Arts and Sciences Senate

Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

Academic Year 2003-2004

14^th Meeting, December 11 , 2003 – Approved on February 4, 2004

Present: R. Cerrato (chair), C. Marrone, A. Hasloecher, T. Weinacht, J. Lochhead, T. Weinacht, S. Sternglanz, E. Kaplan (secretary), E. Lindquist (observer)

I Committee Business

The minutes of December 4^th were approved

II Routine Administrative Matters

PHY 127 was added to the list of corerequiste course options for the one credit PHY 104, Opportunities in Physics

Old Business

Web-based New Course Proposal Form

Ellen Lindquist presented the latest draft of the new web-based course proposal form. Suggested word changes and links were discussed. Ellen and Tony Phillips will continue to work on the form and members will have the opportunity to review it one more time before it is on the web. It was suggested new course proposals that have already been approved by the Committee could be available for those proposing new courses to study.

Proposal for ex-officio members on the Curriculum Committee

Cerrato presented a draft of the proposal to include two additional ex-officio members on the Curriculum Committee. One member would be a professional staff member from the Registrar’s Office who has experience with graduation requirements, registration procedures, and implementation of rule changes. The other member would be from Enrollment and Retention Management and should be knowledgeable about both general student concerns and transfer student issues.

The Committee made some editorial suggestions and Cerrato will present the proposal to the Arts and Sciences Executive Committee.

Specializations

E-mail correspondence from the Registrar’s office was reviewed. The Registrar’s office pointed out the inconsistency of having a specialization in general biology within the biology major and of having a geology specialization within the geosciences major. These two specializations will be discontinued.

What should a specialization in a major consist of? The Committee agreed on the following points:

· In order for a major to have a specialization, it should have at least two different pathways that students can elect.

· A specialization should consist of no fewer than 18 credits.

· All of the 18 credits should be at the 200 level or above.

· In the case of an interdisciplinary major (MTD), all of the areas selected for the major should relate to the specialization. E.g. a social sciences specialization within the MTD major would need to be composed of two or three social science areas.