ILLINOIS TECH UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES COMMITTEE

Meeting Minutes

Tuesday December 9, 2025

12:45pm

Online via Zoom

(pdf version available here)

Attending Voting Members: Murat Vural (MMAE), Promila Dhar (BME), Erin Hazard (HASS), Fred Weening (AMAT), John Twombly (SSB), Jeremy Hajek (ITM), Kindon Mills (ARCH), Emily Leiner (PHYS), Jade Hutchinson (SGA), Matthew Bauer (CS), Stephen Kleps (CAEE)

Chairing Meeting: Kathir Krishnamurthy

Also Attending: Taylor Rojas (UGAA), Todd Diel (FDSN), Mary Haynes (UGAA), Zipporah Robinson (Academic Success), Daniel Bliss (HASS), Cynthia Torres (Academic Affairs), Gabriel Martinez (Armour Academy), Yasmin Rodriguez-Escutia (Armour Acad Advisor), Ellisa Cole (ELS), Nick Menhart (VP Assessment and Accreditation), Melisa Lopez (Student Success & Retention), Jennifer deWinter (LCS), Abby McGrath (Enrollment Services), Michael Arnaudo (Armour Acad Advisor), Kyle Hawkins (AMP), Kevin Cassel (VP Acad Affairs), Tracey McGee (ELS), Melanie Jones (Armour Acad Advisor), Elizabeth Johnson (ELS), Keigo Kawaji (Armour), Keith Alexander (UGAA), Nicole Novak (Libraries), Mary Jorgenson Sullivan (ELS), Keith Green (HASS), Diane Fifles (Univ Accred), Ayesha Qamer (Registrar), Carrie Hall (Armour), Rich Klein (SSB), Gabrielle Smith (UGAA), Kathy Nagle (ARCH)

Quorum was reached and the meeting was started at 12:48pm

Approval of the proposed meeting agenda. Kathir Krishnamurthy shared the proposed agenda. He indicated that there were two small changes made since the agenda was first distributed (re-ordering of some items, and adding an item welcoming new members). Matt Bauer moved to accept the agenda and this was seconded by Jeremy Hajek. Kathir asked if there were any additional items or other changes to be made; there were none. The motion passed without objection or abstention.

Approval of Meeting minutes. The minutes for the UGSC meeting on November 25, 2025 had previously been made available on the UGSC website. Kindon Mills moved to approve the minutes and this was seconded by Matt Bauer. The motion passed without objection or abstention.

The next item was welcoming new members.

Kathir mentioned that SGA has selected Jade Hutchinson to be their student representative on UGSC for this academic year. Kathir welcomed Jade to the committee.
Kathir indicated that the Humanities department and the Social Sciences department combined recently to form the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences department (HASS). As a result, the two representatives Erin Hazard (HUM) and Patrick Ireland (SSCI) need to be replaced by a single representative from HASS. Patrick volunteered to withdraw from being a UGSC member and Erin will represent HASS. Kathir thanked Patrick for his years of service to UGSC as the representative from SSCI, and welcomed Erin as the HASS representative.

The next item was the second reading of the proposals to eliminate three co-terminal pairing degrees:

Kathir asked Todd Diel if there was anything that he wanted to add regarding the proposals since the last meeting. Todd indicated that nothing had changed with the proposals. Matt Bauer moved to accept the proposal, and Jeremy Hajek seconded the motion. The motions carried without any objection or abstention.

The next item was the third reading of the pilot framework proposal. At the last UGSC meeting it was decided to table the discussion and not vote until this special meeting.

Kathir asked Nick Menhart if there was anything additional that he wanted to add to the discussion that we had been having. Nick indicated that there were no changes to the proposal since the last meeting. He wanted to emphasize that the vote was on providing an accommodation for the students taking the courses under discussion, so that they receive some credit toward fulfilling the core curriculum. The vote is not on the courses themselves; any academic unit can create courses and there is no approval required from UGSC.

Erin Hazard asked for some clarification on what the learning objectives for the Com 100 and Com 200 courses will be: Are they the existing COM LO’s together with course specific LO’s? Or are they just course specific LO’s for these classes?

Jennifer de Winter said she could answer that question: The courses are designed to meet the currently approved COM LO’s as well as the course specific LO’s listed in the proposal. If successful, these additional course specific LO’s may become future proposed COM LO’s.

Nick added that we should view these courses as a test. Rather than just adding some new LO’s, we are trying to get some data on seeing whether these courses can meet some new LO’s. These courses will also test other things such as financial feasibility, and student and faculty satisfaction with the courses.

Kindon Mills asked about the scalability of these courses. Nick indicated that in the first semester of the pilot the focus is on the course itself; and then incorporating feedback from this, the second semester will focus more on scaling the course.

Keith Green introduced himself as the associate chair of HASS. He indicated that he will be heading up a committee of the whole department to follow the courses in the spring. He will be meeting with the course instructors next week to go over the LO’s of the course. There will be meetings in January and February to discuss how the course is going. Separately, he also has been collecting feedback in recent years from students over what they would like to be taught that isn’t currently being taught, and will do so in a more formal manner in the spring. He expects that he will have a report on these courses hopefully before the end of the spring semester.

Daniel Bliss, speaking in his role as chair of the faculty senate, gave his opinion that pilot programs should be given some benefit of the doubt in terms of learning objectives. He also wanted to point out that there is some urgency in that the university’s finances are casting doubt on whether our institution is going to be viable through the 2026-27 academic year without some restructuring. One area that has been identified where there can be some cost benefits is in simplifying the core curriculum so that students have an easier time transferring into Illinois Tech and hopefully to get more students applying to Illinois Tech in the first place.

Mary Jorgenson-Sullivan asked whether the courses would be assessed with respect to new LO’s listed in the pilot proposal, and both the current (C) LO’s and the (H) LO’s as well (since one of the courses students are getting an accommodation for is HUM 200).

Nick replied that they will be assessed with respect to the LO’s written in the proposal. Whether they are also assessed against the current (C) and (H) LO’s is a question that is left up to the core curriculum assessment committee.

Kathir asked if there was any more discussion; there was none. This proposal had already been moved and seconded at the previous UGSC meeting, before being tabled. Since there was no further discussion, Kathir called for a vote by show of hands. The results were 10-0 in favor of the proposal with no abstentions.

Other Business. There was no other business.

Kindon Mills moved that the meeting be adjourned and this was seconded by Jeremy Hajek. There was no objection.

The meeting adjourned at 1:28 pm.