Minutes
Curriculum Committee
February 1, 2005
Members: James Swartz (Chair), Gerald Adams, Daniel Reynolds, Lee Sharpe, Jean Ketter, Rebecca Miller, Peter Clough, Courteney MacKuen, and Wayne Moyer.
Agenda:
1. The minutes
from the 11/16/04 meeting were approved.
2. HIS 231 History
of London was approved (this is a GIL course). This will replace HIS 295A listed
under the GIL courses in the catalog.
3. ANT 251 Culture
and Agriculture was approved.
4. Update on the
evaluation of MIPs was tabled until the next meeting.
5. Update on a
possible proposal for a minimum GPA requirement to be an Independent Major was
tabled until the next meeting.
6. The Dean presented the committee with the results of a survey done this past term on final exams and final/major papers due at the end of the semester. The Dean then proposed the following: that the Curriculum Committee consider the merits of two options for rescheduling exams to make room for a full reading day in addition to the current weekend reading days:
1. decrease the number of exam periods from 9 to 8.
We tested several options for compressing the exam schedule, using a sample of 48 student schedules from last semester to assess the likely impact. Using the existing exam schedule, 3 of these students had courses with conflicting exam schedule times, although none of the 3 had actual exam conflicts because one or more of their courses did not hold an exam during the scheduled time. Using the best of the options for compressing the exam schedule, 8 of the 48 students would have had conflicting exam schedule times, although only 1 of the 48 would have had an actual exam conflict.
2. retain 9 exam periods, but schedule three exam periods on one day, probably Wednesday, so that the 9 periods span only four days
3. The added reading day made available by either of these schemes could take place on Monday or in the middle of exam week.
The merit of having
a full extra reading day needs to be balanced against the added stress that
would result from compacting the exam schedule or having three exams on one
day during exam week. If the Curriculum Committee is interested in pursuing
either option, we will take a proposal to the Committee on Academic Standing,
which has oversight of the academic calendar.
The committee
did not come to any conclusions but agreed to continue to discuss this issue
at our next meeting.