To: Arts and Sciences Senate
From: Judith Lochhead, Chair,
Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
Re: 2004-2005 Annual Report
Date: September, 2005
I. General Information
The curriculum committee met 24
times during the 2004-2005 academic year. Committee members were: Judith
Lochhead (music and chair of the committee), Robert Cerrato (marine sciences),
Nancy Tomes (history), Catherine Marrone (sociology), Thomas Weinacht (physics
& astronomy), Darlene Prowse (asian and asian american studies), Anthony Phillips
(college of arts and sciences, ex officio member), Arlene Feldman (transfer
office, ex officio member), Leslie Volpe, (registrar’s office, ex officio
member),Claire Green-Forde (undergraduate representative), Vanessa Dumont (undergraduate
representative), and Kane Gillespie (college of arts and sciences, ex officio
secretary). Ellen Lindquist also
attended regularly as a guest, and
later became the graduate student representative.
The Committee met with several
guests, including Dean James Staros, Provost Robert McGrath, Prof. Fred Walter,
Deputy Provost Mark Aronoff, Associate Provost Manuel London, and Associate
Provost Joseph Auner. Other faculty members were also invited as guests when
appropriate.
Routine matters are handled by the
secretary and announced to the committee at each meeting. There were a number
of routine matters chiefly involving deletion of courses and changes of course
titles, descriptions, course combinations and/or prerequisites to bring them in
line with current teaching in preparation for the new bulletin.
The Committee worked to publish the
2005-07 of the Undergraduate Bulletin, including an updated online version of
the Bulletin. The secretary also serves as the editor of the Bulletin.
Members of the Committee served as
representatives on four departmental self studies for the Departments of Music,
Ecology and Evolution, Chemistry, and Sociology.
II. General Curricular Matters
General Education
Skill 4: attempts to determine the
status of Skill 4 were made throughout the academic year; however, the status
was still unclear by the end of the year.
GER Proposals: After a long wait,
the University received communication regarding the outstanding course
proposals. SUNY requested revisions or
additional information for several proposals. Only a few proposals were denied
outright. As a result of the
communication from SUNY, the Committee secretary submitted revised and new
proposals on June 28, 2005. The 76 proposals could be grouped into seven
categories.
1.
The SUNY Provost’s Office notified us that three (3) courses were approved;
however, they are not listed on the SUNY
site. As a precaution, we resubmitted them.
2.
We originally submitted 36 courses to the SUNY Provost’s Office for review on
11/6/2003, but the proposals were
questioned. We resubmitted them with revisions.
3.
We originally submitted four (4) courses to the SUNY Provost’s Office for
review on 2/6/2004, but the proposals
were questioned. We resubmitted them with revisions.
4.
We originally submitted six (6) courses to the SUNY Provost’s Office for review
on various dates, and the proposals
were questioned. We resubmitted them on 4/24/04, but again, the proposals were questioned. We resubmitted
them again with revisions.
5.
A request to correct a discrepancy at SUNY regarding the cross-listing and GER
designation of AAS/HIS 340 and
AAS/HIS 341
6.
We also submitted a handful of course deletions (14) and title revisions (2).
7.
We submitted nine (9) new proposals.
Campus Based Assessment of General
Education
The Committee met with Associate
Provost Manuel London to discuss the “SUNY Board of Trustees Resolution” regarding
campus based assessment of General Education.
The current impact on curriculum is
small at this point. However, future assessments may result in different criteria
for General Education Requirements; or assessment results may require revision
of content for given courses to redirect towards a goal of achieving certain
competencies.
The
The CEAS CTPC approved significant
changes to the Business major, including the requirement that students enrolled
in the Business major must declare and complete a minor. This may or may not
have an impact on student demand for CAS courses in the future.
Undergraduate Colleges
Much of the committee’s effort was
dedicated to the review and approval of the curricular aspects regarding the Undergraduate
Colleges. The Committee met with Dean James Staros, Provost Robert McGrath,
Prof. Fred Walter, Deputy Provost Mark Aronoff, and Prof. Perry Goldstein in
his role as Director of the Undergraduate College of Arts, Culture and
Humanities. Although the Committee encouraged full implementation of the
Colleges as an integral part of the student experience, it had concerns regarding
assessment (see below), academic content, grading basis, final grade breakdown,
mandatory status, repetition, and purview of the second semester undergraduate
college seminar courses. In addition, the Committee had concerns regarding the
consistency of the courses among the six different
through collaboration with the
Provost’s office in the construction of the “102 Undergraduate College Freshmen
College Seminar Guidelines,” which addressed each of the concerns. The
Committee approved three new course proposals, GLS 102, HDV 102, and LDS 102.
Revisions to the existing ACH 102and SSO 102 were also approved, making the
delivery of these five courses parallel to each other. The sixth course, ITS
102, was previously approved by the CEAS CTPC).
Assessment: the group agreed that
assessment would be conducted similar to a departmental review. An initial
assessment was suggested at the end of the Spring 2005 term, and a full
assessment should be scheduled every two or three years. McGrath proposed that
the Directors supply the CC with clear guidelines, indicate a clear structure,
purpose and role(s) for the oversight committee, define a plan for an external
review. The guidelines that were subsequently drafted by the Directors of the
Colleges indicate that an evaluation will occur at the end of each Spring term.
Winter Session
Following an attempt from the
Africana Studies in collaboration with Study Abroad to establish a winter
program in
proposals for any new courses.
Although outside the Committee’s purview, the members indicated that the
quality of instruction should be maintained with the expectation that a large
portion of winter offerings are likely to be taught by adjunct instructors.
Teacher Education / Combined Degree
programs
The Committee recommended changes
to and approved the undergraduate curricular elements of ten new combined
degree programs leading either to a BA/MA, BA/MAT or BS/MAT:
Adolescence
Education: English/English BA/MA
Adolescence
Education: Social Studies / History BA/MA
Chemistry/Adolescence
Education/Chemistry BS/MAT
Earth
& Space Science/Adolescence Education: Earth Science BS/MAT
French
Language & Literature/Adolescence Education: French BA/MAT
History/Adolescence
Education: Social Studies BA/MAT
Italian
Studies/Adolescence Education: Italian BA/MAT
Linguistics/English
to Speakers of Other Languages BA/MA
Physics/Adolescence
Education: Physics BS/MAT
Spanish
Language & Literature/Adolescence Education: Spanish BA/MAT
Of these, all except the
Adolescence Education: Social Studies / History BA/MA were approved by either
the SPD or Graduate Councils (where appropriate), and were passed to the
Provost for submission to
As part of the effort to construct
the program proposals, an exception was recommended by the Undergraduate
Council to the University Senate regarding the policy that allows undergraduate
students to count graduate course credit towards undergraduate degrees, as
follows:
Stony Brook undergraduate degrees:
(a) require 120 credits
(b) allow students to count a
maximum of six (6) graduate credits towards the undergraduate degree
Stony Brook combined
bachelors/masters degrees:
(c) require a minimum of 138
credits
(d) allow students to count a
maximum of fifteen (15) graduate credits towards the undergraduate portion of
the degree
(e) require that students who exit
the combined program before completion to satisfy requirements for the regular undergraduate
degree (above, (a), (b)).
Students in the combined degree program
will be advised in a timely fashion so that they may complete, if necessary,
the regular undergraduate degree without having to take additional
undergraduate courses. If a student is asked to leave the program based on
unsatisfactory progress, the student will be informed with enough time for him
or her to complete the undergraduate requirements with a maximum of six (6)
graduate credits and a total of 120 credits.
III. Significant Curricular Changes
by Department
Africana Studies
A new course, AFH 417 was approved
for co-scheduling with a graduate English course, EGL 570
A proposal to offer an existing
course as part of a winter study abroad program was rejected on the grounds
that a winter session did not exist.
Anthropology
Two courses were renumbered from
300- to 200-level status, resulting in ANT 252 and ANT 270
A new course, ANT 369 was approved.
Art
Three new courses, ARH 330, ARS 205
and ARS 305, were approved
Changes to the major requirements
were approved
Asian and Asian American Studies
A new course, AAS 350, was approved
A new combined course, AAS/POL
357-J was approved. The course will be administered by the AAS department.
For AAS programs CHI, JPN, and KOR,
all 475 and 476 Teaching Practica courses were inactivated; their function has been
replaced by the existing AAS 475, 476.
Undergraduate Biology
Subsequent to the addition of the
two new Marine Science Majors, the Marine Track of the Biology major was discontinued.
Significant discussion was given to
a proposal for a digital delivery model of BIO 358. Although the course was
approved on an experimental basis for Fall 2005, the proposal raised many
questions regarding digital lectures, including whether these types of lectures
should be among the types of course offerings at the University. Such
discussions are beyond the purview of the committee and would require formation
of new policies. Such topics should be passed on to other faculty committees if
digital lectures are to continue at the University. Of particular concern are
(in no order):
(a) Instruction responsibilities of
instructors who may eventually teach these types of courses. How will this type
of course fit in with the University’s workload policy? With UUP? With state
policy? How will the implementation of this course affect faculty load?
(b) Will the Administration expect
that virtual courses are an excuse not to provide proper physical facilities
for large lectures of this size?
(c) Is the proposed new delivery
method equitable to the existing lecture/recitation format currently in use for
other courses? For example, are contact hours equivalent?
(d) The role of TA’s in the
classroom. TA’s, especially undergraduate TA’s, should not be the primary
contact for other students. Should TAs and GAs be used to administer online
recitations?
(e) The definition of film and
video: since this course in some sense is being offered as a video, how would
it or ones like it fit in with the policy on video? The video IS the course in
some respect.
Multiple changes to both the
Biology and Biochemistry majors were approved.
BIO 367, which was originally
experimental, was resubmitted and approved as a regular offering.
Biomedical Engineering
Request to add DEC H to BME 304 was
approved.
Comparative Literary and Cultural
Studies
Changes to the department majors
and/or minors were approved, including the major in Humanities
Ecology and Evolution
A new course, BIO 104-E How Science
Works was approved.
Economics
The department requested that a
prerequisite of “B or higher” be added to ECO 487 and ECO 488 due to high
student demand and the resulting workload on faculty. The request was not
approved.
Engineering Chemistry
Changes to the major were approved.
European Language and Literature
Changes in credit requirements for
minors in Russian, French, German and Medieval studies were approved.
A new course, GER 313 was approved
and added to the requirement for the German major
A new course, ITL 436, was
approved.
The Committee received notification
from SUNY that the major in European Studies was approved by SUNY in November 2004.
Geosciences
A new course, GEO 302 was approved
for co-scheduling with a new graduate course, GEO 502.
Marine Sciences
The University acquired two
undergraduate marine science majors from the now-dissolved
Several courses were inactivated
The mutual exclusiveness of two
courses was dissolved, MAR 336 and MAR 394, allowing students to take both of
these courses for credit.
MSRC proposed to continue a program
that was previously co-administered between
Mathematics
A proposal to change the grading
basis of MAT 475 (teaching practicum) was rejected on the grounds that doing so
would create an inconsistency of grading bases between the other A/S teaching
practica.
Music
A new course, MUS 105-G Music
Cultures of the World was approved.
Political Science
A new combined course, AAS/POL
357-J was approved. The course will be administered by the AAS department.
Sociology
Changes to the requirements for the
major in Sociology were approved
Physics and Astronomy
A revision to AST/PHY 277 was
approved and added as a mandatory requirement for the majors in Physics and Astronomy.
Psychology
SSE 327 became PSY 327. A course
previously administered as part of the Social Sciences Interdisciplinary major,
SSI 327, was transferred to Psychology and renumbered as SSE 327 when SSI was
discontinued previous to 2004-05. To allow the course to fit intuitively into
the requirements for the Psychology major, the department requested that the course
be renumbered again as PSY 327. The proposal was approved. All other aspects of
the course remain the same, and it will continue to function as an integral
requirement for the Secondary Teacher Education and TESOL programs in addition
to the Psychology major.
Minor changes to the minor in Child
and Family Studies were approved.
Women’s Studies
A new track, Gender, Sexuality and
Public Health, was approved within the major in Women’s Studies
A request to reduce the number of
acceptable courses for the major and minor was approved
Writing and Rhetoric
A new course, WRT 392 Mentoring
Writers, was approved
Respectfully submitted,
Kane Gillespie