23 April 2010

From MWCSWiki

Present: Ernie Ackermann (Ernie), Karen Anewalt (Karen), Aaron Clemmer (Aaron), Stephen Davies (Stephen), Jennifer Polack-Wahl (Jennifer), Ron Zacharski (Ron) and Marsha Zaidman (Marsha).

1. Focusing on the four credit model. Marsha asks how likely this will happen. Ernie says the new dean comes from a place with the four credit model. Marsha says we would go from 13 courses to 10. The question is whether this would speed up our major. Stephen listed pros and cons. Pros: teach fewer preps, student concentrate on fewer classes @ at a time, heavier GPA weight, more substantive projects, potentially reduce total duration of major. Cons: less diversity of material, heavier GPA weight. Ernie says to assess this we really need to throw some plans up. One option is to change 220 to be the entry level course -- call it 130 and eliminate 110. Stephen thinks having 110 is good because it can function as a feeder course. Jennifer says 110 gives us majors. Stephen is not in favor of 110 being 4 credits.
2. Jennifer would like to make 330 4 credits.
3. Stephen says that trying to repackage existing course material into 4 credit blocks doesn't work. Possibilities include 326 + algorithms, 405 + distributed systems, programming languages + compilers, 350 + 410, 330 + lab.
4. Possibility of not having 300 level elective.
5. So the core courses would be 130, 230, 330, 350, 305, 326, 430.
6. Marsha says the the mood in math is to have more prerequisites for linear algebra. If that is true that would be bad for us.
7. There was some discussion about 300 level electives. We don't have many.
8. Marsha says we should experiment by offering 350 as 4 credits in the spring. Or offering 330 as 4 credits.
9. There is some discussion about doing a survey of 110. If we eliminate 110 what would the feeder course be? Jennifer is not willing to give 110 up. In this proposal, 130 (the old 220) would have no prerequisites.
10. Leave 230 as is. Keep 110 and drop prereqs. Teach more sections of 10xs as feeders.
11. Topic shifts to discussing a masters.
12. Stephen went to a meeting on the strategic plan and there was a discussion about whether the college want a masters program. The general mood in the room was heck no we don't want a masters. Stephen, Jennifer, and Karen talked about an accelerated program. Stephen handed out a sheet describing accelerated masters from other universities. Stephen says we could do it with two additional faculties. The plan would be to have 12 credits during the BS: 501, 530, 505, and a 500 level elective. During the 5th year 18 graduate credits. So we would need to offer 4 graduate courses per semester meaning we would need 2 additional faculty.
13. Ernie asks about transferring in. If just for existing majors how many would we get? Would it be worth it? Ernie says you need at least 30 to 50 students in the program. Marsha says we graduate 35 undergrads per year.
14. There was further discussion about whether non-UMW students could be worked in.
15. Ernie says to sell it we need to address how we can get more people in the program. If we restrict this to traditional track then we even have less students.
16. Karen summarizes the discussion as that we like the idea of an accelerated masters.