November 23, 2015- Agenda & Minutes

Time: 9:00am
Location: Exploratory Hall, Room 3301
Items to be considered on this agenda are due by 11/9/2015

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 [9:00am]

II. Approval of the October 2015 Meeting Minutes [Approved]

III. Announcements/Discussion

• The search function on the COSCC website is currently not functioning- the problem has been reported and hopefully will be remedied soon. As a work-around, go to the Meeting Archives and use the ‘Find’ function (Ctrl+F) to locate an item.

IV. Old Business

• BIOL 560 Infectious Diseases of Wildlife [Approved by SSB faculty and will now go on for Graduate Council review]

November 10th’s Email Vote Results:

• CLIM 700 Climate Comprehensive Exam [Approved]
• CLIM 798 Master’s Climate Research Project [Approved]
• CLIM 799 Master’s Thesis in Climate [Approved]
• EVPP 533 Energy Policy [Approved]

V. New Business – Undergraduate

New Courses [Going forward, attached syllabi should be near finalized with all university requirements as listed here. A link to this syllabus guidance has been added to the Procedures page for future reference.]

• CDS 201 Introduction to Computational Social Science [Approved]
• CDS 205 Introduction to Agent-based Modeling and Simulation [Approved]
• CDS 292 Introduction to Social Network Analysis [Approved]
• CHEM 213* General Chemistry Laboratory-I [Approved]
• CHEM 214* General Chemistry Laboratory-II [Approved]

New/Modified Program

• Computational and Data Sciences, BS (received SCHEV approval to revive this inactivated program) [Approved pending the following change to the ‘Science and Engineering’ section: “Choose 6 additional science or engineering credits from either: 1) additional Mason Core ‘Natural Science’ or ‘Information Technology’ courses (building upon the Mason Core courses used to fulfill the Mason Core requirements), or 2) any course offered by the College of Science, or 3) any course offered by the Volgenau School of Engineering.”]

Modified Courses

• BIOL 443 Tropical Ecology [Approved]
• BIOL 444 Tropical Ecology Laboratory [Approved]
• CDS 461 N-body Simulation Methods [Approved]
• CHEM 211* General Chemistry [Approved]
• CHEM 212* General Chemistry [Approved]
• EVPP 301 Environmental Science: Biological Diversity and Ecosystems [Approved]
• EVPP 305 Environmental Microbiology Essentials [Approved]
• EVPP 306 Environmental Microbiology Essentials Laboratory [Approved]
• EVPP 336 Human Dimensions of the Environment [Approved]
• EVPP 419 Marine Mammal Biology and Conservation [Approved]
• EVPP 420 Marine Mammal Biology and Conservation Field Course [Approved]
• EVPP 421 Marine Conservation [Approved]
• EVPP 430 Fundamentals of Environmental Geographic Information Systems [Item retracted as changing what terms a course is offered in does not require COSCC approval]
• EVPP 432 Energy Policy [Approved]
• EVPP 440 Field Environmental Science [Approved pending removal of ‘Total limit of 4 credits’]
• EVPP 480 Sustainability in Action [Approved]
• GGS 304 Population Dimensions of Global Change [Approved]
• GGS 321 Biogeography: Space, Time and Life [Approved]
• GGS 399 Selected Topics in Geography [Approved]
• GGS 480 Internship in Geography [Approved]
• GGS 495 Senior Research in Global and Environmental Change [Approved]
• GGS 499 Independent Study in Geography [Approved]

Deleted Courses

• EVPP 335 People, Plants, and Culture [Approved]
• GGS 398 Selected Topics in Global Change [Approved. Department later requested that we hold the forms until further notice.]
• GGS 410 Introduction to Hyperspectral Imaging [Approved. Department later requested that we hold the forms until further notice.]
• GGS 455 Environmental Impact Assessment [Approved. Department later requested that we hold the forms until further notice.]
• GGS 456 Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation [Approved. Department later requested that we hold the forms until further notice.]
• GGS 490 Practicum in Geographical Applications [Approved. Department later requested that we hold the forms until further notice.]

*CHEM 211 & 213; 212 & 214: COS degrees that have these courses listed in their catalog entries will be updated according to these forms by J.Gettys- please have your department’s catalog editors double check these changes when the draft catalog is distributed ~March 2016.

VI. New Business – Graduate

New Courses

• BINF 795 Bioinformatics Internship [Approved pending the addition of a syllabus, to be distributed to COSCC members via email]
• PHYS 665 Planetary Atmospheres and Ionospheres [Approved]

New/Modified Program

• Bioinformatics Management, PSM (adding PSM designation to the MS in Bioinformatics Mgmt) [Approved]

Modified Course

• GGS 704 Spatial Analysis and Modeling of Population [Approved]

Deleted Courses

• GGS 524 Intro to Environment and Resource Economics [Approved. Department later requested that we hold the forms until further notice.]
• GGS 525 Economics of Human/Environment Interactions [Approved. Department later requested that we hold the forms until further notice.]
• GGS 674 Environmental Impact Analysis [Approved. Department later requested that we hold the forms until further notice.]
• GGS 792 Seminar in Earth Systems Science [Approved. Department later requested that we hold the forms until further notice.]

Modified Programs

• Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences, PhD [Approved]
• Environmental Science and Policy, MS [Approved pending the addition of CLIM 512 to the Aquatic Science and Aquatic Science Methods sections]

VII. Adjournment [10:05am. The committee members agreed that spring 2016’s meeting schedule should be set for Mondays at 10:00am.]

Forensic’s items were removed on 11/20/2015 per department request.