21st meeting, 15 May 2003-- Minutes approved on 9/3/03
Present: R.
Cerrato, chair, S. Sternglanz, N. Tomes, A. Feldman, C. Marrone, E. Kaplan, C.
Promin, A. Hasloecher, K. Breidenbach, secretary
The minutes were approved.
HUR 241 Russian Cinema
The request to change the course
description was approved.
Changes
in course titles were approved for:
WST 111-G Introduction to Queer Studies in
the Humanities
WST 112-F Introduction to Queer Studies in
the Social Sciences
ARH 3##-G Public Art and Urban Design in New York City—new course proposal
While everyone agreed the
course sounded excellent and would be attractive to students, there was some
question about creating a regular standing course that would only be offered
every three years at best. Members recommended the course be offered as a
topics course when it is offered. In addition, there was concern about the
number of meeting hours. Cerrato said the excursions sounded more like
fieldwork than lecture time. Breidenbach would communicate with the department.
[Note: the instructor indicated that the fieldtrips really are conducted as
lecture/seminars, because she lectures the entire time. Kaplan will ensure that
the course is scheduled for the appropriate number of hours.]
AFS 3##-H Aids, Race and Gender in the Black Community—new course proposal
Sternglanz noted that
“gender” is mentioned in the course title but nowhere in the description. Also,
while members thought the idea of offering the course as satisfying DEC H was
interesting, they noted that the H-ness needed to be more apparent in the
description and syllabus. Tomes offered to speak with the instructor to help
her craft the description appropriately. Breidenbach recommended changing the
proposed prerequisites to U3 or U4 standing with an advisory prerequisite of
one biology course. The course was approved with the assumption that the
description would be changed.
BIO 103 Modern Issues in Biology—new experimental course proposal
Members said the title
seemed misleading, especially as the issues seemed to be limited to
biotechnology rather than all of biology. Hasloecher said that she had thought the course was going to be a discussion
about issues, but the course syllabus doesn’t bear that out. There was also
concern about the number of meeting hours because of the planned number of minilabs. There would be 7 1/2 hours of
lab and since labs are supposed to meet for 3 hours a week per one credit hour,
the course essentially would fall a week and a half short of meeting the
requisite number of hours. Either the
course needs to have some additional scheduled meeting time or the course
should be offered for fewer credits. The course was approved, since it is
experimental. Breidenbach would communicate with the department.
BIO 318 Bioethics and Policy—new
course proposal
Given the additional
information provided by the department, the course was approved.
General Education
Cerrato outlined his proposal for how general
education courses should be handled on the campus and submitted to Albany. He
said the SUNY form would be prepared by the committee secretary and submitted
electronically to the campus provost or deputy provost who would then send it
on to Albany. If the course is rejected by SUNY and sent to ACGE, the
curriculum committee would communicate with the department and instructor about
whether they want to submit additional information. The line of communication
would be department/faculty to curriculum committee to Stony Brook provost to
SUNY provost or ACGE and vice versa.
Cerrato said he’s discussed this issue with the senate executive
committee and that he believes it’s important for the senate to acknowledge and
deal with the fact that, if we participate in this process, we are accepting
the fact that the local campus does not have the final authority for approval
of courses toward general education requirements. Cerrato said he would try to set up a meeting of the provost, the
two senate presidents, the chair of the undergraduate council, himself and the
committee secretary.
Feldman noted that we will begin to see problems
with the issue of transferring courses toward general education/DEC
requirements. She distributed a draft SUNY GER and transfer policy memo which
indicates that campuses must accept other school’s general education courses
toward the general education requirement. She said thus far students are
accepting the fact that they have to take a DEC K course here when they’ve
satisfied the American history requirement elsewhere, but she said this is
going to become more and more difficult.
The meeting was adjourned.