Minutes
Curriculum Committee
4:15 p.m., Tuesday October 9, 2001
PDR F


Members: James Swartz (Chair), Gerald Adams, Gail Bonath, Pablo Silva, Bob Grey, Jerry Lalonde, Gabe Rosenberg, Kenneth Yeung, Kendra Young, and Kimberly Smith. Guest: Paula Smith

1. The minutes from the 9/25/01 meeting were approved.

2. Course Proposal from the Humanities Division:

a. ART 253-add to course description "may be repeated once for credit." TABLED. We are requesting more information from the department as to how much the course may change each time it will be taught and how repeating this course will affect the major.
b. JPN 101-- new course APPROVED
c. JPN 102 - new course APPROVED
d. JPN 221 -new course APPROVED
e. JPN 222 - new course APPROVED
f. JPN 240 - new course -- No action was taken on this course proposal as it will be taken back to the department for further consideration because the course description was so brief. The committee will suggest that it be proposed as a Special Topics course until a syllabus and other information can be provided.
g. Assessment of MAPs. We are currently in the middle of the 5-year experimental MAPs project. Paula Smith summarized the content of the handout that she presented to the Committee. There were seven examples of different projects done in the spring of 2001 that fit the definition of a MAP. They ranged from Directed Summer Research to a hybrid "Two Plus Two". The committee discussed several possible conclusions or recommendations from the assessment of the MAP projects. They are:

a. MAPs are successful and should be continued.
b. MAPs are not successful and should not be continued.
c. We do not have enough information at this time to draw any conclusions.
d. MAPs need to be uncoupled and some parts stay and some parts go.
e. MAPs are really a small part of a bigger issue that needs to be addressed before we can discuss MAPs.

In December, the class of 2001 will be surveyed. The survey this year will have questions dealing with MAPs. The MAP project began in their junior year so they had two years in which to do a MAP project. Carol Trosset will be analyzing some faculty data on their experiences with MAPs that has been gathered by Paula. The Committee discussed what questions would be helpful in the assessments of MAP projects. There were four questions that emerged. They are:

a. What is the degree of participations of students, faculty and departments with MAPs?
b. Do the current MAP projects satisfy the original desires of the proposed project?
c. What is the degree of satisfaction on the part of student/faculty involved with MAP projects?
d. Is there a qualitative difference between MAPs and other similar curricular elements of the college?

If the Committee makes a recommendation that MAPs are successful and should be continued then there will be a number of mechanical questions that will need to be addressed. Questions such as:

a. Can MAPs be taken for variable credits?
b. How many MAPs should any student be allowed to take?
c. How early can a student begin a MAP?
d. How will MAPs fit into our current 10-credit limitation of independent study?


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