College of Science Curriculum Committee

Category: 2007

December 2007 – Agenda & Minutes

Members Present: Geoff Birchard, Tim Born (chair), Sheryl Beach, Dan Cox, Rick Diecchio, Robert Ellsworth, Igor Griva, Dimitri Klimov, Barry Klinger, Nigel Waters (GEOG sub), David Singman[br]Members Absent: Barry Haack, Peter Becker

  1. Approval of the November 15th minutes:
    • Minutes were approved.
  2. Announcements and comments:
    • Assad made the announcement that the undergraduate courses passed at the last meeting have been forwarded to the registrar’s office.
    • The schedule for the spring 2008 semester looks like it will be the second Friday of each month but details will follow.
    • Dr. Beach will be exiting the committee and Dr. George Taylor will be taking her place representing ESGS.
    • The program form was approved with one minor change: the inclusion of the words “overlap with existing program.”
  3. Old Business
    • NEUR 600 [Approved][br]The course description will need to be modified slightly.
  4. New Business
    • Graduate
      • BIOL 675 [Approved]
      • CLIM 762 [Approved]
      • Forensics Certificate [Tabled]
        • Accrediting issues were discussed as well as the lack of lab components to the courses.
        • FRN 500, 510, 520, 530, 540, 550, 560, 570, 590 [Tabled]
        • Vote on certificate and courses were going to be done altogether.
      • CHEM 690 [Approved]
      • EVPP 505 [Approved]
      • MATH 677, 685, 686, 688 (deletion) and 998  [Approved]
        • Approved as a block.
      • BINF 450 [Approved]
      • BIOL 413 deletion [Approved]
      • BIOL 421 [Approved]
      • CDS 486 [Approved]
      • MATH 290 modification [Approved]
      • CHEM 490 [Approved]
      • CHEM BA and BS program modification [Approved]

Download original PDF documents:[br]Agenda: December 2007[br]Minutes: December 2007

  • *The programs and services offered by George Mason University are open to all who seek them. George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. After an initial review of its policies and practices, the university affirms its commitment to meet all federal mandates as articulated in federal law, as well as recent executive orders and federal agency directives.

November 2007 – Agenda & Minutes

Members Present: Geoff Birchard, Tim Born (chair), Sheryl Beach, Dan Cox, Robert Ellsworth, Igor Griva, Dimitri Klimov, Barry Klinger, Tim Leslie (GEOG sub), David Singman[br]Members Absent: Rick Diecchio, Barry Haack, Peter Becker

  1. Approval of the October 18th minutes:
    • Minutes were approved.
  2. Announcements and comments:
    • Dr Born thanked Dr. Klimov for representing the curriculum committee at the last COS faculty meeting.
    • Dr. Born wanted to thank everyone for responding quickly to comments/edits to proposals upon posting.
    • Assad made the announcement that the following courses have been approved for general education:
    • ASTR 103, ASTR 302, CDS 101, CLIM 101, EOS 121, EVPP 335
  3. Old Business
    • Conservation Biology Minor Approved
  4. New Business
    • Graduate
      • BIOL 666 [Approved][br]Course will ultimately be cross listed with nursing.
      • CSI 772 [Approved][br]Depts. of Statistics and Electrical Engineering are interest in this course as well and possible cross listing for the future.
      • EOS 684 [Approved]
      • EVPP 644, 646 and 647 [Approved] (All)[br]EVPP 644 is the existing course (both lab and lecture) and was deleted.[br]EVPP 646 and 647 will be splitting the course into separate lab and lecture. No change in content.
      • NEUR 600 [Tabled]
      • BIOL 507 [Approved]
      • BIOL 536 [Approved]
    • Undergraduate
      • CDS 410 and 411 [Approved][br]Part I and II of a course in math techniques.
      • Minor in Bioinformatics [Approved]
      • BIOL 301 [Approved][br]Addition of EVPP 421 to list of topics offered for BIOL 301
      • MATH modifications/deletions [Approved][br]31 courses (27 modifications and 4 deletions) approved as a block
      • PHYS 303 [Approved]
      • PHYS BS modification [Approved]

Download original PDF documents:[br]Agenda: November 2007[br]Minutes: November 2007

  • *The programs and services offered by George Mason University are open to all who seek them. George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. After an initial review of its policies and practices, the university affirms its commitment to meet all federal mandates as articulated in federal law, as well as recent executive orders and federal agency directives.

October 2007 – Agenda & Minutes

Members Present: Geoff Birchard, Tim Born (chair), Dan Cox, Rick Diecchio, Robert Ellsworth, Igor Griva, Barry Haack, Dimitri Klimov, Barry Klinger, David Singman[br]Members Absent: Sheryl Beach, Peter Becker[br]Guests: John Wallin (CDS)

  1. Approval of the September 13th minutes:
    • Minutes were approved.
  2. Announcements and comments:
    • Dr. Born said that he will do his best to have quick and on topic meetings and to please be lenient on the rules of order.[br]He also reminded that all submissions must only be from the committee representative or the department chair and that they must all go to Assad Khan ([email protected]).[br]Substitutes are allowed to attend meetings but committee members must alert the chair that a substitute will be present prior to the meeting.
    • An announcement was made that all graduate courses and programs treated in the September meeting were on the agenda for the 10/17 Graduate Council meeting and passed.
    • Dr. Diecchio reported that both ASTR courses (103 and 302) were forwarded to the provost’s office for general education consideration and both BIOL courses (422 and 493) were forwarded to the registrar’s office.
    • Dr. Diecchio also asked whether BA requirements in COS should go through the curriculum committee or if a separate committee should be formed. It was decided that a separate committee be formed but the curriculum committee should treat it at the end.
  3. Old Business
    • NEUR 634 [Approved][br]There was one change in the course description about getting ready for graduate school needed to be deleted before going to Graduate Council.
    • BIOL HONORS PROGRAM [Approved]
  4. New Business
    • Graduate
      • NEUR 603 [Approved]
      • GEOG 650 [Approved][br]The original proposal was sent in with an electronic signature that showed agreement by the chair of ESGS. One change was required in the course relationship section where “this” needed to be changed to “these.”
    • Undergraduate
      • Minor in Computational and Data Sciences [Approved][br]A suggestion to add classes in FORTRAN was made
      • Minor in Conservation Biology [Tabled][br]Will be looked at by MMB and brought to the next meeting.

Download original PDF documents:[br]Agenda: October 2007[br]Minute: October 2007

  • *The programs and services offered by George Mason University are open to all who seek them. George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. After an initial review of its policies and practices, the university affirms its commitment to meet all federal mandates as articulated in federal law, as well as recent executive orders and federal agency directives.

September 2007 – Agenda & Minutes

Members Present: Sheryl Beach, Peter Becker, Estela Blaisten (chair), Tim Born, Dan Cox, Rick Diecchio, Robert Ellsworth, Barry Haack, Dimitri Klimov, Ed Schneider (sub for CLIM), David Singman[br]Members Absent: Geoff Birchard[br]Guests: Bob Ehrlich, Igor Griva,

  1. Approval of the May 14 minutes:
    • Minutes were approved.
  2. Announcements and comments:
    • Schedule for the Fall 2007 semester were set (all meetings will be held at 9am)
      • Thursday October 18
      • Thursday November 15
      • Thursday December 13
    • Dr. Blaisten announced that she will be leaving the curriculum committee and that Igor Griva will take her place as the representative from CDS. Other new members include David Singman (Mathematical Sciences) and Barry Haack (Geography).
  3. Old Business
    • With Dr. Blaisten leaving, nominations for a new chair were called for. Dr. Born was nominated and named the new chair of the College of Science Curriculum Committee.
  4. New Business
    • Graduate
      • Physics Ph.D. (new program) [Approved][br]There was some discussion about publications but it was decided that the wording in the proposal adequately addressed this issue.
      • Physics MS (modification) [Approved][br]Small changes were made to the program. A third concentration was added and the number of electives was raised from four to five. PHYS 540 needed to be added to the list on page 3.
      • ASTR 630 (new course) [Approved]
      • PHYS 630 (new course) [Approved][br]To be cross-listed with BINF 740. There were some questions on what the prerequisites for the course should be.
      • PHYS 703 (new course) [Approved]
      • NEUR 634 (new course) [Tabled]
    • Undergraduate
      • ASTR 103 (general education consideration) [Approved]
      • ASTR 302 (general education consideration) [Approved]
      • BIOL 422 (new course) [Approved]
      • BIOL 493 (new course) [Approved]
      • Biology Honors Program (modification) [Tabled][br]Tabled so Environmental Science and Policy can take a look at the proposed modifications.

Download original PDF documents:[br]Agenda: September 2007[br]Minutes: September 2007

  • *The programs and services offered by George Mason University are open to all who seek them. George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. After an initial review of its policies and practices, the university affirms its commitment to meet all federal mandates as articulated in federal law, as well as recent executive orders and federal agency directives.

May 2007 – Agenda & Minutes

Members Present: Geoffrey Birchard, Estela Blaisten (chair), Tim Born, Dan Cox, Robert Ellsworth, Dimitri Klimov, Barry Klinger, Barry Kronenfeld, David Wong (ESGS substitute),[br]Members Absent: Peter Becker, Rick Diecchio, Rebecca Goldin

  1. Announcements and procedures:
    1. There was a lengthy discussion concerning the absentee votes. It was agreed by all members present that absentee votes will be counted, as long as the absent member sends his/her vote in written form to the chair of the committee. Additionally, if a member is going to be absent and the department can provide a substitute, the name of the substitute should be communicated to the chair prior to the meeting.
    2. It was agreed that a positive vote of 80% of the committee membership was needed to approve an item of business. A memo to the Executive Council prepared by Geoffrey Birchard requesting a change of the COS Standing Rules to incorporate this point was unanimously voted and signed.
    3. Parts of the College of Science Curriculum Committee Operation and Organization policy were edited. The full version was then unanimously approved as policy for the committee. This document can be found on the COS Curriculum Committee website at: http://www.scs.gmu.edu/~curric/CC_OPERATION.pdf
  2. Old business
    1. # The CHSS “Science and Society” minor (Diecchio) [Approved] contingent to the following:
      • A joint committee consisting of equal representation from CHSS and COS will approve programs of study.
      • All programs will include at least one science course beyond the GenEd required courses.
      • The existing list of sample programs and courses will be deleted until approved by the joint committee.
      • The COS Curriculum Committee empowers Rick Diecchio to negotiate the revised proposal for the minor with CHSS. The resulting, revised proposal will be submitted to the The COS Curriculum Committee for approval as a joint CHSS/COS minor program.
    2. EOS 121 (gen. ed. submission) [Approved]
    3. EOS 600 [Approved] upon correction to be non repeatable and lecture
    4. EOS 650 (new course) [Approved] upon supply of course numbers for the prerequisites by Dave Wong
    5. EOS 670 (modification) Approved upon supply of prerequisites by Dave Wong. A correction to be non-repeatable, and modification of a couple of words in the catalog description was already entered in the posted copy.
    6. GEOG 550 (modification) [Approved]
  3. New business
    • Graduate
      • Physical Sciences Ph.D. (modification) [Approved]
      • CHEM 796 (new course) [Approved]
      • EVPP 519 (new course) [Approved] contingent to obtaining an electronic version of the syllabus Goeff Bichard should supply this document.
      • EVPP 521 (new course) [Approved]
      • NEUR 603 (modification) [Tabled]
    • Undergraduate
      • CHEM 355 (new course) [Approved]
      • BIOL 422 (new course) [Tabled]
      • EVPP 419 (new course) [Approved] contingent to obtaining an electronic version of the syllabus Goeff Bichard should supply this document.
      • EVPP 421 (new course) [Approved]
      • EVPP 421 (Gen.Ed. submission) [Approved]
      • Environmental Policy minor [Approved]
      • Change in Foreign Language requirement for BA Students. [Approved]

Meeting adjourned 1:30pm

Download original PDF documents:[br]Agenda: May 2007[br]Minutes: May 2007

  • *The programs and services offered by George Mason University are open to all who seek them. George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. After an initial review of its policies and practices, the university affirms its commitment to meet all federal mandates as articulated in federal law, as well as recent executive orders and federal agency directives.

April 2007 – Agenda & Minutes

Members Present: Geoffrey Birchard, Estela Blaisten (chair), Zafer Bobeyi (ESGS
substitute), Tim Born, Rick Diecchio, Rebecca Goldin, Dimitri Klimov, Barry Klinger[br]Members Absent: Peter Becker, Sheryl Beach, Dan Cox, Robert Ellsworth, Barry
Kronenfeld,

  1. Announcements and procedures:
    • There was a lengthy discussion concerning the absentee votes. It was agreed by all members present that absentee votes will be counted, as long as the absent member sends his/her vote in written form to the chair of the committee. Additionally, if a member is going to be absent and the department can provide a substitute, the name of the substitute should be communicated to the chair prior to the meeting.
    • It was agreed that a positive vote of 80% of the committee membership was needed to approve an item of business. A memo to the Executive Council prepared by Geoffrey Birchard requesting a change of the COS Standing Rules to incorporate this point was unanimously voted and signed.
  2. Old business
    • CHEM 661 new course [Approved]
    • EOS 600 new course [Tabled]
    • EOS 650 new course [Tabled]
    • EOS 670 new course [Tabled]
    • EOS 685 new course [Tabled]
    • EOS 691 new course [Tabled]
    • EOS 745 new course [Tabled]
  3. New business
    • CLIM 101 new course [Approved]
    • Gen Ed request for CDS 101 [Approved]
    • MATH 290 modification [Approved]
    • MATH 302 modification [Approved]
    • EOS 399 new course [Approved]
    • BIOL 103 modification [Approved]
    • BIOL 104 modification [Approved]
    • BIOL 105 new course [Approved]
    • BIOL 106 new course [Approved]
    • CHSS Science & Society minor: This minor was discussed in length. All members thought that the CHSS college had not consulted when producing the proposal. It was determined that Rick Diecchio would collect comments from the various departments and the matter would be considered again at the following meeting [Tabled]
    • PHYS 614 new course [Approved]
    • CSI 612 deletion [Approved]
    • MATH 781 new course [Approved]
    • MATH 784 new course [Approved]
    • MATH 790 new course [Approved]
    • CHEM 567 new course [Approved]
    • CHEM 568 new course [Approved]
    • CHEM 665 new course [Approved]
    • GEOG 550 modification [Tabled]

The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 PM

Download original PDF documents:[br]Agenda: April 2007[br]Minutes: April 2007[br]Majority Voting Memo: April 2007

  • *The programs and services offered by George Mason University are open to all who seek them. George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. After an initial review of its policies and practices, the university affirms its commitment to meet all federal mandates as articulated in federal law, as well as recent executive orders and federal agency directives.

March 2007 – Agenda & Minutes

Members Present: Sheryl Beach, Geoffrey Birchard,, Tim Born, Dan Cox (acting chair),
Rick Diecchio, Robert Ellsworth, Rebecca Goldin, Dimitri Klimov, Barry Klinger, Barry
Kronenfeld[br]Members Absent: Peter Becker and Estela Blaisten[br]Guests Present: Maria Dworzecka (Dean’s Office) and David Walnut (Mathematics)

Call to order. Meeting was called to order at 11:10 am

  1. Approval of minutes:
    • Minutes from the January 14 meeting were approved.
  2. Announcements and comments:
    • Dr. Dworzecka presented a proposal of having the COS prefix for courses in the college which are interdisciplinary and may belong in more than two departments, courses which are central-based college courses, technology apprenticeships such as a future course (The History of Science). Institution of the COS prefix was Approved.
    • The Global and Environmental Change undergraduate degree was approved by SCHEV. This is the first joint academic program between ESGS and EVPP.
  3. Old Business
    • Review of postponed courses
      • **CHEM 660 – [Approved]
      • **CHEM 661 – [Tabled] because it was not shown in advance to EVPP faculty.
      • **CHEM 662 – [Approved]
  4. New Business
    • **EVPP 335 – [Approved]
    • **EVPP 490/505 – [Tabled] until a new submission in appropriate forms and format
    • **GEOG 588 – [Tabled]
    • **GEOG 644 – [Tabled]
    • **EOS 600 – [Tabled]
    • **EOS 650 – [Tabled]
    • **EOS 670 – [Tabled]
    • **EOS 685 – [Tabled]
    • **EOS 691 – [Tabled]
    • **EOS 747 – [Approved]
    • **EOS 777 – [Approved]
    • **MATH 624 – [Approved]
    • **Dual MS in Mathematics and Statistics. Approved (with one objection on the philosophy of the dual MS degrees containing a total of 48 credit hours)
    • ** Geospatial Intelligence Graduate Certificate new program. Discussed with no
    • voting.

Meeting adjourned at 1:02pm

Download original PDF documents:[br]Agenda: March 2007[br]Minutes: March 2007

  • *The programs and services offered by George Mason University are open to all who seek them. George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. After an initial review of its policies and practices, the university affirms its commitment to meet all federal mandates as articulated in federal law, as well as recent executive orders and federal agency directives.

January 2007 – Agenda & Minutes

Members Present: Sheryl Beach, Geoffrey Birchard, Estela Blaisten (chair), Tim Born, Dan Cox, Rick Diecchio, Robert Ellsworth, Rebecca Goldin, Dimitri Klimov, Barry Klinger, Barry Kronenfeld[br]Members Absent: Peter Becker[br]Guests Present: Kathleen Alligood (Honors Program in General Education)

Call to order. Meeting was called to order at 11:04 am

  1. Approval of minutes:
    1. Revision of the December 14 minutes were approved.
  2. Announcements and comments:
    • Dr. Becker shared his report with members of the committee by email. This report notified that the Graduate Council met January 17, and all 31 of the COS items were approved as follows:
      • New Courses (Action Item):
        • ASTR703 Planetary Sciences
        • CSI745 Nonlinear Optimization and Applications
      • Modified Courses (Announcement):
        • BINF637 Forensic DNA Sciences
        • BINF704 Seminar in Bioinformatics
        • BINF998 Doctoral Dissertation Proposal
        • MATH551 Regression and Time Series
        • MATH554 Mathematics of Compound Interest
        • MATH555 Actuarial Mathematics I, II
        • MATH556 Actuarial Mathematics I, II
        • MATH653 Risk Theory
        • MATH654 Survival Models and Construction of Tables
        • MATH655 Pension Valuation
        • NANO500 Introduction to Nanomaterials and Interactions
        • NANO510 Nanocharacterization
        • NANO520 Survey of Nanostructures
        • NANO530 Nanomanufacturing
        • NANO610 Nanoelectronics
        • NANO620 Computational Modeling in Nanoscience
        • PHYS780 Topics in Computational Physics
      • Deleted Courses (Announcement):
        • BIOS711 Biology for Astrobiologists
        • BIOS713 Seminar in Astrobiology and Ethics
        • BIOS715 Astrochemistry
        • BIOS721 Cellular Neuroscience
        • BIOS723 Developmental Neurobiology
        • BIOS787 Literature of Astrobiology I: Earth as an Environment for Life’s Origins
        • BIOS788 Literature of Astrobiology II: The Emergence of Life on Earth
      • Modified Programs (Announcement):
        • PHD in Biosciences
        • MS in Biology
      • Modified Concentrations (Announcement):
        • Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Concentration
        • Molecular Biology Concentration
        • Microbiology and Infectious Disease Concentration
    • On behalf of Rick Diecchio, Assad Khan shared with the committee that all undergraduate courses discussed and approved by the committee have been submitted to the Registrar’s office with following exceptions:
      • ** EOS 410 needing a minor format change
      • ** The block of CDS courses, which should await for SCHEV approval of the CDS BS. The Registrar will process all approved CDS course proposals contingent to the SCHEV decision.
    • By petition of Rebecca Goldin, and after appropriate discussion, the meeting date for March was moved to March 29.
    • A discussion on the possibility to include in the signature pages of the course proposal format a title or some indication to which course it belonged was initiated by request of Rebecca Goldin. It was decided that a typed line saying “for approval of course YYY000” will be added inside the signature box of the proposal cover pages in all future submissions that require signatures from departments other than the submitting department.
    • It was decided that when any proposal submission contains signatures from other departments, the electronic posting of these proposals will carry in the signatures boxes the legend “signed by department X.” The purpose of this new instruction is to let the members of the committee know what departments have signed the hardcopy cover pages.
  3. Old Business
    • Review of postponed courses
      • **GEOG 685 – Postponed
      • **CDS 487 – Approved pending Bob Ehrlich’s signature and revisions to cover page.
      • The Physics Department is satisfied with the changes introduced to the proposal for this course.
  4. New Business
    • **MATH 495 – was postponed, but nominally approved, pending revisions such as adding consent of instructor to the prerequisite line, be or not be repeatable within degree.
    • **Honors General Education Program[br]A discussion was led by Kathy Alligood, Associate Director of the Honors Program in General Education and Professor of Mathematics. Discussed the new changes and the decreased to 16 credits of math and science courses in the general education honors curriculum. The reduction is intended to encourage more of the eligible students to opt for the Honors program.
      • Five Gen. Ed. courses with honors sections will be offered in the trial year. They are:
        • BIOL 213
        • CHEM 211, 212
        • MATH 114
        • PHYS
      • Her office will submit the new revision for trial during one academic year starting in Fall 2007. An evaluation will take place afterwards to see if the program is working as expected. After that year, a decision on whether to change/add course numbers will be made.
    • The committee invested time in discussing the department based Honor programs, and also discussed possibilities of adding an “H” to the course prefix and number. This option seems to be problematic for the Registrar.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 PM.

Download original PDF documents:[br]Agenda: January 2007[br]Minutes: January 2007

  • *The programs and services offered by George Mason University are open to all who seek them. George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. After an initial review of its policies and practices, the university affirms its commitment to meet all federal mandates as articulated in federal law, as well as recent executive orders and federal agency directives.