Undergraduate Studies Committee

Undergraduate Studies Committee November 17, 2010 Minutes

Present: Ravisha Mathur (EDUC), Cary Feria (COSS), Weider Yu (ENGR), Dennis Jaehne (UGS), Resa Kelly (SCI), Deepika Goyal (CASA) Absent: Damian Bacich (H&A), Laura Ingraham (BUS) Brittany Erickson (AS), Wei-Chien Lee (Counseling Services) Guests: Stephen Branz (UGS), Debra David (UGS), Cindy Kato (AARS), Maureen Scharberg (SASS)

I. The minutes from November 17, 2010 were unanimously approved. II. FYE courses – some of the course certification requests were not complete but due to lack of time and guidance in the process, the committee will accept these course materials for review.  MAS 1A-B – only MAS 1A may be designated as a FYE course. It should be made clear that students are not obligated to complete MAS 1B, and assignments, objectives and assessment should be kept separate for both courses. It is not clear in the greensheet how students will practice academic skills. There is also no detailed information how assignments are linked to learning objectives. Will this course specifically target first generation and underrepresented students? Overall, the committee members thought that the course is well developed but it needs some fine tuning. They would like to talk to the course coordinator before making a final decision, and he will be invited to the next meeting (Dec. 1)  WOMS 005 – references to MUSE will have to be removed from the greensheet. There are missing links between assignments and learning objectives on the syllabus. SLO 3 seems weak – no information how students will practice academic skills, and it is not clear how students assess their own strengths and weaknesses. The committee would like to see a revised greensheet prior to making a decision.  KIN 97 – the committee started the discussion but could not finish it. If approved, the approval will be pending feedback from the Music department that they agree for this course to be offered out of Kinesiology.

III. Assigned Undeclared Majors Cindy Kato (AARS) and Maureen Scharberg (SASS) joined the meeting to discuss issues with Assigned Undeclared majors. Due to the impaction of certain majors in Fall 2010, as of November 17 there are still 570 students in the process of deciding on a major. Each student has been assigned to an advisor in AARS and they get individual advising and are being provided with tools to select a major. AARS has worked with departments and colleges to place Assigned Undeclared from the Former Student Returning category back in the majors if the students are close to graduation. Some majors created pathways and asked students to complete certain courses before making a decision if they will accept them into the major or not. Once grades for Fall 2010 are posted, the number of assigned undeclared majors will probably decrease. Students are encouraged to take the WST so that they have more options. Special major is not a solution for these students because it appeals to a different student population – more independent and self driven students who are able to craft their own majors. What might help the assigned undeclared students are programs similar to the ones at SDSU (http://arweb.sdsu.edu/es/admissions/ab/interdiscstudies.htm) with academic pathways from different departments. Currently at SJSU there are some interdisciplinary options such as Global Studies, Behavioral Science or Liberal Arts but more curricular pathways should be created (e.g., an interdisciplinary major). The role of UGS Committee might be to assist departments to set up academic criteria and facilitate coordination of more collaborative and interdisciplinary programs. The discussion will continue in the Spring semester.