Minutes of the Undergraduate Studies Committee
9/12/2017

Attending Voting Members: G. Pulliam (HUM/CAC), G. Popvic (MSED), J. Twombly (SSB), P. Troyk (BME), X. Guan (CHEM), N. Menhart (BIO), R. Steffenson (SSCI), J. Hajek (ITM), E. Orklu (ECE), C. Wark (MMAE), M. Safar (INTM), S. Hoon Hong (CHBE), A. Moller (PSYC), F. Weening (AMAT), G. Shobeiri (SGA), C. Adams (ROTC), F. Flury (COA), C. Wark (MMAE)

Also attending: J. Gorzkowski (UGAA), G. Smith (UGAA), S. Pariseau (UGAA), K. Spink (PreHealth), J. Hignight (Registrar), A. Hall (Registrar), N. Novak (Galvin Library), T. Arjhad (ARC), M. Lopez (UGAA), V. Foster (Compliance), S. Pariseau (UGAA). Miller (PSYC), K. Spink (Pre Health), C. Torres (COA), C. Emmons (Assessment)

Departments with absent voting members: CS, CAEE, PHYS

Quorum declared at: 12:50

Adjourn at: 1:36

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 4/25/17 Meeting (http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/4-25-17minutes.html)

Minutes approved by assent.

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

• 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 
Please review the full proposal at http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/Graduating with Honors at IIT-2.pdf In addition, SGA has made their contribution to the discussion, http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/SGA Comments on Graduating with Honors.pdf and Undergraduate Academic Affairs has provided a breakdown of the source of students graduating with Honors since 2011, http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/SourcesOfStudentsGraduatingWithHonors2011-2017.pdf.

Vote was called after discussion and motion failed.

3. Other new Business:

Steffenson asked advisors to inform students about the 2018 faculty led summer study abroad trip to Osaka Japan. The four-week program is open to all majors and courses count towards the Humanities and Social Science requirements of the core curriculum.

4. Change to the B.S. in Chemistry: [C. Segre – Chemistry]

The Chemistry Department will remove the following specializations for the B.S. in Chemistry: Biological Chemistry, Chemical Physics, Materials Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and Polymer Chemistry

This change is being made because the department is phasing out the degree. This is an information item.

5. Minor in Computational Mathematics: [F.Weening – Applied Mathematics]

The requirements for this minor are available for review at http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/documents/ComputationalMathMinorRequirements.pdf . This is an information item.

6. Discussion of policy/guidelines for converting contact hours into credit hours [C. White – Vice Provost for Academic Affairs]

Currently the Registrar’s office is unaware of a common written policy for counting non lecture hours for determining total number of credit hours. Phil Troyk indicated his department may have found some policy guidance in this area; he will investigate and report back. This issue will be discussed in another meeting when Vice Provost White is present.

7. Discussion of timing of changes to faculty/adviser support information systems [G. Pulliam – Humanities]

Members of UGSC expressed concern about changes to the advising systems at the start of the semester. Several systems used by advisors went offline the weekend before the start of the semester without prior notice. Several members also agreed that changes should be vetted by advisors, and that the new system did not adequately address advisors’ needs. Pulliam proposes formally asking administrative units not to make changes to the systems that support faculty, advisors and students from the two weeks prior to the start of the semester until the add/drop date. Pulliam will draft a formal proposal.

8. Request from Pre-Health Professions Programs: [K. Spink – Director of Pre-Health Professions Programs]

AMSA (the student premed organization) and the University Premedical Advisory Committee will be conducting a mock MMI for our premed students on either Friday October 20th or Friday November 3rd. This is likely to be a morning event. We need volunteers to be interviewers. Please make an announcement to faculty and ask potential volunteers to contact Spink.

9. Welcome new UGSC members: Fred Weening, Applied Mathematics; Frank Flury, Architecture; Shangping Ren, Computer Science; Arlen Moller, Psychology; Chris Adams, NROTC; and Golzar Shobeiri, SGA.

10. Other New Business

None.

11. The next UGSC meeting will be September 26, 2017 in the Pritzker Science Center LS 121. Please note the changed location. All other meetings this term will be in WH 115.

All minutes and supporting documents may be found on the UGSC website: http://www.iit.edu/~ugsc/