November 18, 2014- Agenda & Minutes

Time: 9:30am
Location: Exploratory Hall, Room L106
Items to be considered on this agenda are due by 11/4/2014

When available, the meeting minutes will be indicated within bold brackets [ ] and are in draft form until they are approved by the committee.

I. Call to Order [9:32am]

II. Approval of the October 2014 Meeting Minutes [Approved]

III. Announcements/Discussion

• Catalog Revision: Undergraduate Degree Program Entry Totals [Jennifer advised the committee that in the upcoming catalog, all programs must list each credit needed to equal the total amount of credits required for the degree. She offered a possible solution to this problem and explained that a draft version had been sent out to each department’s catalog contact. The committee did not have concerns regarding this suggestion.]
• Timing Announcement: Modifying Spring 2015 Courses [Jennifer notified the committee that some forms from last month’s and this month’s meeting may not be implemented until summer 2015 because spring 2015 registration has already begun.]
• New Course Approval Form and Program Approval Form [Barry made the committee aware that new forms are available on the website.]

IV. Old Business

• CHEM 458 Chemical Oceanography [Approved pending AOES departmental agreement regarding the use of GEOL 309 instead of GEOL 302, and clarifying the prerequisites: “Grade of ‘C’ or better in CHEM 211 and CHEM 212, and in either CHEM 321 or BIOL 309/EVPP 309/GEOL 309.”]
• CHEM 500 Selected Topics in Modern Chemistry [Approved]

V. New Business – Undergraduate

New Courses

• BIOL 323 Lab for Developmental Biology [Approved]
• BIOL 336 Invertebrate Paleontology [Approved pending the prerequisite addition of EVPP 210]
• CHEM 439  Atmospheric Chemistry II: Air Analysis Techniques [Approved]
• EVPP 302 Environmental Science: Biomes and Human Dimensions [Approved]
• STEM 401 Discipline-Based Education Research [Approved]

Modified Courses

• ASTR 301 Astrobiology [Approved]
• ASTR 302 Foundations of Cosmological Thought [Approved]
• BIOL 322 Developmental Biology [Approved]
• BIOL 385 Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering [Approved]
• BIOL 408 Mushrooms, Molds and Society [Approved]
• BIOL 409 Medical Mycology [Approved]
• CLIM 102 Global Climate Change: Modeling and Predicting an Uncertain Future [Approved]
• EVPP 210 Environmental Biology: Molecules and Cell [Approved]
• EVPP 305 Environmental Microbiology Essentials [Approved with prerequisite clarity: ‘EVPP 110 and EVPP 111, or EVPP 210. And 30 credit hours or permission of instructor.’]
• EVPP 306 Environmental Microbiology Essentials Laboratory [Approved with prerequisite clarity: ‘EVPP 110 and EVPP 111, or EVPP 210. And 30 credit hours or permission of instructor.’]
• EVPP 336 Human Dimensions of the Environment [Approved with the removal of “or” in the prerequisites.]
• EVPP 350 Freshwater Ecosystems [Approved]
• EVPP 355 Ecological Engineering and Ecosystem Restoration [Tabled by ESP]
• EVPP 363 Coastal Morphology and Processes [Approved]
• EVPP 380 Wetlands of the World [Approved]
• EVPP 408 Mushrooms, Molds and Society [Approved]
• EVPP 419 Marine Mammal Biology and Conservation [Approved with the prerequisite addition EVPP 409, “and 60 credit hours”.]
• EVPP 421 Marine Conservation [Approved with the removal of reference to the Mason Core.]
• EVPP 409 Medical Mycology [Approved]
• EVPP 430 Fundamentals of Environmental Geographic Information Systems [Tabled by ESP]
• EVPP 445 Principles of Environmental Toxicology [Approved]
• EVPP 449 Marine Ecology [Tabled by ESP]
• EVPP 451 Fungi and Ecosystems [Tabled by ESP]
• EVPP 468 Vertebrate Natural History [Tabled by ESP]
• FRSC 304 Forensics Chemistry and Microscopy [Approved]
• FRSC 440 Forensic Chemistry [Approved]

Deleted Course

• CHEM 350 Computer Techniques for Chemistry [Approved]

Modified Concentrations

• Analytical and Environmental Chemistry Concentration (within the Chemistry, BS) [Approved]
• Biochemistry Concentration (within the Chemistry, BS) [Approved]

Modified Programs

• Earth Science, BS [Approved]
• Geology, BA [Approved]
• Physics, BS [Approved]

VI. New Business – Graduate

New Program

• Green Leaf Bachelor’s/Environmental Science and Policy Master’s Accelerated Master’s [Approved]

Deleted Courses

• CHEM 617 Organic Structural Spectroscopy [Approved]
• GEOL 613 Environmental Geochemistry and Mineralogy [Approved]
• GEOL 800 Studies for the Doctor of Philosophy in Education [Approved]
• EVPP 576 Microbial Ecology of Soils [Approved]
• EVPP 758 Environment and Public Policy [Approved]
• EVPP 791 Colloquium in Earth Systems Science [Approved]

VII. Adjournment [11:15am]