Members present: George Caldwell, Denise Lach, Cheryl Middleton, Patricia Muir, Jay Noller
Members absent with advance notification of absence: David Bernell, Margie Haak, Vicki Tolar Burton (ex-officio)
New business:
(1) Introduced committee members
(2) Gave overview of committee responsibilities
(3) Demonstrated how to access information on:
(4) Discussed handling of minutes. It was agreed that draft minutes would be made available before each meeting; if relevant, committee members would offer revisions/ comments; minutes would then be revised (if relevant) and approved at the next BCC meeting and submitted to Vickie Nunnemaker for posting.
(5) Discussed division of duties. We agreed that the co-chairs (Muir and Noller) will participate in reviewing courses to diminish the review demands on other committee members. However, in recognition of their additional responsibilities, they will review, collectively, the equivalent of one regular committee member’s review load.
(6) Discussed, briefly, the category review that we will undertake this year (Synthesis – Science, Technology and Society). Enrollment numbers for each course to be reviewed are being compiled so that our review efforts can be made proportional to enrollment.
Old business:
(1) Courses remaining for general review (new or changed courses) from last year: GEO 221; HHS 242; H 320; SPAN 333; ENG 425, 426, 356 and 362. Courses were assigned to committee members for review and discussion at the next BCC meeting. We reviewed two of these courses during the meeting as part of training and calibration of committee members and will forward recommendations on these courses to last year’s BCC Chair, Milo Koretsky; he will communicate with appropriate faculty members.
ENG 356 – approve
SPAN 333 – approval to retain status as a Perspectives Western Culture course withheld. Committee needs more information on [a] how the course studies the subject from an historical perspective, [b] how it demonstrates influences on US culture and institutions, and [c] is considered accessible to most students given that it is 300-level, taught in Spanish, and has a prerequisite of at least 9 credits of 300-level SPAN courses.
