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agenda status: approved

Agenda:

1. Approval of the Agenda (Action Item)
   
   
   
   
2. Approval of the November 3, 2011 UCUS Minutes (Action Item)
   
   
   
   
3. Comments from the Chairperson
   
   
   
   
4. Comments from the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education
   
   
   
   
5. Request for a Moratorium on Admission to the BS Degree in Child Development (Action Item)
   Karen Mills, Sr. Specialist-Advisor, Department of Human Development & Family Studies .........(Attachment)
   
   
   
   
6. Proposal to Combine the Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences and Plant Pathology into a New Department (Action Item) .........(Attachment)
   Richard Brandenburg, Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
   Raymond Hammerschmidt, Chairperson Department of Plant Pathology
   James Kells, Chairperson, department of Crop and Soil Sciences
   
   
   
   
7. Roundtable

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minutes status: approved

approved at meeting of 12/01/2011

UCAP Minutes for meeting held on 11/17/2011

Attendees: Zarena Aslami, Mark Axelrod, Henry Beckmeyer, Jan Brady, Crystal Branta, Laura Dillon, Doug Estry, Fred Fico, Milan Griffes, Kathleen Hoag, Seung Hyun Kim, Chris McClain, Nicole McCleese, John Reifenberg, Patricia Rogers, Ashton Shortridge, Ryan Sweeder, Abraham Wheeler
Absent: Victor Draine, Evan Martinak, Tom Morse, Mary Noel, Justin O’Dell, Helene Pazak, Ron Perry

The Agenda was approved.

The November 3, 2011 minutes were approved.

Comments from the Chairperson
Chairperson Dillon reported that a proposal to change undergraduate dual enrollment policy and the taskforce on ad hoc assessment recommendations would be distributed later in the day and would be considered at the December 1, UCUS meeting.

Dr. Dillon mentioned that the Medical College was experimenting with electronic textbooks in its undergraduate courses. This requires the institution to take on the costs instead of the students. Students would have access to the book content during the time they were enrolled.
Professor Dillon suggested that committee members might be interested in the CIC addendum developed to help protect author’s rights. This information can be found at http://www.cic.net/authors

Comments from the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education
No comments were made by the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education.

Request for a Moratorium on Admission to the BS Degree in Child Development
Karen Mills, Sr. Specialist-Advisor, Department of Human Development & Family Studies

The committee unanimously granted voice to Ms. Mills.

Ms. Mills stated that the Bachelor of Science Degree in Child Development no longer met the State of Michigan requirements for early childhood education, an elementary teaching endorsement. A new early childhood education program that meets the new State requirements has been implemented. Students with 56 credits and over had been advised to choose courses appropriate for the new degree requirements and students with 55 degrees or less have been moved to the new degree program. The request for a moratorium would end new enrollment in the old degree program. Students who were enrolled in the program containing the old State requirements should complete their degrees in 2012 and the last licensing test using the old requirements would be given in October 2012.
The committee questioned the moratorium end date of summer 2012 being so close to the moratorium start date in spring 2012, citing that degrees would not be able to be conferred after that point. Ms. Mills responded that students in the old program were on track to complete their degrees in spring 2012. Even if there were a few stragglers, all degrees should be completed by the end of summer session 2012.

Voice was withdrawn from Ms. Mills.

Motion by Ryan Sweeder was unanimously approved.

The University Committee on Undergraduate Studies, in its consultative capacity to the Provost, has no concerns about the request for a moratorium on admission to the BS degree in Child Development. The committee asks that the UCC review the beginning and ending dates of the moratorium to insure current students would not be disadvantaged.*

*NOTE: UCC liaison’s, Joy Speas, response to the UCUS request for UCC review was that the significance of the end date of the moratorium is that upon being reached, the unit may pursue a program discontinuation. It is the end date of the program discontinuation that removed the possibility of graduating in a particular major; therefore the end date of the moratorium would not disadvantage students in this regard.

Proposal to Combine the Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences and Plant Pathology into a New Department
Richard Brandenburg, Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Raymond Hammerschmidt, Chairperson Department of Plant Pathology
James Kells, Chairperson, department of Crop and Soil Sciences

The committee unanimously granted voice to Associate Dean Brandenburg, and Chairpersons Hammerschmidt and Kells.

Associate Dean Brandenburg and Chairpersons Hammerschmidt and Kells indicated that the impetus for combining departments in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources began under the leadership of the prior dean. A college taskforce appointed to review the department structures and recommend areas that could be combined suggested the merger of the two departments. The decision to move forward with the merger of the two departments was voluntary and supported by the faculty of each department. Faculty felt the merger would strengthen undergraduate and graduate education, extension outreach, and both disciplinary areas. There was no expectation of any changes in course offerings, instructors, or graduate programs. The newly merged department is planning new hires to strengthen the unit.

Responding to questions from the committee, the CANR representatives stated that the two departments had long standing collaborations and similar department cultures. Finding common goals was not a problem and they thought the multi-disciplinarily would enhance the unit’s ability to receive larger funding awards from the State of Michigan. The infrastructure of the new department would require the same amount of support, staff in duplicative positions would be reassigned new duties within the unit. They stated that a name for the new department had not been selected but was under discussion. The CANR representatives stated that in the process of considering the merger of the departments, a survey was made of departmental structures at other universities and the structure proposed by CANR was not extraordinary.

Voice was withdrawn from Associate Dean Brandenburg, and Chairpersons Hammerschmidt and Kells.
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Motion by Kathleen Hoag was passed unanimously.

The University Committee on Undergraduate Studies, in its consultative capacity to the Provost, has no concerns about the Proposal to Combine the Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences and Plant Pathology into a new department.

Roundtable
Professor Fico reported that President Simon had rejected three of the core recommendations made by the taskforce that reviewed the procedures for implementing the MSU Anti-Discrimination Policy.

Professor Hoag suggested the committee consider reviewing the policy on auditing/visiting classes to clarify the goal of the policy and determine if the current policy language assisted in meeting the goal.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by
Sandra Walther

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