Minutes of the Undergraduate Studies Committee
4/11/2017

Attending Voting Members:  G. Pulliam (HUM/CAC), G. Popvic (MSED), P. Troyk (BME), C. Hood (CS), X. Guan (CHEM), N. Menhart (BIO), R. Steffenson (SSCI), J. Hajek (ITM), R. Ellis (AMAT), T. Pan (CAEE), E. Orklu (ECE), P. Snopok (PHYS), C. Wark (MMAE), A. Raina (SGA), M. Safar (INTM)

Also attending: J. Gorzkowski (UGAA), G. Smith (UGAA), S. Pariseau (UGAA), K. Spink (PreHealth), J. Hignight (Registrar), A. Hall (Registrar), N. Novak (Galvin Library), G. Shobeiri (SGA)

Departments with absent voting members:  ROTC. SSB, CHBE, PYSC, COA

Quorum declared at: 12:50

Adjourn at: 1:34

 

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 3/28/17 Meeting (http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/3-28-17minutes.html)

The minutes were approved unanimously.

 

Old Business

2. Proposed change to standards for graduating with honors: [G. Pulliam – Humanities]

Proposal calls for the following changes to IIT’s honors requirements:

• Change hours to be completed at IIT from 60 for all levels to 60 hours for cum laude, 75 hours for cum laude or magna cum laude, or 90 hours for cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude.

• Change the GPA requirements as follows

Cum laude – change from 3.5-3.799 to 3.4-3.599

Magna cum laude – change from 3.8-3.899 to 3.6-3.799

Summa cum laude – change from 3.9-4.0 to 3.8-4.0

Motion to table discussion until the April 25th meeting was proposed and passed.

UGAA did provide a report about the number of students affected by the policy. Over the last five years, 164 students received summa cum laude under the existing policy. That number would change to 98 under the new policy. The existing policy resulted in 152 students graduating magna cum laude. That number would change to 107 under the new policy. SGA reported that students were not in favour of using a percentile system to determine honors. Students liked the idea of calculating all GPAs using the last 60 credit hours.

 

New Business

3. New co-terminal degree: BS MSE and MAS MSE [S. Nair and S. Acharya, MMAE]

a. Details are http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/802_BS-MSE&MAS-MSE.pdf

UGAA reported one typo in the schedule. CHEM 123 should be listed as CHEM 124. MMAE will correct the error.

The motion to approve the new co-terminal degree passed unanimously.

 

4. Elimination of ECE co-terminal degree programs [E. Orklu, ECE]

The ECE department wishes to terminate the following co-terminal degree programs: B.S. Electrical Engineering/Master of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the B.S. Computer Engineering/Master of Electrical and Computer Engineering co-terminal degrees. The ECE faculty do not wish to continue supporting these professional degrees.

ECE was asked to explain why they would eliminate the co-terminal degree, which is primarily a marketing tool, but retain the separate degrees. ECE indicated that they wish to avoid confusing students and deter them from the professional program, which may well be disappearing in future.  

The motion to approve the elimination of this co-terminal degree carried with some dissent. It was requested that the minutes acknowledge that UGSC has no jurisdiction on the elimination of degrees according to Appendix P of the faculty handbook.

 

5. New Co-Terminal Degree: BS BME and MS Biology for Health Sciences [K. Spink – Biology]

a. Details are at http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/BS BME+MS Bio for Health Description all tracks.docx

The degrees have been approved by both departments. Undergraduate completing this co-terminal degree will need to take 6 additional credit hours, which are prerequisites for the MS Biology classes.  

We will vote on this co-terminal degree at the next meeting.

 

6. Academic year 2017-2018 UGSC officers [R. Trygstad – Chair]

a. Ray Trygsted’s two year term as UGSC Chair was approved by Faculty Council last year.

b. Members voted unanimously to have Greg Pulliam continue as Vice Chair and Rebecca Steffenson continue as Secretary.

 

7. Other New Business

The IIT Core Curriculum Assessment Committee will report at the next meeting.

The Communications Across the Curriculum subcommittee will submit the results of the CAC’s review of C-courses for the departments of CHEM and CHBE at the next meeting.

 

8.  Next UGSC meeting will be April 25, 2017