Minutes of the Undergraduate Studies Committee
11/22/2016

Attending Voting Members: G. Pulliam (HUM/CAC), J. Twombly (SSB), S. Hong (CHBE), C. Hood (CS), X. Guan (CHEM), N. Menhart (BIO), M. Safar (INTM), R. Steffenson (SSCI), P. Snopok (PHYS), G. Popovic (MSED), J.Hajek (ITM), P. Troyk (BME), A. Raina (SGA), R. Ellis (AMAT), T. Brasek (ROTC)

Also attending: N. Novak (Galvin Library J. Gorzkowski; (UGAA), A. Hall (Registrar), C. Emmons (Assessment), M. Lopez (OneStop), J. Chong (CHEM), R. Betts (COS), V. Foster (Compliance)

Departments with absent voting members: PSYC, COA, MMAE, CAAE, ECE

Quorum declared at 12:46

Adjourn at: 13:30

Documents for this meeting are available at:

http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/

Meeting chaired by Ray Trygstad.

Minutes recorded by Rebecca Steffenson.

1. Minutes of the 11/08/16 Meeting [Trygstad]

(http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/11-8-2016minutes.html)

Minutes approved unanimously.

2. Proposed changes to criteria for graduating with honors [Trygstad]

• Proposal 1: make no change to the existing statement; requires no action or motion

• Proposal 2: remove the word “graded” from the current statement

• Proposal 3: For purposes of Honors or High Honors designation, PASS/FAIL courses are considered graded courses. However, if the student has elected PASS/FAIL grading, a lower bound on GPA will be calculated utilizing the lowest letter grade qualifying as PASS for those courses, and this lower bound on GPA will be used to determine eligibility for honors designations. If the course is only offered as PASS/FAIL (i.e. not student elected) it will not be included in this minimum bound calculation. [N. Menhart – Biology]

Discussion focused on the merits of allowing a transfer student to gain the honors distinction with only 51 graded hours. A motion to vote on proposal 1 was called and seconded. Proposal 1 passed with 15 favourable votes.

G. Pulliam offered a new proposal to be discussed on 1/24/17.

Proposal: To be eligible for the high honors designation at graduation, undergraduate students must have completed at least 100 hours at IIT.

The existing policy can be found here: http://bulletin.iit.edu/undergraduate/academic-policies-procedures/graduation/graduation-with-honors/

3. B.S. in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics (MBB) Co-Terminal degree with the M.S. in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics [N. Menhart – Biology]

http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/Form%20802%20sections%20BSMS%20MBB.pdf

http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/MBB%20BS%20MS%20coterminal%20v2.4.pdf

Motion to approve this co-terminal degree passed unanimously.

4. Proposed new Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry [B. Mandal – Chemistry]

BS in Bioanalytical Chemistry

BS in Environmental Chemistry

BS in Forensic Chemistry

BS in Medicinal Chemistry

BS in Computational Chemistry and Biochemistry

http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/Proposal%20for%20NEW%20BS%20Degree%20Program_IIT%20Chemistry%20Dept_Nov%202%202016.pdf

Multiple departments raised concerns about the computational chemistry degree and asked for more coordination with CS, Math and ITM. Motion to vote on other 4 degrees and defer vote for the computational degree passed. The following degrees were approved unanimously: BS in Bioanalytical Chemistry, BS in Environmental Chemistry, BS in Forensic Chemistry, BS in Medicinal Chemistry. The BS in Computational Chemistry and Biochemistry was sent back for further review.

5. Volunteers for UFC Co-Terminal Degrees Sub-Committee [Trgystad]

Nick Menhart, John Twombly and Ray Trgystad will represent UGSC on this UFC subcommittee.

6. Happy Holidays- next UGSC meeting will be January 24, 2017