|
|
|
Attendance: Approximately 48
Announced Agenda: 4 items
President Malcolm Gillis called the meeting to order at 4:35 pm in McMurtry Auditorium of Duncan Hall. Alan Chapman served as Parliamentarian. No guests from the Media were present. In the absence of the audiovisual personnel, the proceedings of this meeting were not recorded on videotape, which means these Minutes will be less specific than were Minutes of recent faculty meetings.
1. Minutes of 02-16-00 Faculty Meeting: APPROVED as circulated.
2. Creation of Bachelor of Science Degrees in the Wiess School of Natural Science: .Gillis called on John Ambler to shepherd the second reading of the proposal to rename the current BA degrees to BS degrees in certain departments of the School of Natural Sciences. The motion PASSED by unanimous vote.
Moshe Vardi noted that the requirement of 60 hours being taken outside the departmental requirements differed from those of the BS degrees in the School of Engineering. Stanley Dodds observed that it also differed from the description of engineering BS degrees given in the General Announcements (GA) and moved that the information contained therein be updated. His specific motion was to modify the existing GA descriptions on p. 18 (1999-2000) to distinguish among the now different types of BS degrees. The motion PASSED by undisputed voice voice.
After the meeting, the secretary suggested that it might be best to leave the descriptions as they are but to modify the titles of the various paragraphs. With the concurrence of Dodds and Stephen Baker, the titles have been modified to read (changes in italics) in order on p. 18:
All Bachelor's Degrees (unchanged)
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in the School of Natural Science
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering (B.S.Ch.E), Civil Engineering (B.S.C.E.), Computer Science (B.S.C.S.), Electrical and Computer Engineering (B.S.E.L.E.C.), and Mechanical Engineering (B.S.M.E.)
The descriptions of these courses given in the General Announcements appear to be appropriate to follow these very explicit titles.
3. Graduate Program in Language, Literature, and Culture (GPLLC): Wearing the Owl tie bequeathed to him at last month's General Faculty meeting, Maarten van Dellen brought forth for second reading of the proposal to establish at Rice a GPLLC passed on first reading at the faculty meeting on February 14, 2000. There being essentially no discussion, the question was called and the motion PASSED without opposition.
4. Other Reports and Announcements: Alan Grob raised a question about implementation of the new Language Requirement scheduled to be applied to students entering Rice in the fall of 2000. Specifically, he wanted to know if the 200-level language courses could be counted for Group I Distribution credit. Considerable animated discussion followed by more than a dozen faculty present.
The discussion centered on two statements recorded in the Faculty Minutes. The first was the final of six methods by which students could satisfy the language requirement (Attachment A, Part One of Minutes of 04-14-99) which reads:
6) By completing with a passing grade (equivalent to "intermediate-mid" or higher) the fourth semester of any foreign language taught at Rice, or at an institution accepted for transfer credit.
The second statement came from the Minutes of 05-05-99, 2., which says:
Foreign-language courses at the 200-level and higher or their equivalents (e.g. FLAC courses) will count as distribution courses in the relevant Group; 100-level foreign language courses will not count as distribution courses.
When there seemed to be quite a bit of uncertainty about what had actually been APPROVED by the faculty with no clear resolution in sight, the President suggested that another meeting be scheduled in April to focus on this issue. The secretary was instructed to make the arrangements.
Subsequently, after polling the Humanities Distribution Committee (chaired by Ira Gruber and charged with identifying Humanities courses suitable for distribution credit), Judith Brown affirmed that all the 200-level language courses would be counted for Group I distribution credit. She then sent the following email message to all faculty explaining the position of the School of Humanities.
"Dear Faculty Colleagues:
I have asked the Humanities Committee on Group I Distribution Credits, chaired by Ira Gruber, to take another look at the issue of group I credit for foreign-language instruction classes. Now that they have examined the legislation in the context of the discussion held on May 5th, rather than as a bundle of isolated and sometimes incommensurable injunctions, it is clear to them that foreign-language instruction courses at the 200-level and higher or their equivalents (e.g. FLAC courses) will count toward distribution credit for group I courses. This is a conclusion with which I agree.
Since there now seems to be full agreement about the meaning of the legislation, it seems that the issue is settled and that the appropriate changes will be made in the new General Announcements as well as on any other methods of communicating with students and faculty about the new requirements.
Judith C. Brown
School of Humanities
MS 33 RICE UNIVERSITY
Office Number: 713-348-4810
Fax - 713-348-5471
6100 Main
Houston, TX 77005-1892"
The President has agreed that this explanation clears up the controversy and negates the need for another General Faculty Meeting to address the issue.
The next (and final) General Faculty Meeting of the year will be held at 10 am on Friday, May 12, the day before Commencement. All faculty are expected to be present.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:25 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Joe W. Hightower, Secretary of the Faculty