Minutes

Undergraduate Studies Committee

Meeting of February 18, 2004

Present: John Courtright, Louis Hirsh, Amy Johnson, Thomas Leitch, Mary Jo Mankin, David Marshall, James Morrison, Charles Pavitt.

The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. The Committee waived a reading of the minutes from the preceding meeting and began by discussing and approving 5-0-0 a proposal to revise and reorganize the concentrations in the Major in Political Science. Concerned lest proposed revisions to the B.A. and the Minor in Psychology effectively prevent non-majors and non-minors from upper-level courses in the department, the Committee agreed to hold over these two proposals pending a visit from a spokesperson from Psychology who could address these concerns. Noting that the proposal to create a new Sociology concentration in Emergency and Environmental Management included three courses—SOCI 321 (Issues in Emergency Management), SOCI 423 (Sociology of Risk), and SOCI 426 (Practicum in Emergency and Environmental Management)—listed neither in the catalog nor in the current challenge list, the Committee agreed to return the proposal to Sociology for revision and resubmission. In the last two items of Old Business, the Committee approved by identical 7-0-0 votes proposed revisions to the Human Services Concentration in the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy’s program in Family and Community Services and proposed revisions to the B.S. in Physics.

The one item of New Business was a review of all new or revised undergraduate courses on the current challenge list. The Committee considered a small number of challenges which had been posted on the Web and a larger number from the Committee’s own membership and made the following changes and suggestions:

ENGL 303 (Scriptwriting) is approved under the title Playwriting.

HIST 392 (Buddhism and Politics in Asia) is not approved for multicultural credit.

HIST 393 (History of Modern Vietnam) is approved for multicultural credit.

MUSC 103 (Introduction to Italian Opera) shall clarify or omit references to prerequisites from its discursive justification.

POSC 401 (Topics in Constitutional Law) shall clarify or omit references to cross-listing with WOMS courses.

PSYC 420 (Mental Illness: Historical and Critical Perspectives) shall resolve the ambiguity over whether it does or does not fulfill the Second Writing Requirement.

SOCI 407 (Sociology of Sex and Gender) is not approved for multicultural credit.

CNST 311 (Topics in Resource Management) is approved under the title Topics in Consumer Resource Management.

In addition, the Committee adopted with minor changes a memorandum from Professor Michael Arenson suggesting changes to the proposed titles of most of the Private Study courses in Music with the understanding that these changes be forwarded to the Department of Music.

After agreeing to meet in the first-floor conference room in Elliott Hall from 1:30 to 3:30 Wednesday, March 3, the Committee adjourned at 10:50 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Thomas Leitch