UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
Minutes
- REVISED
December
8, 2008
1. The minutes of the November 10 meeting were accepted as written.
2. Regarding the General Education
Reporting Committee: Professor Louise Laurence has been elected Chair in light
of Professor Peter Wray’s sabbatical. Please continue to send materials
(electronically) to Ms. Suzanne Hill as previously.
3. Professor Jack Fruchtman presented a
proposal to modify the Prelaw Advising Program. Professor Fruchtman explained
that the Law programs emanate from the Political Science Department. The department
would like to align
Professor Gail Gasparich moved and
Professor Margaret Faulkner seconded the motion to accept the proposed changes.
The motion carried, with 7 votes in favor.
4. Professor Fruchtman also presented proposed
changes to the Law and American Civilization Program. A consultant has advised
the addition of a microeconomics course; the department has chosen ECON 201
(Microeconomic Principles). To maintain the number of credits, they have
shifted PHIL 204 (Race, Class and Gender) to electives. The Committee
recommended that ECON 203 (Honors version of 201)
be included for clarity. Also, PHIL 311 (Symbolic Logic) has been inadvertently
dropped from the revised program listing.
Ms. Tracy Miller moved and Mr. Bill
Logan seconded the motion to accept the proposed changes, given the amendments
mentioned above. The motion carried, with 7 votes in favor. (The
proposal with amendments was subsequently forwarded as requested.)
5. Professor Craig Johnson presented a proposed change to the Psychology major.
The department would like to add the course PSYC 430 to the Clinical Topical
Area, in which students would now have to take one of four courses. PSYC 430 is
a natural fit with this area given its focus on theories underlying
psychotherapy intervention. Also, many transfers have already taken courses in two
of the other subjects for this Topical Area, Personality and Abnormal
Psychology (albeit at the 200-level) before they come to
Mr. Logan moved and Professor J.J. Lee
seconded the motion to accept the proposed change. The motion carried,
with 7 votes in favor.
6. Professor Johnson also presented a proposal for changes to the Honors
Psychology Program. The Psychology Department has offered an Honors Clinical
Psychology Concentration program that included a Thesis in its requirements. To
give students added flexibility, the department would like to decouple Clinical
Psychology from the Thesis. Honors students must still complete the Thesis.
Given its number of credits, Clinical Psychology will be a (non-Honors)
specialization, without a required Thesis. Courses will still be scheduled so
as to enable students to pursue both the specialization and the Honors Thesis
if they so desire. In fact, the scheduling will allow transfers a better
opportunity of considering the Thesis. It was noted that the Clinical
Psychology description should indicate Terms (preferred terminology) instead of
Semesters. Psychology will consider whether they desire an overview statement such
as formerly included in the catalog. The
description “specialization” was noted and discussed as it related to
PeopleSoft. [After the meeting, Mr. Bob Giordani confirmed that “Focus Area” is
the preferred term for a required cluster of courses that falls below the track
level. Women’s Studies and Deaf Studies have established Focus Areas. A Focus
Area appears on the Degree Progress Report, but not on the transcript. In
contrast, Clinical Psychology is an option tracked internally by the department
(not included in the Degree Progress Report). It was decided that the term
“specialization” was unproblematic in this case.]
Professor Faulkner moved and Ms. Miller seconded
the motion to accept the proposed changes. The motion carried, with 7
votes in favor.
7. Professor Scott Hilberg presented a
proposal for a new B.S. in Information Technology. The department has been
guided in accreditation standards from ACM, including their 2005/2008
Curriculum. To distinguish among the three kinds of programs: Computer Science
tends to focus on theoretical material, including design, architecture, and
algorithms. Information Systems would serve the student who wants to focus on
the informational needs of an organization, including business processes.
Information Technology, the new program, is for practitioners who need to set
up and maintain technological systems. At
The
new program will be comprised of three components: ten core courses, three
general education classes [COSC 111 (Information & Technology for Business)
or COSC 119 (Using Information Effectively in the Computing Sciences); ENGL 317
(Writing for Business & Industry); and COSC 418 (Ethical and Societal
Concerns of Computer Scientists),[1]
and an offering of electives arranged into four specializations. Students could
either take one 4-course specialization and 2 other electives, or 6 electives.
Many courses in the program are in process.
Recall that the transcript cannot list specializations: the smallest
recognizable path of study is a track (24 units), which appears as a subplan. (Note: Mr. Bob Giordani determined it was not
necessary to set up Focus Areas in PeopleSoft for this program since the
courses appearing in the specializations perfectly overlapped with the
Electives category.)
It was noted that given the common
interests between the e-Business and Technology Management department and the
IT program, CBE would be interested in future collaboration.
Professor Gasparich moved and Ms. Shana
Gass seconded the motion to discuss the proposal, which is in the form of a University
System of Maryland Institution Proposal for a New Instructional Program. (A
copy of the signed Institutional Declaration of Intent was also received by the
Committee Chair.)
Given the Fall
2009 implementation date, the status of the courses comprising the major was a
concern to the Committee. Only 3 of 10 core courses are currently in place. Of
the 21 electives, only 8 are finalized. The Committee also felt that it would
be desirable to have a concrete plan for handling the similar sounding but very
different B.T.P.S. program in IT.
Professor Gasparich moved and Ms. Miller
seconded the motion to table the proposal pending 1) 100% of the core courses
had been approved; 2) 50% of each specialization had been approved; and 3) A
proposal regarding the disposition of the B.T.P.S. in IT had been submitted to
the Committee. The motion carried, with 7 votes in favor. [After the meeting, Computer & Information
Sciences offered to specify a later implementation date, Fall
2010, if that would enable the Committee to approve courses and program in
tandem.]
8. Professor Sharma Pillutla presented
proposed changes to the Combined major in e-Business
and Computer Information Systems. Largely these were the identical changes
requested and approved for the e-Business major in the Committee’s previous
meeting, November 10. One other proposed change is replace
COSC 350 with CIS 350 (with more applied content) as a core class. The combined
major is now up to 136 units from 133.
Ms. Gass moved and Professor Lee
seconded the motion to accept the proposed changes. The motion carried,
with 7 votes in favor.
9. Professor Pillutla also presented a
proposal for changes to the Combined major in
e-Business and Business Administration (Marketing Concentration). These were
the same changes requested and approved for the e-Business major in the
previous meeting, November 10.
To sum up, the department has added new
400-level courses in Project Management and Business Process Management; added
the new EBTM 419 (Supply Chain Management) to the core; eliminated EBTM 421
(Financial Concepts of e-Business); eliminated the requirement to take EBTM 469
(Current Developments in e-Business); added ENTR 355 (Entrepreneurship) as an
elective; and dropped COSC 484, CIS 475, ART 317, and MKTG 485 as electives. Screening
requirements have been streamlined to align with that of the BUAD major.
Professor Lee moved and Professor Gasparich
seconded the motion to accept the proposed changes. The motion carried,
with 7 votes in favor.
10. Professor Barry Buchoff presented a proposal, tabled at the November 10
Committee meeting, for changes to the Accounting major. The department has added the Computer
Proficiency exam as a requirement for entrance to the major, to align the
Accounting program more closely with other Business majors, as recommended by
AACSB, their accrediting body. Majors will no longer be required to take a POSC
course. A significant change is that acceptance into the Accounting major will
now be a prerequisite for advanced Accounting courses. This should forestall
eleventh-hour suspense as to whether students will be able to graduate as Accounting majors.
Note: The Computer Proficiency screen
has already been approved by Academic Standards. However, it was noted that the
change in the QPA for Upper-Level Accounting Courses needs to go to Academic
Standards. (The contact for Academic Standards is Mr. Pat McKoen
in the Registrar.)
Professor Faulkner moved and Ms. Miller
seconded the motion to accept the proposed changes. The motion carried,
with 7 votes in favor.
11. Professor Jim Roberts presented a
revision to the Political Science major. Coursework in the major is
intentionally broad and has been capped with a Senior Seminar featuring a
research component The difficulty was that students might not necessarily be
prepared for such a seminar in terms of subject matter and skills. A political
research class had been included earlier in an attempt to ameliorate this. Now
the department has recast the major into 3 lower-level courses, 8 upper-level
electives (including one new one), 1 research class, and 1 senior seminar. Of
the upper-level electives, students will choose 4 from topical areas that align
with those for the senior seminar. The seminar will have 2 prerequisites, the
lower-level course and the research class. This is possible within PeopleSoft. Overall
the major will be raised by 3 units, to 39. Proposals for Combined majors with
Economics; Geography and Environmental Planning; Mass Communication; and Communication Studies included the same proposed
changes.
Erratum:
The number of units for the Combined major with Mass
Communication should now be 75.
Ms. Miller moved and Professor Gasparich
seconded the motion to accept the proposed changes. The motion carried,
with 7 votes in favor.
12. There was some discussion about
whether it was appropriate for Committee members to ask probing curricular
questions. Where is the line on specialist content as opposed to broad curriculum?
The Committee also plays a role in eliciting and recording rationales of program-level
curricular changes at the University.
13. The UCC meeting adjourned at 4:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Shana M. Gass
Secretary, University Curriculum
Committee
[1]Note that COSC 111, COSC 119, and
COSC 418 course titles differ slightly from those indicated in the proposal.