areas TO two courses in literature before 1800 (American or British) and one course in literature after 1800 (American or British).

A non-thesis option, requiring the completion of 30 hours of coursework and a 25-page culminating project, was approved.

The committee approved the following changes to the B.S. Science-Dental Hygiene:

BSC 211 and 212, required in the professional program, will be designated in the catalog as requirements under the Natural Sciences area. These courses (5 hours) will replace the requirement of 6 hours of natural science electives at the 300-level or abov e, formalizing a practice that has existed for some years. This will reduce the total hours required in natural sciences from 21 to 20. The additional hour will be added to electives, increasing the category to 15-18 hours.

The committee reviewed proposals from the Undergraduate Council on the policy on completion of incompletes and requirements for dean's list and dean's scholar designation. Both were approved.

The proposal on incompletes sets 120 days as the period during which an incomplete must be finished. This has little effect on incompletes assigned in fall semester; it will create a difference for incompletes assigned in a spring semester, which under th e present policy are not due until the end of the following fall semester.

The new policy on dean's list bases that designation on grade point only (3.5) and removes the stipulation that the student could not have had a grade below a C and still qualify for dean's list. (A student may not have an "I" and be named to the dean's l ist and development courses continue to be excluded from the calculation.) The committee asked that when the new policy goes into effect, the college receive reports which would enable them to determine if students were actually earning grades of D and be ing named to the dean's list-the committee thought that while that was mathematically possible for students carrying 18 or more hours, it was not likely.

The committee discussed the criteria for cross-cultural general education courses at some length. It agreed to withdraw the proposed changes in cross-cultural criteria now before the Faculty Assembly and review courses based on the present definition.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:35.