ECE Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes for April 3, 2009

1. The Minutes of the March 6, 2009 meeting were approved with corrections.
2. Various options for standing mechanisms for curricular coordination with CS were discussed. The Chair reported that Lenny Pitt from CS stated that our counterparts in CS were about equally divided on the three mechanisms we proposed, and that he advised us to select what we preferred. After some more discussion, the Committee voted 9 to 1 in favor of "Option 2" (a standing subcommittee of about 3-4 members from each department that meets every few weeks to identify and work on any issues). Donna Brown voted against this option, stating that she felt a more integrated approach would be more effective. (The Chair later invited CS to appoint a standing representative to our committee if they so desired.)
3. Gary Swenson, in consultation with Scott Carney and Jonathan Makela, submitted a proposed revision to ECE 445 to make it a 4-credit-hour course with Advanced Composition credit. The Committee discussion centered around concerns as to the practicality of the proposed approach to satisfying the Advanced Composition requirements, and also whether it meets the spirit as well as the letter of the rules. A straw poll found a substantial majority of the Committee in favor of four hours of credit (to be taken from the current technical elective hours), with or without Advanced Composition credit (the writing assignments are an integral part of the course in any case). The Committee desires more information about and discussion on the implementation of advanced composition before committing on that aspect of the proposal.
6. The Committee adjourned at 3:51 PM.