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2019-01-29 Minutes

MINUTES
MEETING OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARDS
of the General College and the College of Arts and Sciences
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
3:30–5:00 PM, 3020 Steele Building

 

Members in attendance: Rita Balaban, Jessica Brinker, Claude Clegg, Amy Cooke, Mara Evans, Beverly Foster, Jennifer Larson, Doug MacLean, Lee May, David Mora-Marin, Abigail Panter, Valérie Pruvost, Nick Siedentop, James Thompson, Frank Tsui, Charlie Tuggle, Jonathan Weiler

Absent: Lauren DiGrazia, Kelly Giovanello, Kevin Guskiewicz, Richard Langston, Lauren Leve, Christian Lundberg, Ted Mouw, Lyneise Williams

Guests: Jason Kinnear, Andy Perrin, Heather Ward

Staff: Ben Haven

Senior Associate Dean Panter welcomed the Boards to the first meeting of the New Year and introduced Jason Kinnear and Heather Ward, the new Associate Dean for the Study Abroad Program.

1. Study Abroad Proposals
Jason Kinnear, Assistant Dean for the Study Abroad Program
Heather Ward, Associate Dean for the Study Abroad Program

The Study Abroad Program continues to emphasize academic diversity, geography, and expansion to new disciplines, and it has been strategic in its implementation of new programs to meet students where they’re at. Next week is the deadline for summer and fall for the 2019-2020 academic year. The following program proposals were presented to the Boards.

The Boards approved the proposals with the expectation that the Study Abroad Program will follow up with the Department of Biology to ensure that the BIOL 201 syllabus for the UNC Ecology and Evolution in Ecuador Program more closely aligns with that of the BIOL 201 course on campus.

2. IDEAs in Action General Education Proposal
Andy Perrin, Special Assistant to the Dean, Director of Carolina Seminars, and Professor of Sociology

The most recent draft of the IDEAS in Action proposal was released in December 2018. Since the release of the December draft, the General Education Coordinating Committee has been soliciting feedback and making updates to the proposal. The Committee expects to release the next draft within the week. Perrin previewed updates in the upcoming draft for the Boards. The following are the newest additions to the Proposal.

  • A new single-credit lab capacity that emphasizes natural sciences and hands-on lab learning will be added to the curriculum. This empirical investigation lab will be attached to a three-credit focus capacity course as the fourth credit.
  • The Committee is working on new language for the Ways of knowing, and Creative Expression, Practices, and Production Focus Capacities (FC) that will emphasize science pathways.
  • A new single-credit foundations of data science element will be added to the Ideas, Information, and Inquiry (III) courses. Departments can develop their own fourth credit option, but for those instructors that don’t have a data science background, they will have support to implement these elements. Additionally, new language in the Ways of Knowing FC emphasizes data science and new language in the Quantitative Reasoning Capacity emphasizes reasoning with data.
  • The two-credit College Thriving course may be too demanding credit-wise for some students. The Committee has decided to reduce the requirement to a single credit; however, there can be flexible modes of instruction (i.e., the School of Education can design a two-credit and a one-credit version of the course, and students can decide which of the two is more appropriate for them). There were some questions from the Boards about minimizing the credits for this requirement, especially since more awareness of mental health and wellness and self-regulated learning best practices can play a role in students’ academic success.
  • Students who bring in many By-Exam (BE)/advanced placement (AP) credits may miss out on focused practices. New language in the proposal emphasizes that BE credits for FC classes should approach the capacity, not just the course topics.

The Boards addressed the recurring capacity requirements within the FC as they may be too onerous and hamper faculty teaching quality and flexibility. One recommendation would be to reduce the recurring capacities list and offer more flexibility to instructors.

This upcoming Monday, the General Education Coordinating Committee will take the recent draft to the Faculty Executive Committee for review. If the proposal is approved by Faculty Council vote, the General Education Oversight Committee will hand it off to the IDEAS in Action Implementation committee to begin the planning process.

3. Course Committee Report
James Thompson, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Curricula and Professor of English and Comparative Literature

The Boards approved the report as distributed.

4. Program Committee Report
Nick Siedentop, Director, Office of Undergraduate Curricula

The Boards approved the report as distributed.

The meeting adjourned at 5pm.

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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.