EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE

ACADEMIC, APPELLATE, AND SENATE COMMITTEE

 ANNUAL REPORT

 

2009-2010 Academic Year

 

COMMITTEE:  University Curriculum Committee

 

1.                   Membership (include ex-officio members): Kanchan Das, Ron Graziani (Spring 2010), Donna Kain, Punam Madhok (Fall 2009), Janice Neil, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Ralph Scott, Tarek Abdel-Salam (Spring 2010), Sloane Burke, Samantha Fountain, Linner Griffin, Ron Mitchelson

·        Kimberly Nicholson attended the 2009-2010 UCC meetings as a guest and worked extensively with Diane Coltraine to review the materials considered at each meeting.

2.                   Meeting Dates (include members present*).
* And members who contributed to committee action, but were not at the meeting.

September 10, 2009:  Paul Schwager, Ralph Scott, Jonathan Reid, Kanchan Das, Ron Graziani, Donna Kain, Ron Mitchelson, Linner Griffin, Sloane Burke, Punam Madhok.

September 24, 2009: Kanchan Das, Donna Kain, Punam Madhok, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Sloane Burke, Linner Griffin & Ron Mitchelson     

October 8, 2009: Kanchan Das, Punam Madhok, Janice Neil, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Sloane Burke, Linner Griffin & Ron Mitchelson

November 12, 2009: Kanchan Das, Donna Kain, Punam Madhok, Jonathan Reid, and Paul Schwager, Sloane Burke, Linner Griffin, and Ron Mitchelson
December 10, 2009:
Kanchan Das, Donna Kain, Punam Madhok, Janice Neil, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Ralph Scott, Sloane Burke, Linner Griffin, and Ron Mitchelson

January 14, 2010: Kanchan Das, Donna Kain, Janice Neil, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Ralph Scott, Tarek Abdel-Salam, Sloane Burke, Linner Griffin, and Ron Mitchelson

January 28, 2010: Kanchan Das, Janice Neil, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Ralph Scott, Tarek Abdel-Salam, Sloane Burke, Linner Griffin, and Ron Mitchelson

February 11, 2010: Kanchan Das, Ron Graziani, Donna Kain, Janice Neil, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Ralph Scott, Tarek Abdel-Salam, Sloane Burke, Linner Griffin, and Ron Mitchelson
February 25, 2010:
Kanchan Das, Janice Neil, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Tarek Abdel-Salam, Sloane Burke, Linner Griffin, Donna Kain, and Ron Mitchelson

March 25, 2010: Kanchan Das, Ron Graziani, Donna Kain, Janice Neil, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Ralph Scott, Tarek Abdel-Salam, Sloane Burke, Linner Griffin, and Ron Mitchelson

April 8, 2010: Kanchan Das, Ron Graziani, Donna Kain, Janice Neil, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Ralph Scott, Tarek Abdel-Salam, Sloane Burke, and Linner Griffin

April 22, 2010: Kanchan Das, Donna Kain, Janice Neil, Jonathan Reid, Paul Schwager, Ralph Scott, Sloane Burke, Ron Mitchelson, and Linner Griffin 

3.                   Subcommittees established during the year (include progress and/or completion of work). None

4.                   Accomplishments during the year, especially as addressed through committee goals.  Please include recommendations made to any University agency other than the Faculty Senate that will be noted under #5.

·      Approved numerous curricular changes from all colleges/schools at ECU. Approximate numbers are as follows: New Courses, 72; Revised Existing Courses, 286; Renumbered Courses, 9; New Programs, 6; New Certificate, 2; Revised Existing Degree, 79; Revised Program/Cert, 12; Banked Courses, 14; Deletion of Existing/Banked Courses, 72.

·      Maintained and refined the liaison system, including updating the Undergraduate Curriculum and Program and Development Manual and conducting a fall 2009 informational seminar for liaisons from each unit.  When utilized properly, the liaison system is an integral part of the curriculum development process, streamlining, improving the quality of proposals, and reducing the workload of both faculty and the committee by helping to insure that course proposals and curricular revisions are complete, consistent, and organized before reaching the committee.

·      Continued a 1-week time frame for submission of minor revisions to curricular proposals. Thus, the standard guideline is that individuals presenting curricular proposals should submit all minor revisions requested by the committee within one week of the UCC meeting at which such revisions were requested.

·        Completed policies and procedures for undergraduate certificate programs.

·        Discussed and adopted editorial changes to the curriculum proposal form that will seek clarification about method of course delivery.

·        Cooperated with the GCC and Office of Academic Programs on Curriculum Develoment Workshop.

·        Implemented Budgetary Memo requirement.

·        At the last meeting on Earth Day 2010  the committee voted to eliminate the need for units to submit paper copies to the chair. Units will be responsible for carrying the original signature form to the meeting where the package is presented.

           Reports to the Faculty Senate (include dates and resolution numbers):

                    3 November 2009, Minutes of 9/10/09, 9/24/09, 10/8/09, FSRes# 09-44

                    1 December 2009, Minutes 11/12/09, FSRes# 09-52

                    26 January 2010, Minutes of 12/10/09, FSRes# 10-04

                    23 February 2010, Minutes of 1/14/10, 1/28/10, FSRes# 10-18

                    23 March 2010, Minutes of 2/11/10, 2/25/10, FSRes# 10-20

                    20 April 2010, Minutes of 3/25/2010, 4/8/10, FSRes# 10-49

1.                   Business carried over to next year (list in priority order).

·    Reinforce and maintain the liaison model.  Organize information seminar for liaisons and UCC members as early as possible in the fall semester. To prevent potential problems within the liaison system, emphasize that the liaison’s role is as a facilitator who works to see that proposals are properly prepared according to the program development guidelines and that they are complete before they reach the UCC; the liaison role is not intended to be an additional approval step.

·    Send out periodic UCC guidance notices to ECU Official to remind faculty of process and important contacts.

·    Encourage liaisons to work with the Office of Academic Programs staff prior to submission of marked catalog copy to ensure consistency throughout the catalog. This year saw a substantial decrease in the quality of catalog copy submitted for UCC review.

·    Continue the review team assignment process where three committee members are responsible for reviewing proposals in-depth before the meeting.

·    Limit the number of proposals that can be heard at any one meeting to 8. Anything beyond 8 becomes difficult.

·    Schedule additional meetings of the committee as needed.  Since the official catalog is now the online catalog and will be updated more frequently, proposals are considered throughout spring semester.  The final meeting of the year is exclusively for UCC business.

·    Consider making the last meeting for UCC business only, second to last meeting for revisions of previously considered proposals only, and third to last  meeting as the last meeting for new proposal. This would alleviate much of the pressure to prepare and approve minutes before last Faculty Senate meeting.

·    Suggest to GCC that 5000 level course not be deleted until replacement undergraduate courses are created.

·    Continue to refine the curriculum development process to streamline where appropriate and eliminate confusion for faculty developing curriculum proposals.

·    Continue to support the Office of Academic Program’s workshops on curriculum development.

·    Continue to look for ways the ECU & UNC-System initiatives can be better reflected in curriculum development.

·    Monitor slippage in deadlines for submission of documentation & notification of affected units.

·    Next year’s meeting minutes should include a numerical summary of actions approved.

·    As the committee goes paperless, more powerstrips with long cords are needed to power laptops.

2.                   Evaluation of the committee (include anything that hindered or assisted the committee's work during the year).

          A.      Charge:  Adequate

          B.      Personnel:

Exceptional – all committee members were conscientious and dedicated to the best interests of the university. Although assigned, there was no student representation on the committee.

A public communication specialist from the Office of Academic Programs continues to assist the process by supporting the work of the committee.

          C.      Attendance:

All members were prompt in attendance and attended most meetings

          D.      Responsibilities:

                    The workload of this committee, especially for the officers, is very demanding and continues to grow as the University expands, new programs are created, and old programs are revised to meet rapidly changing needs.  However, the success of the liaison system, the support of the Office Academic Programs and the Faculty Senate office greatly facilitated the workload.  Reinforcement and streamlining of the liaison system and the support from the Office Academic Programs in preparing meeting agendas and master marked catalog copy documents prior to meetings should continue to improve the situation.

          E.      Activities:  Normal (extremely heavy at end of the academic year)

3.                   Suggestion(s) to the Chair of the Faculty and/or Faculty Senate for improving the effectiveness of the committee.

·        The committee is in unanimous agreement that the liaison system and the support of the Office of Academic Programs in agenda and catalog copy preparation are essential in enabling this committee to operate in a timely and efficient manner.

·        The committee reviewed several proposals that appeared to have significant duplication of content with other units. Additional guidance on what level of duplication and justification of duplication are appropriate would be helpful.

·        Continuity of leadership is essential to the efficient and effective functioning of the UCC. A succession plan should be considered so that future officers are identified early and developed appropriately.

9.       Does the Committee’s organizational meeting next year need to be earlier than the date set this year?  No.

         

 

                                                  Signed:  Chairperson ___Paul H. Schwager, Ph.D._____________

 

                                                                      Secretary   _Janice A.  Neil, RN, Ph.D._____________