Minutes
Curriculum Committee
January 28, 2003


Members: James Swartz (Chair), Gerald Adams, Diane Robertson, Andy Hamilton, Jerry Lalonde, Mark Montgomery, Jake Omvig, and Devan McGranahan. Guest: Helen Scott

Agenda:

  1. The minutes from the 12/3/02 meeting were approved.
  2. The committee approved the request from the ART department to change the requirements for the ART History Concentration from one 100-level and one 200-level studio art courses to two courses of studio art at the 100-level or above.
  3. The committee approved a two-part application process for summer MAPs with two deadlines. The first deadline for Part A/B will be the first Monday after spring pre-registration but if the faculty mentor approves, the deadline for part B can be moved to the second Monday after Memorial Day. This year the first deadline will be May 5 and the second will be June 9, 2003.
  4. The committee had a general discussion on limiting the number of MAPs that a faculty member could direct in any give term/summer. There were two departments within the humanities division that oppose the limitation on the grounds that there may be staffing issues as a result of a large number of students who are qualified to do an honor thesis but not enough regular faulty available to spread out the supervision. It was pointed out that in item number three below there is provision for the supervision of MAP students who are pursuing a common project but no such provision for the directing of summer MAPs. The committee accepted a proposal by the Dean to revise item number one to be more in parallel with items two and three with respect to the supervision of MAPs with a common project. The Dean will bring some revised language to the next meeting.

An essential element of a Mentored Advanced Project is that it be intensively mentored. The level of mentoring, combined with the advanced quality of the research, distinguishes MAPs from other forms of Independent Study. Summer MAPs, the most intensively mentored of the MAPs, also draw especially heavily on the resources of the College. For these reasons, the Dean's Office proposes that a limit be set on the number of MAPs that can be directed by a faculty member in a single term.

    1. No more than 6 MAPs in a summer or any term when a faculty member is teaching one or no courses.
    2. No more than 2 MAPs during a regular academic term when the faculty member is teaching two or more regular courses.
    3. No more than 3 MAPs during a regular academic term in which the faculty member is teaching two or more regular courses, and when the MAP students are pursuing a common project.

     

  1. The committee continued its discussion of faculty compensation for independent study. The registrar distributed some data on the number of independents offered over the last five years. Bob Cadmus submitted a document to the committee on compensation for non-MAP independent study supervision. It was pointed out that there are no college-wide standards regarding the minimum expectations of any independent other than MAPs. The independents that the science division supervises during the academic term are very similar to the projects supervised during the summer. The committee will continue this discussion at our next meeting.

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