AC-03-130 FACULTY OF SCIENCE ACADEMIC COMMITTEE Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, December 9, 2003, at 2:30 p.m. in Arts Council Room, Arts 160. PRESENT: Dean Shaver (Chair), Associate Dean Mendelson (Vice-Chair), Professors Baker, Bennett, Cline, Kakkar, Kemme, Kramer, Meredith, Silvius, Schmidt, Wechsler, Yau; Associate Dean Hendershot; E. Lewis, S. Sen; E. Gibb; J. DÂ’Amico. REGRETS: Professors Arkani-Hamed, Baines, Roulet; M. El Ouali; J. Capling, R. Harron, R. Kozak, A. Malone, J. Vorstenbosch. DOCUMENTS: AC-03-81, AC-03-82 AC-03-116 to AC-03-123/123A AC-03-124 to AC-03-129 Dean Shaver called the meeting to order at 2:33 p.m. (1) ADOPTION OF AGENDA - Faculty of Science Planning Process to be considered under Other Business, Item #12(i). - Expedited Approval of the Academic Committee Report to the Faculty of Science to be considered under Other Business, Item #12(ii). - Course Evaluations, Item # 10, to be postponed to a future meeting. Prof. Cline moved, seconded by Associate Dean Mendelson, that the amended Agenda be approved. The motion carried. (2) MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 18, 2003 AC-03-116 Prof. Kakkar moved, seconded by Prof. Wechsler, that the minutes be approved. The motion carried. (3) BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES There was no business arising from the Minutes. (4) REPORT ON MINOR COURSE CHANGES AC-03-117 (for information) (5) ATMOSPHERIC & OCEANIC SCIENCES - Diploma in Meteorology (Program Changes) AC-03-118 405.1 After some questions about the changes and the low enrolment in the program, Prof. Yau moved, seconded by Prof. Cline, that the program changes be approved. The motion carried. (6) PSYCHOLOGY B.A. & Sc. (New) - Joint Honours Component AC-03-119 Prof. Baker moved, seconded by Prof. Kramer, that the program be adopted. The motion carried. B.A. (For Information) - Joint Honours Component (7) SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE B.A. & Sc. Program Changes: - Minor Concentration in Computer Science AC-03-81 - Minor Concentration in Computer Systems AC-03-82 Prof. Kemme moved, seconded by Prof. Schmidt, that the program changes be approved. The motion carried. (8) MATHEMATICS & STATISTICS - Course Overlap/Statistics Courses (Section 3.6.1 of the Science Calendar) AC-03-120 Prof. Schmidt moved, seconded by Prof. Kemme, that the changes be approved. The motion carried. MATH 203 Principles of Statistics 1 AC-03-121 3 credits Change in restriction relevant to above MATH 204 Principles of Statistics 2 AC-03-122 3 credits Change in restriction relevant to above 408.1 It was decided that since the proposed changes to these two courses had already been covered under the previous item (AC-03-120), that the changes to these two courses would be presented for information only. New Course: MATH 550 Combinatorics AC-03-123/123A 3 credits Prof. Schmidt moved, seconded by Prof. Kemme, that the course be adopted. The motion carried. Program Changes: - Honours in Mathematics AC-03-124 - Honours in Probability and Statistics AC-03-125 408.2 For the Honours in Mathematics Program Change Form, COMP 250 should be included at the top of the list of Required Courses under both the existing program and the proposed program. The omission of COMP 250 was the result of a clerical error. Also, MATH 523 is 4 credits, not 3 as listed on the form. Prof. Schmidt moved, seconded by Prof. Kemme, that the program changes be approved. The motion carried. (9) PHYSICS Program Changes: - Honours in Physics AC-03-126 - Joint Honours in Mathematics and Physics AC-03-127 Prof. Cline moved, seconded by Prof. Yau, that the program changes be approved. The motion carried. (10) COURSE EVALUATIONS AC-03-128 The above item was postponed to a future meeting. (11) COURSES OUTSIDE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE FOR STUDENTS IN THE B.SC. MAJOR IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AC-03-129 411.1 Associate Dean Mendelson said that the Faculty restriction on B.Sc. students taking courses outside the Faculties of Arts and Science, was proving unduly restrictive on students in the B.Sc. Major in Software Engineering. It was therefore proposed that the following regulation be adopted: 411.2 Students in the Major in Software Engineering may take as many courses outside the Faculties of Arts and of Science as are necessary to complete their program of study. They may also take up to 18 credits of approved courses outside the Faculties of Arts and Science beyond the requirements of their major. Associate Dean Mendelson moved, seconded by Prof. Cline, that the above regulation be adopted. The motion carried. (12) OTHER BUSINESS (i) Faculty of Science Planning Process 412.1 Dean Shaver said that the Planning Process had been discussed at the last Faculty of Science meeting. The core areas that have been identified are: Math and Computational Sciences, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. In addition, there are a number of interdisciplinary themes. He said that the Planning Process would involve looking at a large number of issues, but that a particular issue that could be talked about at the current meeting would be undergraduate programs. The starting point for looking at undergraduate programs would be the Boyer Report, which recommends research-based learning for undergraduates at research-intensive universities, and raises the issue of depth versus breadth in education. The URL for the Boyer Report is: http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf 412.2 A member said that research-based teaching requires a large amount of resources, and may actually be counter-productive in that it can distract and detract from students' accumulating required factual knowledge. 412.3 Another member pointed out that research-based teaching raises questions about evaluations, since research involves the possibility of failure, delays, complications and surprises. 412.4 There was a long discussion of breadth versus depth in undergraduate programs, including the possibility of modifying B.Sc. programs. 412.5 Issues involving undergraduate programs will be taken up in the Planning Process. (ii) Expedited Approval of the Academic Committee Report to the Faculty of Science 412.6 Associate Dean Mendelson said that criticisms of Faculty approval of the Academic Report included the feeling that the report was being "rubber-stamped," that members did not have time to fully understand the documents, and that members' time could be used more productively. 412.7 He said that one possibility would be, in analogy to the reporting of minor course changes to the Academic Committee for information, the reporting to Faculty of relatively minor changes. Faculty would thus approve new programs, new courses, major changes to programs and certain other items, with the remaining items being reported for information only, but having been approved by the Academic Committee. 412.8 After some discussion, Dean Shaver suggested that a subcommittee be struck to examine the issue. The members of the subcommittee are: Associate Dean Mendelson (chair), Prof. D. Kramer (Biology) and Mr. E. Lewis (Biochemistry). The meeting adjourned at 4:25 p.m. ?? ?? ?? ?? 4 ACMinutesDec9.doc