10-29-2013 Administrative Boards Minutes | The Administrative Boards

MINUTES OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARDS
of the General College and the College of Arts and Sciences
Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m. and chaired by Senior Associate Dean Bobbi Owen.

Members in attendance: Daniel Anderson,Navin Bapat, Christopher Derickson, Li-Ling Hsiao, Erika Lindemann, Douglas MacLean, Lee May, Bobbi Owen, Michael Rolleri, Chris Roush, Margaret Scarry, Mark Schoenfisch, Nick Siedentop, Keith Sockman, Michael Waltman, Barbara Wildemuth

Absent: Yaakov Ariel, Jaye Cable, Marcie Cohen Ferris, Karen Gil, Deborah Jones, Anne MacNeil, Louise McReynolds, Christopher Putney

Guests: Elizabeth Cox, James Leloudis, Charlotte Waterhouse

Staff: Ben Haven

1. Welcome and Updates by Senior Associate Dean Bobbi Owen
Dean Owen welcomed the Boards to the second meeting of the academic year and discussed pending changes to classes scheduled on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; the time between these classes may be increased from 10 minutes to 15 minutes beginning in fall 2014. In addition, Owen expressed appreciation for the Boards’ support in granting exceptions on a case-by-case basis when unusual circumstances make it necessary to offer a special topics course more than twice before a permanent class number is obtained.

2. Undergraduate Curriculum Proposals

The Boards approved the request from the Department of American Studies to change the name one of its major concentrations and minors from “American Indian Studies” to “American Indian and Indigenous Studies.”
The Boards also supported proceeding with the Intent to Plan for the BS degree program in the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences. Members provided additional suggestions to strengthen the Intent to Plan (which was inadvertently submitted on the Request to Establish form) submission for the BS degree program. Among the recommendations were citing employer data to support the need for the BS major, securing letters of support from the School of Medicine and the Gillings School of Global Public Health, clarifying how the program would attract new faculty, and scrupulously editing the proposal to remove typos and poor phrasing.

3. Retroactive Degrees
Prior to the 1970s, UNC-Chapel Hill students applying to the UNC Chapel Hill Schools of Medicine and Dentistry were not required to have a bachelor’s degree. However, once students had satisfactorily completed the first year of post baccalaureate work offered in either school, they could request to receive the BS degree in medicine or in dentistry. Occasionally, students who completed their MD and DDS degrees years ago, but who failed to request that they receive the BS degree at the appropriate time, have subsequently asked that it be awarded retroactively. The Boards were pleased to approve awarding retroactive BS degrees in medicine or dentistry to these students, even if they began their MD or DDS programs at UNC-Chapel Hill but completed them at other institutions, provided documentation supported their request.

4. Senior Honors Thesis Guidelines and Supporting Data, Honors Carolina
Owen invited discussion of the “Senior Honors Thesis Guidelines for Academic Units, Faculty Advisors, and Students.” James Leloudis, Associate Dean for Honors Carolina and Director of the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, provided data and responded to Boards members’ questions and suggestions. The Boards approved the Senior Honors Thesis Guidelines, specifically to:

Raise the minimum required cumulative grade point average (GPA) for senior honors candidates from 3.2 to 3.3, in January of 2014 for students graduating in December of 2014 or later.
Use a permanent letter grade or SP (a temporary grade specific to honors thesis courses that does not impact cumulative GPA), not an IN, for the first semester of honors thesis work. The IN grade should be used only in unforeseen circumstances as with any other temporary grade.
Allow only tenured and tenure-track faculty, postdoctoral fellows with teaching appointments, and fixed-term faculty who have been employed by an academic unit for at least one year to serve as senior honors thesis advisors.

The guidelines were approved with the expectation that the Boards will revisit the question of raising the minimum required GPA to a 3.4 during the 2014-2015 academic year when additional trend data can be reviewed.

5. Report of the Distance Learning Task Force
The Boards approved the Distance Learning Task Force recommendations, effective immediately.

6. Graduation Credit for JAPN 101 and HEBR 101
The Boards approved the Department of Asian Studies’ request to continue allowing credit for JAPN 101 and HEBR 101 to count toward graduation through the 2018-2019 academic year for students who studied these languages in high school but were placed into level one at UNC-Chapel Hill.

7. Curriculum Committee Reports, Associate Dean Erika Lindemann
The Boards approved the October 22, 2013 Curriculum Committee Report with two amendments. AAAD 202 will fulfill the HS requirement, but the request to add VP has been withdrawn. RELI 164 will fulfill the NA and WB requirements. The list of miscellaneous course changes also was approved.

Curriculum Director Nick Siedentop reported on a renumbering project that inactivates the ENST and ECOL subject codes and reassigns ENST and ECOL courses to the new subject code, ENEC. The Boards approved the list of renumbered courses, effective fall 2014.

8. Miscellaneous Curriculum Changes, Nick Siedentop, Curriculum Director
The Boards approved the miscellaneous curriculum changes as distributed.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Next meeting of the Administrative Boards
Tuesday, December 3, 2013, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m., Steele 3020