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2010 - 04/01

UCAP Meeting of 04/01/2010

2009-2010



agenda status: approved

Agenda:

University Committee on Academic Policy
Preliminary AGENDA (created 2/19/10)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
10:15 A.M. to 12:00 P.M.
Board Room, 4th Floor, Administration Building
    1. Approval of the Agenda


    2. Approval of the March 18, 2010 Minutes


    3. Comments from the Chairperson


    4. Comments from the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education


    5. Request for a New Minor in Horticulture .........(Attachment)
      Eunice Foster, Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
      Bridget Behe, Professor, Department of Horticulture


    6. Request for a Moratorium on Admission to the Bachelor of Science Degree in Lyman Briggs College, Entomology Coordinate Major .........(Attachment)


    7. Request for a Moratorium on Admission to the Bachelor of Science Degree in Lyman Briggs College, Physics and Geophysics Coordinate Major .........(Attachment)


    8. Request for an Extension to a Moratorium on Admission to the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communicative Sciences and Disorders .........(Attachment)


    9. Request for an Extension to a Moratorium on Admission to the Bachelor of Science Degree in Retailing .........(Attachment)


    10. SIRS Subcommittee Report
      R. Sekhar Chivukula, Subcommittee Chairperson


    11. Roundtable: All Other Business



minutes status: not approved

UCAP Minutes for meeting held on 04/01/2010

University Committee on Academic Policy
Minutes
Thursday, April 1, 2010
10:15 A.M. to 12:00 P.M.
Board Room, 4th Floor, Administration Building

Attending: Paul Abramson, Gillian Bice, Crystal Branta, R. Sekhar Chivukula, Peter Cobbett, Lisa Cook, Marty Crimp, Doug Estry, Anita Ezzo, Fred Fico, Melanie Helton, Ron Perry, Henry Reinart, A. Mahdi Saeed, Christopher Scales, Mike Shields, Jim Smith, Mary Kay Smith, Dan Tratt

Not Attending: Jon Beaulac, Michael Ly, John Reifenberg

The agenda was approved with the addition of a report from the SIRS Subcommittee.

The minutes of the March 18, 2010 were approved.

Comments from the Chairperson
Chairperson Crimp reported that he received a memo from Provost Wilcox stating the request for moratorium on admission to the Bachelor of Science degree in Entomology had not been granted. Dr. Crimp also noted that Academic Council would consider the revised academic committee bylaws for passage at its meeting on April 28.

Comments from the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education
Associate Provost Estry reported that he had forwarded the requests for more feedback on the proposed revision to the Course Repeat Policy to Associate Deans, the Offices of the Registrar and Financial Aid, Dean of the Graduate School, and ASMSU as the committee had asked. He noted that new data along with summaries of all prior data collected had been included with the request. He stated that feedback is due on April 9 and would be summarized for review at the April 15 UCAP meeting.

Professor Estry stated and he and Dean Klomparens had provided the Academic Council with substantial edits to the bylaws for the policy committees on graduate studies and undergraduate studies. He noted that amendments to the proposed bylaws would be discussed at the April 28 meeting of the Academic Council.

Request for a New Minor in Horticulture
Eunice Foster, Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Bridget Behe, Professor, Department of Horticulture

The committee granted voice to Drs. Foster and Behe.

Dr. Behe stated that the faculty of the horticulture department support for the addition of a new minor in horticulture was unanimous. Dr. Behe stated that students in other majors had been creating a program from electives in horticulture to complement their educational goals. When the establishment of minors became a possibility, the horticulture faculty had begun work on creating the new minor program to provide transcriptable verification of student mastery of aspects of horticulture.

The committee’s discussion centered on the reasons a request for a new program had been made in light of all the organizational changes and moratoriums underway in the College of Ag and Natural Resources. Associate Dean Foster responded that all moratoriums forwarded by the College of Ag and Natural Resources had been based on low enrollment.

The motion made by Professor Saaed passed unanimously.
      The University Committee on Academic Policy endorses the request for a new minor in Horticulture.

Request for a Moratorium on Admission to the Bachelor of Science Degree in Lyman Briggs College, Entomology Coordinate Major.

The motion by Professor Bice passed unanimously.
      The University Committee on Academic Policy recognizing that the Lyman Briggs College major in Entomology is coordinate with the Entomology major in the Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture and National Resources and that the determination by the Provost equally impacts both majors, UCAP, in its consultative capacity to the Provost, has no additional concerns beyond those expressed in its March 18, 2010 communication regarding the request for moratorium on admission to the Bachelor of Science Degree in Entomology.


Request for a Moratorium on Admission to the Bachelor of Science Degree in Lyman Briggs College, Physics and Geophysics Coordinate Major.
The motion by Professor Helton passed unanimously.
      Recognizing that the Lyman Briggs College major in Physics and Geophysics is coordinate with the Physics and Geophysics major in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Natural Science, and that the determination by the Provost equally impacts both majors, UCAP, in its consultative capacity to the Provost, has no additional concerns beyond those expressed in its March 18, 2010 communication regarding the request for moratorium on admission to the Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics and Geophysics.


Request for an Extension to a Moratorium on Admission to the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communicative Sciences and Disorders
Professor Crimp noted the College of Communication Arts and Sciences was requesting an extension on the moratorium in the admission to the Communicative Sciences and Disorders program to the summer of 2015 in order to make sure all enrolled students would be able to complete their degrees.
The motion by Professor Chivukula passed unanimously.
      The University Committee on Academic Policy, in its consultative capacity to the Provost, recommends approval of the extension.

Request for an Extension to a Moratorium on Admission to the Bachelor of Science Degree in Retailing

The motion by Professor Chivukula passed unanimously.
      The University Committee on Academic Policy, in its consultative capacity to the Provost, recommends approval of the extension.

SIRS Subcommittee Report
Professor Chivukula reported that the subcommittee is on track to have ten or more courses participating in the online SIRS pilot program. He reviewed the goals of the pilot project with the committee. In committee discussion opposition to and support for enforced online SIRS participation were expressed. Dr. Chivukula reminded the committee that student evaluation of instruction was mandated. The pilot project was created to see if faculty concerns about low participation rate and inability to customize SIRS forms to be more useful to instructors and departments could be addressed. There is general interest in finding a method of delivery and evaluation of teaching that could provide some cost savings in human and physical resources.

Roundtable
Associate Provost Estry encouraged committee members to ask their colleagues to encourage students to participate and celebrate responsibly on this “final four” weekend.

Ms. Ezzo reported the Athletic Council Compliance Subcommittee would be reviewing the exit surveys given to student athletes in order to suggest ways to reduce the number of survey questions asked.

Professor Helton announced that Nathaniel Peake, an alumnus of the Michigan State University music program had been selected as one of five winners of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 National Council Auditions.

It was also noted that the MSU debate team had won the 60th annual National Debate tournament.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by
Sandra Walther