29 March 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. Marsha made a motion to accept the 22 February minutes. Ernie seconded. Motion passed.
2. We had some discussion about recruiting new student department reps.
3. Senate items - Marsha
   1. Motion: (p. 43) that the two designated CAS members of the University Faculty Council be the CAS Faculty Senate President and the President-Elect. Each College must select from their faculty two members to serve on the University Faculty Council. This motion proposes that our elected CAS Faculty Senate President and President-Elect serve as the CAS members of the UFC. In addition, four members of the UFC will be elected at large from the general faculty (regardless of College affiliation). There was a large amount of discussion over this. The department supports the motion.
   2. (p. 32) FSEM Motion: requiring that all transfer students who have fewer than 30 credits take a First-Year Seminar. The committee moves that all students who transfer into the University with fewer than 30 credits should be required to take a First-Year Seminar during their first or second semester at UMW, unless they have taken an accepted equivalent course at the institution from which they are transferring. The department supports this.
   3. Regarding the proposal of counting sign language as a foreign language, the department is in favor of this.
4. Discussion on the CAS Strategic Plan - Please attend one of the forums (there are 2 open forums in Lee 411) or at least make comments on the blog. Ernie says there has been background discussion on this. Instead of having four new committees, this work should be done by pre-existing proposals. Jennifer doesn't think we should be considering alternative terms.
5. Research symposium: Date, location, details? – Ernie suggests Monday the 19th at 3pm.
6. Marsha reports that we have a new scholarship in honor of a cs alumni. This will start next year.
7. Alumni survey – Ron is waiting for the mailing list of the alumni. The survey itself is done. The suggestion is to survey every 3rd year.
8. 430/310 enrollments for fall – these classes filled really quickly and have substantial waiting lists. There was general discussion about how to handle this. It seems we either need to offer double sections or offer both semesters.
9. Student issues needing approval/input:
   1. Ron has a student who would like to complete a 4-credit 391 over the summer and would like to substitute the course for 305 as an exception to the major. The content of the 391 would be similar to the content of 305. Everyone is good with this.
   2. Marsha has an advisee who would like to substitute 470 Semantic Web for 414 Networks in the CIS major. This is the same substitution that we approved for Rebecca Graham, David Young, and David Reichert this past fall. Everyone is good with this as well.
   3. Several students have requested permission to take 220 or 230-ish courses at Germanna or NOVA over the summer and have them transfer in as 220/230. Students should put in a request (incl. syllabii) before our retreat.
   4. Karen has an advisee who has not completed two 300 level CPSC electives. The student is a CIS major and would like to take 499 over the summer. We are not completely keen on this. Ernie would rather not make an exception. Marsha thinks this requirement is overly restrictive. We agree not to waive the requirements.
10. Surveying students who drop 230 and maybe other courses. Marsha suggests doing a focus group to see why people drop 230. Marsha has had five people drop this semester.
11. Decision on date for the retreat. Karen will put up a Doodle scheduler.
12. Goals for events in the far distant future:
    1. Events for fall orientation – Event name due April 1. Stephen says he would do a video games event. Ron suggested a chatroulette local to the university.
    2. Summer alumni meeting to get feedback on direction of program. Ernie suggests picking some dates and see who is around. Stephen suggests planning a dinner to make it more fun. We will develop the purpose of the meeting at the retreat.
    3. Events for homecoming, parents weekend, etc. We will brainstorm on this at that retreat.
13. Newsletter update - Ernie says that there has been no update.
14. Scholarship decisions – are we voting today or scheduling a future date for decisions. We will meet at noon on Wednesday to discuss this.
15. Discussion of the pros and cons of continuing to support the MSMIS accelerated program. We will discuss at the retreat.
16. Discussion of creating an accelerated MS in CPSC. We will discuss this at the retreat. How would we create a five year program. Stephen suggests creating a subcommittee for this.