September 27, 2007

Curriculum Committee Minutes

Members present: Susan Cordes-Green, Mark Gealy, Stephen Grollman, Michelle Lelwica, Mary Rice, Jonathan Steinwand (chair), Samantha Schmidt

Minutes for September 25, 2007 meeting were approved.

The first item of business was a course modification Education 330. Change in Course title from “International Education: A Policy Perspective” to “Comparative Education: A Policy Perspective”. This request was approved.

The next items of business came from the Biology department. A new course proposal for Neurobiology with the double designation Neu/Bio 400 was approved. The next item was a new course proposal for  Biology 108: Food, Fiber, and Drugs: Plants and People. Approval for this proposal was delayed pending revisions. We agreed that the proposal needed the following revisions:

1. a rationale that clearly explains the need for the course rather than a course description.

2. a supporting letter from psychology addressing possible duplication.

3. a more precise explanation of the across-the-curriculum initiatives

4. due dates for major assignments and examinations on the syllabus.

5. more careful editing of the syllabus, (e.g. "This is a 200 level course that you should have taken your Sophomore year.")

6. attention to the cover page

    a. to include the 16 character title code for registration

    b. to make sure the title here matches the title in the catalog description

    c. to clarify that enrollment be open to all classes and especially non-majors if the intention is to offer this course as an exploration option.

7. clarification on whether “multiple papers” were required as stated on the last page of the proposal or one paper as stated in the syllabus.

The next new course proposal from biology was Conservation Biology. This course was approved pending revision of lab criteria. For approval of the laboratory section, we decided that instructor-supervised laboratory time must be scheduled. The amount of time should conform to the minimum contact time determined for laboratory exploration courses. We also recommended that a regular time for the lab be chosen so that students enrolling for the class/lab may reserve appropriate time in their schedules.

The meeting ended at 5:30

Respectfully Submitted,

Stephen Grollman