Minutes of the Meeting of the Undergraduate Council
February 15, 2011

Present:  Kathleen Bratby, Cynthia Dietz, Donna Di Donato, Arlene Feldman, Sarah Fuller, Jeff Ge, Kane Gillespie, Norm Goodman, Cheryl Hamilton, Adam Kent, Deborah Machalow, Joe Mitchell, Michael Mooney, Anne Moyer, Scott Sutherland and E.K. Tan

The minutes of the meeting of February 1st were reviewed and approved as amended.

The policy on inactivating infrequently offered courses was discussed.  The rationale behind this policy change is that departments are reluctant to inactivate courses that have not been offered for a while when asked on a yearly basis.  Reluctance is due to not wanting to go through the process of re-proposing, reactivation, etc.   The new policy that was approved by the Undergraduate Council is as follows:

  1. Active courses not offered for a consecutive period of 4 years will be suspended.
  2. Active or suspended courses not offered for a consecutive period of 8 years will be inactivated.
  3. If a department requests that a course be suspended, it will be available for fast-track reactivation for a total of 8 years, counting from the last offering.  Departments can request a suspension of a course at any time.
  4. Course offerings will be reviewed prior to each publication of the bulletin (twice per academic year).

This new policy is expected to eliminate approximately one quarter of the courses that students currently see on line.

Some of the following suggestions were offered to assist students in planning their schedules –  making history of course offerings available to students in the Bulletin or on PeopleSoft, making available to students when departments anticipate offering courses next, suggest students contact departments for course offering information, etc.

Kane introduced a discussion to eliminate the distinction between “combined” and “sequential” 5-year programs. The suggested title would be “Accelerated Programs”.   It was not clear what impact this would have on the current sequential programs.  Kane was asked to draft information on the proposed accelerated programs and the topic will be revisited at our next meeting.  Kane was asked what the rationale for the change was and what the graduate school input was since the sequential programs are currently graduate programs.

Respectfully submitted,
Arlene Feldman

Policy for infrequently offered courses

RATIONALE
When asked (yearly) departments are reluctant to inactivate courses that have not been offered for a while.  Reluctance is due to not wanting to go through the process of re-proposing, reactivation etc.  However, for planning purposes, it is unfair to students to publish courses in the bulletin which have not or will not be offered.  With a policy in place regarding this issue, departments will be more inclined to remove courses from the course library

DEFINITIONS

  • active: available for scheduling and published in the bulletin and solar
  • suspended: limbo status.  Not available for scheduling, not published in the bulletin or solar, but available for "fast-track" re-activation. 
  • inactive: not available for scheduling, bulletin publication or fast-track reactivation.  Reactivation requires a full proposal
  • fast track reactivation: courses that have been offered within the past 8 years, departments can reactivate by providing at least the following for review for routine reactivation by the appropriate dean’s office (a) memo from the chair (b) a current syllabus (c) other information as appropriate

POLICY

  • Active courses not offered for a consecutive period of 4 years will be suspended.
  • Active or suspended courses not offered for a consecutive period of 8 years will be inactivated.
  • If a department requests that a course be suspended, it will be available for fast-track reactivation for a total of 8 years, counting from the last offering.  Departments can request a suspension of a course at any time.
  • Course offering frequency will be reviewed prior to each publication of the bulletin (twice per academic year).

__________________________

DRAFT
Kane Gillespie
Feb 2011
Accelerated bachelors – masters degree programs.
Stony Brook offers a number of accelerated bachelor’s/master’s degree programs that allow students to use graduate credits taken as an undergraduate toward both the undergraduate and graduate degrees, thus reducing the normal time required to complete both bachelor’s and master’s degrees.   
Below are the standards for such programs. 
Students must apply and be admitted to the combined degree program. Applicants must have completed a minimum of 60 credits of course work, with a g.p.a. of 3.00 or higher in all college work. The application must include approval by both the chair­person of the department offering the bachelor’s degree and the graduate studies director of the program offering the master’s degree.
Students can double count a maximum of 15 credits of graduate courses toward the undergraduate and graduate portions of the accelerated program. 
Although the University allows undergraduate students enrolled in an accelerated program to use a maximum of 15 graduate credits toward the undergraduate portion of the combined degree, the maximum allowance may be less than 15, depending on the specific program. The department requirement in this case supersedes the university standard.  Please consult the appropriate department.
Per state regulation, a student must spend at least one year in full-time residency for the masters portion of the program. Students must earn a minimum of 30 graduate credits for the masters portion of the program. [note: state requirement is 24 credits of grad for an accelerated program, but SB Grad School wants 30]
Students must complete a minimum of 105 undergraduate credits.  All other undergraduate degree requirements remain in effect.
The degrees can be awarded upon completion of the respective requirements for each program.  The masters degree may not be awarded before completion of the undergraduate degree.
Undergraduate course credits may not be used to satisfy graduate degree requirements.