October 27, 2023

UNDERGRADUATE COUNCIL
MINUTES
October 27, 2023
2:30 p.m.
Upchurch Conference Room, BELL 3162

MEMBERS PRESENT: 
Voting:  Alan Ellstrand, Matthew Ganio, Rhett Hutchins, Ethel Goodstein-Murphree, Laurie Apple, Chris Liner, Casey Harris, Lona Robertson, Garry McDonald, Manuel Rossetti, and Megan Hull

Non-Voting: Gina Daugherty, Lisa Kulczak, and Suzanne Kenner 

MEMBERS ABSENT: 
Voting: Adriana Gonzalez, Rodney Thomas II, Kevin Hall, and Samantha Robinson
 
Non-Voting:  Amanda Corbell, Tiffany Murphy, and Suzanne Kucharczyk

GUESTS:  Paolo Mantero

 

Chair Alan Ellstrand called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m.

1. The minutes for the September 22, 2023, meeting were approved.

2. Course Change Proposals: 

All course change proposals were approved without opposition. The approved courses are listed on the CIM Course Report created by CourseLeaf and will be forwarded for consideration to the Faculty Senate, meeting scheduled for November 8, 2023.

3. Old Business:  

None

4.  New Business:  

The following program change proposals were approved on the CIM Program Report.  The program change proposals will be forwarded for consideration to the Faculty Senate, meeting scheduled for November 8, 2023.

a. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences, Department of Food Science – BREWCP – Brewing Science, Certificate of Proficiency presented by Lona Robertson.

i. Changing list of courses in program. Please note: FDSC 4422/5522 has been requested as a change to current FDSC 2723. It is going through the approval process now.
ii. FDSC 2741 is a new course that is also going through approval process.

Several courses are no longer offered. There are also new courses being offered in the department that can be applied to this program (4a_brewcp_report_10272023, 4a_certificate_of_proficiency_in_brewing_science_course_list_with_changes_10272023, 4a_certificate_of_proficiency_in_brewing_science_course_list_10272023).

 

b. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Mathematical Sciences – MATH Dept Honors – Mathematics Departmental Honors presented by Paolo Mantero.

i. Minor updates in language.
Suggested by Fulbright Honors College.

ii. Replaced MATH 498V with MATH399VH.
This allows students to earn honors credit for thesis hours and reflects the standard practice for honors theses. Awkward language regarding when this should be taken was removed.

iii. Added language regarding when a student should seek an advisor.
Reflects best practices in our department (4b_math_dept_honors_report_10272023).

 

c. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, School of Journalism and Strategic Media – JOPLBA – Journalism/Political Science, Bachelor of Arts presented by Chris Liner.

1. The major is out-of-compliance with university standards. 
2. The Political Science Department often has to use course substitutions because recommended PLSC courses in this combined major are not offered regularly. 
3. Confusion reigns over whether this combined major exists or should exist, especially in regard to student advising (4c_joplba_report_10272023).

 

d. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, School of Journalism and Strategic Media – JOPLBA-ADPR – Journalism/Political Science: Advertising-Public Relations Concentration presented by Chris Liner.

1. The major is out-of-compliance with university standards. 
2. The Political Science Department often has to use course substitutions because recommended PLSC courses in this combined major are not offered regularly. 
3. Confusion reigns over whether this combined major exists or should exist, especially in regard to student advising (4d_joplba-adpr_report_10272023). 

 

e. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, School of Journalism and Strategic Media – JOPLBA-BCST – Journalism/Political Science: Broadcast Concentration presented by Chris Liner.

1. The major is out-of-compliance with university standards. 
2. The Political Science Department often has to use course substitutions because recommended PLSC courses in this combined major are not offered regularly. 
3. Confusion reigns over whether this combined major exists or should exist, especially in regard to student advising (4e_joplba-bcst_report_10272023). 

 

f. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, School of Journalism and Strategic Media – JOPLBA-NEWS – Journalism/Political Science: News-Editorial Concentration presented by Chris Liner.

1. The major is out-of-compliance with university standards. 
2. The Political Science Department often has to use course substitutions because recommended PLSC courses in this combined major are not offered regularly. 
3. Confusion reigns over whether this combined major exists or should exist, especially in regard to student advising (4f_joplba-news_report_10272023).

 

g. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Walton College of Business, Department of Business Dean – WCOB Honors – WCOB College Honors Requirements presented by Alan Ellstrand.

Changing the math requirement for Walton Scholars Honors students. Once implemented, the requirement will be that students must attain a score of *26 ACT or 620 SAT or higher on the math portion of these exams, or a score of at least 60 on the Math Placement Test, and students are required to take MATH 2053, Finite Math in their first semester unless they already have AP/IB/dual credit for the course.
*Updated math test score language to include the Math Placement Test per Undergraduate Council recommendation.  CIM form adjusted to reflect this; proposal approved.

MATH 1203 College Algebra is considered a remedial course in our curriculum and students who need to start in this class would be a better fit under our departmental honors requirements. The semesters that we offer honors sections of courses are based on students having completed MATH 2053 Finite Math in their first semester. It is a pre-req to many courses that they need in the spring. A student who meets the honors admission requirements but has a lower math score would still have the option to complete MATH 1203 College Algebra in the summer prior to their first semester so that they could start in MATH 2053 Finite Math. They could also attempt the math placement exam over the summer to place into MATH 2053 for the fall. Whatever the path, this change requires that students be Finite Math ready in their 1st semester in order to start as a Walton Honors Scholar. If they can't meet this requirement, they can still join Honors after their first year as a Departmental Scholar if they meet those requirements (4g_wcob_honors_report_10272023). 

 

h. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Walton College of Business, Department of Finance – FINNBS – Finance, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration presented by Alan Ellstrand.

Adding an online Finance program using Option 1 of the Financial Management/Investments Concentration.

Adding a Finance Degree option provides the opportunity to attract a number of students to this major both within and outside the state of Arkansas. This is the only fully-online finance degree program in the state of Arkansas (4h_finnbs_report_10272023, 4h_finnbs_online_delivery_ltr_of_notification_rev_bot_10272023, 4h_updated_exhibit_a_and_b_online_bsba_in_finance_10272023).

 

i. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Walton College of Business, Department of Finance – FINNBS-FNMG – Finance: Financial Mgmt/Investment Concentration presented by Alan Ellstrand.

i. Adding FINN 3933 Real Estate Principles as an elective to Option 1.

Adding Real Estate Principles provides a new elective alternative for students interested in adding a real estate investment perspective to their concentration classes.

ii. Adding an online Finance program using Option 1 of the Financial Management/Investments Concentration.

Adding a Finance Degree option provides the opportunity to attract a number of students to this major both within and outside the state of Arkansas. This is the only fully-online finance degree program in the state of Arkansas.

iii. Provided footnotes to the Program Requirements and Description section to indicate the options available to online only students.

Not all of our Finance courses are available online. As a result, the footnotes contain specific course options for fully online students (4i_finnbs-fnmg_report_10272023, 4i_finnbs_online_delivery_ltr_of_notification_rev_bot_10272023, 4i_updated_exhibit_a_and_b_online_bsba_in_finance_10272023). 

 

j. Proposed undergraduate program change for the College of Education and Health Professions – EDUC Honors – EDUC College Honors Requirements presented by Matt Ganio.

i. Change of terminology from probation to warning for GPAs between 3.0-3.5.
To avoid confusion with the status of academic probation. 

ii. Removal of text regarding removing honors courses when on warning or when dismissed from honors.
Policy was not enforced so removing from catalog.

iii. Addition of PHED 3991H as an option for honors thesis tutorial.
Due to split of KINS major into EXSC and PHED, thesis courses were also split into EXSC and PHED versions. Because PHED 3903 already existed as a class and 3901 was not a lab component for that class, the thesis tutorial for this alpha code had to be changed to a different number.

iv. Correcting name of 498VH.
This course has long been called "Honors Thesis/Project" but this was not reflected in the catalog (4j_educ_honors_report_10272023).

 

k. Proposed undergraduate program change for the College of Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering – DATA-M – Data Analytics Minor presented by Manuel Rossetti.

The creation of the undergraduate program in Data Science and the recent change to the Industrial Engineering curriculum have rendered the Data Analytics minor obsolete (4k_data-m_report_10272023). 

5. Additional items/Announcements

⦁ Licensure Revision to Allow Master’s Class Options (PHEDBS) – Revising a Certificate/Degree Licensure without Academic Program Changes
(5_licensure_revision_coversheet_and_section_c_phedbs_10272023).

Next Meeting: November 17, 2023 (agenda deadline is November 3, 2023).

Meeting adjourned at 2:53 p.m.