December 15, 2023
UNDERGRADUATE COUNCIL
MINUTES
December 15, 2023
3:00 p.m.
Upchurch Conference Room, BELL 3162
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Voting: Alan Ellstrand, Garry McDonald, Kevin Hall, Paul Calleja, Manuel Rossetti, Megan
Hull, Samantha Robinson, Laurie Apple, and Rhett Hutchins
Non-Voting: Lisa Kulczak and Suzanne Kenner
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Voting: Adriana Gonzalez, Casey Harris, Lona Robertson, Ethel Goodstein-Murphree, Chris Liner,
and Rodney Thomas II
Non-Voting: Gina Daugherty, Amanda Corbell, Tiffany Murphy, Suzanne Kucharczyk
GUESTS: Ellen R. Urton
Chair Alan Ellstrand called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.
1. The minutes for the November 17, 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 January 17, 2024.
3. Old Business:
a. Follow-up discussion on the Council’s interpretation of two questions on the program proposal form in CourseLeaf.
i. “Is this program interdisciplinary?”
The Council was concerned that there is no campus definition of “interdisciplinary” and that guidelines around previous interpretations are not codified in written policy. Chair Alan Ellstrand shared Vice Provost Gigantino’s response to the Council’s questions and asked Council members to discuss with their colleagues in each college. The Council will revisit this at the January meeting.
ii. “Does this proposal impact courses from other colleges?”
While the current understanding of this policy is that selecting an affirmative response to this question only needs to be done if/when the change being proposed is to add or remove a course from another college as part of program requirements. Chair Alan Ellstrand shared Vice Provost Gigantino’s response to the Council’s questions and asked Council members to discuss with their colleagues in each college. The Council will revisit this at the January meeting.
4. New Business:
a. Council members noted that commencement rehearsal was held that morning for faculty and dean’s office personnel and inquired about moving the December meeting start time back to 2:30 if this is going to be the rehearsal schedule going forward. Lisa Kulczak will confirm with the Registrar’s Office and share that information at the January meeting.
The following program change proposals except items d, e, and f were approved on the CIM Program Report. The approved program change proposals will be forwarded for consideration to the
Faculty Senate, meeting scheduled for January 17, 2024. Items d, e, and f were tabled because the Council had questions regarding the proposed
changes and no one from the college was available to address them. These items will
be presented for a vote at the January 26, 2024, Undergraduate Council meeting.
a. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences,
Department of Geosciences – ERSCBS – Earth Science, Bachelor of Science. No representative
from the college was available to present this item.
i. This proposal a) simplifies math requirement to either Survey of Calculus or Calculus
I (removing other options), b) removes world language requirement, c) specifically
requires University Chemistry (+ lab) and College Physics (+ lab) as chemistry/physics
requirement, d) removes Introduction to Cartography as a requirement, e) replaces
8-credit biology requirement with specifically Principles of Biology as well as Environmental
Science, f) removes Mineralogy, Sedimentary Geology, Hydrogeology and Earth System
History as requirements, g) adds Geospatial Applications and Information Science,
Environmental Field Methods (new course proposed separately), Geological Data Analysis,
"Hazard & Disaster Assessment, Mitigation, and Risk", and Environmental Justice (as
a capstone) as requirements, h) streamlines wording on Geosciences and U of A electives,
and i) ensures general education outcomes are added to eight-semester plan.
ii. Please note that general education outcome 3.4 has been entered into the appropriate
comments in the eight-semester plan but due to a possible website glitch are not appearing
in the "track changes"; this glitch will need to be resolved to ensure the catalog
appropriately references the general education outcomes.
The Earth Science, Bachelor of Science (ERSCBS) degree was originally designed to support students in meeting licensure requirements for teaching Earth science in public schools. However, the ERSCBS degree has not undergone a major revision since national accrediting bodies removed the requirement for Earth science courses for student licensure. This proposed revision will meet the needs of our students by equipping them with the critical skills and knowledge needed for a career as an Earth scientist. The revised curriculum decreases overlap with the Geology, Bachelor of Science degree while emphasizing the courses most relevant to training the next generation of Earth science students, including focusing on geographic information science (GIS), quantitative reasoning and coding, field methods, and topics relating to hazards, the environment, and climate. The proposed revisions also improve the degree by (1) fixing prerequisite inconsistencies, (2) steering students into the most relevant science and mathematics courses, (3) removing world language requirements, and (4) adding an Earth Science-specific capstone course. We believe that the proposed revisions better leverage the strengths of the Department of Geosciences in preparing students for success in a world that requires expertise in the Earth and its interconnected systems and processes (4a_erscbs_report_12152023, 4a_erscbs_curriculum_revision_ltr_of_notification_rev_bot_12152023).
b. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geosciences – GEOG-M – Geography Minor. No representative from the college was available to present this item.
We are requesting that the CIP code be updated from the longstanding "Geography" code to "Geography and Environmental Studies".
Effective 2020, the National Center for Education Statistics recently established a new CIP code for "Geography and Environmental Studies" which better captures the geography teaching, research and service strengths developed in recent decades at University of Arkansas. For example, the new CIP code recognizes "climate science, sustainability, environmental science and policy, research methods, geographic information systems (GIS), human geography, physical geography, remote sensing, and public policy" whereas the old code neglects key areas of technical, human, and physical geography that have broad implications worldwide. Geographic information systems are a key area of interest within geography and are a vital component between the educational/research/service collaboration between Department of Geosciences, Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST), and other campus organizations. The new code is recognized, as it should be, as a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) field by the Department of Homeland Security whereas the old code is not. Based on information shared among department chairs through the American Association of Geographers (AAG), other respected geography programs are transitioning to this new CIP code as it better reflects the reality of the discipline (4b_geog-m_report_12152023).
c. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geosciences – GISTCP – Geospatial Technologies Undergraduate Certificate. No representative from the college was available to present this item.
Changing CIP code from 45.0702 Geographic Information Science and Cartography to 30.4401 Geography and Environmental Studies.
Effective 2020, the National Center for Education Statistics recently established a new Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code for "Geography and Environmental Studies" which better captures the geography teaching, research and service strengths developed in recent decades at University of Arkansas. For example, the new CIP code recognizes "climate science, sustainability, environmental science and policy, research methods, geographic information systems (GIS), human geography, physical geography, remote sensing, and public policy". The online geospatial certificates were previously coded as "Geographic Information Science and Cartography" which certainly captured a large part of what the certificates focus on. However, the new geography code which encompasses technical geography makes the most sense in terms of a) providing a strong geography and environmental studies context for the certificates (which simply reflects the reality of these studies), and b) meet ADHE viability requirements by combining the certificate with the bachelor's and master's degrees in geography (4c_gistcp_report_12152023, 4c_gistcp_cip_code_change_ltr_of_notification_rev_bot_12152023).
d. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures – CLSTBA – Classical Studies, Bachelor of Arts. No representative from the college was available to present this item, and the Council voted to table this until the January meeting.
i. Changed size of concentration to 18 hours.
ii. Changed Fulbright college 3000+ hours to 6.
Department updating the size of their concentration (reducing from 21 to 18). See LANG concentration update justification for more information (4d_clstba_report_12152023).
e. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures – CLSTBA-CRDH – Classical Studies: Cultures, Reception, and Digital Humanities Concentration. No representative from the college was available to present this item, and the Council voted to table this until the January meeting.
i. Reducing size of concentration from 21 to 18.
ii. Updating 8 semester plan to correspond.
The other concentration in this major was updated to change the language hours required. This concentration's size changed to match (4e_clstba-crdh_report_12152023).
f. Proposed undergraduate program change for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures – CLSTBA-LANG – Classical Studies: Greek and/or Latin Language Concentration. No representative from the college was available to present this item, and the Council voted to table this until the January meeting.
i. Updated concentration to 18 hours from 21.
ii. Updated 8 semester plan to correspond.
Department would like this newer version of the major to have the same language requirement level as the pre-2023 version to make it easier for students on old catalogs to update. They removed 3 hrs. from the language req (and total concentration) The other concentration's size was updated to match (4f_clstba-lang_report_11172023).
g. Proposed undergraduate program change for the College of Education and Health Professions, Department of Curriculum and Instruction – EDSTBS – Educational Studies, Bachelor of Science in Education presented by Rhett Hutchins.
Remove the Arkansas employment requirement to grow program.
Due to changes from the Arkansas Department of Education, there are now many programs available for para-professionals or associates degree holders to earn a bachelors degree. This has reduced applications to EDST-PARA and will subsequently result in reduced program enrollment. During the original program advertisement, students from neighboring states (TX, OK, and MO) contacted the program for enrollment, but were denied due to restricted program offering and beginning logistics. We feel that this is no longer needed and offering the program for 2 years, we can now removed the Arkansas only employment restriction (4g_edstbs_report_12152023).
h. Proposed undergraduate program change for the College of Education and Health Professions, Department of Curriculum and Instruction – EDSTBS-MXED – Educational Studies: Mixed Educational Environments Concentration presented by Rhett Hutchins.
Footnote edit (4h_edstbs-mxed_report_12152023).
i. Proposed undergraduate program change for the College of Education and Health Professions, Department of Curriculum and Instruction – EDSTBS-PARA – Educational Studies: Para-Professional Transition Concentration presented by Rhett Hutchins.
Remove Arkansas employment restriction.
Due to changes from the Arkansas Department of Education, there are now many programs available for para-professionals or associates degree holders to earn a bachelor’s degree. This has reduced applications to EDST-PARA and will subsequently result in reduced program enrollment. During the original program advertisement, students from neighboring states (TX, OK, and MO) contacted the program for enrollment, but were denied due to restricted program offering and beginning logistics. We feel that this is no longer needed and offering the program for 2 years, we can now remove the Arkansas only employment restriction (4i_edstbs-para_report_12152023).
j. Proposed undergraduate program change for the College of Engineering, Department
of Mechanical Engineering – MEEGBS-AERO – Mechanical Engineering: Aerospace Concentration
presented by Manuel Rossetti.
i. In the additional course category, any MEEG 4000 and 5000 electives are now allowed per advanced approval by the Aerospace and MEEG Curriculum Committee.
To simplify the program course listing and allow flexibility in adopting new and removing old/retired courses.
ii. In the additional course category, current ASTR, GEOS, and SPAC courses with specific course numbers are now changed to encompass entire department/program courses.
The requested change will allow flexibility in selecting ASTR, GEOS, and SPAC courses that are outside of MEEG purview and expand the coverage of concentration.
iii. In the additional course category, restrict honors research (MEEG 4903H) and special projects (MEEG 492V/592V) to 3 hours toward the concentration and MEEG degree.
To prevent double-dipping of same project efforts registered under different courses (4j_meegbs-aero_report_12152023).
5. Additional Items/Announcements:
a. NAS Millington, TN Site - Deletion of an Organizational Unit (previously used for the in-person Master of Science in Operations Management program) (5a_nas_millington_tn_site_deletion_of_instructional_center_ltr_of_notification_rev_bot_12152023).
Next Meeting: January 26, 2024 (agenda deadline is January 12, 2024).
Meeting adjourned at 3:37 p.m.