Standards Committee
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AY     :  2007-2008
Meeting:  Third 
Date   :  Jan 30, 2007
Time   :  4:00-5:00pm 
Place  :  Large Conf Room GITC Building
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   Minutes of Standards Commitee Meeting (STC).
                  by
         Alex Gerbessiotis
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1. Meeting started at   4:00pm.
2. Present: Barry Cohen
            Vincent Oria
            Andrew Sohn
            Alex Gerbessiotis (chairing the meeting).
3. Agenda Items:
    a. Grading Standards
    Documents: cs-stacom08p1.ppt (outline of new standards)

4. Given that the grading standard mandate expired at the
   by the beginning of the Spring 2008 semester, the 
   objective of the meeting was to prepare the new proposal 
   for grading standards for vote at the Dept
   faculty meeting of Feb 4. IRP data on grades (Spring 07,
   Summer 07, Fall 07) were circulated before the meeting.
   The new proposal is an update over the previous one to
   reflect faculty feedack.

   It can be summarized by the 15-20-25 rule that is the 
   percentage of A/B+/B sought as targets for lower-division
    and upper-division undergraduate
   and graduate (500- and 600-level) classes.

   The committee unanimously approved the  new proposal.

   It will be brought forward to the Department in the meeting
   of February 4 for a vote.
   Per B. Cohen's suggestion the vote will be for
   "establishing grading standards in the CS Department under the
    provision that the Department can always review and modify them in the 
    future at the first meeting of every Spring semester using new data 
    provided by IRP."

5.  The committee also discussed the data provided by IRP and suggested
    that the committee chair bring up issues related to grading
    performed by  adjunts and special lecturers to the Department Chair.

6.  The committee expressed serious concerns about the credentials of
    instructors in a variety of classes.
    - Phd-level (700-lelvel) clasess taught by instructors without a PhD.
    - Master's-level (600-level) classes taught by
        - instructors without a PhD in computing or expertise in a totally
          different area than the one of the course they are teaching.

        - unqualified adjuncts without a computer science graduate degree 
          who teach important master's-level core courses 
          (eg databases, networking).

    This issue is also to be brought to the attention of the 
    Chair of the Department by the Chair of the committee.

7.  The meeting was adjourned at around 5pm.


Minutes compiled by
Alex. Gerbessiotis.