Undergraduate Council Attending: Absent: Guests: New members on next year's Council in attendance:
Motions for Group Satisfying Courses J. Long indicated he is convinced that the Council's approach to "fixing" Group Satisfying offerings at UO is the right one. J. Nicols reported that he spoke with Marliss Strange of Academic Advising about his motions, and she suggested changes in them. Nicols noted that the Registrar's Office is instituting a program called DARS that will provide on-line progress reports. It was decided that more discussion regarding the motions would need to take place, with the hope that it will be completed by winter term, or before. Long then set up a subcommittee to work on these over the summer, appointing the following: John Nicols, Steve Ponder, Herb Chereck (or designee). Motion #1 has been passed, but the remaining motions will require further discussion.
General Social Science Proposal R. O'Brien gave a synopsis of the proposal, indicating that this is a program that will be offered through the University Center in Bend. To help insure the quality of the program, anyone who is appointed to teach in the program will be appointed by a department here on the UO campus. They will get courtesy appointments at the UO in order to teach in Bend, with the departments determining who will teach. A person on the UO campus must teach a 400 level course in order to qualify to teach in the program in Bend. The program was designed to meet needs in Central Oregon. The proposal would allow students on this campus to take this program through Independent Studies, but O'Brien indicated that the description of the program will not be in our bulletin. Resources will come from OUS and not UO. Suggestions from the social science department heads have been incorporated in the proposal, and the CAS Curriculum Committee has made some changes which also have been incorporated. O'Brien indicated that the $80,000 subsidy drops each year, and at the sixth year, the program should be self-supporting. There is a reserve; but if this program proves to be a money loser, it will be discontinued. Concerns from J. Nicols were as follows: • Instructors who teach 400-level classes include adjuncts. Use of adjuncts is troublesome as the UO will not have control over the program. There will likely be Bend faculty who also want to teach the courses. Thus a student might graduate without having been taught by UO faculty. • This program should not be offered in Bend since we do not have the same program taught here. Independent Studies requires the students to have a 3.5 GPA, and many students cannot meet that requirement. In answer to these concerns. O'Brien indicated that the program would be rigorous, and the adjuncts who will be teaching will be appointed here at the UO. Nicols said that regular UO faculty should be in Bend first to get the standards set for the program. O'Brien indicated that it would be a problem to get our regular faculty to teach in Bend. J. Rice also voiced a concern about using the Independent Studies program on this campus for this degree, saying that it should be limited to central Oregon students who will then transfer to the UO. It was moved and seconded that the last two sentences of 4(a) on page 7 be stricken. The sentences stricken read as follows: Other students enrolled on the University of Oregon campus would be able to apply for the General Social Science major through the Independent Studies program on our campus. The requirements for the degree would be the same as specified in section 3 above. The motion passed by a vote of 4 to 3. R. Koch had a concern about 4(a) on page 6--credits used to satisfy the concentration requirement may not be used to fulfill requirements in a second major--and asked why this was included. O'Brien indicated that there was concern that there would be a lot of overlap. This may be viewed as double dipping. The council then voted on the proposal as follows:
In favor: 6 Opposed: 0 The proposal passed.
Web Pages M. Gleason and J. Long presented samples of web pages for group satisfying courses for their college/department. Each gave an explanation of the design and purpose of their respective pages. It was noted that there were two different styles and these were excellent examples. (Samples of their web pages can be found at the Undergraduate Council web site.) Long said his page took about 40 minutes to design, and Gleason's took about 1-1/2 hours to design. Nicols noted that "ed tech" money will be used in CAS to maintain web sites. All members agreed to proceed with the web page request to departments, and Long will distribute a sample letter to the Council by e-mail. If all agree, he will send the letter to deans and department heads.
Election of Chair: 2000-2001 Long read the names of the members who will be leaving and those who will be returning, along with the names of new members. He asked for nominations for next year's chair. There were several nominations, but people declined. It was agreed that there should be rotation of chairs from the different schools/colleges. Another suggestion was to have joint chairs or a vice chair. Nominations and suggestions will be done by e-mail. Meeting adjourned at 10:00 AM 
|
