SSE Undergraduate Studies Committee Meeting

September 28, 2011
10:00 AM

Present: John Prindle, Beth Wee, George Flowers, Dayna Gessler, Carol Pizer, Nancy Hopkins, Jerry Shakov, Donata Henry, Al Vitter, Mike Moore for BMEN, Gary Dohanich, Tudie Gleason, Thomas Hebert (in at 10:30), Mark Sulkes (in at 11:00), Dean Altiero (in at 11:10), Carol Burdsal (in at 11:10), Mike Mislove (in at 11:10)

Approval of Minutes

The meeting minutes from the February 4, 2011, meeting were approved for inclusion on the SSE website.

Courses

Changes to existing courses:

1. EENS 2040 to EENS 3050
2. EENS 3500 to EENS 3550
3. ENGP 3410 to Summer Internship I
4. ENGP 3420 to Summer Internship II
5. CELL 1010 from Gen Biology to Intro to Cell and Molecular Biology
6. Addition of 50 minute non-graded discussion section to EENS 3170/6170
7. Zero-credit, S/U participation requirement to PSYC 1000
8. Zero-credit lab to BMEN 3300/6300 Biomechanics, BMEN 3400/6400 Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, BMEN 3420/6420 Transport in Cells and Organs, BMEN 3780/6780 Proj Embedded Control Systems; some discussion about students taking two BMEN courses at the same time and how that would work on their schedule.

All (a-h) ok, George made motion to approve, Al seconded, passed.

Just after the meeting, three additional course changes were proposed, and all three were approved by Associate Dean Wee and Committee Chair Prindle:

1. BMEN 2020 crosslisted with COSC 2020 Computing Concepts and Applications.
2. BMEN 2021 crosslisted with COSC 2021 Computing Concepts & Applications Lab.
3. Title change for EENS 4950 from Environmental Science Capstone to Environmental Science Research Capstone.

Note to Committee: If you approve these last three changes, they will be included in the minutes as approved changes.

New Courses

1. BMEN 3932/6932: Elements of BMEN Design
2. EBIO 2020: Theory & Methods
3. EBIO 3116 Fundamentals of Tropical Ecology
4. EBIO 3117 Field Research in Tropical Biology
5. EBIO 3126 South African Ecosystems and Diversity
6. EBIO 3127 Field Research in Savanna Ecology
   tabled until they could be discussed with Study Abroad and later approved by email ballot after Study Abroad representatives (Dr. Molly Travis, executive director of the Center for Global Education and two of the Study Abroad staff members) were in support of the proposed courses
7. EENS 4280/6280: Stable Isotope Geochemistry
8. EENS 4310/6310: Depositional Mechanics
9. EENS 4820/6820: Soil-Water Pollution
10. EENS 4940: Environmental Science Capstone

Nancy made motion to approve all others (a,b,g,h,i,j); Al seconded, all approved.

Changes to Minors/Majors

1. Proposed change to majors in EBIO: adding EBIO 2020 Theory and Methods
2. Environmental Science Major requirements: change core courses to include EBIO 2020, the addition of the capstone course for students on the earth science track
3. Geology Major math requirements: require that students take CALC 1210/1220, and set it as pre-requisite so that they are able to use it later in geology courses
4. Physics Major requirements: to add 2 additional Physics courses to the graduation requirements and 2.5 G.P.A. as a requirement for graduation for anyone declaring a Physics major starting next fall (2012) and that all Physics and elective courses should be factored into the major GPA , including grades of F

All items approved for the proposed changes to majors/minors

Old Business

Departments need to update and confirm their lists for Service learning and Capstone courses.

Writing Intensive: SSE students may petition to complete their writing intensive requirements in any approved Newcomb-Tulane course. Once their petition has been signed by Associate Dean Wee, they will be added to SCEN 3880. They will receive a grade of S, I, or U at the end of the semester, based upon the regular course instructor’s recommendation. Students may add this zero credit course until Sept 30, although some leniency will be given this semester. SLA courses are handled differently, as their instructors have been told that if they have students doing the writing intensive requirements, they should add an optional 1 credit course which will be graded. SSE students who do this option will not petition or be enrolled in SCEN 3880.

New Business

Dean Altiero and Mike Mislove joined the meeting briefly to discuss the new Computer Science program and it’s single person “department” who is employed as a Visiting Associate Professor, and is teaching 2 courses. The goal is that it will ultimately not only be an undergraduate program but a real research oriented department.

Other items did not get discussed as the meeting ran long.

Minutes submitted by Eleanor Berault on October 19, 2011.