UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM COMMITTEE

Minutes

November 13, 2006

 

Professor Toni Marzotto called the meeting of the University Curriculum Committee to order at 3:35 p.m. in the Towson Room (Cook 507) of Cook Library.

1. The minutes of the October 16 meeting were accepted as written.

2. Professor Jane Williams, Chair of Special Education, and Professor Raouf Boules, Chair of Mathematics, presented proposed changes for requirements for Special Education teacher candidates. Credits have been adjusted as needed throughout. Many of the changes were “cosmetic” ones. No Child Left Behind was also a factor: instead of taking MATH 204 and 205, Secondary/Adult-English track will provide richer content in MATH 119 and enhance students’ ability to interpret test scores with MATH 231; Secondary/Adult-Social Science track students will take the same Math courses under the same rationale. Will English track students be concerned about so much Math? Special Educators must be flexible in terms of content area and ready to collaborate with other teachers. Also, the English track will drop the no-longer offered ENGL 361. Math track course changes were inspired by NCATE standard; those teaching in middle and high school will need to pass Praxis II. The Secondary/Adult-Math track will require MATH 204, MATH 231, and MATH 265 (replacing MATH 237 and 274).

There were questions about whether the suggested math and biology classes (to which no substantive changes had been proposed) had enough content. It was suggested that BIO 202 instead of 115 be considered for the Science track and that the English department be consulted for a possible replacement for ENGL 361. It was noted that “cosmetic changes” to align a class with Gen Ed. requirements do not need to come before the UCC. Professor Sandra Tatman moved and Professor Reza Sarhangi seconded the motion to accept Special Education’s proposals pending receipt of a revised copy. The motion carried unanimously

3. Professor Leneida Crawford, Acting Chair of the Music department, presented a proposed change to the Music department’s Voice Performance concentration. The department would like to provide greater flexibility for students for language study. Students could opt for 12 credits total in two languages at an introductory level, rather than in a single language at the intermediate level. Upper-level Italian courses are likely to be the most impacted; it was recommended that the Foreign Languages department be contacted regarding this change. It was clarified that consultation is a matter of alerting other departments, not requesting permission. Mr. Robert Giordani moved and Professor Sandra Tatman seconded the motion to accept the proposal. The motion carried unanimously.

4.  Professor Barry Moore, Chair of EMF, presented proposed changes to EMF major. Changes resulted from a departmental self-study. In the Core students will take EMF 120 rather than EMF 100 (now an elective). For Film & Media Studies, electives EMF 271 and 373 have been dropped, elective EMF 275 added. EMF 222 replaces EMF 267. EMF 379 was dropped and its content subsumed under new course EMF 475. The Radio/Audio track grows to 39 credits. EMF 355 will be required and EMF 375 an elective. New EMF 366, three Music and one Theatre course (with consultation with the departments) join the electives.

Inspired by current and future trends, Film & TV/Video tracks are to be fused into a 39-unit Film/Video Digital Media track. New EMF 222 replaces dropped EMF 267 and EMF 271 (now moved to 300-level).  The new track features 6 units of Intermediate Production, 6 units of Advanced Production (including a capstone), 6 units of Media Studies, and 3 units of EMF electives. This change will effect from 50-70% of EMF students. How will current students be “grandfathered”? Professor Moore responded that there would be strong advising, marketing of changes, and a dividing line of July 2007. New courses have been approved by the Reporting Committee. Professor Margaret Faulkner moved and Professor Sandra Tatman seconded the motion to accept the proposal. The motion carried unanimously.

5.  Professor Sharon Glennen, Chair of the Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology & Deaf Studies Department, along with department Professors Sheryl Cooper and Kimberly Pudans-Smith, presented proposed changes to the Deaf Studies major. Changes are inspired by feedback by a consultant and an effort to expand the upper-level content of the major (sign language is already covered in Community College curricula). There will be three tracks: Human Services (preparing graduates to work in social service agencies, disabilities organizations, job counseling, residential services, etc.), Pre-Interpreting, and Deaf Culture (more anthropological orientation, good preparation for graduate study). Six new courses have been created and will be submitted to the UCC Reporting Committee. To enable teaching of the new courses, the department is conducting a search for a faculty position. The department accepted a suggestion from the UCC that PSYC 212 be substituted for PSYC 205, to eliminate the PSYC 205’s pre-requisite. Pending a revised proposal incorporating this substitution, along with approval of the new courses, Professor J.J. Lee moved and Professor Reza Sarhangi seconded the motion to accept the proposal. The motion carried unanimously.

[NOTE: Although the UCC approved the proposed changes, upon further examination both Bill Reuling and Bob Giordani noted that the only difference in the three proposed tracks is 2 or 3 courses. If tracks are comparable to concentration, then there must be a difference of at least 8 courses or 24 units. That is an MHEC requirement. The  Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology & Deaf Studies Department decided to collapse the Pre-Interpreting and Human Resources Tracks together. The New DFST program will now feature two “focus areas” – a) Human Services, and b) Deaf Culture. The Interpreter Training Track will be submitted in the future.]

6. Professor Jane Wolfson, Director of the Environmental Science and Studies Program, presented proposed changes to the Environmental Science and Studies major. The department would like to reduce required capstone classes from two to one only; there was a lack of faculty to teach this amount of capstones and it was determined that halving the requirement was pedagogically acceptable. Students could still take an additional capstone if desired; the credits in the major have not been reduced (though that would not solve the problem of the number of faculty available). Mr. Robert Giordani moved and Professor Jay Zimmerman seconded the motion to accept the proposal. The motion carried unanimously.

7. Professor Karen Dugger, Chair of the Women’s Studies department, presented proposed changes to the Women’s Studies major. The department sought to balance breadth with depth and change the requirement to choose courses from sections representing different disciplinary areas. As an alternative, the department has created 12-unit thematic tracks that could mesh with academic or career interests. It was determined that the thematic tracks did not carry enough credit to qualify as a track, which must be more than 24 credits. Women’s Studies did not want to add additional credits.  However, the thematic groupings do qualify as areas of focus, which need only be 12-18 credits. While areas of focus are becoming less common at TU and do not appear on transcripts, Professor Dugger found this solution amenable and she agreed to revise the proposal and resubmit it electronically to UCC. Given no issues with the revision, Ms. Tracey Miller moved and Professor Sandra Tatman seconded the motion to accept the proposal. The motion carried unanimously. Professor Dugger e-mailed a proposal that was satisfactory to the group.

8. The UCC meeting adjourned at 5:30pm.

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Shana M. Gass

Secretary, University Curriculum Committee