AC-04-40 FACULTY OF SCIENCE ACADEMIC COMMITTEE Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, October 26, 2004, at 3:00 p.m. in Arts Council Room, Arts 160. PRESENT: Dean Shaver (Chair), Associate Dean Mendelson (Vice-Chair), Associate Dean Leighton, Professors Arkani-Hamed, Baines, Baker, Cline, Fabry, Kakkar, Kemme, Mandato (in the absence of Prof. Bennett) Meredith, Nilson, Schmidt, Silvius, Wechsler, Yau; E. Gibb; L. Bondy, R. Friedlander, C. Lee, A. Malone, A. Patel, C. Walsh; J. DÂ’Amico. REGRETS: Professor Shultz; Associate Dean Hendershot; E. Bensoussan, DOCUMENTS: AC-04-26 to AC-04-39 Dean Shaver called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. Dean Shaver congratulated Prof. John Silvius for having received the PrincipalÂ’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching, in the Full Professor category. (1) ADOPTION OF AGENDA - Minor in Education for Science Students to be considered under Other Business, Item #11, of the Agenda. - Education, EDEM 220 to be placed under Other Business, Item #11, of the Agenda. - Microbiology & Immunology, MIMM 499, to be added to Other Business, Item #11, of the Agenda. Prof. Cline moved, seconded by Prof. Kakkar, that the amended Agenda be adopted. The motion carried. (2) MINUTES OF SEPTEMBER 28, 2004 AC-04-26 Prof. Yau moved, seconded by Prof. Arkani-Hamed, that the minutes be approved. The motion carried. (3) BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES - Minutes 106.1 to 106.3, Minor in Kinesiology - Minute 107.1, B.Sc.; Major in Earth System Science 203.1 Associate Dean Mendelson said that there had been some questions raised about the above two items, but that all questions had been answered satisfactorily prior to the most recent Faculty of Science meeting. Both items had been approved at that meeting. (4) REPORT ON MINOR COURSE CHANGES AC-04-27 (for information) 204.1 Associate Dean Mendelson mentioned that there was a change in schedule type for BIOL 432, and a change in prerequisites. He said that students would now be spending two weekends at a field station. 204.2 In response to a member, Associate Dean Mendelson said that it was recommended that departments examine the content of their courses and apply restrictions where there is significant overlap with courses in other departments. (5) BIOLOGY New Course: BIOL 355 Trees: Ecology & Evolution AC-04-28 3 credits Prof. Nilson moved, seconded by Prof. Fabry, that the course be adopted. The motion carried. New Course: BIOL 573 Vertebrate Palaeo Field Course AC-04-29 3 credits Prof. Nilson moved, seconded by Prof. Arkani-Hamed, that the course be adopted. The motion carried. New Course: BIOL 592 Integrated Bioinformatics AC-04-30 3 credits Prof. Nilson moved, seconded by Prof. Kemme, that the course be adopted. The motion carried. (6) SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE New Course: COMP 618 Functional Genomics AC-04-31 3 credits Prof. Kemme moved, seconded by Prof. Fabry, that the course be adopted. The motion carried. THE FOLLOWING COURSE WAS TABLED TO A FUTURE ACADEMIC COMMITTEE MEETING. (7) EARTH & PLANETARY SCIENCES New Course: EPSC 413 Special Studies AC-04-32 1 credit 207.1 After some discussion concerning the method of evaluation, the lack of prerequisites or at least "permission of instructor," and the type of course, Associate Dean Mendelson moved, seconded by Associate Dean Leighton, that the proposal be tabled to a future Academic Committee meeting. The motion carried. (8) ONE-CREDIT COURSES AC-04-33 208.1 Associate Dean Mendelson introduced the above item. 208.2 There was some discussion on the issue of one- and two-credit courses in general, and of their purposes. 208.3 Associate Dean Mendelson said that since he had had a favourable response from units regarding their institution of one-credit courses, he would like to move that the original motion (Minutes of Academic Committee meeting of September 28, 2004 - Minutes 110.1 to 110.3) to mandate one-credit courses, be withdrawn. 208.4 Associate Dean Mendelson moved, seconded by Prof. Fabry, that the motion to mandate one-credit courses (Meeting of September 28, 2004) be withdrawn. The motion carried. 208.5 Associate Dean Mendelson will follow up with units regarding their institution of one-credit courses, and will provide units with a description of a corresponding course in the Faculty of Law. (9) ONLINE COURSE EVALUATION (MOLE) REPORT AC-04-34 209.1 Associate Dean Mendelson introduced the above document, and highlighted the main points. Associate Dean Mendelson moved, seconded by Prof. Cline, that the recommendations of the above report be adopted. 209.2 Regarding Section A, Accessibility of Course Evaluation Results to the McGill Community, Associate Dean Mendelson said that Recommendation 1 was not up for approval, and he suggested that Recommendations 2 and 3 be dealt with via separate votes. 209.3 Discussion took place on Recommendations 2 and 3. Recommendation 2: No change Recommendation 3(a): No change Recommendation 3(b): No change Recommendation 3(c): Delete sentence "Failing this, they should accept summaries reformatted by units that are more user friendly." Recommendation 3(d): No change Recommendation 3(e): No change Recommendation 3(f): No change 209.4 It was pointed out that for permission purposes, the Provost's Office would not distinguish between evaluation of a course as such and evaluation of the teaching of that course. Consequently, if a professor did not give permission for the posting of the teaching evaluation, the course evaluation could not be posted. 209.5 It was therefore suggested that a recommendation [3 (g)] be added, to the effect that permission be granted separately to post evaluations of the course as such and evaluations of the teaching. 209.6 The work group will devise the appropriate wording for Recommendation 3 (g). Votes were held: Recommendation 2: Carried Recommendation 3 (a) to (f), with 3 (c) amended as above: Carried 209.7 Dean Shaver said that he would like to point out that in his opinion it would be very difficult in evaluations to separate course content from teaching. The two were intimately linked. He warned members that a tremendous amount of time could be spent drafting Recommendation 3 (g). Recommendation 4: A vote was held on the phase-in process for years 2004-05 and 2005-06: 2004-05: Carried 2005-06: For: 14 Against: 3 Abstentions: 3 209.8 Regarding Recommendation 4 (b), a member pointed out that there is a great difference between multi-instructor and multi-section courses, and he said that the Faculty's concerns over these should be completely addressed. 209.9 Associate Dean Mendelson said that there should be a Recommendation 4 (g) to indicate that in multi-section courses, students should be able to fill out evaluations for the section that they actually attended. 209.10 Associate Dean Mendelson said that the Associate Dean (Academic) would determine whether Recommendations 1 to 4 had been adequately implemented before the complete adoption of online evaluations in 2006-07. A vote was held on the remainder of Recommendation 4, including 4 (g): Carried 209.11 Dean Shaver said that if a department wished to opt out of MOLE, it would be up to that department to prove that paper evaluations were superior to online evaluations. A vote was held on Recommendation 5: Carried 209.12 It was agreed that Recommendation 6 should read: "Instructors submitting teaching dossiers should clearly indicate whether course evaluations that they report were conducted online or with paper." A vote was held on Recommendation 6: Carried 209.13 It was suggested that the work group consider extending the online evaluation period until the final exam. (10) ACADEMIC PROGRAM REVIEW PROCESS AC-04-35 - Detailed Procedural Guidelines AC-04-36 210.1 Associate Dean Mendelson said that Senate had approved a review of all the academic programs, both undergraduate and graduate, offered by McGill. The procedures adopted by Senate allow each faculty to conduct the review in a fashion appropriate to that faculty's goals. A Faculty Review Group will be set up by the Faculty of Science to oversee the process. The review will be conducted in consultation with the Academic Committee, but not through the Academic Committee. 210.2 Associate Dean Mendelson said that the documents were being distributed, and the next Academic Committee meeting would discuss the process. He also said that Dean Shaver would be raising the issue with the heads of units. 210.3 Dean Shaver emphasized that this would be a Faculty-wide review, not a department-by-department review. The B.Sc. degree would be looked at in an overall fashion, and the various types of programs within the B.Sc. (e.g., Major, Honours) would be examined. 210.4 In reply to a member, Dean Shaver said that the review of graduate programs would follow on from the "Best Practices" review of several years previously, and from the recommendations resulting from that review. (11) OTHER BUSINESS 211.1 Dean Shaver said the following items would be considered with the approval of the Academic Committee, since they had been submitted after the deadline and since the time was getting late. (i) Education (For Information) EDEM 220 Contemporary Issues in Ed. AC-04-37 3 credits (ii) Minor in Education for Science Students AC-04-38 Associate Dean Mendelson moved, seconded by Prof. Baines, that the changes be approved. The motion carried. (iii) Microbiology & Immunology MIMM 499 Library Research Project 1 credit AC-04-39 Prof. Baines moved, seconded by Associate Dean Mendelson, that the course be adopted. The motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 5:23 p.m. 6 AC Mins October 26.doc