Semester Transition Coordinating Committee
The purpose of the committee is to coordinate and oversee all aspects of the calendar transition process.
Responsibilities of the committee are to:
- Develop standards and principles to guide the transition process.
- Create a master list and schedule of all tasks to be completed.
- Assign responsibility for completion of tasks.
- Communicate the transition to and solicit input from all campus constituents.
MEMBERS:
- Laurie Bell; resident artist and associate professor of dance
- Christy Cole; director of institutional research
- Patrick Croskery; chair, University Steering Committee on General Education; associate professor of philosophy
- Natalie DiPietro; assistant professor of pharmacy practice
- Michele Govekar; associate professor of management
- Jeffrey Heinfeldt; associate professor of finance
- Laurie Laird; Chair, Academic Affairs Committee; assistant professor of mechanical engineering
- Anne Lippert, Chair; vice president for academic affairs
- Deirdre Myers; instructor in pharmacy
- Farhad Reza; associate professor of civil engineering
- Lisa Robeson; associate professor of English
- Jon Smalley; professor of civil engineering
- William Theisen; professor of physics
- Nancy Woodley; associate professor of biological sciences
Please feel free to contact any committee member with your comments and concerns.
MEETINGS:
April 2, 2008 Minutes
- Handout 1 (Overview of University of Minnesota Conversion Process)
- Handout 2 (University of Minnesota Semester Conversion Instructions)
- Handout 3 (University of Minnesota Seven Broad Objectives)
- Handout 4 (University of Minnesota Standards for the Semester Conversion)
- Handout 5 (University of Minnesota Semester Conversion Project Timeline and Implementation Schedule)
- Handout 6 (Tentative Semester Conversion Timeline)
- Additional Materials 1 (UCLA Site Visit Notes from Minnesota)
- Additional Materials 2 (Zetterberg Personal Retrospective Commentary)
April 9, 2008 Minutes
April 16, 2008 Minutes
April 23, 2008 Minutes
April 30, 2008 Minutes
May 7, 2008 Minutes
May 14, 2008 Minutes
May 28, 2008 Minutes
Link to University Steering Committee on General Education Final Report
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Comments
reduction of courses
The minutes of April 30 indicate that the committee is recommending that the numbers of courses be reduced by one-third. Such a reduction makes sense only for a department or college that intends to continue to make extensive use of four-hour (and even five-hour) courses, not for deparments and colleges that intend to adopt the three credit hour standard for their courses.
If the basic course unit is four credit hours and the teaching load will be 2+2, as in the College of Engineering, then it makes perfect sense to reduce the number of courses by one-third. If a department like mine (HPJ) expects to use the three-hour unit and teach a 4+4 (or, if fortune smiles, a 4+3), it makes no sense at all.
It suffices for HPJ and similar departments to reduce the number of courses by one-ninth. In HPJ we currently teach nine courses/year. Under semesters we will most probably teach eight courses/year. That does not equal a one-third reduction in course offerings. I think that it is unwise to erect the one-third reduction in course offerings as the standard and require departments like ours to to seek exceptions.
The nature of the curriculum in some departments and colleges may well fit comfortably in to one-third fewer courses. I am thinking particularly of the curricula of departments and colleges that surround the Piazza della Scienza. However, there are many departments, particularly in the humanities, social sciences, education, technology, and the fine arts, that will be teaching three-hour classes and will teach a 4+4. I do not know what CBA has in mind for class load, but I am pretty sure that they will go to the three hour unit.
Those departments and CBA should not be made to petition for an exception to a rule that applies almost solely to natural science departments and to Engineering and Pharmacy. The "one-third rule" is far too rigid. It does not account for fundamental differences in programs and teaching loads. It should not become the standard for course reduction.
Yours,
John Lomax
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