9th Meeting, October 30, 2003 – Approved on
November 6, 2003
Present: C. Marrone, A. Phillips, S. Sternglanz, (acting
chair), T. Weinacht, A. Hasloecher, E. Kaplan (secretary), Judith Lochhead
The
minutes of October 23rd were approved.
created
and crosslisted with WRT 381 and 382.
The English department now allows writing courses to count toward the
major. It will expand this requirement
to incorporate WRT 381 and 382
Under A Study within the Area of the Major, Notes on
page 184. Note number 4
should
read: Among the six 300-level courses
from among courses numbered 300-399, only one may be used from EGL/WRT
381, EGL/WRT 382, EGL 385, 386 and 387.
(Note: typo on page 184; there are two notes
numbered 3, so the second note number 3 is now number 4.)
304,
306, 310, 312, 314, 316, 318, 320, 321, 322, 340, 342, 344, 345, 346, 347, 348,
349, 350, 352, 354, 365, and 366. The
department has requested that 204 become a pre- or corequisite for these
courses. The department will enforce
this pre or corequisite beginning this spring and it would like to make sure
that students who are enrolled in EGL 204 are not excluded from the
upper-division major courses while 204 is in progress.
WST
103
WST/SSI
102 or WST 103.
101
or 102 or WST/SSI 102 or WST 103.
103
or WST/SOC 247 or WST/SSI 102 or WST 103.
398
and 399 to read: WST major/minor or
WST/SSI 102 or WST 103. Additional
prerequisites may be announced with topic.
The
Committee had received a request from L. Frohman, director of the social
studies teacher education program, to require a grade of B- or higher in the
first methods course in order to take the second methods course. This had been on the agenda for discussion
at today’s meeting.
In
a phone call to Kaplan, however, Frohman indicated that this request will now
be expanded to include all the first semester methods courses and all
the second semester methods courses in the teacher preparation program
(English, social studies, foreign languages, sciences, mathematics, and TESOL).
Members
wondered if the B- requirement was coming from NCATE. If so, then we would not have a choice about approving it. But, if it is not an NCATE requirement,
raising the cut-off grades to B- in these courses would seem to contribute to
grade inflation, shifting the curve from a C grade as average to a B- grade as
average.
Kaplan
will write to Frohman and to Dorit Kaufman, PEP director, to clarify the origin
of the proposal.
Additional information was received from Institutional Studies comparing the academic performance of SSI majors with other majors in the College. This information will be included in next week’s packet.
SUNY General Education update
Kaplan announced that she has the “official” list of the 22 courses that had been discussed at the recent ACGE meeting. In preparation for next week’s meeting with Norman Goodman, ACGE representative, she will prepare a list of the questioned courses and whether a syllabus has been received in response to Dean Staros’ request last summer.
Ex-officio members on the Curriculum Committee
The discussion was postponed because Bob Cerrato and Arlene Feldman were absent.
IV New Business
European Studies major:
The proposal for a new major in European Studies was discussed by the Committee last spring. Several questions had been sent to the department and these were answered in the latest draft of the proposal. The latest version of the proposal is very close to being approved, but there are still a few small pending issues that need to be resolved.
1. We need the full new course proposal for the
required course EUR 201.
2. The proposal refers to the value of study
abroad, but it doesn't mention that there are Stony Brook (and SUNY) programs
in existence that are available to students and are easy for them to
access. A paragraph about study abroad
specifics (especially the Stony Brook programs in Paris and Rome) would be
helpful.
3. Although the proposal originally included
music courses, the ones selected were major courses and would not have been applicable to most EUR majors. But the non-major courses MUS 301, 302, 303
and 307 would be valuable additions to the major. Perhaps concentration D can be expanded to be called
"European Art History and Music" and include these courses.
4. We are still unsure about the extent of consultation with other departments. Now that the major is so close to being approved, we would like to know that the other departments that are large contributors to the major (history, art, English, philosophy, etc. are on board with it.
Arts
and Sciences Senate
8th Meeting, October 23, 2003 – Approved on
October 30, 2003
Present: R. Cerrato (chair), C. Marrone, A. Phillips,
S. Sternglanz, T. Weinacht, A. Feldman,
E. Kaplan (secretary), J. Staros (guest)
The
minutes of October 16th were approved as amended.
1.
Physical Education and Athletics: The “instructor consent”
notation was missing from three of the upper-division required courses for the
major. These were added to the
Bulletin.
Note: policy for repeating courses is no longer
tied into the grade that a student receives for a course; it is tied into the
number of times a student is allowed to repeat a course, so this will need to
be reconsidered at next week’s meeting.
3.
AFS 363 Blacks and Mass Media: As stated in
a post script to last week’s minutes, it was decided that this course will be a
300 level course instead of a 400 level seminar course as originally approved.
4. PSY 351 Drugs and the Brain: Additional information that was received, including sample lecture
notes and handouts, was discussed.
Members still want to be assured that students are assigned significant
reading consistent with other upper-division social sciences courses. Kaplan will communicate this to the
instructor.
AAS
401 Senior Seminar in Asian and Asian American Studies
Members
reviewed the course description and found it too generic and too lengthy. The suggestion was made that the course
description include sample topics that will be covered.
Correspondence
was received from the chairperson and the undergraduate director of the AAS
department stating that they agreed with the Committee’s recommendations that
the AAS minor needed more structure and that they will consider the suitability
of requiring AAS 401 for the minor.
Members
agreed that it would be advantageous to have input from the Registrar’s office,
the Admissions Office, the Transfer Office and the Academic and
Pre-Professional Advising Office, but that this would make the Committee too
unwieldy and too heavily biased toward professional employees. This discussion will be continued at a
future Committee meeting.
Visit
with Dean James Staros
Two
pressing issues were discussed with Dean Staros—the latest developments in the state-wide
Advisory Committee on General Education and the dissolution of the SSI major.
ACGE
discussion:
ACGE
met last week and reviewed 22 contested courses that had not been approved by
the SUNY provost to meet the SUNY General Education Requirement in American
history. Although campus officials have
not yet been formally notified by ACGE, our representative on ACGE, Norm
Goodman, announced at the Arts and Sciences Senate meeting on Monday October 20th
that these courses were not approved to meet SUNY-GER.
During
the summer of 2002, Dean Staros wrote to the faculty members who teach these
courses, explaining that their courses were contested and asking them if they
would send their syllabi to him. He
further explained that, at some point, these might need to be sent
off-campus. Most of the instructors
complied, but the syllabi did not leave the dean’s office because the campus
was waiting for clarification about the procedures for reviewing these courses.
Dean
Staros affirmed the principle of home governance, but pointed out that we are
part of a larger system. We need to
find ways to be as cooperative as we can while retaining control of our
curriculum. He suggested that the
Committee invite Norman Goodman to attend the next meeting to give a first-hand
report of the recent ACGE meeting as well as to discuss strategy for future
communication with ACGE.
Kaplan
reminded the Committee that there are approximately 140 courses from the past 2
½ years that have not yet been sent to System Administration for initial
review. She is waiting for direction
from the SUNY Senate how and when to send these courses to System
Administration.
SSI
discussion:
Prior
to arriving at Stony Brook, Dean Staros had carefully reviewed all programs
offered in the College. His conclusion
was that SSI was ill-defined and was a weak point in the curriculum that needed
to be strengthened. With the creation
of the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies, with the new emphasis on
disciplinary study for social studies teacher preparation programs and with the
election of Georges Fouron as chair of Africana Studies, the timing was
appropriate to implement a change.
Dean
Staros said that there would be a few transitional issues for students in the
pipeline, but that students would be better off in the Multidisciplinary
Studies major. Most schools have a
“contract major” and MTD seems to be working well. In contrast to SSI, MTD students are required to develop a
thematic and organized plan of study before they embark on the major. The new ability to recognize specializations
in PeopleSoft means that students who complete a prescribed program of study in
social sciences will be able to earn a social sciences specialization within
the MTD degree. Beginning next semester,
there will be a faculty advisor from one of the social sciences disciplines in
MTD to assist students with interests in that area.
Arts
and Sciences Senate
Undergraduate
Curriculum Committee
Academic
Year 2003-2004
7th Meeting, October16, 2003 – Approved
October 23, 2003
Present: R. Cerrato (chair), C. Marrone, A. Phillips,
J. Lochhead, Sternglanz, A. Hasloecher, T. Weinacht, A. Feldman, E. Kaplan
(secretary), E. Lindquist (observer).
I. Committee Business
The
minutes of October 9th were approved.
II
Routine Administrative Matters:
As
part of the review of AFS major requirements and courses by the new
chairperson, the department reviewed the two four credit courses AFS 463-464
The Media and Black America I, II, which had not been offered since 1999. The
request is to delete AFS 464 and to revise AFS 463 to a 3-credit course titled
Blacks and Mass Media.
The revised course description is: A historical examination in a seminar format
of the major media characterizations of Black Americans and the Black
experience, and the impact of these portrayals on American society at
large. The roles of newspapers, books,
magazines, plays, radio, movies, television and advertisements are
studied.
Note: After additional correspondence with the department,
it was decided that the course should be offered as AFS 363 to reflect the
change in the former prerequisite of permission of instructor. The prerequisite will be U3 or U4 standing
and “in a seminar format” will be deleted from the description.
III
Old Business:
Asian
and Asian American Studies Major, Minor and Senior Seminar course
The
major in Asian and Asian American studies was discussed. The suggestion was made that the required
course in Asian American studies be moved from requirement E to requirement B
or D, so that the course was more prominently featured as a requirement.
There was concern about whether there were enough courses in the
South Asian region to assure that students are able to complete a 15-credit
regional focus requirement. Kaplan
mentioned that two or three topics each semester are offered as AAS 391 or 392
and that the committee will be receiving new course proposals as the topics
courses are offered more regularly.
The major was approved by the Committee. Substantial additional paperwork is required for approval by SUNY
System Administration and the State Education Department. Kaplan will forward the relevant forms to
the department so that they can begin this process.
The
proposal for a minor in Asian studies was not approved. The committee thought that some additional
revision was needed. Members
recommended the development of a sequence of courses or a theme within the
minor. The nine credit sample credit
themes developed for the major were excellent. Perhaps the minor requirements
could incorporate the 9-credit theme requirement within the 21 required
credits? If students in the minor must
take AAS 401 they will be at a disadvantage in comparison with students in the
major. If AAS 401 is directed toward
students in the minor, then the students in the major might not get the
capstone experience that it is designed to present. Perhaps, if there were more coherence in the minor it would not
be necessary to require AAS 401.
The course proposal form for AAS 401 was put aside for a later
meeting, since several members did not realize that it was on the agenda for
the meeting and were not prepared to discuss it in detail.
Specializations
At
the request of the President and Executive Committee of the Arts and Sciences
Senate, the Committee was asked to develop specific criteria to determine what
constitutes a specialization within a major.
The Committee reviewed the list of majors and programs in the College
along with the nomenclature for various requirements within these majors—e.g.
tracks, subfields, and concentrations, and the number of credits for these
requirements. At the present time,
specializations (which are noted on students’ transcripts) are available for the
biology major and the geosciences major. Both require more than 30 credit hours
for their specializations.
Since
there is such a wide range of credit hours required for majors under A and S
jurisdiction, the creation of one rule applicable to all majors seems
arbitrary. If the requests for approval of specializations becomes an issue,
the Committee will try to establish specific guidelines. However, there is no reason to make a rule
at this time.
IV. New Business:
CSE
301 History of Computing
The proposal for DEC H credit for this new course offered by the
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences was approved. Kaplan will write to Professor Cortina to
suggest that the science and society themes within the course be addressed
throughout the semester.
SAS
102 Seminar of the Undergraduate College in Science and Society and ACH 102
Seminar of the Undergraduate College in Arts, Culture and Humanities
There is a significant discrepancy between the grading
requirements for the two proposed courses.
SAS 102's grading requirement is "participation in discussions of
lecture materials, and interaction with faculty and other students. Homework or term paper or equivalent." What does
"equivalent" mean in a grading scheme? The grading requirements seemed more
consistent with S/U course grading. The
grading model for ACH 102 seemed more appropriate (exams, short written
assignments, journals, and presentations).
The course description for SAS 102 needs to be shortened and
edited. The statement of purpose
should be stricken- the goal of every course at the university is to engage
students in the learning process!
There was discussion about consistency among the 10- 20 seminars
planned within each college and consistency among the seminars that will be
given in the six different colleges that are planned.
The committee approved the two
seminar courses for next spring. It
requests a report next fall about the college seminar program, especially for
the seminars given during the spring 04 semester. The Committee would like to see the syllabi for each of the
seminars, along with teacher and student evaluations. This is very much in line with the current push toward assessment,
particularly since the eventual goal is to require all students to take a
college seminar course in the spring semester of their freshman year.
The designators
SAS and ACH will need to be revised before the courses are scheduled. Perhaps SSO could be used for Science and
Society, since SAS has already been used for South Asian Studies and SPD’s
School Administration and Supervision program.
Arts, Culture and Humanities (ACH) is not a positive acronym.
Remaining items on the agenda,
including the proposal for ex-officio members on the Committee and a discussion
about the SSI major, were postponed.
Arts
and Sciences Senate
Undergraduate
Curriculum Committee
Academic
Year 2003-2004
6th Meeting, October 9, 2003 – Approved October
16, 2003
Present: C. Marrone, A. Phillips, J. Lochhead,
Sternglanz (acting chair), A. Hasloecher, E. Kaplan (secretary), E. Lindquist
(observer)
I. Committee Business
Kaplan
introduced Ellen Lindquist, graduate student
assistant in the dean’s office.
Since she will be doing much of the PeopleSoft course entry and
Undergraduate Bulletin writing and editing, she has been invited to attend
meetings as an observer so that she can understand the committee actions that
require administrative follow-through.
The
minutes of October 2nd were approved with minor corrections.
II
Routine Administrative Matters
ECO
special topics courses 351, 352, 353, 354, 356, and 357 Prerequisites for these courses read “ECO 107 or 109; at least
one other course to be specified when the topic is announced.” Prerequisite changed to “ECO 108; additional
prerequisite may be specified when the topic is announced.”
LAC
380 Special Topics in Latin American Studies.
Request
for an upper division LAC topics course LAC 380.
III
Old Business
ARS
390 Public Art
The
Committee reviewed additional correspondence from Jim Rubin, the chair of the
art department, and a new course syllabus. The Committee was still concerned
about the course; however, since it is a topics course, the purview of the
Committee is somewhat limited. Kaplan
will remind the department that the course must meet for the required number of
contact hours for a studio course and that studio time counts as two hours for
each contact hour. The syllabus should
also be revised to reflect a 14 week semester.
Further
discussion about Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Joan
Kuchner had listed several colleges and universities that offer majors similar
to SSI. Kaplan researched six of the
institutions on this list and information on this survey was included in this
week’s reading packet. Next week’s
packet will include minutes of a Curriculum Committee subcommittee that studied
the MTD and SSI majors in 1999.
The
Committee will discuss the SSI major with Dean Staros later in the semester.
IV
New Business
Revised
major requirements for Africana Studies
The
major requires two courses that it is currently unable to offer. AFS 410 Computers and Third World Social
Issues is taught by a faculty member who is on medical leave. AFS 491 Interdisciplinary Seminar in Africana
Studies was developed in anticipation of hiring a chairperson who would teach
this capstone course.
The
current undergraduate studies director and chair of the department presented a
restructured plan for the major that incorporates these two courses within
larger requirement groups. The proposal
for the revised set of major requirements was approved. Kaplan will re-write the AFS major
requirements in the Undergraduate Bulletin to incorporate the modifications.
Proposed
Asian and Asian American Studies major
Members
reviewed the proposal and noted that some elements needed to be clarified. They were unsure how general courses in
Asian studies (history, religion, and literature) apply to one of the two
regional areas that students must select-- East Asia and South Asia. They would like to see a list of what
courses are included in each of the two areas.
They
also questioned the inclusion of “Asian American Studies” in the title of the
proposed major. The major does not
require any specific courses in Asian American studies and at the present time
there are few regularly offered courses that would support the inclusion of
this requirement. Faculty hiring in
Asian American studies is expected in the future but may take some time, given
the budgetary situation.
Should
ANT 360 Ancient Mesopotamia be removed from the list of Asian Studies
courses? If a course on Mesopotamia is
included, would other courses on the Middle East (including courses on Israel)
need to be included?
One
member suggested the inclusion of RLS 366 Feminine Spirituality because this
course focuses on Eastern Religions.
Kaplan will inquire about the suitability of including this course. EGL 373 could be included, if the topic
were appropriate.
Members
suggested that AAS 487 be offered in the fall and AAS 401 be offered in the
spring so that students can submit their completed AAS 487 projects to the
URECA conference in April.
The
explanatory notes that accompanied the proposal need to be rewritten. Some of the notes seemed to refer to earlier
iterations of the proposal.
The new information on AAS 401 was well received by the committee. The course will be discussed further at next week’s meeting.
5th Meeting, October 2, 2003—Minutes approved on
October 9, 2003
Present: R. Cerrato (chair), T. Weinacht, A. Phillips, J. Lochhead, A. Feldman, S. Sternglanz, A.
Hasloecher, E. Kaplan (secretary),
The
minutes of September 25th were approved with corrections.
The
committee discussed a change in time
and day of its meetings to accommodate the American historian who has been
nominated to serve on the Committee. No
other time was possible and Cerrato will inform the A and S President of this
and discuss possible solutions for the remainder of the fall semester.
AFS/WST 381 H Race, Gender, Class and the
Epidemiology of AIDS: The course
was approved last spring, but needed a slightly revised course title and
description to reflect the content.
Nancy Tomes and Floris Cash worked on a revised course description. The revised description was approved on
6/9/03; however, the correspondence was mislaid during the transition between
Curriculum Committee secretaries.
MAT 401 and 402 Seminars in
Mathematics: Request to
drop MAT 320 Real Analysis as a prerequisite for MAT 401 and 402. The topics and prerequisites change from
semester to semester and the department’s curriculum does not rely on MAT 320 as a basis for these courses. The committee agreed with the following
revised statement about prerequisites:
U3 or U4 standing; prerequisites announced with topics.
III Old Business
Continuation of discussion
on Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Major
The committee discussed what it
would like to learn about the major and its students. Cerrato will review
information about the major and present his findings on October 16th. Kaplan will arrange for Dean Staros to attend
an upcoming Committee meeting and will contact Institutional Studies to obtain
additional information about the major.
Feldman remembered that was a
committee that reviewed the MTD and SSI majors a few years ago and Kaplan will
try to find the file of information on this.
Earth and Space Sciences
Secondary Education Track
Gilbert Hanson’s response to
questions raised at last week’s meeting was discussed. Hanson clarified that CHE 133 and 134 labs
are required for the secondary education track. It was decided that the chemistry requirement for the track would
read: CHE 131 and 132. Students may substitute CHE 123 and 124 with
permission of the undergraduate director.
The original track will be called “earth and space sciences” and the new
track will be called “earth science education.”
HIS 281 Global History and
Geography
After further revising the course
description, the Committee approved this course.
IV New Business
BIO 367 Molecular Diversity
Laboratory
The Committee approved the course. Kaplan will ask Charles Janson about the
graduate course coscheduled with BIO 367.
SPN 393 Introduction to
Spanish Linguistics
The course is a positive addition
to the department’s undergraduate major requirements (replacing a series of 400 level topics courses) and was approved.
ARS 390 Public Art Seminar
Members reviewed correspondence
between Jim Rubin, Chair of the Department of Art, and the Committee. The department proposes to offer this course
for studio art major credit at the Manhattan campus. There are several issues that concern the committee. The course description seems to be more
theoretical and philosophical than hands-on.
A studio course should provide instruction on the techniques needed to
produce art work. The course is not
proposed to meet for the required number of contact hours as a studio
course. The Manhattan campus does not
have any studio facilities.
Kaplan will suggest that the department that department schedule the
course as ARH 390 instead of ARS 390.
Asian and Asian American
Studies Major
A few minutes were devoted to a
quick review of the proposal. Members
would like to see more information about AAS 401, the senior seminar proposed
by Gregory Ruf. The major is called Asian and Asian American Studies, but
there are very few courses offered in Asian American Studies.
Kaplan will write to S. Sridhar
and G. Ruf and ask them to respond to these few questions in advance of next
week’s meeting.