USF Undergraduate Council - Minutes of November 23, 1998

Present: Richard Dietrich, Grace Erickson, Nell Faucette, Mary Hardy, Margaret Hewitt, Ram Pendyala, Ken Pothoven, John Robison (Chairperson), Edward Silbert

Absent:

Guests: John Cochran, W. Robert Sullins, Curtis Wienker, Fredric Zerla

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

1. The minutes of November 9, 1998 were approved as submitted. The minutes of November 23, 1998 were approved with the change of the date to 11/23/98.

2. Announcements - Grace Erickson has been confirmed as the Council representative from the College of Nursing. Thomas E. Johnson was appointed to represent the College of Business.

3. Program and Course Review

   • Criminology - Changes to the Degree Requirements -The Department proposed a change in the degree requirements for the various program options to meet the needs of their students. The changes were approved with minor corrections.

   • MGF 1107 Mathematics for Liberal Arts and MGF 1108 Selected Topics in Liberal Arts Mathematics - MGF 1107 is proposed as a course that would be at the level of college algebra but that would be taught in way to demonstrate the "beauty and utility" of mathematics to students. It would be used by students who only need to meet the general education mathematics requirement. MGF 1108 is proposed as a selected topics course that would be general education requirements. The syllabus for each offering would be aproved by the reviewers for Liberal Arts requirements. MGF 1107 was approved as submitted. MGF 1108 was approved pending removal of the repeat course option.

4. General Education - The Council members discussed the membership and the configuration of the old General Education Council. The Faculty Senate approved changes in the organization, reporting, and membership of this body. The old GEC would become a subcommittee of the Undergraduate Council with members appointed by the Faculty Senate. Members of the Undergraduate Council discussed several methods of providing the same review of courses without have a completely separate body to review courses for meeting the General Education requirements. Discussion included whether new courses or substantive course changes should be approved to meet liberal arts requirements before the Undergraduate Council would review these proposals; should be size of the Undergraduate Council be increased to accommodate the additional membership to handle liberal arts curriculum reviews; should liberal arts courses be review by a select panel of "experts" in the appropriate dimensions, etc.

5. Distribution and assignment of new course proposals, etc.

The next meeting will be Monday, January 11, 1999. The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m.

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