November 13, 2023

UUCC

Committee Minutes 11-13-2023

Wayne A. Reaud Building Room 202             

Attending: Garrick Harden (A&S), Chair, Ashwini Kucknoor, (A&S); Adam Nemmers (A&S), Sujing Wang (A&S),  Ping He (Eng); John Gossage (Eng); Debra Greschner (Fine Arts); QingJiang Yao (Fine Arts); Jane Liu (Faculty Senate); Trina Nolen (Library); Elizabeth Casey (CID rep); Jessica White (Records)

 Absent: Komal Karani (Business) Ken Young (Education), Katherine Sprott (Education),   

Via Proxy: No records

 Ex-Officio Attending: Samuel Jator, Associate Provost; David Short, Registrar; Theresa Hefner-Babb, Exec. Dir. Dawn Short (UAC), Elizabeth Lea (UAC), Ricardo Tovar-Silos (Business)

 Ex-Officio Absent: Bryan Proksch, Venki Uddameri, Julia Yoo

Executive Associate Academic Affairs: Shelly Traxler

Guests: Karen Neuhauser (Finance)

Presiding: Garrick (Brad) Harden

Call to Order: 3:35 pm

First order of business- Brad opened the meeting and asked for nominations/volunteers for the position of Secretary for the current year. Ashwini Kucknoor volunteered and was unanimously approved as the Secretary.

Approval of Minutes:

• Adam Nemmers motioned to approve the minutes as written: Ricardo Tovar seconded the motion. Minutes was approved unanimously.

 Business:

• Ping He asked the committee for permission to express his concerns about the previous approval of a program from College of Business, and briefly outlined his thoughts (please see attached description at the end of the minutes). Brad and Shelly mentioned that as it was already approved in a prior meeting, that issue need to be addressed by the Dean/ Department Head of the corresponding program, and that it is not something that this committee would investigate at this point.
• Brad talked about the creation of three sub-committees, 1. Core curriculum assessment, 2. UUCC policies and by-laws, 3. New proposals review committee. Various members volunteered for each of the different committee, and a chair for each of the sub-committee was appointed. After a brief discussion about committee members not attending the regular UUCC meetings, it was decided that members who were absent would be added to the three sub-committees, to fulfill the need for the representation of all colleges in each of the sub-committee.

1. Core Curriculum/Assessment Committee

John Gossage (Chair)

Katherine Sprott

Sujing Wang

Jane Liu

Qing Yao

Ricardo Tovar

David Short

Dawn Short

2. Policies-Bylaws Committee

Brad Harden (Chair)

Jessica White

Ping He

Ken Young

Bryan Proksch

Venki Uddameri

Julia Yoo 

3. Proposals review Committee

Elizabeth Casey (Chair)

Theresa Heffner-Bab

Debra Greschner

Adam Nemmers

Komal Karani

Trina Nolen

After the sub-committees were formed, Brad and Jator discussed about the charges for the committees, to whom the reports will be sent. The charge to the bylaws committee was deemed as urgent, and important, and the charge for this committee needs to be determined.

• A different name for core-curriculum sub-committee needs to be decided upon
• Talked about having meetings for these sub-committees outside of the monthly UUCC meetings
• Discussion on the next agenda items started. Discussed possibilities of the Business certificate program to be completed for the UUCC committee to review it, if a December meeting is called. Since the changes to the certificate program had to go through the SACS and Registrar’s office, it was determined that a December meeting was not needed.
• After discussion, next meeting date was set to January 22, 2024.

 Adjourn: Motion to Adjourn at 4.40 pm by Brad; Seconded by Greschner and was unanimously approved.

Respectfully submitted:

Ashwini Kucknoor, Biology

Comments from Ping He:

Dear Dr. Harden and Fellow UCC Members, I move to raise a question of privilege concerning the welfare of the Undergraduate Curriculum Council. Specifically, I wish to address the Council’s processes and conditions during the deliberations and decisions related to the recent Mechanical Engineering degree plan changes. It is essential that we reflect on our Council’s experience during these proceedings to ensure that our decision-making environment supports the best possible outcomes for our academic community.

Dear Dr. Harden and Fellow UCC Members, thank you for your support to enable me presenting the details of the former UCC processes on the ME degree plan change matter. First of all, I represent the Engineering faculty to thank all the UCC former and current members in your precious time in the discussions of the ME business. Our colleagues hold the highest trust and respect for your commitment and decision. Second, the reason the ME degree plan change has been approved by the UCC and forwarded to the TSUS’s Board of Regents meeting was because Dr. Mansour Karkoub submitted invalid documents that could not support his claim of the so-called departmental committee approval. Last not the least, from the technical perspective, Dr. Karkoub’s degree plan changes have critical deficiencies that will negatively impact on the ME undergraduate program, which is the main reason that the ME faculty committee cannot agree with him.