AC-04-158 FACULTY OF SCIENCE ACADEMIC COMMITTEE Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, April 19, 2005, at 3:00 p.m. in Arts Council Room, Arts 160. PRESENT: Dean Shaver (Chair), Associate Dean Mendelson (Vice-Chair), Associate Dean Leighton; Professors Cline, Fabry, Kemme, Levine, Mandato, Schmidt, Shultz, Wechsler, Yau; E. Gibb; A. Malone; J. D’Amico. REGRETS: Professor Arkani-Hamed, Baines, Chmura, Kakkar, Silvius; Associate Dean Hendershot; E. Bensoussan, L. Bondy, R. Friedlander, C. Lee, A. Patel, C. Walsh. DOCUMENTS: AC-04-141(Rev), AC-04-143, AC-04-144,144(Rev) AC-04-145 to AC-04-157 Dean Shaver called the meeting to order at 3:02 p.m. (1) ADOPTION OF AGENDA - Two additional items, Memberships of Program Study Groups for the Academic Program Review (Document # AC-04-156) and Admissions Data (Document # AC-04-157), to be considered under Other Business. Prof. Schmidt moved, seconded by Prof. Cline, that the amended Agenda be adopted. The motion carried. (2) MINUTES OF MARCH 15, 2005 AC-04-143 Prof. Yau moved, seconded by Prof. Shultz, that the Minutes be approved. The motion carried. (3) BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES - Minute 711.2, Undergraduate Research Opportunities (AC-04-119) 803.1 Associate Dean Mendelson informed members that the recommendations in the above document had been approved at the Faculty of Science meeting of April 5, 2005. (4) REPORT ON MINOR COURSE CHANGES AC-04-144(Revised) (for information) Secretary’s Note: The course title for MATH 579 has since been modified to read: Numerical Diff. Eqns. (5) PROPOSED MSE GRADUATE ENVIRONMENT OPTION – AC-04-145 805.1 Prof. Marilyn Scott, Acting Director of the McGill School of Environment, said that she was interested in obtaining feedback on the proposed Option, and as well would like to know which units would be interested in offering the Option. 805.2 Prof. Scott briefly described the proposal and answered some questions. 805.3 Prof. Scott will send a description of the proposed Option to Dean Shaver, who will circulate it to chairs and directors. (6) ANATOMY & CELL BIOLOGY New Course: ANAT 499 Supervised Library Research AC-04-146 1 credit Prof. Mandato moved, seconded by Prof. Yau, that the course be adopted. The motion carried. (7) BIOLOGY New Course: BIOL 510 Advances in Community Ecology AC-04-141(REV) 3 credits Prof. Levine moved, seconded by Prof. Mandato, that the course be adopted. The motion carried. (8) BIOLOGY/PHYSIOLOGY/PSYCHOLOGY New Program: B.Sc. Major in Neuroscience AC-04-148 808.1 A member raised the issue of whether COMP 206 was the most appropriate Computer Science course for this program. Prof. Shultz moved, seconded by Prof. Levine, that the program be adopted pending consultation with the School of Computer Science. The motion carried. 808.2 It was mentioned that if the above Major Program was successful, an Honours Program would be instituted. (9) FACULTY PROGRAM IN BIOCHEMISTRY AC-04-149 Prof. Cline moved, seconded by Prof. Fabry, that the program changes be approved. The motion carried. (10) B.A. & Sc. MAJOR CONCENTRATION IN BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES AC-04-150 Prof. Wechsler moved, seconded by Prof. Fabry, that the program changes be approved. The motion carried. (11) COMPUTER SCIENCE Program Changes: - Major in Computer Science AC-04-151 - Major in Software Engineering AC-04-152 - Honours in Computer Science AC-04-153 Prof. Kemme moved, seconded by Prof. Cline, that the above program changes be approved. The motion carried. New Course - For Information Only: ECSE 508 Multi-agent Systems AC-04-154 3 credits (12) ADMISSION STANDARDS FOR CANADIAN HIGH-SCHOOL APPLICANTS AC-04-155 812.1 Associate Dean Mendelson said that the proposal is to move McGill's admission criteria for Canadian students from areas outside Ontario and Québec, from consideration of grades in Grades 11 and 12 to consideration of the top five grades in Grade 12. This would put McGill in line with other Canadian universities, and put admission criteria for students from the rest of Canada in line with those for students from Ontario. In addition, this would streamline the admission process. Associate Dean Mendelson moved, seconded by Prof. Fabry, that the proposed admission standards in Document AC-04-155 be approved. The motion carried. (13) OTHER BUSINESS (i) Academic Program Review – Program Study Groups Membership AC-04-156 813.1 Associate Dean Mendelson said that it had taken some time to fill the committees, but that the process was almost complete. The Faculty Review Group (FRG) would oversee the whole process, and there would be a Program Study Group (PSG) for each of the Honours, Major and Faculty programs. In addition, another PSG would look at the Diploma in Meteorology. 813.2 Each PSG would look at programs as a whole, and not in detail. 813.3 The memberships of the PSGs are: Honours PSG: Prof. Charles Lin Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Dr. Julie Desbarats Physiology Prof. Brigitte Vachon Physics Prof. Patrick Hayden Computer Science Prof. Terry Wheeler Natural Resource Sciences Anne Comeau Staff; Biology Elizabeth Munro Student; Physics and Mathematics & Statistics Major PSG: Prof. Laura Nilson Biology Dr. Kathleen Cullen Physiology Prof. Jim Gleason Chemistry Prof. Jim McGilvray Program Director, Cognitive Science/ Philosophy Raffaella Bruno Staff; Mathematics and Statistics Dena O'Hara Student; Biochemistry plus one professor Faculty PSG: Prof. Don Francis Earth and Planetary Sciences Prof. Christopher Barrett Chemistry Dr. Louis Hermo Anatomy and Cell Biology Prof. Bill Anderson Mathematics and Statistics Jennifer Di Massimo Staff; Microbiology and Immunology Tanya Skamene Student; Physiology Diploma PSG: Prof. Peter Bartello Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Mathematics and Statistics Prof. Mark Sutton Physics plus two professors and one student (ii) Admissions Data AC-04-157 813.4 Associate Dean Mendelson described the data in the above document. He said that an unexpectedly large number of students had applied for admission to the B.A. & Sc. A decision had previously been made to slowly build up enrolment in the B.A. & Sc., and this would be adhered to despite the large number of applications to the B.A. & Sc. The admission situation was currently very complex and unpredictable, since it was not known how many students who were rejected for the B.A. & Sc. would go into either the B.Sc. or the B.A. The goal was to maintain the same total number of students as in previous years in the Faculties of Arts and of Science, but this total number would now include students in the B.A. & Sc. 813.5 Dean Shaver mentioned that the current review of B.Sc. programs would be conducted in light of the knowledge of the apparent popularity of the B.A. & Sc. ******* 813.6 Dean Shaver said that since the current Academic Committee meeting could well be the last one he chaired, he would like to thank Committee members. He particularly thanked Prof. Wechsler for having put up with his chairing Academic Committee meetings for the full ten years of his tenure as Dean. 813.7 Dean Shaver thanked all Committee members for their diligence and hard work on the Academic Committee. He said he had been impressed by how readily new members became involved with the details of the working of the Academic Committee. 813.8 Dean Shaver also said that he would like to emphasize how valuable student input had been to the functioning of the Academic Committee. There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 4:00 p.m. 5 ACMinutesApril19.doc