NTNii OF THE MEETING OF THE SENATE OF SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY held in the Board and Senate
Room on Monday, January 3rd, 1966, at 2.30 PM.
?resent:
President P. D. McTaggart-Cowan, Chairman
.
chancellor G. M. Shrum
A. B. Cunningham
R. N.
Maud
C. D.
Nelson
K. E. Rieckhoff
A. R. MacKinnon
C.
Kirchner
D.
Baird
C.
J. Frederickson
Arnold F. C. Hean
D.
H. Sullivan
R. J. Baker
J. F. Ellis
A. N.
Unrau
T. B.
Bottomore
T. H.
Brose
E. M. Shoemaker
P. D. Robertson, Registrar, Secretary
Absent:
C. H. McLean
C. N.
Perry
W. Vidaver
M. Bawtree
G. L. Bursill-Hall
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The Minutes were approved with the addition of C. C. McLean to those absent
and a rewording of what R. Maud was reported to have said in the third paragraph
on page 6. to read:
"R. Maud referred to the American Association of University Professors TStatem
on Faculty Responsibility for the Academic Freedom of Students', which deals with
student courts and other pertinent matters. He pointed out that the University has
adopted the AAUP Statement on the academic freedom of faculty, and that the state-
ment on students should be of interest to Senate. It was agreed that the Secretary
should see that members of Senate receive a copy for information."
2. BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES - none
3
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE CALENDAR
The Chairman explained that the procedure he suggested for the consideration
of submissions for the calendar was that the Heads be invited to attend when their
section is under consideration so that they can explain their departmental pro-
grams. The Chairman went on to say that he understood Senate's role in the approv-
al
of these programs was to assess the academic acceptability of the program and
not when it will be put on, as that was a Board responsibility, inasmuch as it de-
pended to a great extent on the financial resources of the University.
) Biological Sciences - presented by C. D. Nelson.
Approved as presented.
b) Chemistry - presented by A. M. Unrau and B. Pate.
A question arose about the lack of 300 level courses. R. J. Baker explain-
ed that when the programs were first being established it was decided to
ski p
the 100 numbers b-mi -
FOR ACTI
Registra:
2.
(1)
there was in most cases no rational in the sequence which would nec-
essitate a 300 level number
and
(2)
On a semester program it would often occur that a student's last
two or three semesters might be coincidental with the department
offering no 400 series courses, in which case his transcript would
show that he took all 100, 200 and 300 numbered courses and no 400.
Since the distinction between 300 and 400 was artificial in the first
place, it was decided that it would appear better on transcripts if
he had a lot of 400 and no 300 courses.
Pate suggested that if Senate wished it he could renumber some of his courses
300. A number of ground rules were then discussed and it was decided that
where courses are paired for tumbling they should have the same first number.
However, those that are not to be tumbled and where there are strict se-
quences in the last. four semesters, then it would be quite proper to use the
300 number. R. Haering suggested that in the Physics Department they had
decided that if on analysis of the program a course always occurred during
the student's junior year, then the Physics Department labelled it 300.
The Registrar was instructed to make a note in the general section of the
Calendar dealing with course numbers.
R.J. Baker pointed out that the Science courses seemed to leave very little
room for students to take the requisite Humanities and Social Sciences for teach-
ing certification. In addition it appeared very difficult in the Chemistry pro-
ram particularly for a student to take anything but chemistry, Physics and Math-
atics. It was decided to delete the word "minimum" from page 1 in the program
of the Department of chemistry where it refers to the recommended "minimum" pro-
gram,
The chemistry program was approved with the understanding that the Chemistry
Department would work towards more flexibility in their program for future calen-
dars.
A general discussion took place at this point about the table: "Courses to be
Offered in Coming Semesters". It was felt that this provided useful information
to the students and should be retained. However, the Registrar was asked to make
sure that an escape clause appeared in the calendar to the effect that the Univer-
sity reserved the right to change course offerings as it saw fit.
c)
Mathematics - presented by R. Harrop.
Approved as presented.
The Registrar was asked to make sure that the calendar clarified the terms
"credit", "semester hours", etc.
d)
Physics - presented by R.Haering.
A discussion took place about the fact that the Physics Department requires
•
the identical program for honors and major students. It was felt by some
that such an identity in programs would result in the program being too
difficult for majors, or too soft for honors, or suitable for neither group
Approved as submitted, but on the understanding that the
Physics Department will consider for future submissions
the possibility of distinguishing more radically between
the general and the honors student.
FOR ACIIO
Registrar
Registrar
Registrar
F OR A CTI C
The-Registrar was asked to draft regulations for submission to Senate regard-
ig the number of 100 level courses permissible for degree credit,
e) Philosophy - presented by A. Grants'
It was decided to delete the sentence "students in
•......,... 400 or
above
............"
on page 2 and insert instead a note regarding offer-
ings in
the 5 to 8 semesters.
A discussion then took place on the number of courses required by the Phil-
osophy Department during the first four semesters. A. Grants agreed to reduce
the number of required Philosophy courses from six to five in section b) on
the
general program and section b) on the honors program on page 2. of the submission.
With the above changes the Philosophy submission was approved as presented.
f) History - presented by A. Cunningham.
The wording of the section on page 1. dealing with the department's
requirement of students to audit additional courses was changed to
"the department may advise students to audit additional courses that
may be necessary".
R. J. Baker questioned the necessity of requiring seven history courses
in the first four semesters. A question was also raised as to the His-
tory. Department's offering 15 courses at the 1st and 2nd year level.
The requirement of an examination for Grade 13 students for exemption
from the English History 101 course was also discussed at length.
No changes were made in the History Department's submission but it was
asked that these notes about the discussion be recorded for the guidance
of Senate.
History courses approved as submitted.
g)
Psychology - presented by L. Kendall.
There were a number of questions regarding the number of courses to be
offered at any one time in the Department of Psychology. The Chancellor
felt that in both the History submission and now in the Psychology sub-
mission, Senate was spending time debating points which were rightfully
debatable in the Faculty of Arts Meeting as a Faculty. He suggested that
the Psychology submission be sent back to the Arts Faculty to see if there
is reasonable faculty agreement that the University should give five
semester hours for a course in measurement with two lectures, one tutorial,
and two hours laboratory, and whether Psychology should offer statistics
courses, and whether they should have as many courses at the 200 level
as they were presenting and in general, whether this kind of departmental
growth was desired by the Faculty of Arts as a Faculty.
.
It was decided, finally, that the Arts departmeital submissions should be
.scussed by the Arts Faculty Meeting as a Faculty and that this should be done
as soon as possible. It was pointed out that the Science Departments had all been
very thoroughly discussed in a Faculty of Science Meeting and the Education sub-
missions had been discussed in an Education Faculty Meeting and that the Arts
Faculty should follow suit.
Registrar
•
.•
I
•
4
'34 3b/
FOR ACTIC
It was decided then to adjourn this meeting of Senate, but to schedule
another meeting for the 24th of January at 2.30 PM to carry on the consideration
of calendar submissions. At that time the Registrar will have prepared and have
put through the various committees and faculties, as desired, the material dealing
with the non-departmental sections
The meeting adjourned at 6.05 PM.
P.D. McTaggart-Cowan, Chairman
D.P. Robertson, Secretary
/-