Attending Voting Members: Promila Dhar (BME), David Gidalevitz (PHYS), Erin Hazard (HUM), Steve Kleps (CAEE), Eva Kultermann (ARCH), Nicole Legate (PSYC), Yuting Lin (BIOL), Yuri Mansury (SSCI), David Maslanka (AMAT), Erdal Oruklu (ECE), Victor Perez-Luna (CHBE), Ray Trygstad (ITM/Secretary), John Twombly (SSB), Murat Vural (MMAE), Ben Zion (CHEM), Fred Weening (Chair)

Also Attending: Daniel Bliss (SSCI), Jennifer deWinter (LCHS), Diane Fifles (University Accred), Joseph Gorzkowski (AA), Kyle Hawkins (AMP), Khalilah Guyton-Hamlin (Registrar), Mary Haynes (UGAA), Pam Houser (INTM), Melanie Jones (Armour Academy), Sang Baum Kang (SSB), Christopher Lee (Registrar), Tracey McGee (ELS), Abby McGrath (Enrollment Services), Nick Menhart (DVP Accreditation), Jamshid Mohammadi (GSC), Kathleen Nagle (ARCH), Nichole Novak (Libraries), Joseph Orgel (VPAA), Georgia Papavasiliou (Armour), Ayesha Qamer (Registrar), Hannah Ringler (CAC), Zipporah Robinson (Academic Success), Gabrielle Smith (AA), Katie Spink (BIOL/Past Chair), Mary Jorgenson Sullivan (ELS), Liad Wagman (SSB/CSL), Jeff Wereszczynski (PHYS/BIOL)

1. Approval of minutes from 1/16/2024 meeting.

   The motion by Eva Kultermann to approve the 1/16/2024 minutes was seconded by Yuri Mansuri and was passed by unanimous consent.

2. Updates from Academic Affairs.
   Joseph Orgel’s remarks in summary:
   The number of students in both the undergraduate and graduate population who are in probation as of now, for undergraduates, is at a historic high, but only by half a percent. But we as an institution have done a really good job of lowering the number of students in probationary status. Probationary status is a status that we use to help students graduate—it's not a status to help them feel bad about themselves. Probation is a status a student enters when they have a sizable risk of not graduating at all or on time. We have updates and tweaks to the early warning, eEarly intervention system. We would like you, please, to continue to make use of that system. It is a communication plan between instructors who see things occurring or not occurring in the classroom, to enable that communication to go to the advisors of the students, and to those people who are shepherds of cohorts, those responsible for cohort support. We also have trained staff who go through all of the comments every week in case there's a pattern that would benefit from a more timely follow up from from someone else which could be anything from the student keeps talking about having struggles financially—can we please please give them a priority appointment with financial aid and have somebody reach out to them. These are the kind of interventions that we're able to do.

   We saw an uptick in academic honesty reports right at the close of semester. If the message could be transmitted for academic honesty concerns to be reported during the semester rather than waiting until the end of semester in our experience, once a student made the decision to not be representative of where their skills are that tends to snowball for the semester, and they end up with a worse situation than it would have been if we had gotten to them earlier. Also the workflow is smoother for everyone that way as well. We have clarified some things on our websites relating to academic honesty that were not clear in previous publications, so hopefully everyone will find that easier to use. Thank you.

   Ray Trygstad asked which pages specifically have been updated and Joseph replied that it was the he academic honesty, summary and work flow on the academic affairs side.

3. Informational item: Changing the prefix of MATH 225 to STAT 225 was discussed by David Maslanka.
   It was noted that while some statistics courses would be cross-listed as mathematics courses, this would not be the case for MATH 225 as that course would no longer exist after being renumbered as STAT 225. The renumbering of this course is intended to increase the visibility of the for students course as an option to meet a statistics requirement.

   A discussion followed regarding the possible impact of changing course prefixes on program accreditation, but those familiar with the process for both engineering and computing programs indicated that this would not be an issue as program evaluators are only concerned that the role of the course in the program be presented clearly. Further discussion examined the entire issue of course prefixes and it was suggested that perhaps the university needs a policy on course prefixes. UGSC Chair Fred Weening asked for those who would be interested in examining this need to please send him an email indicating their willingness to serve on a subcommittee for this purpose.

4. New program: Bachelor of Science in Public Policy program was presented by Daniel Bliss.
   This is an update to a new program which was previously passed at UGSC, but never completed the entire CIM process. Public Policy will have 32 required credits and is intentionally designed with a great deal of flexibility. Students can select a specialization or assemble one à la carte. It is intended to be a basis for dual degrees. It serves a traditional block of careers you would look at from the social sciences, things like pre-law and business and government and consulting, but also has the ability to add to a technical qualification within areas such as architecture or engineering.

   Joseph Orgel asked if this would this be something that aligns with the intent of the undergraduate incubator, and Daniel Bliss replied that they would certainly be open to using the undergraduate incubator, if that would help speed the launch of the program. Joseph expressed that it would be something that the admissions personnel would immediately recognize, branded as tech plus, which is kind of is a free way of getting their enthusiasm. But also it's intrinsically a marketable degree that would fit well with our cyber security opportunities, and using the incubator might bring it to market much quicker.

   Diane Fifles asked if this would affect the assessment plan previously submitted, and Daniel responded that there's a fresh assessment plan with this which should be a lot easier to administer than what had been submitted previously.

   This was a first reading and this prgram be considered again at the next Undergraduate Studies Committee meeting.

5. Moving existing degree programs into the Interdisciplinary Framework presented by Nick Menhart.
   This is a framework for having programs administered in between units as we move into more interdisciplinary programs. These are existing programs effectively offered jointly by two departments that are currently housed in one department. There will be a steering committee with members from each department. All departments concerned have voted in favor of moving these degrees into the Iinterdisciplinary framework. We have never transitioned an existing program into this framework. Because there are no programs changes this may not be a significant change. The programs involved include:

   • Biochemistry (BCHM), currently in the Biology Department
   • Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics (MBB), currently in the Biology Department
   • Computational Chemistry and Biochemistry (CCB), currently in the Chemistry Department

   A motion to approve moving these programs into the Interdisciplinary Framework was made by Yu Ting and seconded by Ben Zion.
   The motion passed on a vote of 14 - 0.

6. Courses proposed for Core Curriculum letter designations were presented by Erin Hazard.
   This was a report from the appropriate Core Curriculum Subject Subcommittees. These courses are:

   • COM 353 Media & Globalization for (C) and (H) designations.
   • PHIL 382 Bioethics for (H) designation.

   Nick Menhart asked if there was a specific description of how these courses have met the Core Curriculum learning objectives, and Erin Hazard replied that there was an sound process in place and she would send a memo to the UGSC to document that process.

   Because this was a report from a committee no motion was necessary, and the proposed course designations were approved by a vote of 13-0.

As there was no further business, Ray Trygstad moved to adjourn, Eva Kultermann seconded, and the Chair adjourned the meeting at 1:35 pm.