Skip to main content

2017-04-25 Minutes

AGENDA
MEETING OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARDS
of the General College and the College of Arts and Sciences
Tuesday, April 25, 2016
3:30–5:00 PM, 3020 Steele Building

Members in attendance: Rita Balaban, Rob Bruce, Claude Clegg, Amy Herring, Cary Levine, Doug MacLean, Lee May, Ted Mouw, Abigail Panter, Vladas Pipiras, Valérie Pruvost, Nick Siedentop, Keith Sockman, James Thompson, Charlie Tuggle, Jonathan Weiler

Absent: Kevin Guskiewicz, Richard Langston, Christian Lundberg, Fabian Monrose, David Mora-Marin, Louise Toppin

Guests: Misha Becker, Regina Carelli, Katie Cartmell, Jason Kinnear, Beth Kurtz-Costes, Donald Lysle, Carol Magee, Marilyn Wyrick

Staff: Ben Haven

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

Senior Associate Dean Panter welcomed the Boards to the final meeting of the academic year and began the meeting with two updates.

  1. During the week of March 27th, a committee from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) conducted a site visit to campus. The committee met with many administrators, faculty, students, and staff across campus and conducted exit interviews. In December 2017, the Board of Directors for SACSCOC will vote on the outstanding items addressed before and during the site visit. UNC-Chapel Hill may need to follow up on a few additional items in the interim.
  2. Planning is successfully underway for the 2019 Curriculum. The Coordinating Committee and eight subcommittees provided interim reports in April 2017 and will provide their final reports in May 2017.

2. Undergraduate B.S. Program in Neuroscience [3:35 pm]
Kelly Giovanello, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Beth Kurtz-Costes, Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Donald Lysle, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Regina Carelli, Professor and Co-Associate Chair, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

This proposal evolved out of a student-led initiative to create a Neuroscience Club, which now has more than 500 members across campus. The Neuroscience Club is very active, with consistent and intense interest from students. Anticipating demand for a more formalized track of study, the Department of Psychology created the minor in neuroscience. They hired professor Marsha Penner to teach the gateway course (Intro to Neuroscience), and there are currently 322 declared minors. This demand from students, coupled with the widespread practice of establishing neuroscience degree programs at peer institutions, led the Department of Psychology to explore the potential for an interdisciplinary neuroscience degree program. The B.S. Major in Neuroscience proposal would provide students with a focused, formal study of the field.

The Department of Psychology and Neuroscience initiated the Request to Plan process in spring 2016, and formed a committee to assess the feasibility of the major. In summer 2016, the committee conducted a benchmarking assessment, comparing the composition of each major at peer institutions to see which ones closely aligned with the department and resource structure at UNC-Chapel Hill. Since the degree program will necessarily be interdisciplinary, the department met with chairs in academic units across the College and obtained 10 letters of support; the degree program proposal is co-sponsored by all 10 signatory units. Upon final approval, an Executive Advisory Committee (EAC) composed of representatives from each of the 10 signatory departments will be established to approve future changes and updates to the program. Students shall complete 24 core courses, as well as four elective courses, with two drawn from each of two elective categories, for a total of 120 credit hours to complete the degree.

The Department of Neuroscience is presenting the formal application for the Request to Plan the B.S. in Neuroscience Degree Program. To move forward, the request would need approval from the Boards, the Provost’s Office, the Chancellor’s Office, and finally, General Administration. Once the Request to Plan is approved at the General Administration level, the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience would have permission to begin the Request to Establish process.

The Boards approved the Request to Plan as distributed with the following recommendations:

  1. Consider developing a plan for transfer students since it seems unlikely they will complete the major without two extra terms in residence.
  2. Include some science advisors who specialize with transfer students at the next stage of proposal.
  3. Remove the note about the restriction of 45 credit hours within a specific department as this applies only to B.A. programs.

3. Name Change for the Department of Art [3:55 pm]
Carol Magee, Associate Professor and Chair (effective 7/1/2017), Department of Art

The Department of Art formally requests a name change to the Department of Art and Art History to better reflect the structure and separation of disciplines within the Department. The Boards approved the request as distributed.

4. Graduate Certificate in Science Education [4:05 pm]
Nick Siedentop, Curriculum Director, Office of Undergraduate Curricula

The Graduate Certificate in Science Education was reviewed by The Graduate School Boards last week; their approval is contingent upon the College Boards’ approval. This is a two to three-year program (approximately 3-5 fall/spring semesters) intended for life-science PhD candidates preparing for teaching-intensive careers. Students would complete 9 credit hours of coursework and participate in a required teaching internship experience. A total of ten hours of prerequisite workshops are recommended, but not required. As part of the coursework, students would create learning sessions, design an undergraduate course, and team-teach the course at UNC.

Timely progression to degree was a concern. Members expressed concern about students having enough time to complete the requirements for both the Ph.D. program and the certificate program in six to seven years. The additional requirements for the certificate program seemed high and might contribute to a delay. In addition, one member commented that too much time spent on pedagogy (i.e. less time on research) may not be advantageous for the job market. The Boards wanted some indication that this program would improve a student’s chances of obtaining employment post-graduation, and wanted to know for whom this certificate program is targeted.

5. Study Abroad Advisory Board Report and Proposals [4:15 pm]
Jason Kinnear, Deputy Director, Study Abroad Office

  • New Joint Degree Program with National University of Singapore (NUS), Global Studies – This program builds upon well-established programs with partners at NUS. Per the Boards’ recommendation, material will be added to assess student learning outcomes for this program.
  • Art, Ritual, and Landscape of the Camino de Santiago, Spain – This is a short-term, faculty-led program with a focus in the Department of Art. One of the required courses in the proposal is a special topics course. Since special topics courses can’t fulfill General Education requirements, students would have to go through the course petition process. The Boards recommended that this course requirement be fulfilled with a course that has a permanent number.

6. Faculty Guidelines for Academic Appeals Subcommittee, Report [4:30 pm]
Katie Cartmell, Assistant Director for Academic Eligibility
Amy Herring, Professor of Biostatistics and Chair of Subcommittee on Guidelines for Academic Appeals
Lee May, Associate Dean for Academic Advising
Marilyn Wyrick, Senior Assistant Dean for Academic Advising
James Thompson, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Curricula

The proposed changes to the guidelines provide the Subcommittee with more flexibility when evaluating academic appeals since the number of student appeals has remained constant over time, but the number of Subcommittee approvals has gone down precipitously in recent years. The Boards approved the Guidelines as distributed.

7. Independent Study Policy Task Force, Report [4:40 pm]
Misha Becker, Professor of Linguistics and Chair of the Independent Study Policy Task Force

The Task Force reviewed the current policy (UPM #30) and recommended improvements based on current practices within departments:

  1. The category and definition for the traditional independent study was removed since these are either directed readings under the *96 number or would be taken as one-on-one mentored research courses under the *95 number.
  2. Internships and practica were added to the list of courses excluded from the two students per faculty mentor/supervisor limitation. Currently, only professional schools that have an internship in their program requirements are excluded from this limitation.
  3. The deadline for a student to enroll an independent study was extended from the first week to the second week to align it with the add deadline for other courses.

There was extensive discussion regarding the Task Force’s decision to maintain the limitation of two students per faculty mentor/supervisor. The Boards suggested that the Task Force come up with a rationale for this decision and send it to the Senior Associate Deans (SAD) for review. Upon SAD approval, the Task Force Report will again be brought before the Boards for review at the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year.

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

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

Due to time limitations, agenda items 8 and 9 were approved by the Boards as distributed via email on Wednesday, April 26, 2017

On behalf of Dean Kevin Guskiewicz, Senior Associate Dean Panter thanked the Boards for their service to the University and splendid work this academic year, giving special thanks to those members whose terms ended:  Christina Lundberg, Vladas Pipiras, Keith Sockman, Louise Toppin

Panter ended the meeting by inviting all participants to join her and staff within the Office of Undergraduate Curricula at the Carolina Inn.

The meeting adjourned at 5:00 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.