Undergraduate Studies Committee

February 2, 2011

Minutes

Present: Ravisha Mathur (EDUC), Cary Feria (COSS),Deepika Goyal (CASA), Dennis Jaehne (UGS), Resa Kelly (SCI), Damian Bacich (H&A), Mary Calegari (BUS),Lori Salazar(AS), Wei-Chien Lee (Counseling Services)
Absent: Weider Yu (ENGR)

Guests: Stephen Branz (UGS), Neelam Rattan and Russell Arias (Psychology), Victoria Harrison (Jewish Studies)

  1. Minutes from December 15 meeting were approved with one abstention.
  2. FYE course certification requests

PSYC 002Q “Identity Development and Prejudice Awareness”

Dr. Rattan and Dr. Arias presented a brief description how students will meet the FYE goals through activities and experiences in-class and outside of the classroom. Both instructors have taught MUSE courses in the past and tailored the course to First Year Freshmen. Students will be encouraged to participate in discussions about sensitive topics, formulate difficult questions and question stereotypes, write reflective papers, and learn how to think like academic scholars.

The committee commended the course proposal. There were minor suggestions for clarifying administrative details such as messaging through mySJSU, meetings with instructors or setting reasonable expectations for in-class assignments.

Action Item: The course was unanimously approved as an FYE course by the committee.

JWSS 018Q“Jews, Comics and WW II”

Dr. Harrison described how this course proposal evolved from her MUSE teachings. Students will get acquainted with the campus, the library and the reading program. The instructor will collaborate with LARC and the Peer Mentor Center to teach them study skills and will work on finding timely events for students as co-curricular activities (i.e., if the Spartan Success Workshops are not offered anymore). The students will write and peer-review papers, and will be taught how to self assess themselves and how to use rubrics. A new component that she will add to the course is a class website so that students can collaborate on it. Active participation is expected as well as working with each other in a diverse, cross-cultural environment.

The committee thought that the course proposal is very well developed and commended the course coordinator.

Action Item: The course was unanimously approved as an FYE course by the committee.

ECON 001BQ“Principles of Economics: Microeconomics”

The committee thought that the course is well developed for FYE. No questions or concerns were raised.

Action Item: The course was unanimously approved as an FYE course by the committee.

MAS 96FQ “Race and Ethnicity”

The committee recommended for the course proposal to be resubmitted for next Fall. The committee members felt that the submitted materials are not sufficient for an FYE decision to be made.

  1. Future agenda items:
  • Change in the procedure for approval of FYE courses – courses might be reviewed by BoGS for both GE and FYE certification. Recommendations for FYE approval will be forwarded by Steve Branz to the UGS Committee. In other words, a draft of the proposal will be sent to UGS Committee members for review.
  • The UGS committee should focus on a systematic approach to evaluation of program and course learning outcomes.
  • The UGS committee should develop guidelines for repeatability of courses as an aspect of curricular streamlining and ensuring integrity in our curriculum.