December 2006 – Agenda & Minutes

Members Present: Peter Becker, Geoffrey Birchard, Estela Blaisten (chair), Tim Born, Dan Cox, Rick Diecchio, Robert Ellsworth, Dimitri Klimov, Barry Kronenfeld
Members Absent: Sheryl Beach, Rebecca Goldin, Barry Klinger
Guests Present: Richard Gomez (ESGS), Tim Sauer (Mathematics), David Walnut (Mathematics), Jennifer Weller (Bioinformatics), Ed Zolnik (Geography)

Call to order. Meeting was called to order at 11:04 am

1. Approval of minutes:
   • Revision of the minutes from the 11/30 meeting were approved.
2. Announcements and comments:
   • Committee members should be aware of the submissions coming from their department.
   • Starting next semester, visitors will not be allowed at curriculum committee meetings for presenting course proposals. Each department should have their own curriculum committee, inform their curriculum representative of concerns of other departments submissions, and/or and analyze all issues that could arise on proposals prior to their submission to this college curriculum committee.
   • In the event tat a representative is not available to attend a meeting, then a substitute may come to the meeting to represent the views of the department, provided that a note is sent a few days prior to the meeting to let committee members know that there will be a substitute. The substitute will not have voting rights, however in absentia votes can be submitted to the chair prior to the curriculum committee meeting.
   • Curriculum committee website. The site was originally made to be password protected but it was decided to let it be an open site.
   • Graduate Council update by Dr. Becker: BINF 650 was approved. All modified courses approved as well and all programs and certificates
3. Old Business
   • Review of new graduate courses
     • **GEOG 505-Approved contingent to format revisions in the proposal.
       An attempt to table the course until department reorganization was done but it was decided to base the decisions on merit and move forward.
     • **GEOG 645-Postponed until proposal is revised with collaborative input with ESGS.
   • Review of new undergraduate courses
     • **CDS 101-[Approved] with revisions
       Fix the non-repeatable portion of the cover sheet. Suggestion from the committee was that the course should have the same prerequisite as Math 113. This was adopted as well.
     • **CDS 301-[Approved]Question about software usage came from several members. The course was approved as submitted.
     • **CDS 302-[Approved]Question about whether STAT 352 or 354 were correct prerequisites. It was clarified that STAT 354 is correct, a typo was accordingly corrected in the proposal.
     • **CDS 401-[Approved]The proposal cover pages with appropriate signatures were not collected at the meeting. These need to be submitted to Assad when ready.
     • **CDS 410/411-[Postopned]
     • **CDS 421-[Approved]Question about whether the course is repeatable and how proficiency is assessed in a computer language.
     • **CDS 461-[Approved]IT was suggested that John Wallin may be able to scale this course down.
     • **CDS 487-[Postponed]There may be an overlap with PHYS 512.
4. New Business
   • a. Review of undergraduate modifications
     • **PHYS 103 and 104-[Approved]
     • **BIOL 104-[Approved]
     • **BIOL 485-[Approved]
     • **BINF minor-[Approved]
   • b. Review of graduate modifications
     • **BIOL MS program modification-[Approved]
     • **BIOL Ph.D. modification-[Approved]
     • **NANO block of courses (500, 510, 520, 530, 610)-[Approved]
     • **PHYS 780 modification-[Approved]
     • **BINF block of courses (637, 704, 998)-[Approved]
     • **BINF name modification-[Approved]
     • **MATH block of courses (551, 554, 555/556, 653, 654, 655)-[Approved]
   • c. Review of new undergraduate courses
     • **ASTR 703-[Approved] contingent to revisions
     • **ASTR 704-[Approved] contingent to revisions
     • **MATH 624-[Postponed]

Download original PDF documents:
Agenda: December 2006
Minutes: December 2006