USF Undergraduate Council - Minutes of April 26, 1999

Present: Richard Dietrich, Grace Erickson, Mary Hardy, Ram Pendyala, Ken Pothoven, John Robison, Edward Silbert

Absent: Nell Faucette, Thomas Johnson

Guests: Kevin Archer, Alma Bryant, Patrick Finelli, Michael Gibbons, Dolores Gooding, Fred Steier, Curtis Wienker

The meeting was called to order at 3:06 p.m.

1. The minutes of the previous meeting were not available for approval.

2. Announcements
   Ed Silbert was elected chair of the Undergraduate Council for the 1999/2000 academic year.

3. Review of Course Proposals

   • ENC 3212 Communications for Engineers - R. Pendyala
     This course focuses on writing for engineers in their everyday professional lives and deals with content and form. It is designed to be an exit requirement for Engineering majors. The course was approved pending changes to the course proposal format.

   • EGS 4xxx Engineering Quantitative Methods (changed to EGN 3XXX) - K. Pothoven
     The course presents the basic principles of methods for statistical and economic analysis for decision making in engineering applications. Following discussion, the course was approved.

   • MUN 1100 University Pep Band and MUN 1110 University Marching Band - J. Robison
     These two courses are designed to permit students the experiences of a pep band and a marching band in line with other ensemble music forms. There is a lab fee associated with each course. Following disucssion, the course were approved with minor revision.

   • THE 4434 Caribbean Theatre - J. Robison
     The course provides a student of play and popular theatrical forms of the Caribbean (English-speaking West Indies).The students will investigate the social and political forces that have shaped the culture of the Caribbean. Following discussion, this course was approved.

   • IDS 2666 Historical Perspectives I and IDS 2667 Historical Perspectives II - E. Silbert
     Following a brief discussion of these two courses, they were again tabled (2 voted to table the courses, 0 voted against tabling, 3 abstained).

   • ISS 1101 Knowledge and Society, ISS 1102 Self and Society, ISS 1103 Nature and Culture - R. Dietrich
     These courses could be offered to any student not just the Learning Communities. A faculty member might offer one or more of the courses in the given semester or over two of the courses over the course of the year. The reading lists would come from classic texts, but each individual instructor would add to the reading lists. The idea is to build each course as much as possible around a relatively brief self-contained readings that address or present a classic aspect or dimension to each of the issues involved. The courses would be housed in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences and are being proposed to meet the General Educaction perspectives of Historical and Social Sciences. The chair of the department would recruit faculty to teach the courses. The would allow freshmen exposure to interdisciplinary courses. These courses were approved with the delete 4b from all three course proposals.

The next meeting will be a special meeting to discuss the Concil's handling of Liberal Arts during the coming academic year and will be held on Monday, May 12, 1999 at 9:00 a.m. The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m.

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