March 28, 2016

Attending: Judith Mann, arts and sciences; Sara Hillin, English and modern languages; Molly Dahm, family and consumer science; Nicki Michalski, communication; Judy Smith, nursing; George Kenyon, business; Tim McCoy, business; W. David Short, registrar; Ricardo Tovar-Silos, business; Melissa Hudler, common syllabus template; Carmen Doering, library/QEP; Tony Martin, OPAA; Golden Wright, theater and dance; Lula Henry, education; Zanthia Smith, deaf studies and deaf education; Boyd Lanier, political science; Stefan Andrei, computer science; Vivek Natarajan, faculty senate/management and marketing; Kevin Smith, academic affairs 

Call to order: 3:35 p.m.

Approval of Minutes: Molly Dahm made a motion to approve the minutes with the correction to the spelling of her name. The motion was seconded by Judy Smith and carried.

Old Business:

• Common syllabus template: Stefan Andrei and his team presented their work on the syllabus template. They based the template on the UCC’s check list for syllabi. The template will be housed on the LU website and will have both Word and PDF options. It will be called Computer Assisted Design of Course Syllabi (CADCS). It is a fillable form with drop down menus. Some use an add button to create tables; others use text boxes for cut and paste.
  • It was noted by the committee that the DRC, emergency procedure and continuity policies need to be unchangeable since the state and/or university require specific phrasing for those.
  • The committee would also like to have the ability to add in specific college and departmental required policies.
• Jim Sanderson from English came to discuss the issue of classes in his program being repeatable for additional credit.
  • The issue was noted when students were trying to graduate and were told that some of their classes were grade replacements as opposed to additional classes.
  • The council does not want to fundamentally change what the department is doing but want it to be more in line with other courses and departments on campus.
  • Judi Mann will meet with Jim to further discuss the issue and explain the council’s position.
  • The issue is tabled.

New Business:

• Dance and Theater: The new courses and degree plans are a reaction to the THECB’s cutting of programs. Dance and Theater were separate departments, but they joined together to form one higher producing department so they would not get cut.
  • They needed to restructure some classes and change some numbers so their students would be able to get the required 45 upper level hours.
  • Majors can take any of the three approved core curriculum tracks to facilitate each student’s area of excellence.
  • The production class will be taken multiple times allowing each student to focus on their area of specialization. Each area of production is tracked by a faculty member who oversees the students to make sure they are acquiring the necessary skills.
  • This program is designed to produce students who are professionally proficient. They will have the critical thinking and activity based skills to be able to do whatever is required of them when they enter the work world. For instance, while they may not have designed a lighting system for a particular dance program before they will know the elements of lighting and be able to apply those to any program they are requested to design.
• CMGT 4380:
  • There are problems under the learning activities area. It refers to grad classes and those comments need to be removed.
  • The number of hours needs to be changed to 45 hours.
  • Judy Smith made a motion to approve the course with changes. Molly Dahm seconded the motion, and it carried.
• CMGT 4420:
  • The syllabus should read “60 contact hours”.
  • Judy Smith made a motion to approve the course with changes. Lula Henry seconded the motion, and it carried.
• CMGT 3320:
  • Boyd Lanier made a motion to accept the deletion of the course. Lula Henry seconded the motion, and it carried.
• CRIJ 4312:
  • Judy Smith made a motion to accept the course. Zanthia Smith seconded the motion, and it carried.
• CRIJ 4314:
  • The title on the academic misconduct policy should be changed to academic honesty in order to be consistent with the handbook.
  • The syllabus needs to clarify if this is an online course or face to face class. If it is online, are the office hours also online?
  • The comment regarding blackboard being offline from 2-4 am every morning is incorrect.
  • Period is used two different ways in the schedule. Please change one of the words (units or modules would work) to clarify for students.
  • Judy Smith made a motion to approve the course with changes. Boyd Lanier seconded the motion, and it carried.
• DSDE 4306:
  • Molly Dahm made a motion to accept the deletion of the course. The motion was seconded by Lula Henry and carried.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 with the acknowledgement the council will reconvene April 4, 2016.