2017-03-21 Minutes | The Administrative Boards

MINUTES
MEETING OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARDS
of the General College and the College of Arts and Sciences
Tuesday, March 21, 2016
3:30–4:20 PM, 3020 Steele Building

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

Absent: Rob Bruce, Kevin Guskiewicz, Cary Levine, Christian Lundberg, Doug MacLean, Fabian Monrose, Ted Mouw, Jonathan Weiler

Guest: Kevin Stewart

Staff: Ben Haven

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

Senior Associate Dean Panter welcomed the Boards and began the meeting with a couple of updates. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) will be visiting campus next week. SACSCOC will be visiting an off-site project on Monday, but will be on campus on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning. Two major judgements are still pending: 1) has UNC-Chapel Hill met standards for tenure and faculty review? 2) is the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) developed by UNC-Chapel Hill meet the stated goals? SACSCOC may request additional information on certain topics. UNC-Chapel Hill must provide this information in a timely manner.

Work has begun on the 2019 Curriculum. There is a coordinating committee as well as eight subcommittees. Each coordinating committee member is also a liaison to a specific subcommittee. Each subcommittee includes faculty members from across the campus and at least one student. The meetings are ongoing, but the subcommittees have met at least twice.

2. Changes to Undergraduate Programs in Geological Sciences, Kevin Stewart, Director of Undergraduate Studies

Rename “Earth Systems” concentration to “Earth Science” (B.A.)
Rename “ Environmental Geology” concentration to “Environmental Geoscience” (B.S.)
Discontinue Geochemistry concentration (B.S.)
Discontinue Geophysics concentration (B.S.)
Discontinue Paleobiology concentration (B.S.)
Requirement changes to the B.A., B.S., and minor programs

It is common for geological science programs to honor the different subdisciplines by creating various tracks for each subdivision; however, over time, these tracks have become complicated and difficult for students to navigate. To streamline the B.S. major, the Department of Geological Sciences proposes the elimination of three tracks. This will drop the total number of B.S. tracks down from five to two. They will keep the earth sciences and environmental geology tracks because they are popular, and the department now has enough instructors to teach the requisite courses. Per the proposal, all B.S. major tracks will have the same two-course core of GEOL 200 and 201, and all tracks (B.A. and B.S.) will have a capstone requirement that is uniform (the senior honors thesis can be taken as the capstone). The number of credit hours will be similar across the tracks, differing by one or two credit hours total. The Boards approved the proposal as distributed.

3. Curriculum Committee Report, James Thompson

The Boards approved the Curriculum Committee Report as distributed.

4. Undergraduate Program (Majors and Minors) Changes, Nick Siedentop

5. Updates from Administrative Boards Sub-Committees:

Learning Assistants in the Classroom, Rita Balaban –The Committee distributed a survey last week. The survey finishes in a few days. The Committee will be ready with a report for the final Boards meeting of the term.
Faculty Guidelines for Academic Appeals, Amy Herring and Lee May – The Committee has held a couple of meetings to get insight into the grade appeals process. The process hasn’t changed over the years, but the committee overseeing appeals has become increasingly strict with enforcement. The Committee is currently looking at pressure points and preparing to draft guidelines. They intend to bring draft guidelines before the Boards for the final meeting of the term.
Independent Study Task Force, Ben Haven – The Task Force is making progress on a report, criteria table, and revised learning contract. The chair, Misha Becker, expects to have the report and supporting documents ready for the final Boards meeting of the term.

6. Additional updates by Abigail Panter, Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education

Beginning in fall 2015, and once per year thereafter, the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment has pulled down data and created department profile reports. The Office of Undergraduate Education recently sent the current iteration of these reports out to departments in the College. There is not currently an effective way to obtain and format employment data post-graduation, but the reports do contain enrollment information. These profiles are built on the SAS visual analytics platform, and access will soon be granted to certain faculty administrators in departments.

The meeting adjourned at 4:20 PM.