USF Undergraduate Council - Minutes of February 10, 2003

Present: Glen Besterfield (chair), Deborah Condosta, Terry Engle, Silvia Fiore, Myung Kim, Kathryn Laframboise, J. Brian Moorhead, Sandra Reynolds

Absent: Michael Berman, Victoria Canterbury, Ashley Tanneberger

Guests: Christopher Cook, Tony Embry, Terri Flateby, Trevor Purcell, Bob Sullins

The meeting was called to order at 3:24 p.m.

1. The minutes of January 13, 2003 were approved as submitted.

2. Announcements
   • State Auditor's Recommendation for Policy on Grade Changes
     The state auditor believes that the University of South Florida should restrict the amount of time permitted for an instructor to change a student's grade after grades have been posted. Following discussion, the Undergraduate Council voted to decline the auditor's recommendation with one dissenting vote. The answer to the auditor's recommendation is that a significant risk to the University of South Florida is not perceived.

   • Presentation by Student Government on the +/- Grading Scale
     Christopher Cook presented Student Government's argument dealing with the +/- Grading Scale. The Student Government does not believe that the current +/- grading system is fair to students. The Undergraduate Council will revisit this discussion after receiving further documentation regarding the grading system.

3. Review of Course and Curriculum Change Proposals
   • AFA 4910 Individual Research
     This course is designed to provide advanced undergraduate research on Africana Studies with a topic selected by student and professor. This course allows students to develop research skills and independent work discipline. Following discussion, this course was approved with the following changes: addition of a prerequisite of a 2000 level introductory Africana Studies course. Course must be taken with instructor's approval and a contract between student and instructor must be signed. The grading option can be S/U with the instructor's permission. The credit hours were changed from 2-4 to 1-3.

4. Assignment of Course Proposals
   • Honors Research Major - New Major - Laframboise
   • SPA 3633 American Deaf Culture - New Course - Reynolds
   • SPA 3650 Fundamentals of Interpreting - New Course - Reynolds
   • SPA 3651 Intermediate Interpreting/Transliterating - New Course - Reynolds
   • SPA 4615C Sign Language 4 - New Course - Reynolds
   • SPA 4654 ASL to English Interpreting - New Course - Reynolds

The next meeting will be Monday, February 24, 2003. The meeting was adjourned at 4:35 p.m.

Please send any suggestions or comments to:
Office of Undergraduate Studies