Undergraduate Studies Committee                          11/8/11

Attending Voting Members: S. Tin (MMAE), K. Spink (BIOL), J. Ovhori (SGA), R. Trygstad (ITM), G. Fasshauer (AM), S. Whitney (MSED), Y. Torun (PHYS), J. Hopkins (PSYC), U. Segerstrale (SScI), G. Pulliam (HUM), S. Sennott (ARCH), M. Safar (INTM), J. Saniie (ECE), D. Kamper (BME)

Also attending: J. Dorr (Galvin), M. Lopez (UGAA), G. Smith (UGAA), G. Welter (UGAA), P. Zachocki (Registrar), B.J. Engelhardt (Vice-Provost's office), K. Cassel (MMAE).

The meeting is chaired by Matt Bauer.

Chair notes there is a quorum at 12:46 p.m. Meeting is convened.

Adjourn: 1:41 p.m. Minutes recorded by Pulliam

1) The minutes of the 10/25/2011 meeting are approved unanimously, with one addition to the list of attending voting members.

Old Business

2) Changes to the Political Science degree program are unanimously approved. This will be sent to the UFC as informational item. These changes are detailed in two PoliSci-named files in the documents folder.

--Announcement from M. Lopez that Undergraduate and Graduate Bulletins will be out for pre-publication review in mid-November.--

3) New course MATH 130 is unanimously approved for General Education credit without restrictions. If a particular department wants to restrict the course to be used as a math gen ed or free elec they should contact the AMAT dept. A syllabus for this class is available in the documents folder.

4) The UGSC IPRO review subcommittee members are named via unanimous consent. They are: Nick Menhart, Mark Snyder, Francisco Ruiz, Steve Stanard, Jim Braband, Bob Krawczyck.

5) Update on and revision of the General Education committee's process and goals statement:

General Education Subcommittee Update

UGSC Meeting 11/8/2011

Process for our committee (with UG Studies Committee reports at each step to ensure support).

1) Research other schools, review current gen ed, get feedback on current state from faculty.

2) Define institutional educational objectives that distinctly define the IIT graduate.

3) Define the general education objectives needed to support the institutional educational objectives.

4) Define general education outcomes and rubrics used to measure student acheivement of general education objectives.

5) Define the general education requirements needed to support the general education outcomes.

Here is a recap of step 1 notes.

- Communication skills are still a problem. (review com101/111 placement), required com course?

- esl assessment, courses at no cost, check other schools

- Try to inspire students to take an increased interest in the humanities and social science component of the general education by allowing students to concentrate (minor) in an area and recognized on diploma. This may require more flexibility in the humanities and social science component.

- general education is not just for first 2 years and should be less prescriptive

- general education objectives should also be supported in a student's major classes

- all degrees should include a minimum number of free elecs

- restate the importance of common goals of ITP

- Innovation in education - students should be exposed to different teaching and learning styles.

- critical thinking is an important skill we are missing currently

- how to inspire life long learning?

- many other schools gen ed are driven by themes developed from university mission

- some other schools gen ed are more complex than our current requirements

- make sure ABET is considered

- Impact of allowing satisfactory/unsatisfactory a course to allow students to try things without GPA risk

Appendix: reviewed the following IIT materials

- Vision, Mission, Values and Core Principles

http://iit.edu/mvov/strategic_plan/vision_mission_values.shtml

- Strategic Priorities

http://iit.edu/mvov/strategic_plan/strategic_priorities.shtml

- NCA Report 2006 - Criterion Three: Teaching and Learning

www.iit.edu/nca/pdfs/WEB_Criterion_3.pdf

- 2006 NCA Final Evaluation Team Report

http://www.iit.edu/nca/team_report.html

- 2009 Distinctively Define the IIT Graduate committee

- 2009 General Education committee

- current ABET gened docs

6) Other items postponed until 11/22 meeting.

7) Adjournment