AC-00-247 FACULTY OF SCIENCE ACADEMIC COMMITTEE Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, May 1, 2001, at 3:00 p.m. in Dawson Hall, Room 409. PRESENT: Dean Shaver (Chair), Associate Dean Mendelson (Vice- Chair), Professors Baines, Baker, Brawer, Cline, Klemes, Leighton, MÅller-Wille, Panangaden, Paquette, Pasztor, Rasmussen, Silvius; Associate Dean Hendershot; H. Waluzyniec; M. Sanagan; J. D'Amico. GUEST: Prof. M. Hallett REGRETS: Professors Farrell, Wechsler; S. Baptista, P. Charbonneau, Alison Organek, Andrew Organek, D. Selvadurai, S. Waterston; D. Crawford. DOCUMENTS: AC-00-186, AC-00-236 AC-00-238 to AC-00- 246 Dean Shaver called the meeting to order at 3:02 p.m. (1) ADOPTION OF AGENDA - Item #8, Minor in Computational Molecular Biology, to be considered as the first item on the Agenda. - The Motion regarding the Student Information System to be considered under Business Arising from the Minutes. - A memo to Prof. M. Crago concerning the time limit for Calendar modification of course & program revisions, to be considered under Business Arising from the Minutes. - The ad hoc Major Concentration in Quantitative Science to be considered under Business Arising from the Minutes. - Item #6, Biology 177-435B and 177-635B, was withdrawn from the Agenda. - Item #9, B.Sc. Environment Students in Second Programs at Macdonald Campus, was postponed to a future Academic Committee meeting. Prof. Pasztor moved, seconded by Prof. Panangaden, that the amended Agenda be adopted. The motion carried. (2) MINUTES OF APRIL 17, 2001 AC-00-238 802.1 A member pointed out that on Page 4 of the Minutes, Prof. Pollard's name had been misspelled. Prof. Panangaden moved, seconded by Prof. Pasztor, that the minutes be approved. The motion carried. (3) BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES - Minute 704.2, Letter Grades in Banner - Motion Regarding Student Information System (AC-00-246) 803.1 Associate Dean Mendelson said the above issue had been previously discussed by the Academic Committee and by Faculty. The discussion concerned the fact that, after Banner implementation, student transcripts would have only one column for grades. It had been decided that only letter grades would be shown on the transcripts, since these were the university's official grades. Associate Dean Mendelson said that because of much disagreement about this decision, he had submitted a motion to Senate (Document AC-00-246), which would partly deal with the problem; the motion had been approved. Whether or not there would be a review of letter grades was a separate issue. Banner was proceeding under the assumption that letter grades were the official grades, but at some point it may be necessary to review the grading system at McGill. He said he did not think that the Faculty of Science would be able to persuade the rest of the university to adopt numerical grades. One possibility would be for the university to adopt an A+. He said that, in the Fall, the Academic Committee may discuss the issue more fully, with the goal of making a formal recommendation or a formal resolution. - Minute 712.1,712.2, Time Limit for Calendar Modification of Course & Program Revisions 803.2 Dean Shaver said that a memo had been sent to Prof. Martha Crago regarding the Academic Committee's concerns with the above time limit, and reconsideration of the time limit had been requested. He said that he would forward the memo to deans of other faculties. - Minute 603.7, March 20, 2001, Academic Committee Meeting, Ad hoc Major Concentration in Quantitative Science (AC-00- 146) 803.3 Associate Dean Mendelson said that the above ad hoc program for an Arts student had been approved by the Academic Committee and by Faculty. He said it had then been brought to the Faculty of Arts for consideration, where it had been rejected. (4) REPORT ON MINOR COURSE CHANGES AC-00- 239 (for information) 804.1 Prof. Pasztor said that in Document AC-00-239, under Biology Course Retirements, Biology 177-473A should be withdrawn from the list, since a new professor would be teaching the course. 804.2 Associate Dean Mendelson encouraged members to retire courses and programs no longer taught. (5) MCGILL SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT New Domain: -B.Sc. Major in Environment: Land Surface and Environmental Changes AC-00-240 805.1 Under the list of Complementary Courses, Weather and Climate, it was suggested that 195-210 would be more appropriate than 195-215. 805.2 Associate Dean Mendelson said that, in the past, a list of participating members/departments had been included with proposals. Prof. MÅller-Wille moved, seconded by Prof. Rasmussen, that the program be adopted. The motion carried. (6) BIOLOGY New Course: 177-435B Ecological Energetics AC-00-241 3 credits New Course: 177-635B Ecology Energetics Research AC-00-242 3 credits The above items were withdrawn from the Agenda. (7) ARTS MINOR PROGRAM RETIREMENTS (For Information) - Minor in Economics for Science Students - Intl Dev. Studies Minor for Science Students - Minor in Fr. Language & Literature for Science Students - Minor in Jewish Studies for Science Students - Minor in Canadian Ethnic Studies for Science Students - Minor in Russian for Science Students - Minor in Philosophy for Science Students 807.1 Associate Dean Mendelson said the above Minors were no longer required, since Science students could now take Minor Concentrations in the same areas of study. (8) SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE - Minor in Computational Molecular Biology AC-00-243 808.1 Prof. Panangaden introduced the above Minor program. Prof. Hallett explained the reason for the Minor being available to only Biology students. 808.2 After some discussion concerning the lack of availability of the Minor to students in the Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, and Physiology, Dean Shaver suggested that the Minor be approved in principle, but that the School of Computer Science consult with the above-mentioned departments and with Associate Dean Mendelson, and report back to the next Academic Committee meeting. 808.3 Prof. Panangaden moved, seconded by Prof. Pasztor, that the Minor program be adopted in principle. The motion carried. (9) B.Sc. ENVIRONMENT STUDENTS IN SECOND PROGRAMS AT MACDONALD CAMPUS AC-00- 236 The above item was postponed to a future Academic Committee meeting. (10) STANDARD CALCULATORS FOR FACULTY OF SCIENCE EXAMINATIONS AC-00-186 810.1 Associate Dean Mendelson said that the above item had previously been discussed by the Academic Committee. The issue concerned whether or not Science professors should be allowed to designate specific calculators for use during examinations. Associate Dean Mendelson said he had discovered that the calculators listed in the Faculty of Engineering's policy were already obsolete and not available. The policy had been written less than a year ago. Thus, a policy specifying particular calculators would be very difficult to implement and maintain. He recommended that the issue be dropped. (11) GENERAL ETHICS COURSE FOR SCIENCE STUDENTS 811.1 Dean Shaver gave some background, and said he thought that the issue of having a general ethics course/component in the B.Sc. program should be explored. He asked members for comments. 811.2 There was some discussion of the issue, and while members generally thought that a requirement for an ethics course was a good idea, there was some concern about the ease of fitting it into the curriculum. (12) OTHER BUSINESS - Nomenclature for Arts Programs AC-00-244 812.1 Associate Dean Mendelson introduced the above-mentioned item. Associate Dean Mendelson moved, seconded by Prof. Cline, that the following be adopted: 812.2 "Be it resolved that the university in its use of nomenclature ensure the distinction between Major programs and Major concentrations." The motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 4:05 p.m. josie\academic\acminmay.doc