1995-96 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA No. 6
TWIN CITIES CAMPUS ASSEMBLY MINUTES
MAY 30, 1996
The sixth meeting of the Twin Cities Campus Assembly for 1995-96 was
convened in 25 Law Building, Minneapolis campus, on Thursday, May 30, 1996, at
3:00 p.m. Checking or signing the roll as present were 126 voting
faculty/academic professional members, 17 student members, 2 ex officio
members, and 3 nonmembers. Mr. Joel Bergstrom, Vice Chair of the Assembly,
presided.
I. EDUCATIONAL POLICY COMMITTEE
Twin Cities Undergraduate Course and Curriculum Committee
Action
TWIN CITIES UNDERGRADUATE COURSE AND CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
MOTION:
To amend Article III of the Bylaws of the Twin Cities Campus Assembly to
add a new Bylaw 9, as follows:
9. UNDERGRADUATE COURSE AND CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
The Undergraduate Course and Curriculum Committee shall establish guidelines
and procedures, within the framework of the educational policies adopted by
the Senate and Twin Cities Assembly, to review all undergraduate course
proposals that have been approved by the appropriate college curriculum
committee in order to consider factors that would affect curriculum and
policies across collegiate units and across the campus as a whole.
Membership
The Undergraduate Course and Curriculum Committee shall be jointly appointed
by the Twin Cities Assembly Committee on Committees and the Provosts of the
Twin Cities campus and shall be composed of tenured or tenure-track faculty
and students. It shall have 13 members: 6 faculty (appointed by the
Committee on Committees), 3 deans (or their designees) appointed by the
provosts (two from Arts, Sciences, and Engineering and one from Professional
Studies), 3 undergraduate students (appointed by the Committee on Committees),
and ex officio representation as specified by vote of the Assembly.
The chair shall be a tenured faculty member, shall be appointed by the Provost
for Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, and shall serve as an ex officio member
of the Educational Policy Committee. Until September 1, 2000, the position of
the chair shall be a 50-percent time funded appointment.
Duties and Responsibilities
a. To develop guidelines for use by college curriculum committees. The
criteria for course approval shall include policies adopted by the
University Senate and the Twin Cities Campus Assembly, including but not
limited to those that govern the relationship between credits and
contact time, the relationship between credit and student academic
effort, time constraints for completion of a degree program, and the
number of credits necessary for graduation.
b. To review all new undergraduate majors and program proposals. This
includes reviewing the overall undergraduate curriculum of the Twin
Cities campus, including programs offered, the breadth and sufficiency
of course offerings, and the requirements of the programs (including
those established by the Council on Liberal Education).
c. To review courses for possible duplication that have been approved by
college curriculum committees and proposed for the change to semesters.
This includes consideration of the similarity between and among courses
that are offered in more than one college; the committee will determine,
with consultation from the college curriculum committees, faculty
proposing the courses, and college administrators, the necessity of
offering similar courses and whether one or several courses shall be
offered.
d. To settle disputes between and among colleges involving a course or
courses.
e. To establish timelines for submission of course proposals to the
committee.
f. To report to the Assembly Committee on Educational Policy and the Twin
Cities campus provosts.
g. To recommend to the Committee on Educational Policy such actions or
policies it deems appropriate.
h. To submit an annual report to the provosts and to the Assembly.
COMMENT:
The Assembly Committee on Educational Policy (ACEP) received a
suggestion from the Change to Semesters Coordinating Group that it should
consider recommending the establishment of a Twin Cities campus undergraduate
course and curriculum committee. ACEP, after discussing it, was persuaded
that there are several reasons that such a committee should be established.
Following comments at the Assembly meeting of May 2, ACEP revised the
charge to the committee and now presents it for action by the Assembly.
(1) All courses proposed for the semester system should be reviewed to
ensure adherence to the Semester Conversion Standards, other Senate policies,
and to guard as much as possible against course duplication and overlap.
(2) The committee would review majors and programs for the semester
system.
(3) The committee would establish guidelines for use by the college
curriculum committees in the approval of semester courses.
(4) Once semester courses have been established, the committee would be
responsible for adjudicating disputes between colleges about curriculum and
course offerings.
(5) The committee would NOT duplicate the work of college curriculum
committees, nor would it, except in rare instances, review the substantive
content of courses. (For example, an exception might be when two colleges
appear to be offering courses with the same content.)
This proposal goes beyond the change to semesters to issues of the
University's financial environment and the belief of ACEP that the Twin Cities
campus needs to be financially responsible.
The temporary funding for the chair's position, staff and general
support, and summer salary supplements for (1997) for the membership, will be
provided by central administration.
LAURA COFFIN KOCH, Chair
DISCUSSION:
Professor Koch presented the motion to establish a Twin Cities
Undergraduate Course and Curriculum Committee. The Assembly Educational
Policy Committee (ACEP), she said, considered carefully the comments expressed
at the May 2 Assembly meeting and has modified the proposal accordingly.
Several senators had expressed concern that the Twin Cities campus-level
committee would be duplicating services and procedures that are normally dealt
with by the college curriculum committees. To ensure that doesn't happen, the
ACEP included guidelines for the college-level curriculum committees to use
that reflect semester standards and educational policies set forth by the
Assembly.
The Twin Cities campus-level curriculum committee will not routinely
review courses, curriculum, or programs after the change to semesters occurs,
commented Professor Koch. It will review courses that are brought to the
committee because they are thought to duplicate courses already being offered
by other colleges. It will not consider duplication within colleges, but only
address those cases that span across two or more colleges.
The proposed committee will also review all undergraduate majors and
program proposals because generally programs or courses are in more than one
collegiate unit. Additionally, it will establish timelines for submission of
proposals as well as report to the Educational Policy Committee and the Twin
Cities campus provosts.
One senator asked if the statement "tenured or tenure-track faculty" is
needed in the membership section, particularly in view of the tenure review
currently taking place. If there is going to be an increasing proportion of
faculty who will be on term appointments, they will not be eligible to serve
on the committee. Is that the ACEPs intention? Professor Koch replied that
that was the intent of the committee because faculty are responsible for the
curriculum. If the University finds itself in a situation where a large
percent of the faculty is not tenured or on tenure-track appointments, the
Educational Policy Committee will need to reevaluate that issue.
Uncomfortable with that response, the senator made a motion to amend the
document to delete the words "tenured or tenure-track" under the membership
section. Hearing no second to the motion, discussion of the original motion
resumed.
In response to another question about how duplications are currently
handled, Senator Koch responded that many are unresolved and, consequently,
there are many duplicate courses on the Twin Cities campus.
Professor Koch was asked whether the committee would have final
authority in matters addressed in the duties section of the proposal and she
said that they would.
She was further asked to explain how establishment of the committee
would make the Twin Cities campus more financially responsible and she replied
that offering duplicate courses in different colleges does not make good
fiscal sense for the University. She further clarified that the committee
will not deal with current duplications but will begin with the semester
curriculum.
Concern was also expressed about whether members of the committee will
have the expertise to distinguish between two courses that seem similar, but
really are not. Professor Koch said the Educational Policy Committee did
discuss that issue and realizes the members cannot have expertise in all
areas. However, the Committee would not be making decisions in isolation of
the faculty members from those particular areas in question. The department
chairs, deans, and provosts would also be included in any discussions or
decisions, and experts would be consulted as
appropriate.
Professor Koch then accepted as a friendly amendment a proposal to
modify the first sentence of "c" under duties and responsibilities, as
follows:
c."To review for possible duplication courses that have been approved by
college curriculum committees and proposed for the change to semesters."
As a bylaw amendment, the motion required 94 affirmative votes for
approval. The vote was 83 in favor, 33 opposed. The motion was not approved.
NOT APPROVED
II. OLD BUSINESS
NONE
III. NEW BUSINESS
NONE
IV. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m.
Martha Kvanbeck
Abstractor