University of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, February 23, 2004

Meeting minutes from the Faculty Senate of the University of Northern Iowa

Contemporary Capstone Computer Courses: Lessons From The Service Sciences

Enrollment in computer programming courses has plummeted in the past decade.  Facing a similar situation in the 1960s, the mathematics community responded by inventing the “new math.”  Unfortunately the new math failed because it was too abstract for students to see connections with their lives, and because math teachers were not adequately prepared.  Many of today’s computing related degree programs are in danger of failing for similar reasons. This paper argues that, besides off-shoring; there may be other less obvious reasons for the drop in enrollment.  These reasons include curriculums that overemphasize functional programming, and under-emphasize ethics and practical service internships.  This paper further argues that modern curriculums for the fields of Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, and Software Engineering could all be improved by viewing them as sub-specialties of the newly emerging discipline of Service Sciences.  The paper concludes by sketching a basic curriculum for a hypothetical new program we call the School of Artificial Systems and Service Sciences.  It is an extension of the philosophical approach used at Yale Medical School

An Attempt to Design a Business Capstone Course: A Personal Experience

Derived from a personal experience, this paper presents a framework on how a ‘Capstone Course’ might be developed at a university in Australia. This paper begins with a selective literature review on the diverse ideas and methods of teaching a ‘Capstone Course’ at different levels and disciplines, then discusses the process followed to have the course syllabus and outcomes approved by top management. The literature will shed some light on the ways by which this course is delivered at business schools in different parts of the world at various levels. A common theme in the literature is that, regardless of the diverse ways in which this course can be delivered, the syllabus must be relevant to real-life situations and actual business practices. This is a difficult task since differences are apparent regarding the contents of this course and the diverse views regarding the sort of relationship that a university should have with businesses. Indeed, in obtaining necessary approvals as to how this course can be delivered, there are both challenges and limitations. This paper reports on a personal experience in developing such a course, highlighting the great opportunities and the immense challenges faced by the developer. This paper shares with readers a ‘theoretical’ vision rather than a ‘practical’ implementation of a Capstone Course designed for inter disciplinary business students in Australia. This paper highlights the challenges and limitations experienced, with suggestions and steps depicted in a conceptual model as to how best a ‘Business Capstone’ course can be designed and implemented to achieve the ultimate goal of preparing students for the real world

Integrating Data Science Ethics into an Undergraduate Major

We present a programmatic approach to incorporating ethics into an undergraduate major in statistical and data sciences. We discuss departmental-level initiatives designed to meet the National Academy of Sciences recommendation for weaving ethics into the curriculum from top-to-bottom as our majors progress from our introductory courses to our senior capstone course, as well as from side-to-side through co-curricular programming. We also provide six examples of data science ethics modules used in five different courses at our liberal arts college, each focusing on a different ethical consideration. The modules are designed to be portable such that they can be flexibly incorporated into existing courses at different levels of instruction with minimal disruption to syllabi. We conclude with next steps and preliminary assessments

Hypocrisy in Higher Education: Racism and Transphobia as Barriers and Harm in Mental Health

Mental health involves acts of naming and noticing, thus the hypocrisy of harm within mental health programs is explored and discussed through interpersonal and structural means. In a space that is meant for safety and care, inaccessibility, pejorative terminology, pathologizing identity, and exclusionary tactics are riddled throughout the layers of the mental health field. From campus, to literature, to different forms of therapy racism and transphobia work against non-dominant groups through interlocking forms of oppression. The centering of Western, White ideology is harmful to students in these programs, as well as the clients of BIPOC, QTBIPOC, and trans* communities. Mental health professionals are unequipped to work with these demographics, as there is much less research and clinical practices to support them. By not attending to these issues, higher education and its research is complicate in cyclical racial and transphobic harm. Without acknowledging said issues and working towards more expansive forms of care, mental health professionals will continue to harm their clients

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda September 18, 2023

3:30 Call to Order Approval of Minutes - August 21, 2023 3:35 University Business 3:50 Faculty Senate Business . 4:00 Information Education Policies Committee Human Resources Policies - 351 4:20 Reports Educational Policies Committee Annual Report Honors Program Annual Report 4:30 Old Business Update on Divestment Task Force Greenhouse Waste Emissions 4:40 New Business Issue of Faculty Concern Adjourn

General Education Requirements: Fontbonne Catalog, 2018-2019

This catalog reflects an institution that is devoted to upholding its new, self-identified value of the common good. The addition of the Mission Core classes and restructuring of the GERs that took place in 2015 fundamentally changed how the program worked. A system that relies on Mission core being the “heart” of the GER program with “Pillars” of knowledge supporting the “structure” of Fontbonne is an important change. The institution is now focused on bringing its own version of a liberal arts education to its students rather than a more standardized one, coming close to finalizing the vision started in the 1970s.https://griffinshare.fontbonne.edu/gen-ed/1004/thumbnail.jp

A hands-on manufacturing curriculum for high school students

The UTeachEngineering program in the Cockrell School of Engineering of The University of Texas at Austin has developed a high school engineering curriculum, Engineer Your World (EYW), with the intent of interesting students in pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers. However, EYW currently contains no curriculum modules on manufacturing. In fact, a literature review shows very few high school manufacturing curricula, and these typically require state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, thus making the curricula unaffordable to many schools. Thus, there is a need to develop a new manufacturing curriculum module to provide all schools with the opportunity to teach the breadth of the core concepts of manufacturing without being limited by constraints, such as finance, materials, facilities, etc. This thesis presents the details of such a module. The hands-on approach for teaching manufacturing bridges the gap between theory and practice. Students first learn manufacturing techniques in detail, and then manufacture a simple product using simple setups designed to provide concrete experience with a particular manufacturing process. The hypothesis is that, after completing the module, students’ understanding of manufacturing is increased compared to that before the module. This thesis describes the curriculum and its evaluation. The capstone module of the curriculum features an inexpensive surrogate manufacturing machine that can be assembled quickly by teachers or students to provide hands-on experience. The capstone module of the curriculum was tested with students from an engineering class in a high school in Austin, TX, USA. A pre-test/post test was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum. It was found that the curriculum was simple to understand and implement and also provided insights into manufacturing which are similar to what could be attained with a module using more expensive manufacturing equipment.Mechanical Engineerin

Faculty Senate Committee Agenda October 2, 2023

3:00 Call to Order. Maureen Hearns 3:05 University Business. Elizabeth Cantwell, President | Larry Smith, Provost 3:20 Faculty Senate Business. Maureen Hearns | John Ferguson | Grant Cardon 3:25 Information 3:40 Reports 3:50 Old Business 4:05 New Business Adjourn