Program Proposals

• College of Arts & Letters
• College of Engineering & Computer Science
• College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics
• College of Social Sciences & Interdisciplinary Studies

• Program List #1

NON-SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

Italian Minor

Justification:

NON SUBSTANTIVE PROGRAM PROPOSAL CHANGE:

Widen the scope of courses required for the Italian Minor. Currently four courses are required for the Italian Minor, 102, 103, 110 and 111, (Course catalogue, page 486)

CURRENT catalogue requirements are listed as follows:

(3) Italian 102 Italian Advanced Conversation (ITAL 2B or Instructor permission)
(3) Italian 103 Advanced Grammar and Composition ( ITAL 2B or equivalent)
(3) Italian 110 Introduction to Italian Literature I (upper division status and instructor permission)
(3) Italian 111 Introduction to Italian Literature II(upper division status and instructor permission)

NEW REQUIREMENTS WOULD BE LISTED IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER:

Requirements Minor
Total Units Required for Minor 12
Courses in parenthesis are prerequisites
Course requirements are:

(3) Italian 102 Italian Advanced Conversation (ITAL 2B or Instructor permission)
(3) Italian 103 Advanced Grammar and Composition ( ITAL 2B or equivalent)
(3) Italian 110 Introduction to Italian Literature I (upper division status and instructor permission)
(3) Italian 111 Introduction to Italian Literature II(upper division status and instructor permission)

The above requirements may be substituted as follows:

Italian 102 (or Italian 104 A, or Italian 180)
Italian 103 (or Itailan 104 B, or Italian 180)
Italian 110 (or Italian 130 or 131)
Italian 111 (or Italian 130 or 131)

JUSTIFICATION:

This would give us a chance to vary our course offering and attract more students.  In the past Cinema and courses on the Italian Renaissance have always proven popular.  More flexible requirements are a way of attracting greater numbers to the program and satisfying the needs of Minor and Special Major students at the same time.  It also broadens the scope of our program to include Cinema and Renaissance studies, thus giving it a more cultural and interdisciplinary character.  We would, in effect move toward Italian Studies, not merely Italian.  We believe that this is necessary for the program to survive.

These proposed alternatives do not increase or decrease the required units in a program.  They carry no supplemental funding request.  They have no identified fiscal or programmatic impact on another academic unit's offerings.  Again, all these courses are currently listed in the course catalogue, pp. 486-487.

NON-SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

History M.A., Standard Program, Specialized Option

Justification:

Proposal: Currently for the culminating requirement for the History M.A., Standard Program, Specialized Option, students have the choice between completing comprehensive exams or a thesis.  This proposal would add a project option for the culminating requirement.

Justification: Some of the students who pursue the History M.A., Specialized have a specific career or professional objective in mind and for which a supervised project would provide a more useful culminating experience than an exam or thesis.  In particular, secondary school teachers who pursue the M.A. could opt to fulfill the culminating requirement by applying the knowledge they gained in the program toward substantial program development.  This option might also be appealing to students interested in new media applications of their historical knowledge.

This change is non-substantive in that it does not affect required units toward degree, carries no supplemental funding request, and has no identifiable fiscal impact

DELETION OF EXISTING PROGRAM

Master of Arts in Theatre

Justification:

Due to university budget restraints, a decrease in faculty numbers, and continuous low enrollment in the program, the Department of Theatre and Dance is no longer able to support the Master of Arts in Theatre graduate degree program.  Please see attached for further program discontinuation justification.

NON-SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

M.S. in Software Engineering

Justification:

Description: Add one more option (below) to the current requirement. The same option has been available for MS in CS students:

• One of the following upper-division courses: CSC 142, CSC 148, CSC 155, CSC 159, CSC 165, CSC 176, CSC 177 as along as they have not been used towards another degree. (A maximum of 6 undergraduate units may be used in any graduate program.)

Justification: This change is to provide one more option for MS in SE students to take electives addressing their educational background and goals.

The changes do not affect any department outside of the College, and only the Civil Engineering Department within the College (the replacement of one course normally taught by Civil Engineering). Civil Engineering is aware of and supportive of our proposed changes.

NON-SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

Concentrations within the Geography B.A.

Justification:

We propose to make changes to the four concentrations within the Geography Major.  By definition, such changes are classified as modifications to an existing program.  Our current concentrations are General Geography; Cartography, GIS and Planning; Human Geography; and Physical Geography.  We propose to make small changes to the Human Geography and Physical Geography concentrations; to separate the existing Cartography, GIS and Planning concentration into a GIS & Analysis concentration and a Metropolitan Area Planning concentration; and to delete the General Geography concentration.  No other changes to the major and no changes to courses are proposed.  We do not anticipate that restructuring the concentrations will result in significant changes in our schedule of courses.  No other departments are impacted by our proposed restructuring of the concentrations, which involve geography courses only.

SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

Psychology Minor

Justification:

Several changes to the Psychology minor are proposed to keep the minor in line with the recently made program changes to the major. The program changes and justifications are as follows:

1. To make PSYC 2 Introductory Psychology required of all Psychology minors.
2. To delete PSYC 1 Introductory Psychology: Basic Processes.
3. To delete PSYC 5 Introductory Psychology: Individual and Social Processes.
4. The Psychology minor students must complete PSYC 2 with a minimum grade of “C-”.

5. To increase the number of required courses in the basic processes category from one to two. Minor students would need to select TWO of the following courses to complete the minor instead of just one (PSYC 103, PSYC 104, PSYC 106, PSYC 110, PSYC 111, PSYC 115, PSYC 116, or PSYC 117).

Justification for item 5: By dropping both PSYC 1 and PSYC 5, and replacing it with PSYC 2, the minor course requirements are short by 3 units.  Currently in the minor there are two categories of upper-division Psychology courses from which students select courses.  They currently must select only one course from the Basic Processes category, while they select two courses from the Social Processes Category.  By increasing the number of courses selected in the basic processes category from one to two, students will have a more balanced minor that better reflects the field of Psychology.

6. To add PSYC 100: Cross-cultural Psychology to the existing social processes category from which minors must take two courses.

Justification for item 6: The Psychology major was revised a few years ago to include a requirement of two courses from areas of diversity in Psychology.  The addition of PSYC 100 as a option for the minor would add representation from this important area.

7. To increase the minimum number of elective units to 3.

Justification for item 7: The majority of courses within the curriculum are offered for at least 3 units which more appropriately reflects the intended scope of the elective requirement.

8. To change the required number of upper-division units required for the minor from 10 to 15 units and to increase the total required units for the minor from a minimum of 20 to a minimum of 21.