Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2012 02:45:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Matthias Gobbert To: UGPC 2012-13 -- Thomas E. Armstrong , Rajalakshmi Baradwaj , Brian Dean , Matthias K. Gobbert , Osman Guler , Jacob Kogan , Kal Nanes , Brad Peercy , Florian Potra , Elizabeth Stanwyck , Manil Suri , Bonny Tighe Cc: Nagaraj K. Neerchal Subject: UP Program Committee 09/10/12 Dear Colleagues, The UG Program Committee met in full today, i.e., both the upper-division/major/minor group and the lower-division/service-course group. Attendees: Gobbert, Stanwyck, Nanes, Guler, Tighe, Dean, Baradwaj, Suri, Armstrong, Kogan. The intention was to open the semester this way, to introduce us (to Brian Dean), and to have one large meeting so that all get feel for the two portions. Bonny and I will communicate (as chairs of the committees), and the overlap in membership by Bonny, Kal, Liz will be useful; I am asking Bonny to copy me on mails to her committee and will try to attend, as well. The division of responsibilities is quite clearly captured by upper-division vs. lower-division. I will lead reports to the faculty meeting, but will certainly turn to appropriate point persons for more info. I passed around the Math 221 change (drop Math 155 pre-req). The committee supported the idea, since it clarifies that IS students should not take 221, unless they do have 151 (not just 155). I will bring this to faculty meeting Wed. as part of my report. This was a hold-over issue from last semester, so we did not discuss in depth. I used this to show the process, also practically in filling out such forms (new course or change course proposal to UG Council). In order to provide a channel, anyone with a proposal (new or change) should contact me for help and coordination; depending on level or subject (Math vs. Stat), I may direct to other group. So, in future, such a 221 change would go first through the lower-division sub-committee. As a matter of information for all, I asked all to identify if they have a particular role as point person. Larger list below. In context of advising, we have Liz Stanwyck for Stat and Kal Nanes for Math as point people; Liz also did graduation review; I asked Kal to take on this responsibility for Math. All agreed that it is useful to have these roles joined, so that final advising can be aligned with graduation review. This semester, PeopleSoft will roll out Degree Audit for our major (and minor?). I suggested that Liz and Kal conduct a full review using conventional methods to detect any mistakes in the PeopleSoft setup. Assuming those are fixed, then in future the coordinators would only look at negative cases out of Degree Audit. This topic prompted a couple of anecdotes: Osman Guler concerned how to tell a student to quit math. And Raji Baradwaj is having a meeting with a mother of a student scheduled. Then I suggested that we should for sure conduct an advisor training, led by Kal and Liz at the appropriate moment in semester. This addresses several new faculty participating in advising, but also useful for our coordination as department. I suggested to pay attention to retention of major issues. This is something to work towards as part of advising. Jacob Kogan would like consideration of a change in Math 225 textbook. This was turned over to the lower-division sub-committee. Jacob also brought up the issue that SCEQs do not compute means correctly. There were a number of questions on whether SCEQs had changed recently or whether they are moving online, which they seem to have for some departments. Jacob, in his role as Faculty Senator, will find out the status. Manil Suri reported that the department has passed in the past a document regarding learning outcomes assessments for Math 301. He said that a lot of dicussion had gone into it, but that it had turned out to be difficult to implement. He will report more details and be point person for this. I finally mentioned some issues that will come up. They include BA in Math Education, overhaul of webpage, my suggestion to consider as part of a strategic plan for the UG program requiring a capstone experience (maybe only for BS, with senior thesis one option, but a practicum/internship another). We should review the grading option for Math 496 practicum; it appears to be only P-F in PeopleSoft, which might be an unintended mistake; right now, we could not determine where the authoritative record in PeopleSoft is for grading options for each course (regular; audit; P-F). More work throughout year includes the webpage (should have more PR material on major/minor, besides general fixes and improvements). Matthias List of point persons and of campus involvement related to UGPC: - Advising and graduation review: Nanes (Math), Stanwyck (Stat) - Pi Mu Epsilon Math Honors Society, Council of Majors: Nanes - Course coordination: Stanwyck, Nanes, Tighe, Baradwaj; this list might be incomplete and is not detailed enough; I will find out complete list of who is for which course soon. - Academic conduct: Tighe - Quiz 0: Baradwaj - Math 301 assessment: Suri - GEP Committee: Armstrong - Summer/Winter Programs committee: Stanwyck Left out at meeting: - Statistics Honors Society - actuarial exam/track -- Matthias K. Gobbert, Ph.D., Professor of Mathematics Department of Mathematics and Statistics Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Consulting (www.umbc.edu/circ) UMBC High Performance Computing Facility (www.umbc.edu/hpcf) REU Site: Interdisciplinary Program in HPC (www.umbc.edu/hpcreu) University of Maryland, Baltimore County 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 Tel: (410) 455-2404, Fax: (410) 455-1066 http://www.math.umbc.edu/~gobbert