Undergraduate Studies Committee
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
12:45 p.m. WH 117
Meeting Minutes
Attending Voting Members: F. Weening (AMAT), K. Spink (BIOL), P. Troyk (BME), S.H. Hong (CHBE), R. Guan (CHEM), M Bauer for C. Hood (CS), E. Hazard (HUM), C. Wark (MMAE), P. Snopok for D. Gidalevitz (PHYS), A. Haedt-Matt for J. Miller (PSYC), C. Adams (ROTC), J. Hajek for R. Trygstad (SAT), J. Twombly (SSB), K. Berthold (SGA)
Also attending: B. Katz (Digital Learning), M. Lopez (Academic Affairs), N. Novak (GL), G. Smith (UGAA), C. Torres (CoA), C. Emmons (Assessment), S. Glover (Registrar's Office), B. Burton-Freeman (Food Science and Nutrition)
Departments with absent voting members: ARCH, CAEE, ECE, SSCI
Documents for this meeting are available at: <http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/2019-2020/>
Meeting chaired by Greg Pulliam
Minutes recorded by Fred Weening
Quorum declared at: 12:47 pm
Adjourn at: 1:15 pm
1. Approval of the minutes for September 10, 2019.
The approval of the minutes passed unanimously (13-0).
New Business
2. Information item: new minor in Manufacturing Engineering (Wark).
C. Wark described the requirements of a new minor in Manufacturing Engineering as part of the offerings from the MMAE department. A discussion followed with some concerns and questions:
· The minor will require students to take several courses at the 500 level.
· The minor will primarily be completed by students within the MMAE department --- should this instead be offered as a specialization?
C. Wark addressed these concerns: there is precedent for minors requiring 500 level classes, Civil Engineering students would also be in a position to complete this minor, the MMAE department wants to offer this as a minor not as a specialization.
3. Information item: BIOL 105, 107, 114, 115 (Spink)
K. Spink remarked that the Biology department has noticed an increase in the number of non-majors taking the Biology sequence courses designed for majors (BIOL 107, 115) instead of the sequence courses designed for non-majors (BIOL 105, 114). Many of these students struggle in the classes, and would better be served by the courses designed for non-majors. A discussion followed: There are various reasons why non-major students take the course designed for majors including
▪ some take these courses by choice,
▪ some are advised to take these courses,
▪ some take these due to scheduling issues.
The Biology department does not want to place restrictions on enrollment in the courses designed for majors since there are many non-major students who will need to take the major-courses (for example pre-med students). They do want advisors and students to be aware of the intended audiences of the four courses under discussion. The distinction is spelled out in detail in the bulletin.
4. Final 2019 Exam Schedule (Spink, Registrar's office)
K. Spink inquired on how the registrar's office is doing as far as dealing with the problems that have arisen in this semester's final exam schedule. S. Glover responded for the registrar's office since she is in charge of creating the exam schedule. She is hopeful that by this Friday all of the problems will be addressed. She also indicated that since Aubrey Hall left the university in July, the registrar's office has been short-staffed and sometimes the staff needs to learn how to perform tasks that Aubrey had previously done. A discussion followed regarding how the final exam schedule is currently created. S. Glover indicated that she is open to changing the process and that she welcomes suggestions.
5. Change of Major online form issues (Spink, Smith/Gorzkowski)
K. Spink indicated that she recently discovered that the paper Change of Major form has been replaced with an on-line form. She asked that UGAA explain how the on-line form process works. G. Smith from UGAA explained that the change was made as part of the goal of going completely paperless. Over the summer each department designated an on-point person to respond to change of major requests. Students can access the change of major form from the services section of the UGAA web-page; upon clicking the link a google docs form appears which students fill out and submit. At this point a google docs workflow is created and an e-mail is sent to the appropriate department's on-point person. If the change of major is approved, the department assigns a new academic advisor to the student, and contacts the student with the information.
Other Business
G. Pulliam made one announcement: If departments want to get new programs or courses approved for the 2020-2021 academic year, the latest the material can be submitted to the UGSC is in time for initial discussion at the first meeting of the UGSC in February.