University of
Annual Report of the
Curriculum
Committee
For 2004-2005
The Curriculum Committee (CC) held fifteen regular meetings
during the academic year 2004-2005. There were eight meetings held during fall
semester and seven during spring semester.
FALL SEMESTER
This was a catalog year and the committee met weekly to
review and approve changes for the upcoming catalog.
CC discussed inactive/active courses and listing them in the
catalog.
*Courses not offered during the
catalog can be included in the catalog and can remain active however, if a
course is not going to be taught in the next 2-3 catalogs then it should be
made inactive.
*Courses may be listed as
“offered when feasible”
*Reactivated courses should go through
the Curriculum Committee.
*If a course is being dropped from
the catalog it does not have to be made inactive if the discipline plans to
offer it again. If a course is being dropped from the catalog because it is not
going to be taught again then it should made inactive.
If a course is summer only it does not need to be in the
catalog but if the course is part of the regular curriculum then it should be
listed in the catalog.
Humanities:
Humanities course approvals that were being presented for
approval were sent forward last spring and the Division was asked to bring them
for approval this fall along with the other catalog changes.
Motions to approve the following
courses were approved.
ArtH
3142 Art of the Italian Renaissance 1200-1520. Motion passed
ENGL
3010 Practicum in Writing Tutoring
ENGL
4018 American Postmodern Lit
ENGL
4019 Re-Writing Shakespeare for Film and Stage
ENGL
4020 British Literature of the Fin de Siecle
HUM
3051 Russian Literature with the understanding that the
grading
option will be verified to be S-N.
MUS
1046 Class Voice
SPAN
3505 Sex, Love and Marriage in the Golden Age Spanish Literature
TH
2111 Creative Drama with Children
TH
3101 World Theater: History and Literature I
TH
3102 World Theater: History and Literature II
TH
3201 Advanced Acting
TH
3202 Advanced Directing
Motions to send the following
courses back for missing information were approved.
ARTS
3011 Collecting and Display in Art for clarification of course description
ENGL
2106 The Environmental Imagination for a rationale
MUS
1101 Core Studies I: Music Studies I returned for assessment and rationale
information
MUS
1102 Core Studies I: Music Studies II for rationale information
MUS
2101 Core Studies II: Music Studies III for rationale information
MUS
2102 Core Studies II: Music Studies IV for rationale information
MUS
1223 Composition for rational, assessment and required fee listed in additional
course
information
section.
MUS
3223 Composition for rational, assessment and required fee listed in additional
course
information
section.
TH 1060 Production Experience for assessment
and concurrent or co-req information.
CC approved a motion to allow course changes for the catalog
to come to the committee on the Multiple Course Revision form.
Provision V
A motion was made and passed to remove Provision V of the
GER which include the statements on writing and computer skills from the new
catalog
Science
and Math
A motion was made and passed to accept the topics
restructuring in Science and Math.
Biology
A motion was made and passed to accept Biology Form A and B
and the addition of the course BIOL 1002 Human Nutrition. This course is a
requirement for pre-nursing students and students would have to take the course
somewhere else, now UMM will be able to offer that requirement.
Chemistry
A motion was made and passed to accept the Chemistry Form A
and the addition of a new course Chem 3711, Chem 4311 is a new 1 credit synthetics lab.
Computer
Science
A motion was made and passed to approve Computer Science
Form A. A motion was made and passed to approve CSci
3511 with the understanding that an acceptable assessment statement will be
received and reviewed by the Dean.
Geology
A motion was made and passed to approve Geology Form A and Form
B.
Math
A motion made and passed to approve the Math Form A and Form
B.
Physics
A motion was made and passed to approve Physics Form A and
Form B.
Statistics
A motion was made and passed to approve Statistics Form A
and Form B with clarification of A-F only on the two new courses and a
Pass/Fail statement on Form B.
Social Science Catalog Changes
Anthropology
A motion was made and passed to approve Anthropology Form A
and Form B.
Economics
A motion was made and passed to approve Economics Form A and
Form B.
History
A motion was made and passed to approve History Form A and B
and course with a suggestion to have the GER for Hist 1402 changed to HDiv and the GER for Hist 3707 changed to IP.
Management
A motion was made and passed to approve Management Form A and
Form B and one new course Mgmt 4602 which had received provisional approval
earlier with the exception of the residency statement on Form B. If the
discipline insists on keeping the statement it will come back to CC separately.
Political
Science
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A and Form B with
only minor changes proposed by the discipline.
Psychology
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A and Form B with
minor changes. The Psychology
discipline agreed to and approved a title change suggestions from CC for Psy 4620 and Psy 4720 to take out
“Psychology I” and “Psychology II” after Biological to
make the title read easier.
Sociology
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A and B with the exception of Soc
3301 which was sent back for clarification on the rationale.
Geography
A motion was made and passed to approve Geography
changes. They now have an
instructor with a PhD in Geography. With the permission of Humanities, Social
Science would very much like to increase the number of Geography courses as the
instructor is also an English professor. The whole campus would benefit from an
increase in Geography courses.
Education
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A, Form B and
course changes. ED 2101 and 2111 were approved as amended to include the co-reqs.
Elementary
Education
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A, Form B and
course changes for El Ed. Form B shows changes aligning the program to the
licensing requirements and course changes in other disciplines. A friendly
amendment to Science and Math courses requirement was made to read “at
least one with lab” to avoid confusion for students. Education received approval last year
from the state to license students in the World Languages specialty.
Secondary
Education
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A and Form B
for Secondary Education noting that since the licensure relies on courses from
other disciplines this information may have to be changed to reflect the
Humanities changes that have not yet been presented to CC.
Wellness
and Sports Science
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A and Form B
for WSS noting some minor changes with wrestling no longer a sport at UMM. An
amendment was made and approved to remove Spch 2101
as a requirement noting that Speech 2101 does not offer any public speaking
experience.
Humanities
Art History
A motion was made and passed to approve Art History catalog
changes.
Studio
Art
A motion was made and passed to approve Form B for Studio
Art and course revisions as amended to change the rationale to state that the
credit change brings these courses in line with the other studio art
courses. Form A was missing and was
requested.
English
A motion was made and passed to send English back to the
discipline for clarification including a completed Form A and inclusion of
cluster headings for CC to review. Engl 2106 received provisional approval at
this time.
European
Studies
A motion was made and passed to approve the catalog changes
for European Studies noting that some information is reliant upon other divisions
and would need to be updated, accordingly and will be handled the same as
Education.
French
A motion was made and passed to approve the French catalog
changes as amended with the exception of the placement exam statement on Form B
as that statement is in conflict with Scholastic Committee’s policy on
placement exams. That statement was
held in abeyance until clarification with the Scholastic Committee.
German
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A and B for
German noting changes due to the retirement of one faculty member.
Humanities
A motion was made and passed to approve the Humanities
catalog changes.
Music
A motion was made and passed to approve Form B for Music.
Form A was requested for Music.
Philosophy
A motion was made and passed to approve Philosophy Form A
and B.
Spanish
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A and B for
Spanish.
Speech
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A and B for
Speech noting that a new hybrid course is being offered.
Theater
A motion was made and passed to approve Form B for Theater.
Interdisciplinary Studies
A motion was made and passed to send back IS 3810 Practicum
in French to be considered as a French course and not an IS course or changed to a Humanities Practicum to remain
as IS course. A motion was made and passed to approve the Multiple Course
Revision form for IS courses.
African
American Studies Minor
A motion was made and passed to approve Form B for the
African American Studies Minor noting that the changes reflect changes from
other disciplines.
Continuing
Education
A motion was made and failed to change all non-major units
described as disciplines to programs. There was discussion among the members as
to the rationale for calling Dance a discipline and not a program. Several
examples were given of the use of the words discipline and program throughout
the catalog. It was noted that in the larger university world programs are
equivalent to majors and discipline is actually a better description. It was
suggested that a decision be made to clarify this issue for the catalog and that
UMM should have an agreement to the meaning of the language.
Motions were made and passed to approve Dance Form B,
Italian catalog changes, deletion of the WSS Dance Courses, French courses as
amended to include CE: in the course title and the list of Continuing Education
courses to be included in the catalog, the new Dance courses, Italian courses,
and ED 1112, and English CE courses.
Honors
Program
A motion was made and passed to approve Honors as amended
with language changes
suggested by members of CC.
IS Honors Courses
A motion was made and passed to approve IS 3204H, IS 3205H,
and IS 3206H. The faculty member for IS
3205H The Early Modern Body in Literature, Philosophy, and Science, was
contacted and agreed to add “human” before body in the description
but not the title.
LAAS
A motion was made and passed to approve the changes for LAAS
noting that the only changes are those mandated by changes in other disciplines
that have already been approved.
LAHS
A motion was made and passed to approve the changes for LAHS
indicating the same rationale for changes as LAAS
Social Science Major
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A and B for the
Social Science Major with a correction on the wording on Form A.
Women’s
Studies
A motion was made and passed to approve the revised Form A
and Form B for Women’s Studies.
WoSt 4101
A motion was made and passed to approve WoSt
4101; this approval would also allow set-up for Spring
registration, and to approve WoSt course changes
presented on the MCR form.
Psychology
A motion was made and passed to approve the revised Form B
for Psychology which removed the statement that required courses may not be taken S-N
unless offered S-N only.
English
A motion was made and passed to approve Form A for English.
A motion was made and passed to approve Form B for English
with the Dean’s approval of the cluster narratives.
English
Courses
A motion was made and passed to approve the new English courses
and course revisions.
Interdisciplinary Catalog
Changes
A motion was made and passed to approve IS 4994H revisions.
Review of Forms A and B
Form A
CC reviewed Forms A and B that are used during a catalog
year. Several changes were made as a result of the Committee’s
discussion. A revised draft of Form
A was presented to the committee. The information requested at the bottom of
the form was worded differently to encourage description by asking for a
summary of the intent of the proposed changes and what financial and staffing
implications result from the proposed changes. It was suggested to add to the last
question what the implications would be in the discipline and other
disciplines, since many changes impact other disciplines.
The committee will continue to review this information and it
will continue to be discussed at a later meeting after members have time to
discuss this with their colleagues.
Form B
A section on cluster headings will be added and indication
will be made that only changes need to be noted. There was discussion on the
assessment information and the issue was tabled for more discussion.
CC Forms Instructions
The committee reviewed the instructions and several changes
will be made for clarification. The provisional approval statement, the
effective date, grading basis, delivery mode, assessment and goals sections,
auto enroll, course equivalency, and enforced prerequisite will all have
changes for clarification.
Courses with A-F or S/N Only Grading
Currently there is a bit of disconnect in practice in
selecting grading options for a course. If the course is A-F only it should be
listed so in the catalog. On page 36 of the current catalog it states that
courses may be taken A-F or S/N unless otherwise noted; therefore A-F only
grading should be noted. If no variation is noted it is assumed that Student
Option is available. There was also a concern with the number of A-F only
courses.
CC will continue to discuss Forms A and B at future
meetings.
SPRING
SEMESTER
COURES APPROVALS
English
A motion was made and passed to approve changes to the Goals
for College Writing GER and the course description for Engl 1011 pending
editorial revisions for clarity which will be reviewed by the Dean. The
Scholastic Committee encouraged these changes to be sent to CC because of
petitions that had been received.
IS
A motion was made and passed to approve IS 3221H Honors:
Open Source vs. Proprietary Technology: The Economics of Networks and
Innovation for approval.
Continuing Education
A motion was made and passed to approve Anth
2311 CE: American Indian Assimilation and Resistance on the Great Plains, IS
2035 CE: Aging in
A motion was
made and passed to approve History 3607 Aztec Culture and History , Chem 1001 Chemistry and Society, CSci
1101 Dynamic Web Programming, CSci 4408 Systems:
Computer Forensics, CSci 4455 Systems: Computer
Architecture, CSci 4556 Theory: Computer Graphics,
and NSci 1061 Salmon in Endangered Ecosystems.
Repeatability of Courses
A motion was made and passed to approve a default for
repeatable courses to repeated one time if not specified. A number of courses
are listed as repeatable however, it is not indicated how many times or to what
credit limit.
Areas of Concentration
Over the last year and a half several faculty members along
with Ruth Thielke, Registrar, have worked to prepare
templates or prototypes for several different Areas of Concentration. This was
a result of retention studies to find out why students leave. These are not
intended to lead the way to new majors, they would continue to be Areas of
Concentration requiring the student to complete the rationale statement as to
why it should be considered an Area of Concentration and will also continue to
require the necessary approvals by faculty, Division Chairs, and the Dean.
Division Chairs will still be involved in the approval
process and approval of Areas of Concentrations will continue to go through the
current process requiring faculty and division approval, review by the
Registrar and approval by the Dean.
EDP Subcommittee
The call for EDP applications was been sent out with a
deadline of March 25, 2005. Dave Roberts volunteered and Judy Kuechle and Sarah
Black were nominated to serve on the EDP subcommittee.
Consistency of Term and Year
offerings
The committee agreed that courses that are only taught in
the summer and courses that are consistently taught in the summer are the only
courses that should have a term offering listed as summer.
Chem 1001 and NSci
1061 were both provisionally approved by the Division Chair
Members in attendance, due to lack of a quorum and the need for students to
register for classes for summer term before the next assembly meeting.
Writing Subcommittee Final Report
The findings of the Writing subcommittee were presented to
CC. The committee looked at the history of writing on our campus, results of
various surveys on effective writing and recommendations. The committee spent a
large amount of time looking at what is available on writing on our campus and
other campuses. The committee found that writing has always been a concern for
UMM expecting the best possible quality and that the students are challenged to
write in their discipline area. The
committee used the NSSE survey results and also did their own survey. They felt
the “Distribution of ACT English Scores” analysis should be done
again as it has not been done recently. The subcommittee concluded that those
at UMM ARE concerned about writing, it is not taken lightly. At the time they
were meeting, English was in the process of hiring a director of the college
writing program. That person has now been hired and the committee felt the best
policy at this point would be to give that person the subcommittee’s
findings and information and allow her to proceed with improving the program.
EDP Recommendations
Motion made and passed to approval all four EDP Grant requests.
Four applications were received; one from each division and the requested
amount was less than what was available to award. The subcommittee looked at
all four applications carefully and discussed how the applications would
compete in others years when there have been a larger amount of requests. The
subcommittee felt all four projects were worth approving for funding. All four
projects were funded at the salary amount requested plus fringe which would be
adjusted to the correct rate.
ECAS Forms and Instructions
CC continued the discussion about the ECAS forms and
instructions from the November 18, 2004 meeting. It was noted that the changes
are grayed out on the forms. A member listed several suggestions and all were
accepted.
v
To add a statement on the ECAS form
and instructions that “It is expected that nearly all courses at UMM will
be Student Option.”
v
To take out the statement in the
instructions for Form A that the bottom portion is required. All information is
required on Form A.
v
On Form B and the instructions for
Form B the following statement should be added “If no changes are
proposed for a section of the form that section should say “NO
CHANGE.””
A motion was made and passed to accept the recommendations
of the Assessment Committee and remove the Assessment and Goals section from
the ECAS form. The ASL committee thought it better to focus on assessment at
the level of the Major and not at the level of the individual course.
CC discussed changes to Form B. The form has been changed as
the Assessment Committee suggested asking how the changes affect the Major
assessment plans. The Form B will also contain the statement "Show the complete text of any section being changed
with additions underlined and deletions in strikethrough font. If no changes
are being proposed in a section, indicate "no change" in that
section." Noting that being more explicit will be helpful.
CC moved on to Form A and the course count. Courses not sections should be
counted. A footnote will be added noting that courses with multiple sections
will count only once.
Teacher Education Committee Final
Report
A motion was made and passed to accept the final report of
the Teacher Education Committee.
Assessment of Student Learning
Pre-Survey
The Assessment Committee has prepared a Gen Ed Pre-Survey
for incoming freshman. This would compliment the Senior Gen Ed Survey. Endorsement
by CC for this survey at this meeting was sought so it could be on the agenda
for the last CA meeting this spring. If not, it will have to wait until next
fall to go to CA. The survey would be taken during the FYS courses in the
beginning of the semester. There was some concern with the questions and the
intent of the survey, either to track the importance of Gen Ed at UMM or how
much the student learned. The discussion was tabled until the next meeting in
order to move on to the NSSE survey.
NSSE Report
Olson-Loy began the presentation
stating that the NSSE Survey was started in 2000, this is the second time UMM
has participated, once in 2002 and again in 2004. Olson-Loy presented an
overview of the NSSE survey and the 2004 Benchmarks. The response rate for UMM,
with all freshman and seniors invited to participate, was 47%. Olson-Loy gave
an overview of the results for the Benchmark sections comparing UMM from 2002
to 2004 and also to COPLAC, Bac-LA, and National
scores:
v
Level
of Academic Challenge
v
Active
and Collaborative Learning
v
Student-Faculty
Interactions
v
Enriching
Educational Experiences
v
Supportive
Campus Environment
The benchmarks are the midpoint of
each section. Olson-Loy reviewed the individual sections under the section
“Level of Academic Challenge”:
Results
for the percent of students who:
v
Spent
more than 15 hours per week studying
v
Are
writing at least 5 or more papers of 5-19 pages in length
v
Said
coursework emphasizes synthesizing and organizing ideas, information or
experiences
v
Said
coursework emphasizes making judgments about the value of information,
arguments or methods.
v
Said
coursework emphasizes applying theories or concepts to practical problems or in
new situations
v
Worked
harder than they thought they could to meet an instructor’s standards
v
Said
the Campus emphasizes studying and academic work
v
Said
their experience at this institution contributed to writing clearly and effectively
v
Said
their experience at this institution contributed to speaking clearly and
effectively
v
Said
their experience at this institution contributed to thinking critically and
analytically
v
Were
challenged by their examinations to do their best work
v
Often
or very often made a class presentation
v
Asked
questions in class or contributed to class discussions
v
Worked
with other students on projects during class
v
Worked
with classmates outside of class to prepare assignments
v
Often
tutored or taught other students
v
Participated
in a community-based project as part of a regular course during the current
year
Other specific questions were also
reviewed. Even with the concern about writing papers, faculty members have
indicated they are assigning papers in quantity and length.
The last benchmark “Supportive Campus
Environment” results were reviewed for:
v
Evaluation of entire college
experience
v
Students who stayed on campus 12-15
weekends
v
Students who stayed on campus less
than 6 weekends
A member concerned about the academic challenge part ran an
informal survey among faculty in Humanities and Social Science and found that
in fact assignments are given and students are not doing their assignments. Faculty
should be brought together to address this issue. Schwaller noted that he would
like to have this presentation give to the Scholastic Committee and open
sessions for faculty will be held in the fall. Changes to improve this area
would need a campus wide effort. Faculty members clearly need more information
on this generation of students and ways to approach them. This topic will
continue to be discussed with faculty.
Legal Aspects of Internships
A motion was made and passed to accept the fact sheet and
expectations for internships created by the committee with editorial changes.
Donovan explained the background and charge of the Legal
Issues of Internships Committee that was created by the Curriculum Committee.
The committee included Paula O’Loughlin,
Barbara Burke, Dian Lopez, Jeff Ratliff-Crain, and Gary Donovan. Donovan meet
with Ms.Tracy Smith from the UM General
Counsel’s Office and Mr. Cary Jones from the UM Office of Risk
Management. Donovan also talked a number of times with Ms. Julie Sweitzer, Director of the UM Affirmative Action/Equal
Employment Opportunity Office (AA/EEO).
Out of these discussions and other UMM committee meetings, a set of
guidelines were created for the Morris campus. Chancellor Schuman suggested
creating a fact sheet for faculty; a copy was handed out to the members. The
internship committee would like the endorsement of the CC so this information
can be shared with faculty. Indemnity agreements (commonly referred to as
“hold harmless” agreements) were discussed and it was noted that
the U of M will generally not sign hold harmless agreements. Faculty and staff
are not to sign any agreement/contract with an internship agency. If required
by an internship agency, the agreement/contract must be approved by the UM
General Counsel and Risk Management offices.
Following the advice of the UM General Counsel, the
committee agreed that it is important to spell out the expectations of all
parties involved in an internship. The committee created the list of
expectations for the internship site, student and UMM. The committee wants to
guarantee that the field supervisor at the internship site receives a copy of
the expectations. It is important for the internship site to have this
information but it is equally important for UMM faculty to have this
information.
Three areas of importance were discussed with the committee.
The first explains the requirement of organizations or sites to sign an
“Assurance Regarding Unlawful Discrimination” form. Any
organization or person coming to UMM to recruit for internships, summer or full
time employment, and graduate/professional school is required to sign this
form. The
The next item discussed was that internships need to be made
available to all students. A faculty member cannot give the information to only
certain students. Students cannot be screened and selected by faculty/staff;
all who wish to apply must have the opportunity to have their applications
submitted. This is something that faculty are unaware of. Part of affirmative
action/equal employment opportunity is that faculty/staff cannot screen; all
students should have equal access to all the internships that are available.
The
The last item discussed covered the importance of following
FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) guidelines when giving out
information about students. A signed release form from the student must be
obtained before faculty or anyone can give information in either written or
verbal form to an internship site, or anyone else outside the university. The
release is good for one year from the date signed. Copies of the University
recommended release form were distributed to the CC. This would apply to former
students of UMM as well. The form is available on the General Counsel’s
web site. The web address is on the faculty information sheet. Email would
serve as written consent.