Undergraduate Studies Committee

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

12:45 p.m.  On-line via Blackboard Collaborate Platform

Meeting Minutes

Attending Voting Members: F. Weening (AMAT),  K. Spink (BIOL), P. Troyk (BME), E. Corradi (CAEE), S. Hong (CHBE), R. Guan (CHEM), C. Hood (CS), E. Oruklu (ECE), E. Hazard (HUM), C. Wark (MMAE), J. Miller (PSYC),  C. Adams (ROTC),   J. Twombly (SSB),  P. Ireland (SSCI)

Also attending:    J. Gorzkowski (UGAA),  A. Lagunas (Registrar),  T. McGee (English Language Services), N. Novak (GL),  J. Rosenberg (SSCI), G. Smith (UGAA)

Departments with absent voting members: ARCH, PHYS, SAT, SGA

Documents for this meeting are available at: <http://www5.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/2019-2020/>

 

Meeting chaired by Greg Pulliam

Minutes recorded by Fred Weening

Quorum declared at: 12:46 pm

Adjourn at: 1:05 pm

 

1.     Approval of the minutes for April 14, 2020.

         The minutes for April 14, 2020 were approved unanimously (12-0).

Old Business

2.     Update on UGSC working group on transfer credits for Illinois community college students and the Illinois Articulation Initiative (Pulliam).

G. Pulliam indicated that the membership on the working group approved at the last UGSC meeting was complete. He  read the names of the membership: D. Bliss (SSCI), B. Burton-Freeman (FSN), J. Miller (PSYC), G. Pulliam (HUM), J. Rosenberg (SSCI), G. Smith (UGAA), K. Spink (BIOL), K Tichauer (BME), R. Trygstad(SAT), J. Twombley (BUS), F. Weening (AMAT). He also indicated that there were several other people that will occasionally participate with the group and/or be kept apprised of the group's progress.

 

3.     Proposal to allow community college courses to transfer in one level higher than the level at which they were taken (Pulliam, Spink, Trygstad).

G. Pulliam read the proposal out-loud:

For the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 Academic Year only, community (2-year) college students who are transferring in to IIT may receive course credit that is one level (i.e, UG1, UG2, UG3) higher than the level at which the course was originally taken, for coursework which applies to the IIT Core Curriculum's STEM and Human Sciences modules.  Course numbering systems vary from college to college, so it will be the responsibility of the IIT administration to ascertain the information about the levels at which such courses were originally taken. This policy shall not be construed to allow remedial pre-UG1/sub-100-level courses to count at the UG1/100-level.

 

This proposal was a result of the discussion we had at the April 14, 2020 UGSC meeting on a similar proposal.

G. Pulliam asked for discussion. J. Rosenberg indicated that the wording “...coursework which applies to the iit Core Curriculum's...” might be interpreted to mean that any course that could apply to the core curriculum would get the “level bump.” He would prefer that the wording: “which applies”  be changed to “applied”. G. Pulliam indicated his willingness to make this change and the UGSC voting members then gave unanimous consent to make this change.

K. Spink expressed her support of the proposal both because it gives Admissions a temporary tool to help increase enrollment and because it will allow the university to collect some data as to how enrollment may be affected if we were to have a more permanent change allowing iit to be a member of the Illinois Articulation Initiative. P. Ireland said that his understanding was that Admissions had already been following the policy of the proposal with respect to certain departments; and so it would be important to get the correct starting date if we are going to collect data. P. Troky expanded on these comments and expressed his support. J. Rosenberg concurred that having a one-year experiment makes more sense than instituting a more permanent change enabling IAI membership.

Seeing no more discussion, G. Pulliam called for a vote. The proposal passed by a vote of 14 in favor and 1 opposed.

4.     Election of UGSC Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary for 2020 - 2022. (Pulliam)

G. Pulliam indicated that

·               K. Spink, the current vice-chair, has offered to serve as next chair,

·               F. Weening, the current secretary, has offered to serve as the next vice-chair, and

·               he (i.e., G. Pulliam) has offered to serve as the next secretary.

He asked if there were any others nominations for these positions. No other names came forward.

A vote was taken for each position separately. The results were 11-1 in favor of K. Spink for Chair; 11-0 in favor of F. Weening for Vice-Chair, and 12-1 in favor for G. Pulliam for Secretary.

G. Pulliam said that he would forward these results as recommendations to the UFC. P. Troyk indicated that, ironically, the UGSC does elect the Vice-Chair and Secretary; only the Chair needs to be confirmed by the UFC.

The meeting adjourned at 1:05 pm.