Program Proposals

• College of Arts & Letters
• College of Business Administration
• College of Education
• College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics

SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

English Major: Areas of Interest

Justification:

This change combines the poetry and drama areas of interest into a new area of interest: "poetry and drama"; and "literary theory and cultural studies," "race, nation, and ethnicity," and "gender and sexuality" into a new area of interest called "theories, identities, and cultures."  The rationale was that by combining these, and thus making larger, more flexible areas of interest, we would increase the viability of courses within those areas and the areas themselves.  This move was partially in response to students who felt that they could more easily get courses in their area (particularly in "theories, identities, and cultures").

SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

Masters Program in Spanish

Justification:

The Spanish Graduate Exam, or G-Exam, will be discontinued after the end of this spring 2009 semester.  It is outdated, ineffective as an undergraduate and graduate program assessment tool, and too costly and labor-intensive to continue to produce, maintain, and administer.  All Spanish majors graduating in the spring 2009 semester will be provided the opportunity to complete this major requirement through the end of this semester.  The Spanish area of the Department of Foreign Languages has already approved and implemented, over a year ago, modifications and enhancements in the existing advanced-level language courses: Span 103, 142, and 106, in order to offset the discontinuance of the G-Exam.  Later, the Department Assessment Committee will determine whether additional changes may be needed in these courses and the Spanish major program.

NON-SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

Master of Music - Concentration in Music Education

Justification:

MASTER OF MUSIC IN MUSIC EDUCATION DEGREE

RATIONALE

The changes presented here are meant to update our program to reflect current faculty and course offering while more closely conforming to the NASM Guidelines.

The Music Education concentration is not attracting and graduating enough students and could face problems with accreditation in the future.  One course, Psychology of Music, has not been offered in many years.  For many students, the Project or Thesis has extended the graduate program from two to seven-plus years and some never graduate.

Recent faculty hires in the Music Education area now enable us to reenergize the program and expedite student matriculation.  Further, NASM, our accrediting agency requires that students in graduate music education programs should have the opportunity to take courses over a cross-section of disciplines to strengthen their musicianship and experiences.

NASM - The Master’s Degree in Music Education
Studies in the major field, including instruction that will enable students to understand and evaluate research in music education, comprise at least one-third of the total curriculum. Other studies in music, such as performance, conducting, theory and analysis, and history and literature, comprise at least one-third of the total curriculum. For students anticipating doctoral studies, a thesis is strongly recommended.

The following recommendations were the result of Department needs and the study of existing Master of Music Education programs with a non-thesis option at other Universities.

1. The core curriculum would remain unchanged.


2. The three research-related courses, prescribed by the NASM Guidelines, would remain as the Introduction to Graduate Study and the two Seminars in Music Education.


3. Psychology of Music would be eliminated, as the course has been offered only once in the past fifteen years.


4. The Culminating Experience would be selected from a Thesis (3), Project (2) or Comprehensive Examination (0).  The NASM Guidelines indicate that students that would be entering a doctoral program should complete a thesis.


5. In addition to the Culminating Experience, graduate courses in music history, music theory, composition, applied music and conducting would be options for graduate students that have the prerequisites in those areas

SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

Theatre

Justification:

Eliminating prerequisites for Acting I and eliminating THEA 124 due to the 2007 reconstruction of the major requirements, lack of instructional support and budgetary cutbacks.  THEA 173 was moved up to Section “B” on the Required Upper Division courses to keep the unit value the same when eliminating THEA 124.

NON-SUBSTANTIVE CHANGES

MSBA/Taxation

Justification:

Delete ACCY 500B as an option to fulfill culminating experience from the MS Taxation program due to budget/human resource considerations and the majority of students not selecting ACCY 500B to fulfill their culminating experience.  After deleting ACCY 500B from the program, students will use ACCY 276 exclusively to fulfill their culminating experience.  ACCY 276 will also be deleted from the elective list.

MS Accountancy

Justification:

Delete ACCY 500B as an option to fulfill culminating experience from the MS Accountancy program due to budget/human resource considerations and the majority of students not selecting ACCY 500B to fulfill their culminating experience.  After deleting ACCY 500B from the program, students will use ACCY 281 exclusively to fulfill their culminating experience.  ACCY 281 will also be deleted from the elective list.

SUBSTANTIVE CHANGES

Bachelor of Arts: American Sign Language and Deaf Studies

Justification:

Most of the changes involve corrections to the course catalog listing of prerequisites for a number of the Deaf Studies courses (EDS 155, 160, 161, 162, 163 & 165), name changes (EDS 161), renumbering to reflect Lower Division status (EDS 151, 152, 152, 156, 157, 160) and an increase of units for EDS 157, 165 & 166.  The unit increase for EDS 165 & 166 was done to allow for faculty flexibility in scheduling and provide options for students in fulfilling the unit requirements for graduation.  EDS 157 (ASL Classifiers) was increased to 2 units after faculty feedback indicated 1 unit was insufficient time to satisfactorily cover this complex topic.

NEW PROGRAM

Minor in Teacher Education

Justification:

The College of Education offers a minor in Education.  Teacher Education would like to have a minor that is specific to our department.
The minor in Teacher Education would consist of 12 units chosen from the following upper division courses:

Choose 1

• EDTE 101A/B: Tutoring Children in Math (3 units) OR
• EDTE 103A/B: Tutoring Children in Reading (3 units)

• EDTE 120: Literature for Children(3 units)
OR
• EDTE 121: Multicultural Children's Literature (3 units)

• EDTE 150: Urban Education (3 units) AND
• EDTE 165: Sex Role Stereotyping in American Education (3 units)

SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

Bachelors Degree in Chemistry (Biochemistry Concentration)

Justification:

Currently, this degree requires BIO 10 (3 units) and 6 units of upper division courses in Biological Sciences (chosen from BIO 131, BIO 139, BIO 180, BIO 181, and BIO 184).  Although the upper division biology courses have other prerequisites in addition to BIO 10, the Department of Biological Sciences had, in the past, agreed to waive all prerequisites except BIO 10 for students in this major.  The proposed change to this major curriculum is mandated by the substantive course changes recently made by the Department of Biological Sciences.  Biological Sciences recently instituted BIO 1 and BIO 2 for their majors, and made these the prerequisites for their upper division courses that apply to our major.  Additionally, they changed BIO 10 so that it no longer is appropriate for science majors.  They will no longer accept BIO 10 as a prerequisite for their upper division courses that apply to our major, and they will no longer waive additional prerequisites. We therefore are required to replace BIO 10 (3 units) with both BIO 1 (5 units) and BIO 2 (5 units) in our major.  This change will increase the number of lower division units in this major from 39-43 to 46-50.

Additionally, the Department of Biological Sciences has recently changed the units associated with BIO 184 from 3 to 4 units. This may affect some students in our major, but they can still incorporate BIO 184 in their 6 upper division Biological Sciences units.

With this change, the BA in Chemistry (Biochemistry Concentration) will have a total of 71-77 units. With 51 units of required General Education courses, the total units needed to graduate with this major will be 122-128. However, 12 units of GE Area B overlap with courses required for the major.