uscminutes_4-5-06.html

UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES COMMITTEE MINUTES

2006: Feb 15 , Apr 5

25 October 2006

Members Present: Allen, Geller, Larson (chair), Petrova, Rojas, K. Smith,

Ex-Officio Members Present: Bergstresser, DeBlassie, Mogilevsky

Guest: Valerie Balester, W Course Advisory Committee

Members Absent: Stecher

The meeting began at 10:30a.m. There were ten topics put up for discussion: Topics – Second W Course Requirement, Catalog Deadlines, Dropping Technical Writing Requirement, Report on Majors Meeting, Career Fair and High School Math Contest, New Scholarship Committee, Honors Program Update, Recruitment Update, Continuation of Mentor Program, Freshman Majors Meeting in Spring, and Math Education Course Review. Below is a summary of each.

Topics-

Second W Course Requirement. To help the committee better understand W-courses, Dr. Valerie Balester from the W Course Advisory Committee was present to field questions and provide guidance in establishing our second W course. Every department is required to have two (2) W courses in the fall 2007 schedule of classes, but are not required to be in catalog 130. Below are a few general guidelines on the 2nd W course.

*Can be any number of credit hours and at any level
    *1 credit hour = 80% of grade dependent on writing
    *3 credit hours = 30% "     "             "               "    (8 pages or 2,000+ words)
    *4 credit hours = 25% "    "             "                "
*Can be offered as S/U
*Can offer the course with some sections as W and some regular
*An existing course can be converted to W status or an entirely new course created
*A proposal must be submitted for each W course, not as a group
*No set deadline for submitting proposal; submissions in spring 2007 will go to Faculty Senate in summer 2007
*W course proposals should include plan for assisting students with writing, ie, requiring drafts, etc.
*A model done by the Physics Department is posted on the Writing Center website, Physics Model
*Keep samples of students' work for renewal of W courses after a 4-year period

Several good questions were posed and a good discussion held on some of the courses that would be good to convert to a W course. One example mentioned by Dr. Rojas is Math 431 since a 4 page proposal and a powerpoint presentation are already requirements. Dr. Balester mentioned that if PowerPoint is used that ~6 pages of written text will be equivalent to the 8 page requirement for a 3 hour course. Valerie is also checking on the possiblity of offering Directed Studies-485 courses as W courses. The committee will use this advice to decide whether to convert an existing course to W status or possibly create a new 1 hour seminar-type class on Careers, modeled after the one offered by the Computer Science Department

Catalog Deadlines. Ordinarily, the catalog changes for the following year are due by December 29th. This year the university will be closed on that date, so catalog changes are due by December 6th. Several items are to be addressed when considering catalog changes for 2007. The Coordinating Board is pressing for all state universities to reduce the number of hours required for graduation to 120 hours, unless there are compelling reasons. Creating a second W course is another area needing attention for the 2007 catalog as well as a University Study
degree for the college. To see the entire document as sent by Dr. Tim Scott, please click here. See the following topic for more discussion on reducing to 120 hours.

Dropping Technical Writing Requirement. The Coordinating Board is pressing for all state universities to reduce the number of hours required for graduation to 120 hours. In an effort to comply with this request, dropping Technical Writing as a requirement was discussed. After looking at the Catalog core requirements, it was determined that we can drop this requirement and thus reduce our overall number of hours for graduation to 125. Rather than look to reduce the number of hours further, the committee decided to look at other peer institutions first. The overall feeling amongst committee members is to fight to keep the curriculum at 125 hours.

Report on: Majors Meeting, Career Fair, High School Math Contest. The minutes for this fall's Mandatory Majors Meeting are posted on the web. To view the minutes, click here. The Career Fair was held on Monday, October 16 and Tuesday, October 17. A panel discussion was held on Monday night in conjuction with the October Math Club meeting and was attended by over 50 students. The main event, employer booths, took place on Tuesday from 1:00 - 4:00pm in Blocker Hall. Over 75 students visited the booths and met with prospective employers. A banquet was hosted afterwards for all panelists and company representatives. To view the Career Fair webpage, click here. The High School Math Contest will take place on Saturday, October 28th from 8:00 - 3:00pm in the Wehner Building. Faculty and undergraduate students will be assisting with proctoring and grading.

New Scholarship Committee. After a discussion, it was decided that Dr. Mila Mogilevsky will join Drs. Larson, Geller and Stecher on the scholarship committee this year.

Honors Program Update. Tabled.

Recruitment Update. Dr. Larson reported that one of the primary goals is to increase recruiting efforts in order to increase the number of majors. More details will be given at the November meeting due to time constraints.

Continuation of Mentor Program. Tabled.

Freshman Majors Meeting in Spring. Tabled.

Math Education Course Review. Drs. Mogilevsky and Allen are continuing to work on the development or revision of a new Eucledian Geometry course, bearing in mind that the Education Department would need to have some input and not be in favor of any major changes to the current Math 367

The meeting adjourned at 11:40 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Donna L. Hoffman