UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM COMMITTEE

Minutes

November 12, 2007 - Revised

1. Minutes of the September 24 meeting were approved as written.

2. Professor Toni Marzotto presented proposed changes to the Environmental Science and Studies Major on behalf of Professor Jane Wolfson. ESS would like to add BIOL 446 (Tropical Ecology and Conservation) to the Environmenal Science Concentration and ENVS 382 (Environmental Education and Service Learning in the Tropics; co-listed with BIOL 382) to the Informal Environmental Education Track within Environmental Science, both as electives. The department would also like to add BIOL 447 (Tropical Field Ecology) as an elective to the Environmental Science Concentration. All these are new courses. The department would also like to take the opportunity to make various small changes, e.g, clarifying requirements and reflecting modifications in course names and credits from other departments. It was pointed out that in the Environmental Geographical Analysis Track, the units above GEOG 221 should read as 13.

Professor Greg Faller moved and Professor Jay Zimmerman seconded the motion to approve the proposed elective additions. The motion carried unanimously, with eight votes in favor.

3. Professor Steve Phillips presented a proposed change to the Interdisciplinary Studies Major. The program would now like to require a portfolio be presented for students to graduate. The Program expects this to assist in assessment, instill a professional ethos, and help students prepare for their job searches.

Professor Leneida Crawford moved and Professor Gail Gasparich seconded the motion to approve the addition of a required portfolio for graduation. The motion carried unanimously, with eight votes in favor.

4. Professor Kent Barnes presented proposed changes to the Geography Major. The Introduction to GIS course is now lowered to GEOG 232 and will be a required core class for all Geography Majors in their sophomore year, with the goal of having students use GIS knowledge and skills in advanced courses and internships. This raises core units to 19 for General Program Majors and 22 for Global Skills Track students. GEOG 223 (Physical Geography Applications) will be no longer be a required core class but a General Program elective. General Program electives will be upped to 18 from 15 units, with 100-400 level classes now acceptable. Student will take a maximum 3 units each at 100- and 200-level, or 6 units total at the 200-level, Instead of taking a techniques course and a regional course for the group requirement, students will now choose just a regional course. For the Global Skills Track, students will need to select only a single technical course, since the Introduction to GIS course was mandatory already. The Major as a whole will increase from 39 to 40 units.

Note that GEOG 414 needs to have the number of units listed.

Professor Zimmerman moved and Ms. Shana Gass seconded the motion to approve the changes to the Geography Major. The motion carried unanimously, with eight votes in favor.

5. Professor Mark Profili presented proposed changes to the Forensic Chemistry Major.

In response to requirements of the Forensic Education Program Accreditation Committee, the Program has added new core/ancillary courses in law, impression evidence, crime scene, and computers. Also, all courses will be offered on the Towson campus (previously, it had been necessary to take FRSC 302, 307, 312, and 400 at University of Baltimore). Two new classes have been submitted to the UCC Reporting Committee: FRSC 440 (Forensic Science, Emergency Medicine, and Death Analysis) and FRSC 368 (a Professional Practices course), with the latter substituting for two courses that had been at UB (FRSC 302 and 400). Including SOCI 370 (Criminal Law), these changes will cover the material in the now dropped UB course, FRSC 312. All Forensic Chemistry Majors will now be required to take CRMJ 254, SOCI 370 (with the prerequisite waived), and ANTH 371 (which will substitute for FRSC 307 – Crime Sciene Investigation).

The Forensic Chemistry Major has been a great success, growing far more rapidly than anticipated. Three tracks will now be offered, in General Forensic Science, Trace Evidence/Toxicology (providing a foundation in chemistry and instrumental analysis), and DNA(focus on Body Fluid, Tissue Analysis, and Human Identification via Serology and DNA technology). All will prepare students to work in laboratories or appropriate graduate study. The original General Forensic Track will be reduced from 131-132 units to 124-125.

There are a number of other ANTH and CRMJ courses which students can consider as electives according to need and interest, though Forensic Chemistry will not require them in the structure of the Major. Included was correspondence between to Computer and Information Science and Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, for which certain courses will have up to 50% reserved seats for Forensic Science Majors. Staffing and lab space – the department requests Forensic Science to assist with locating appropriate space for ANTH 457– are concerns, and will be monitored.

Committee members had questions regarding the overlap between the General Track and the other two: each specialized track appears to overlap significantly with the General Track. Are these smaller tracks really specialized? Professor Profili answered that the tracks were crafted according to the requirements of the accrediting body. Unusually, the General Track carries more credits than the specialized tracks. The only difference between General and the Trace Evidence/Toxicology Tracks is the addition of three required Biology courses in the General Track (BIOL 309, 409, and 410; 9 units total). The General and the DNA Tracks share 3-4 courses (9-12 units). Recall that the Committee has defined a Track as a minimum of 24 credits and that it should be sufficiently different to distinguish it from other Tracks/Concentrations. Committee members recalled the extensive discussions regarding this over the last academic year and their efforts to balance equitable treatment of all departments with attention to the unique needs of each. Associate Katherine Denniston pointed out the need to adhere to the relevant accrediting body's requirements.

Professor Gasparich moved and Professor Crawford seconded the motion to approve the creation of three separate Tracks as well as the other proposed changes for the Forensic Chemistry Major. The motion carried, with six votes in favor and two abstaining.

6. Changes to the Finance Concentration; the International Business and Management Concentrations and Human Resource Management Track; the Marketing concentration, e-Business Major, and combined Majors in e-Business & Computer Information Systems and e-Business & Business Administration; Legal Studies Track; Economics Track (all of the Business Administration Major); along with the Accounting major; were presented. Attending the meeting were Associate Dean Louise Laurence, Professor Joanne Li (Chair of Finance) and Professor Rod Stump (Chair of Marketing & e-Business).

Professor Laurence explained that due to the technology skills with which students were now arriving upon application to the majors, the departments would like to eliminate COSC 111 (Using Information Effectively in Technology and Business) as a requirement for entrance to the major, and instead institute a Computer Proficiency Test, the SAM applications test. This test is different than the one listed in the proposals--the ETS ICT test--because that instrument tests information literacy, rather than basic computer and software skills. It was pointed out that, as a I.B. General Education course, COSC 111's major focus was information literacy within the relevant discipline, not computer applications per se. Students would still need to take a General Education I.B course, it just would not have to be COSC 111/112. This proposed change has gone to Academic Standards, as it is a screening. There was interest in knowing how many students may not pass the test initially, and how the institution of the screening would affect transfers. How will the test be scheduled? Are there articulation agreements?

In the Management and International Business concentrations, MNGT 494 was added as an elective to facilitate student completion of study abroad, with course credit offered toward the concentration. The lower-level core units have been reduced to 18 from 21.

For Accounting, students will newly be able to take MNGT 482 (Business Ethics and Society) as an alternative to PHIL 371 (Business Ethics), for greater scheduling flexibility. Students will now be required to take BUSX 460, already a requirement for all other CBE majors. Note that ACCT 497 (Accounting Internship) and BUSX 460 cannot be taken during the same semester or be related to the same experience. ACCT 497, which does not count toward the units for the Accounting major but does count toward the 150-unit CPA requirement, cannot substitute for BUSX 460.

Note that for the Accounting major, MNGT 460 in the catalog description should be changed to BUSX 460, and for the International Business Concentration, POSC 341 (African Government and Politics) is no longer offered.

For the Legal Studies Track, the units have been raise to 24 units to comply with new university mandate that new Concentrations or Tracks should be a minimum of 24 units, as well as to create consistency within the BUAD Major. Now, required courses LEGL 226 and either MNGT 482 or PHIL 371 (LEGL 328 – Cyber Law is no longer required but an option); students will choose 4 courses from LEGL and 2 interdisciplinary courses from approved lists. POSC 209 has been eliminated from the list of interdisciplinary courses.

The Committee tabled all program changes from the CBE pending receipt of:

i. Letter or e-mail from the University Standards Committee indicating the approval of a computer proficiency exam as a screen for all CBE majors.

ii. Letter or e-mail from the Department of Computer Sciences indicating knowledge of CBE decision to remove COSC 111 from the lower level core business requirements.

iii. Letter or e-mail from the Department of Philosophy indicating knowledge that CBE will allow majors to use MNGT 482 as an alternative to PHIL 371. (For Accounting Program Changes)

iv. Correction of typographical errors - including the name of the specific computer proficiency exam to be used [or at least removal of reference to proficiency tools – ICT/ETC – that will not be used].

v. Removal of POSC 341 from International Business Concentration.

Also, some Committee members recommended that CBE departments detach the elimination of COSC 111 as a Core requirement from the introduction of an additional screen (a computer proficiency exam), for the reason that proficiency with technology applications is/was not the primary learning goal of COSC 111 as a I.B. General Education course.

6. The UCC meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Shana M. Gass

Secretary, University Curriculum Committee