CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
College of Letters and Sciences
Meeting of November 11, 2010
PRESENT: Ellen Davis, Paul House,
Molly Patterson, Trudi Witonsky, Angela Harlan,
David Cartwright, Steve Sahyun, Jolly Emrey, Elizabeth
Olson, Paul Adogamhe, Larry Neuman (Rep. Paul Gregory),
Ellie Schemenauer, Jeff Heinrich, Debra Heiber and
Elizabeth Hachten,
Chair.
The minutes of theOctober 28, 2010 meeting were approved as distributed on a Davis/Olson motion.
Announcements:
The chair reminded the committee that the deadline for proposals effective in Fall 2011 is the Thursday, December 9, 2010 meeting. Proposals are due to the committee secretary Wednesday, December 1, 2010. The deadlines are now being strictly enforced.
The chair also announced that departments should look for imbedded prerequisites in the required courses for their programs. The example used was in Chemistry where MATH 255 is required but it has the prerequisites of MATH 254 and 253 which do not show up on the AR. The question was raised as to how often this was a problem. Discussion ensued as to the best way to make students aware of these prerequisites. Several suggestions were made including making the prerequisites unique requirements; including prerequisites in the 4 year plan; and relying on advising.
Neuman /Emrey moved to bring off the table and to approve the revised proposal for the new major, Japanese Studies. A question was asked about the entry requirements to the program. Larry Neuman said that the requirement in question at the previous meeting had been removed but that he had overlooked taking it out of the course description. He would take care of the oversight and send a revised proposal to the committee secretary. (This has been done). The motion to approve was unanimous.
Davis/Witonsky moved to approve the new Biology course BIOLOGY 315 " Birding in Southern Wisconsin." A discussion ensued about whether or not the course should target Biology majors or non majors or how to include both categories of students. Also should the course be considered for GL or GM general education. Ellen Davis, the sponsor, asked that the proposal be tabled.
Old Business:
Foreign Language Subcommittee Report:
Chairperson Hachten reported that the data collected showed that two years of high school foreign language did not equal two semesters of college foreign language and four years of high school foreign language equaled two semesters of college foreign language only about 30% of the time. This information indicates that placement tests would be necessary to assess students' level of knowledge which brought up the testing and staffing issues. A discussion followed about what would be an appropriate effective date if a formal proposal were approved in the near future. It was felt that Fall 2012 would be the earliest effective date. (Note: Foreign Language Data information may be found on the L&S Curriculum main page at http://acadaff.uww.edu/ls.)
The
meeting adjourned on a House/Schemenauer motion.