AC-99-139 FACULTY OF SCIENCE ACADEMIC COMMITTEE Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, February 22, 2000 at 3:00 p.m. in the Arts Council Room (160). PRESENT: Dean Shaver (Chair), Associate Dean Mendelson (Vice- Chair), Professors Baines, Baker, Brawer, Cline, Farrell, Klemes, Panangaden, Paquette, Rasmussen, Wechsler and Yau; Associate Dean Hendershot; Ms. E. Gibb (in the absence of Ms. H. Waluzyniec); W. Maricar, C. Ward; J. D'Amico. REGRETS: Professors MÃ…ller-Wille, Pasztor and Silvius; A. Kovacs, N. Nurmohamed, A. Organek, T. Samanta, J. Tsang; Mr. D. Crawford. DOCUMENTS: AC-99-114(Rev3) AC-99-117 to AC-99- 128/128A AC-99-129 to AC-99-138 Dean Shaver called the meeting to order at 3:03 p.m. Dean Shaver welcomed two new members, Associate Dean W. Hendershot, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, who will be replacing Associate Dean Norris, and Ms. Collette Ward, a student representative. (1) ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA New Item Bachelor of Science Major Program in Software Engineering, to be considered under Item 5, School of Computer Science. Members agreed to the above change in the Agenda. (2) MINUTES OF JANUARY 18, 2000 AC-99-117 Prof. Panangaden moved, seconded by Prof. Klemes, that the minutes be approved. The motion carried. Secretary's note: The date on these minutes should have read January 18, 2000, not January 18, 1999. (3) BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES - Minute 402.11, Meeting of December 14, 1999, Statistics Course Equivalents 603.1 Prof. Baines said that letters had been sent to all Academic Committee representatives. Letters had also been sent to statistics-course instructors in other faculties. Prof. Baines said that so far he had received only a few responses. 603.2 Prof. Baines asked any members receiving the request to forward it to the appropriate instructor. (4) REPORT ON MINOR COURSE CHANGES AC-99-118 (for information) (5) SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE Program Changes: - B.Sc. Major Program in Computer Science AC-99-119 Prof. Panangaden moved, seconded by Prof. Cline, that the changes be approved. The motion carried. New Course: 308-525A Formal Verification AC-99-120 3 credits 605.1 Associate Dean Mendelson said that a hard copy of a consultation report would be necessary prior to forwarding the proposal to SCTP. Prof. Panangaden moved, seconded by Prof. Klemes, that the course be adopted. The motion carried. New Program: - B.Sc. Major Program in Software Engineering AC-99-114(Rev3) 605.2 Associate Dean Mendelson said the proposal had been presented at the Faculty of Science meeting of February 8, 2000, where two concerns had been raised. One concern was that it would have been possible for a student to take the program without doing any of the listed Mathematics & Statistics courses. The other concern was that there were some hidden prerequisites that were not included in the proposal. 605.3 Dr. Snow highlighted the changes. 605.4 A member pointed out that Mathematics & Statistics 189- 265 should be included in the proposal, since 189-265 is a prerequisite course for 189-381. Prof. Panangaden moved, seconded by Prof. Baines, that the revised program be adopted. The motion carried. (6) MCGILL SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT New Courses: - Principles for Special Topics AC-99-121 (for information) 170-380A/B Special Topics in Environment 1 AC-99-122 3 credits 170-480A/B Special Topics in Environment 2 AC-99-123 3 credits 170-481A/B Special Topics in Environment 3 AC-99-124 3 credits Prof. Rasmussen moved, seconded by Prof. Brawer, that the courses be adopted. 606.1 Among the concerns raised were: how the courses would be listed in the Calendar; that the course titles were too long (over 30 characters); that the Academic Committee would be approving the general idea of the courses but not their specific content; the lack of definition of structure/format/grading of courses; the likelihood of visiting professors being available to teach the courses, the possibility of visiting professors being unfamiliar with McGill's context, and potential problems with visiting professors concerning supplemental exams, etc. 170-580A/B Special Topics in Environment 4 AC-99-125 3 credits 606.2 During the discussion, 170-580 was considered to be relevant, since undergraduate students would be able to take this course. 606.3 It was suggested: that on the course proposal forms, "Responsible Instructor(s)" should read "Associate Director and Staff"; that the different levels of the courses need not have the same structure/format/grading, and that these should be defined; that a standard lecture format and regular grading be considered for 170-380, but that Pass/Fail grading be considered for seminar courses. 606.4 An amendment to eliminate both 400-level courses was proposed (but not voted on), and a friendly modification to the amendment, viz., to keep one of the 400-level courses, was rejected by the person proposing the original amendment. Prof. Baker moved, seconded by Prof. Baines, to table the above four courses to the next Academic Committee meeting. The motion carried. 606.5 The courses will be re-examined by the MSE, taking into account the concerns of the Academic Committee. 170-680A/B Special Topics in Environment 5 AC-99-126 3 credits 170-681A/B Special Topics in Environment 6 AC-99-127 3 credits 606.6 Prof. Rasmussen withdrew the Special Topics 600-level courses. These will be considered at the next Academic Committee meeting. - Principles for Independent Studies AC-99-128 (for information) - Permission Form - Independent Studies AC-99-128A (for information) 170-485A/B Independent Studies in Environment 1 AC-99-129 3 credits 170-486A/B Independent Studies in Environment 2 AC-99-130 3 credits 170-487A/B Independent Studies in Environment 3 AC-99-131 3 credits 170-585A/B Independent Studies in Environment 4 AC-99-132 3 credits 170-685A/B Independent Studies in Environment 5 AC-99-133 3 credits 170-686A/B Independent Studies in Environment 6 AC-99-134 3 credits Prof. Rasmussen moved, seconded by Prof. Cline, that the above courses be adopted. 606.7 Prof. Rasmussen introduced the above courses. 606.8 It was pointed out that the course titles were too long, and that on the course proposal forms, "Responsible Instructor(s)" should read "Associate Director and Staff." 606.9 It was suggested that there was no need for -486 and -487, since students could do only two of -485, -486, - 487, -585, and since the pre/corerequisites were the same for the last three courses. Similarly, there was no real need for -685. 606.10 Concerns were raised about the lack of clear definition of these courses, i.e. they could be reading courses, research courses, or internship courses. The structure of these courses should be specified, and the Academic Committee asked to approve these specific structures, rather than being asked to approve one general structure that could be applied to all three course types. 606.11 It was suggested that courses in other departments be looked at and used as templates for MSE courses, or as possible substitutes for the MSE courses being proposed. 606.12 It was pointed out that the Permission Form for the independent studies courses (Document AC-99-128A) should clarify the maximum number of hours that a student would be expected to devote to a course, and also clarify further the grading scheme. Associate Dean Mendelson moved, seconded by Prof. Wechsler, that the above courses be tabled to the next Academic Committee meeting. This motion carried. (7) MATHEMATICS & STATISTICS New Course: 189-326A Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos AC-99-135 3 credits New Course: 189-376A Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos AC-99-136 3 credits Prof. Klemes moved, seconded by Prof. Cline, that the courses be adopted. 607.1 It was suggested that the word "nonlinear" be included in the course description, and that the word "primarily" under Restriction be clarified. It was also suggested that a restriction be included to specify that both courses could not be taken for credit. 607.2 Associate Dean Mendelson said that different course numbers with the same course titles would not be accepted by SCTP. 607.3 Prof. Klemes explained that students in these courses would attend the same lectures, but that Honours students would do additional projects. He said that having the same course title for different courses was established practice in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics. 607.4 Dean Shaver suggested that established practice should be recognized in this case, but that there should be a fallback position in the event that the course titles were refused. 607.5 In response to a member who asked why Honours students should do additional work, but get the same number of credits as Major students, Dean Shaver asked that the Department of Mathematics & Statistics make a clear statement about what constitutes the difference between an Honours course and a Major course, with respect to hours, effort, level of topic, level of performance, etc., in order that the Academic Committee could put the issue in some perspective. Prof. Baines moved, seconded by Prof. Brawer, that the above courses be tabled to the next Academic Committee meeting. This motion carried. 607.6 Because the above courses were tabled to the next meeting, the following course retirements were also tabled to the next meeting. Course Retirement: 189-322A/B Dynamical Systems, Fractals and Chaos AC-99-137 3 credits Course Retirement: 189-382 A/B/C/L/T Dynamical Systems, Fractals and Chaos AC-99-138 3 credits (8) OTHER BUSINESS There was no other business. The meeting adjourned at 4:35 p.m. josie\academic\acmn1999f.doc