Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

Meeting Minutes Wednesday 12/09/2005

Attending:  Ken Baldauf, Daniel Chang, Ann Ford, Steve Leach, Daniel Schwartz, Robert van Engelen, David Whalley

Two topics were discussed at the meeting and the third was processed via email in the last month.

1. Proposal for COP 3502 to meet a college natural science course requirement

2. Engineering has brought up a concern about their ECE students having to
take the new 1 credit UNIX course which takes effect as a corequisite for COP 3330 in Fall 2006

3. Offering of new "security literacy" course for nonmajors

1. Proposal for COP 3502 to meet a college natural science course requirement

Daniel C. wrote up the forms and discussion required by the College of Arts and Sciences.  We discussed the proposal and decided to go ahead with submitting it to the College as soon as possible.

For further information please read the following quotes and/or explore these URLS which relate to this requirement:

This is at http://registrar.fsu.edu/bulletin/undergrad/info/undergrad_degree.htm
in the on line bulletin:

"As one of its primary goals, a university education should foster in the student a spirit of free inquiry into humane values, while developing the mind as an instrument of analysis and synthesis. Essential to the student’s quest for knowledge and to responsible participation in society is an understanding of one’s self and of the natural and social environment. The Liberal Studies Program is intended, therefore, to provide a perspective on the qualities, accomplishments, and aspirations of human beings, the past and present civilizations they have created, and the natural and technological world they inhabit. ..."

This is from the faculty senate page at http://www.fsu.edu/~fasenate/ls5.htm

"The Natural Sciences cover a wide area of human experience, with a common ground of observations, hypothesis or model construction, and the use of experiment as a test against nature. Some sciences have detailed tested models, which have been extensively confirmed, while other disciplines rely heavily on observation and experiment to construct such models. In either case the area deals with the observed natural world, and with the evidence available for construction, testing and verification of models."

2. Engineering has brought up a concern about their ECE students having to take the new 1 credit UNIX course

Engineering contacted the department and voiced concern that their students already are required to take 138 hours to graduate and there is no room in their schedules for a required 1 credit UNIX course.  Note that this 1-credit UNIX course was voted in as a corequisite for COP 3330 last February.

We decided on the following:

• an on line course will be offered, Dave G. had said he would work this up at some future point
• an on line test will be created, and Engineering majors, along with anyone else, can pass out of the UNIX course by obtaining an acceptable score on the test (note they will NOT receive any credit, just an OK to take COP 3330)
• we will point students to on line tutorials, and perhaps create one here as well (perhaps ACNS has one?)
• CS department will need to keep records of who has and has not passed this UNIX test
• Engineering students will have this choice: either test out of UNIX before registering for COP 3330, or take the UNIX course as a corequisite with 3330

3. Offering of new "security literacy" course for nonmajors

Alec wrote up a syllabus for this course.  It will be taught for the first time in Spring Term 2006, with small enrollment for its first term.  The first term will be somewhat of a "test run" to see what enrollment is like and how it works out.

Prepared by A.  Ford, December 13, 2005