Soren Spicknall
COPY EDITO R

The work of the Undergraduate
Studies Committee (UGSC), a body composed
largely of faculty members representing each
undergraduate academic department at Illinois
Tech, is an important step in the process
of creating or modifying degree programs,
changing institutional academic policies,
and setting general education requirements
for undergraduate students at the university
While its decisions must be approved by the
University Faculty Council (UFC), the UGSC
toils independently to formulate important
items that come before the UFC

During its third meeting of the
year on October 11, the UGSC considered a
number of new and revised degree programs
While most of these programs were presented
to the committee as information items
(meaning that they would not require a vote),
thorough discussion was still had about each
in order to address all relevant information
for representatives to take back to their
departments

The first new degree programs
reviewed were the most unconventional, the
result of a new afliliation agreement with
Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine
That agreement offers guaranteed admission
to LECOM for a limited number of Illinois
Tech students who meet certain academic
requirements, pursuing graduate degrees in

 

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Pass/Fail implementation, new degrees, more presented at latest UGSC meeting

LECOM’s medical, dental, and pharmacy
programsi Each track is formulated for eight
total years of college education (four at Illinois
Tech and four at LECOM), with the exception
of a special version of the pharmacy program
which permits three years at Illinois Tech
instead with some credits backetransferring
from LECOM to fill out credit requirements
here A backetransfer agreement is not
entirely uncharted territory for the university,
since a similar policy already exists for an
afliliated program with the Illinois College
of Optometry (which takes up the former
VanderCook campus to the east of Illinois
Tech)i An afliliate pharmacy program also
exists already in partnership with Midwestern
University, but that program does not bestow
an Illinois Tech degree upon its students The
new LECOMeafliliated programs have already
spawned relevant policies within the biology
and chemistry departments at this university,
and the track is expected to be available for
students sooni

Next up on the day’s agenda, the
members of the UGSC turned their lens
inward toward programs that exist entirely
within the confines of Illinois Tech A revised
version of the Bachelor of Science (BS) in
Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics was
presented with changes to some electives,
changes which had been prompted by criticism
from members of the UFC when the degree
was initially presented there the previous
week The newest version of the degree was

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explicitly approved by the chairs of the biology,
chemistry, and physics departments before
being presented, hoping to avoid any further
confusion or debate over its contents

Finally, two new coeterminal
degrees were presented for consideration
before a vote scheduled for the next UGSC
meeting, both of which result in an Master
of Science (MS) in Biology for the health
professions The programs, stemming from
BISI tracks in biology or biochemistry, are
intended for individuals who do not have the
grade progress for admittance into medical
school or another relevant professional school,
providing an alternative by which they can
build qualifications by completing a master's
degree that will theoretically allow them
admittance later on

After discussing various degree
programs, focus shifted to Aubrey Hall, a staff
member from the Registrar’s Office who was
present to answer questions and take input
about the technical implementation of the
university’s new pass/fail policy, which was
formulated last year in concert with SGA
and has been written about thoroughly in
previous UGSC coverage The policy allows
students to take a certain number of free and
technical electives under pass/fail grading
rather than the traditional letter scale, and
will come into effect next semester Under
the currently planned system, students would
register for a course, then submit a petition
through DegreeWorks to request approval

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for the pass/fail option, at which point the
office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs
(UGAA) would review and approve or deny
the student’s petition, changing their grade
mode to pass/fail if approved Hall fielded a
number of questions about the visibility of
each student’s grading style to faculty during
the semester, and reiterated an email he had
sent to department chairs recently requesting
a list of all courses in each department which
will be able to be taken as pass/ fail by students
of the university Some technical details still
need to be ironed out, but the implementation
of the policy largely aligns with its formulated
goals even in its current state

Just before the meetings end, a
representative of Lewis College spoke briefly
about an upcoming facultyeled study abroad
program in Scotland and Northern Ireland,
which will take place over next summer and
will cover certain core humanities and social
sciences credits The program is intended to
be welcoming to all of Illinois Tech’s majors,
not just Lewis College students, and will be
billed similarly to regular summer courses
(excepting travel costs) Information about
it can be found by contacting Elizabeth Hall
(ehall9@iitiedu) in the Study Abroad ofiicei

UGSC meets once every two
weeks in Wishnick Halli Full minutes of each
meeting, as well as information about votes
and membership, are available at iitiedu/~ugsci

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