Notes   /   4 December 2018

College of Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee
Minutes
10:00 am Tuesday, Dec 4, 2018
HCC 310

Present: Shumona Dasgupta, Eric Gable, Dianne Baker, Jennifer Hansen-Glucklich, Summer Durrant, Brian Ogle, Brian Rizzo, Grant Woodwell, and Zach Whalen.

Meeting begins at 10:00 AM.

I. Announcements

II. Old business

III. New Business

We will have our next meeting Tuesday, January 15 at 9:30 AM, which will be the last opportunity for courses to be approved in time to be included in the 2018-19 catalog.

Program changes and associated proposals

  • Biology

    • New course BIOL 462: Research Practices in Plant Ecology

      • Removed plant bilo
      • Approved.

    • Change major: Biology

      • This updates the Biology requirements to include the newly-approved BIOL 462.
      • Approved pending correction of typos in catalog copy: "45" should be "451" and "417" should be "317."

  • New major concentration: Conservation Biology

    • This creates a new concentration in Biology to support a growing, in-demand career opportunity.
    • The committee strongly supports this concentration, but the distribution of courses needs to be adjusted to match the total number of proposed hours, or the total proposed hours need to be adjusted match the required courses.
    • Not Approved, so that Biology faculty can consult with Brian Ogle to make sure the courses reach the total hours in a way that can be coded in Banner.

  • Communication and Digital Studies: Change major

    • This proposal adds more courses to the list of electives students can apply toward the major.
    • Approved.

  • Data Science: Change minor

    • This adjustments adds a required number electives courses at the 300-level so that at least 9 credits of the classes in the program are upper-level.
    • In the catalog copy, PSCI 471C4 should be PSCI 471C5, but it should be replaced with PSCI 490 now that that course has been approved in a separate proposal.
    • Approved pending the correction of catalog copy to specify PSCI 490.

  • Earth and Environmental Sciences

    • Environmental Geology: change major

      • This proposal adds EESC 412: Structural Geology and EESC 307: Environmental Soil Science to the major. It removes EESC 326, CHEM 111 and 112 from the major, adding a note in the catalog to remind students that CHEM 111 and 112 are prerequisites for many Geology courses. The proposal also limits the number of credits in EESC 481, 491 and 493 that may count in the major.
      • Approved.

    • GEOL: change major

      • This proposal adds a required introductory GIS course (EESC 205, GEOG 250, or GISC 200), reduces the number of major electives from 12 to 10, and limits the number credits in EESC 481, 491 and 493 that may count in the Geology major.
      • Approved.

    • EESC 491 Change description

      • This specifies that a maximum of 4 credits of EESC 491 may count toward the major requirements.
      • Approved.

    • EESC 493 Change description

      • This specifies that a maximum of 4 credits of EESC 493 may count toward the major requirements.
      • Approved.

  • Honors Program: change program requirements

    • This adjusts the program to include a new, required, 0-credit course, HONR 005, which we approved in a separate proposal at this meeting.
    • Approved.

  • MDST: change minor

    • This proposal adds several interdisciplinary courses to the list of electives and adds HIST 427 as an option for meeting the Minor's capstone requirement.
    • Approved.

  • Middle Eastern Studies: change minor

    • This proposal adds three new courses and remotes two older courses to bring the requirements of this minor in line with other curricular changes.
    • Approved pending a correction of catalog language. Instead of specifying which sections of certain special topics courses may count toward the minor, the catalog should read something like "Other courses may count with approval from the program director," to make this parallel to other minors with interdisciplinary electives.

  • Philosophy: change pre-law concentration

    • This proposal adds five classes as options in the Philosophy: Pre-Law Concentration.
    • Approved, but CPR will need to submit a separate proposal to add PHIL 344 to the Continental Philosophy set on the standard Philosophy major.

  • Practical Ethics: change minor

    • This proposal adds several new interdisciplinary electives to the "Group II" list for the minor.
    • Approved.

More new courses

  • HONR 005

    • This adds a required, 0-credit course, Honors Capstone Preparation, that will help Honors students prepare to meet their capstone requirement.
    • Approved.

  • PSCI 490

    • This creates a new class, PSCI 490: Advanced Research Methods in Political Science, which was previously taught as a special topic class under the code PSCI 471C5.
    • Approved.

Expedited proposals

  • ECON 482 change number and description

    • This will become ECON 386: International Finance.
    • Approved.

  • RELG/PHIL 383 cross-list

    • Approved.

  • SOCG 475 change prerequisites

    • Adds "or SOCG 155" as an option for the prerequisite.
    • Approved.

Special majors

Two special majors in Linguistics are approved.