Oakland University Senate
February 25, 1963
Agenda
MEMORANDUM
February 22, 1963
TO: All Members of the Senate
FROM: Donald D. O'Dowd, for the Steering Committee
RE: Agenda for Meeting of February 25, 1963
The next meeting of the Senate will be on Monday, February 25, at 3:00 P.M. in Room 126-7 Oakland Center.
A. New Business
1. Recommendations from the Academic Affairs Committee regarding Curriculum Adjustment. (See attached document.) (Mr. Matthews)
B. Old Business
1. Recommendations from the Academic Affairs Committee. (Mr. Matthews)
a. Graduation Requirements in Effect.
The graduation requirements are those currently in effect. In instances where these impose a hardship, the student may petition the Committee on Instruction for an exception.
d. Granting of Credit by Petition.
Course Exemption with Credit
In exceptional cases and upon recommendation of the department concerned, the Committee on Instruction may award credit, provided however, that such credit does not exceed 20 percent of the credits earned for a degree at Oakland.
2. Report of Steering Committee Activities. (Mr. O'Dowd)
DDO'D:ird
att.
MEMORANDUM
February 25, 1963
To: All Members of the Academic Senate
From: The Academic Affairs Committee, through the Steering Committee
Subject: First: Motion on Curriculum Adjustment
Second: Motion for Open Hearing
The Academic Affairs Committee moves to place before the Academic Senate the following MOTIONS:
First: Motion on Curriculum Adjustment
PREFACE
The Academic Affairs Committee has already expressed to the Senate its opinion that the present curriculum, and its underlying principles, should be subject to a thorough, systematic study with a view to long-term improvement. The committee is of the opinion that such an endeavor could not be accomplished with any hope of fruitful results in a limited span of time. Therefore, prior to launching into such a study, the committee resolved to work upon a temporary, purely pragmatic, adjustment of the existing curriculum to go into effect this coming fall. In response to widely expressed need, the objective has been to increase elective opportunities for certain categories of students. In many areas, the present curriculum is tight and, in the view of the committee, excessively inflexible. Many difficulties arise which can be resolved only by Petition of Exception to the Committee on Instruction, an inefficient transaction at best.
The following motion embodies an attempt to provide a reasonably simple and feasible curricular adjustment. It is primarily concerned with the University Course prescription, since this is the general framework into which all typical programs must be fitted and hence must be considered first. At a later date, the committee will submit further motions concerned with adjustments within the various major programs.
The object has been to loosen the UC structure, as applied variously to the different majors, by at least two courses, thus increasing the students' elective opportunity by that amount. The motion should not be construed to imply that two electives are optimum in a student's program. Should the motion be approved, the committee intends to encourage, where possible, a similar freeing of courses from the major areas. Thus the motion assumes that no major (major departmental and corequisite courses) will be allowed to increase beyond its present limits and that some may be reduced, so as to create still further the elective opportunity. The extent to which more electives can be created, however, will now depend upon , whatever built-in constraints may be found present in the particular majors. This will be the next order of business on the committee's agenda.
MOTION
I. All students, except those affected by approved modifications, must take the following University Courses:
A. University Courses
1. Western Institutions-- UC 034-035--- 2 courses
2. ENG-- 101-UC 014 or UC 014-105a --- or 2 courses
3. Foreign Language-- 114-115, 214-215 or 109-110, 209-210b--- 4 courses
4. Math/Science-- UC 085, 086, 087c--- 2 courses
5. Art and Music-- UC 047, 049 ---2 courses
6. Social Science-- UC 052, 054, 056, 058 ---2 courses
7. Area Studies-- UC 062, 063, 066, 067 ---2 courses
B. Approved modifications keyed to A (1-7):
a. Students who place out of ENG 101 by tests administered by the Department of English must take the sequence UC 014-015; all others must take ENG 101-UC 014.
b. Majors in teacher education: secondary (history, English, music, and social sciences) and majors in elementary education: general program may satisfy the UC foreign language prescription with three courses, either foreign language 114-115-214 or 109-110-209.
Majors in liberal arts: science (chemistry and physics), teacher education: science (chemistry, physics, and mathematics), elementary education: science concentration, business administration, and engineering science may satisfy the UC foreign language prescription with two courses, either foreign language 101-102 or any two sequential courses in a foreign language, with the permission of the Department of Modern Languages. Students offering Latin or Greek in satisfaction of the UC foreign language prescription must take the four-course sequence 114-115, 214-215.
c. Majors in liberal arts (science), secondary teacher education (science), engineering science, and elementary education are permitted to offer alternative courses in science and mathematics in lieu of the UC courses. Business administration majors are permitted to offer courses in mathematics alternative to UC 085: Mathematics.
C. In those cases in which the course components (UC prescription, professional courses, courses in a major, and corequisite courses) of a Senate-approved major or program do not offer at least two electives in every student's program, the following option may be exercised:
1. Such students must take one UC course in each of the areas numbered 5, 6, and 7 above.
2. As stipulated in the approved major or program, such students must take either one or two additional UC courses as directed options in one or two of the areas numbered 5, 6, and 7 above, but no more than one additional in any one area to satisfy UC prescriptions.
II. Of the electives available in all majors present or resulting from the above University Course adjustment and/or from adjustments within particular majors, at least two must be outside the area of the major and corequisite.
III. This curriculum adjustment is to go into effect in the fall 1963 with the provision that it is to remain in effect no later than fall 1965, by which time it must be:
A. Superseded by a new curriculum
or
B. Its deviation from the present (1962) curriculum becomes invalid and the present (1962) curriculum will become fully operative again.
Second: Motion for Open Hearing
Under provision of Section II, (l, f), of the Organization of the Senate, fall 1961, the Academic Affairs Committee moves that:
Prior to the vote of the Senate on the Motion on Curriculum Adjustment, an open hearing be held by the Senate on the motion within two weeks from today.
George T. Matthews