October 16, 2017

Attending: Mamta Singh, Teacher Education; Boyd Lanier, Political Science; John McCollough, business; Paul Hemenway, communication; Zanthia Smith, deaf studies and deaf education; LeAnn Chisholm, Nursing; Theresa Hefner-Babb, OPAA; Eileen Curl, Nursing; Kendrick Aung, Mechanical Engineering; Melissa Riley, College Readiness Math; Michael Saar, Library Services; Qin Qian, Civil & Environmental Engineering; B. Garrick Harden, Sociology; Tammye Knowles, Academic Affairs

Via Proxy: Cynthia Barnes, Quinjiang Yao, Debbie Troxclair

Call to Order: 3:30 p.m.

Approval of Minutes: Paul Hemenway made a motion to approve the minutes. Zanthia Smith seconded the motion and it carried.

Discussion: Boyd Lanier informed the group that the UUCC membership, terms and requirements have been provided by Dr. Kevin Smith and are found on the shared drive. A separate document detailing UUCC policies is also located on the shared drive. With regard to the requirement that members hold tenure, the council may need to consider making exceptions for departments with no faculty qualified to serve. Zanthia Smith was added to the Council to replace Karen Saar for the term Fall 2017-Summer 2020.

In a similar vein, the Chair position has come open. Discussion followed but no nominees for the one-year term were found. A motion to table the election until the next meeting was made by Eileen Curl and seconded by Zanthia Smith. The motion passed. 

Also discussed was the ruling by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) revising the Core Curriculum in Fall 2018 and removing SPAN 1311, FREN 1311 and DSDE 1311 from the Communications category. Degree plans will need to reflect these deletions by Fall 2018. Credit for these courses would still count in the B.A. language bloc but not in the Core. Rex Peebles is the THECB contact for this matter.

Business:

CHEN Degree Plan changes

• Waiting on responses from department to David Short’s email comments.
• Motion to table until next meeting made by Boyd Lanier, seconded by Zanthia Smith and carried.

• Dropped course options requiring unlisted prerequisites from electives.
• Courses missing from banner were dropped, CPSC 4317. Unknown if this matter has been resolved.
• CPSC 4310 Big Data now an elective.
• Prerequisite of CPSC 2375, 2312 not added yet.
• COSC 2375 Discrete Structures missing pre-req.
• Boyd Lanier made a motion to table the matter, Zanthia Smith seconded and it carried.

• Specific MATH course (MATH 2413) inserted instead of “or higher” terminology.
• Math Readiness score can be referenced by advisors.
• Contact hours changed on form.
• Approved with changes.

• Is a professional seminar.Waiting on responses from department to David Short’s email comments.
• Motion to table until next meeting made by Boyd Lanier, seconded by Zanthia Smith and carried.

• Changed to Sr. level course designation.
• Prerequisites changed to ‘C’ or better.
• Course objectives should be student learning outcomes and in separate sentences.
• No category for grade distribution or construct, or attendance policy.
• Course subject outline has no schedule (days/weeks)
• Eileen Curl motioned, Boyd Lanier seconded, to return the request to the department for revision and it carried.

• Course description not from form.
• Grade distribution missing D & F, grade criterion missing.
• Topic outline needed expanding with days/weeks.
• Boyd Lanier motioned, Zanthia Smith seconded, to return the request to the department for revision and it carried.

• 3320 can be concurrent, nothing else.
• Prerequisites don’t match form.
• Remove personal email.
• No weekly schedule.
• Course objectives should be student learning outcomes.
• Need to define grade distribution.
• #4 is redundant.
• No formal attendance policy.
• Boyd Lanier moved, Eileen Curl seconded motion to return request to department for changes, approved.

• CHEN 3330 is the correct pre-req. for this course.
• Course description does not match BANNER.
• Office hours by appt. only, no phone number.
• Supplemental material do not have full citation.
• No course subject outline or dates.
• Needs consequences for academic dishonesty.
• Zanthia Smith motioned, Boyd Lanier seconded, to return the request to the department for revision and it carried.

Some discussion followed noting that repeated submissions use up the council’s time delaying review of newer submissions. Distance Learning is working with a service to provide a syllabus template ‘in the cloud’ which should standardize much of the language. Syllabus revision should also be simpler.

UUCC, nevertheless, does deal with urgent (Board of Regents bound) requests first.

Next meeting: Monday, Nov. 20, 2017.

Paul Hemenway moved, Boyd Lanier seconded a motion to adjourn which carried.