Minutes of the Undergraduate Studies Committee
9/11/2018

Attending Voting Members: M. Safar (INTM), SH Hong (CHBE), C. Hood (CS), F. Weening (AMAT), A. Moller (PSYC), E. Hazard (HUM),E. Dell’Aquq (CAEE), N. Menhart (BIO), J. Twombly (SSB), R. Steffenson (SSCI), E. Nelson (SGA), R. Trygstad (ITM), M. Safar (INTM), , C. Wark (MMAE), P. Snopok (PHY), X. Guan (CHEM), P. Troyk (BME). G. Popovic (MSED) E. Oruklu (ECE), E. Kulterman (ARCH).

Also attending: M. Bauer (CS), G. Smith (UGAA), N. Novak (Galvin Library), S. Pariseau (UGAA), K. Spink (PreHealth), J. Gorzkowski (UGAA), M. Lopez (UGAA), V. Foster (Compliance), G .Welter (UGAA), S. O’Leary (UGAA), B. Katz (ODL), J. Sanie (ECE), A. Patelidas (Registrar), J. Snapper (HUM).

Departments with absent voting members: ROTC

Documents for this meeting are available at: http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/
Meeting chaired by Greg Pulliam
Minutes recorded by Rebecca Steffenson
Quorum declared at: 12:45
Adjourn at: 1:50

  1. Minutes
    http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/4-24-18minutes.html
    Unanimous approval of minutes with the following corrections:

1) Removal of statement about Chair recommendation.

2) Correction of typo to read: In light of these points, UGAA was asked to stop granting core curriculum credit for two 200 level social science or humanities courses in place of one 300 course and to return to having departments approve community college course substitutions on a case by case basis.

Old Business

  1. UGSC Secretary election
    G. Popovic volunteered to serve as UGSC Secretary and was elected unanimously.

New Business

  1. Program changes to BS EE (Oruklu)
    Consolidation of ECE 211 Circuit Analysis I, ECE  213 Circuit Analysis II, ECE 311 Engineering Electronics, and ECE 312 Electronics Circuits is part of an effort by the ECE  to restructure our BS curricula to position our students to be competitive in research and industry careers by (a) creating program flexibility and program tracks with a balance between wider breadth of knowledge and strong foundation in core areas; (b) providing an effective learning experience to students consistent with their interest and potential; and (c) upgrading our undergraduate program consistent with advances in Electrical and Computer Engineering and being more competitive with peer universities in a timely fashion. In short, changes are as follows:
    ECE 211, ECE 213, and ECE 311 course contents are revised to remove any redundancy and cover the important topics from ECE 312. Consequently, ECE 312 (4 hours) was eliminated in the BS EE and is now replaced by a Free Elective (3 hours). The range of total credit hours is thus reduced from 131-134 to 130-133.

Pulliam reported that this change was brought to executive committee out of term and they approved it with the misunderstanding that it was a minor change. However, the proposal does change the number of credit hours by 1 and therefore requires a vote even though it has already been added to the bulletin.

Several members asked for a future discussion clarifying when the UGSC executive committee can approve changes out of session.

Vote will be held at the next meeting.

  1. New BS in Artificial Intelligence from CS dept (Bauer)
    Clarification sought about the requirement of IPRO 397. Bauer noted that CS is not requiring that course, but that the CIM software had prompted him to choose IPRO 397 or IPRO 497. Pariseau stated this issue could be rectified in the software system. Ellis will consult with CS about Math requirements. Clarification sought about ABET requirement. Notes that ABET has no AI requirements. CS will also consult with Bio about neuro focused bio courses.

Vote will be held at the next meeting.

  1. 2 new Co-terminals in CS (both are CS-internal) (Bauer)
    a. Bachelor of Science in Computer Science/Master of Computer Science;
    b. Bachelor of Science in Computer Science/Master of Science in Computer Science.
    CS is introducing slight changes to existing co-terminal. The GPA requirement will now be 3.25

Vote will be held at the next meeting.

  1. Eliminate BS in CRES—Consumer Research, Analytics and Communication (Moller)
    Degree program has had 1 graduate in 6 years and currently has no students enrolled. Furthermore, there is no faculty member willing to champion and build the program.

Moller was informed that the process for degree elimination is stated in the handbook and that this request must come to UGSC from UFC after the Lewis College Dean gets approval to eliminate the degree from the president. Pariseau noted that the workflow was approved by UFC in CIM.

  1. ARCH: Change of Undergraduate Program’s CIP Code (Kultermann)
    Arch seeking CIM code changes to allow programs to be STEM designated, as this will open up additional research funding.

Vote to approve will be at the next meeting.

  1. New Dual BS Degree program in PSYC-BIOCHEM (Menhart-Moller)
    PSYC-BIO asked to change the wording in the bulletin to remove the word “double count”. Instead, statement will read “students may apply”.

Vote will be held at the next meeting.

More Old Business

  1. Transfer credit evaluation—further discussion/action needed
    UGSC informed that UFC would like a recommendation on this issue.
    Some options:

History given
It was noted that UFC minutes state that “Motion to direct UG Academic Affairs to suspend substitution of two lower level social sciences/humanities courses for one higher level course. Second, passed without objection.” UGAA started that no one informed them and they have continued granting 300 level credit for two 200 level courses and that this substitution affects about 10% of transfer students.

Discussion focused on who was best suited to make decisions (ie academic units as content experts or UGAA without consideration of content equivalency). UGAA reported that this was not their policy, and that Admissions was pushing for the substitutions to the core. Members asked Pulliam to invite Admissions to speak with UGSC.