Skip to main content

2017-02-07 Minutes

MINUTES
MEETING OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARDS
of the General College and the College of Arts and Sciences
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
3:30–4:17 PM, 3020 Steele Building

Members in attendance: Rita Balaban, Rob Bruce, Claude Clegg, Amy Herring, Richard Langston, David Mora-Marin, Lee May, Ted Mouw, Abigail Panter, Vladas Pipiras, Valérie Pruvost, Nick Siedentop, Keith Sockman, James Thompson, Charlie Tuggle, Jonathan Weiler

Absent: Chris Derickson, Kevin Guskiewicz, Cary Levine, Christian Lundberg, Doug MacLean, Fabian Monrose, Louise Toppin

Staff: Ben Haven

1. Updates and Remarks by Abigail Panter, Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education

  • Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) – Dean Panter provided an overview of some of the highlights of the QEP Research week, where faculty were asked to take 20 minutes to discuss their research. Kelly Hogan is the director of the QEP.
  • Curriculum 2019 https://curriculum2019.web.unc.edu/ – The College of Arts and Sciences is revising the general education curriculum. The goal is to develop a challenging, contemporary, interdisciplinary, and visionary curriculum, which builds knowledge, capacities, behaviors, and values. Last semester, a planning committee, chaired by Andy Perrin in the Department of Sociology, collected information from multiple stakeholders across campus to find out what students should be able to accomplish upon graduation. The next step is to develop committees to explore the core disciplines that were developed in the planning committee. The 8 subcommittees will be 1) core knowledge and practice skills; 2) discipline area; 3) diverse perspectives and global understanding; 4) experiential education; 5) evidence, analysis, interpretation, and critique; 6) creativity, ethics, and judgment; 7) communication and collaboration; 8) advising, assessment, and amendment. The committees will include representatives from the College, professional schools, and the student body. Input on these committees will not be exclusive to committee membership.
  • The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) will conduct a campus visit from March 27-30, 2017. This is part of the regular review that happens every 10 years. The University is currently preparing responses based on feedback from the SACSCOC preliminary review in advance of the visit. There are two groups, one with a focus on reports and another with a focus on the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).

2. Updates from Committees:

  • Learning Assistants in the Classroom, Rita Balaban, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics – Balaban shared the Committee’s progress in developing a survey to distribute to academic chairs or directors of undergraduate studies to collect the data on how departments are using learning assistants. The committee will complete the survey on Thursday, February 9. The survey will be sent to faculty soon thereafter. Some of the more important questions include how departments define learning assistants, what kind of training learning assistants receive, how learning assistants are assessed, if learning assistants are compensated, how payments are made, and if departments are interested in having learning assistants in their classrooms.
  • Faculty Guidelines for Academic Appeals, Amy Herring, Associate Chair and Professor, Department of Biostatistics; Lee May, Associate Dean, Academic Advising Program – The Committee established a schedule and will meet for the first time tomorrow.

3. Undergraduate Program (Majors and Minors) Changes, Nick Siedentop, Curriculum Director, Office of Undergraduate Curricula

The Boards approved the miscellaneous curriculum changes as distributed.

4. Curriculum Committee Report, James Thompson, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Curricula

The Boards approved the Curriculum Committee Report with one minor revision; RUSS 278 will be approved for the beyond the North Atlantic (BN) and literary arts (LA) General Education requirements.

The meeting adjourned at 4:17 PM.

UNC_CAS542_png

The Administrative Boards of the General College and the College of Arts and Sciences are responsible for advising the Dean of the College about the undergraduate curriculum, including changes in that curriculum, approving individual courses offered in Departments and Curricula of the College, and making decisions when requested on specifications for degrees.