Undergraduate Studies Committee
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
12:45 p.m. WH 117
Meeting Minutes
Attending Voting Members: F. Weening (AMAT), K. Spink (BIOL), P. Troyk (BME), R. Guan (CHEM), C. Hood (CS), E. Oruklu (ECE), E. Hazard (HUM), C. Wark (MMAE), D. Gidalevitz (PHYS), J. Miller (PSYC), C. Adams (ROTC), R. Trygstad (SAT), S. Blanchard (SGA), P. Ireland (SSCI)
Also attending: B. Katz (Digital Learning), M. Lopez (Academic Affairs), Yi Han for N. Novak (GL), G. Smith (UGAA), C. Torres (CoA), C. Emmons (Assessment)
Departments with absent voting members: ARCH, CHBE, SSB
Documents for this meeting are available at: <http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/2018-2019/>
Meeting chaired by Greg Pulliam
Minutes recorded by Fred Weening
Quorum declared at: 12:46 pm
Adjourn at: 1:06 pm
1. Approval of the minutes for October 8, 2019.
The approval of the minutes passed unanimously.
New Business
2. Information item: minor changes to BS in Aerospace Engineering and BS in Materials Science and Engineering (C. Wark).
C. Wark described the following changes by the MMAE department and explained that the changes were made to increase to number of free electives credits for students in these programs.
• Aerospace Engineering: The 1 technical elective in the BS Aerospace engineering program is now a free elective. The Aerospace Engineering program now has 2 free electives instead of 1 free and 1 technical.
• Materials Science and Engineering: One of the three technical electives is converted to a free elective. The MSE program now has 2 free electives, 2 technical electives and 1 engineering elective instead of 1 free, 3 technical and 1 engineering.
A short discussed followed.
3. Information item: minor change to B.S. in Psychology (Miller).
J. Miller indicated that the Math course requirement for students in the Behavioral Health and Wellness program will be changed from “4 credit hours at the level of Math 119 or above” to “3 credit hours at the level of Math 122 or above.” This change was made because the 4 credit hour course Math 119 (Geometry for Architects) is intended for students majoring in Architecture, while the 3 credit hour course Math 122 (Introduction to Calculus) is intended for a general (non-technical) audience. This change will also cause the addition of one credit hour of free electives to the program.
It was also noted that the course PSYC 203 (Undergraduate Statistics for the Behavioral Science) is a requirement of this program and that this along with the 3-credit math course will satisfy the common core math requirements.
4. Information item: minor changes to programs in Physics, Applied Physics and Astrophysics (Gidalevitz).
D. Gidalevitz indicated that the 3 credit-hour course PHYS 348 (Modern Physics for Scientist and Engineers) is being removed as a requirement for Physics programs. He explained that the material in this course is mostly covered in other required courses required of Physics majors, and that the PHYS 348 course is creating a bottleneck for students in the program. The 3 credit hours freed by removing this required course are being changed into free electives.
5. Catalog Errors (Spink)
K. Spink indicated that, in preparation for advising students this semester, she noticed the omission the “H”, “C”, or “S” common core designation for many courses in the current bulletin. For instance, ECON 152 is not identified as an “S” class. She recommends that all departments check their courses to see if there are any omissions of common core designations. If errors are found the departments will most likely need to use the CIM program management software to make corrections.
6. Core Curriculum Issues (Pulliam)
G. Pulliam reported that he and K. Spink recently met with the Provost in regards to the core curriculum. The Provost indicated that he wants regular and frequent assessment of the core curriculum learning objectives. The assessment, in order to meet the HLC requirements, should take the form of an “exam” administered to advanced undergraduates resulting in data that can be analyzed to see if the core curriculum learning objectives are being met. The plan is to administer such an assessment in the IPRO courses as these courses should contain the required student population.
In the near future there will need to be subcommittee meetings for each of the areas of the core curriculum. The learning objectives need to be formally established and assessment instruments need to be created.
G. Pulliam indicated that he has a meeting on October 24 which should clarify what needs to be done in the short-term. After that meeting he will e-mail subcommittee chairs with more specific directions.
Other Business
K. Spink inquired if anyone was aware of the schedule for the upcoming class registration dates.
Some members of the committee said they believed that the first date will be Monday November 4 and follow the normal pattern thereafter.