Faculty Senate

Curriculum Council

Annual Report 2001-02  

Date: To: From: Subject:

July 22, 2002 Nancy Rosenberger, Faculty Senate President Mike Quinn, Curriculum Council Chair Annual Report from the Curriculum Council (2001-2002)

  The Curriculum Council has three principal charges:

1. To facilitate and review courses and program requests (both graduate and undergraduate)
   
2. To conduct undergraduate program reviews
   
3. To formulate and implement new curricular policy
   

This report summarizes the Curriculum Council's activities in each of these areas.

Course and Program Reviews

During the 2001-2002 academic year an automated Category II submission and approval process, developed by the Business Solutions Group in the College of Business, went on line. Even though it took awhile for a few bugs to be shaken out, it was immediately clear that the system could save Curriculum Council members a lot of work and reduce the time needed to process Category II proposals. Some proposals actually made it through the entire process in less than 24 hours from the time they were submitted! Bob Burton, Madge Patterson, and the Business Solutions Group did the OSU community a great service by making this system a reality.

The Curriculum Council reviewed several hundred Category II proposals between 1 July 2001 and 31 May 2002.

The Curriculum Council approved ten Category I and abbreviated Category I proposals:

• Creating the College of Health and Human Sciences from the College of Health and Human Performance and the College of Home Economics and Education (without the School of Education)
  
• Creating an M.A. degree in Applied Ethics
  
• Creating a B.S. degree in Outdoor Recreation Leadership and Tourism
  
• Renaming the Department of Forest Products the Department of Wood Science and Engineering
  
• Renaming the B.S. in Forest Products the B.S. in Wood Science and Technology
  
• Renaming the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Forest Products the M.S. and Ph.D. in Wood Science
  
• Renaming the Department of Nuclear Engineering the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics
  
• Renaming the B.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics degree the B.S. in Environmental Economics, Policy and Management degree
  
• Changing the existing B.S. in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering degree program into two separate degree programs: the B.S. in Industrial Engineering and the B.S. in Manufacturing Engineering
  
• Terminating the B.A. and B.S. degree programs in Entomology
  
  

Undergraduate Program Reviews

The Council reviewed undergraduate programs for the Departments of Zoology, Agricultural and Resource Economics, Physics, and Music. In all cases the review teams expressed concern about the resources available to sustain quality programs. The situations in Physics and Music seem particularly dire. Given the central role that Physics plays on the campus, particularly with respect to the education of engineers, the University must ensure that the Department of Physics does not continue to get weaker. In the case of the Department of Music, the Council shared the review committee's concerns about the future and viability of the department.

Curricular Policy

The Curriculum Council and the Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee passed a joint resolution in October 2001 that strongly urged "the University either significantly increase funding for instruction or academic support or divide existing resources among fewer academic programs."

In response to the move of the undergraduate bioengineering program from the Department of Bioengineering to the Department of Chemical Engineering without submission of an abbreviated Category I proposal, the Council passed a motion affirming the role of the Curriculum Council and the Faculty Senate in reviewing reorganizations of colleges and departments through the abbreviated Category I process.

The Council worked with Academic Affairs to create a list of questions that should be answered in all abbreviated Category I proposals to reorganize academic units.

The Council polled department heads and advisors to get their reactions to a Graduate Council proposal to eliminate 4XY/5XY "slash" courses. After considerable discussion, it decided not to endorse the Graduate Council proposal. Mike Quinn met with the Graduate Council to explain why the Curriculum Council did not endorse the proposal. The Curriculum Council did pass a motion stating that all future Category II proposals to create or change slash courses must clearly articulate the graduate-level learning objectives/outcomes expected of students registered for the 5XY version of the course. This requirement is in addition to the criteria already listed in the Curriculum Handbook.

The Council approved a process for review of non-credit professional certificate programs. It is noteworthy that not a single professional certificate program was proposed by Distance and Continuing Education in 2001-2002.