If you missed the Jan. 6 Academic Senate meeting, or need a refresher, keep reading for the highlights from the meeting. For more information on the Academic Senate, click here.
Debate Calendar
Middle East Studies B.A. Program restructure
Mike Middleton, associate dean for academic affairs, College of Humanities and Bryce Garner, director, administration, International and Area Studies on behalf of Chris Low, director, the Middle East Center, presented the following:
Program Restructure Rationale:
- Prior to this reform, the Middle East Studies Major (B.A.) curriculum had not been updated for over a decade.
- In the wake of a raft of new faculty investments in recent years, these curricular reforms are designed to deliver research-informed teaching and better match the expertise of our newly enhanced faculty.
- The entire International and Area Studies suite (Asia, Latin America, Middle East and International Studies) has created a shared core course: INTL 3000.
- By offering Language and Methodological Focus options, we have also taken steps to remove barriers to student success and ease the path to degree completion, particularly for transfer students and late-declaring majors.
- The restructured 52-credit hour Middle East Studies (BA) Program also meets new total credit-hour requirements.
Center for Interprofessional Simulation-Based Experiential Learning (CISBEL)
Wendy L. Hobson-Rohrer, M.D., MSPH, and Ann Butt, Ed.D., R.N.; Ken Johnson, M.D., presented the following:
The vision of the proposed Center for Interprofessional Simulation Based Experiential Learning (CISBEL) is health care excellence through simulation, experiential learning, and collaboration. With a mission to have health care teams, learn, lead, and practice together we are guided by common values: Community Collaboration, Excellence in Education, Innovation and Research, Respectful Leadership, Sustainability, and Quality and Safety Outcomes.
CISBEL is a multidisciplinary entity that provides experiential learning resources across University of Utah Health. The primary aim of CISBEL is to improve access and reduce costs for educators and learners who use or are interested in utilizing experiential learning resources. Experiential learning resources include simulation equipment (e.g., manikins, part-task trainers, robotic trainers, etc.), standardized actors, virtual and extended reality equipment, and personnel that manages and operate simulation equipment, among others. These resources are costly and for many educators unaffordable. Working together across multiple simulation-based experiential learning sites will provide an economy of scale. To improve access and service, CISBEL will provide administrative oversight and scheduling for experiential learning locations in the University of Utah Health system. CISBEL will engage thought leaders from all schools and colleges within the University of Utah to foster collaboration, innovation, and standards in experiential learning activities, and multidisciplinary education events.
Information and Recommendations Calendar
Graduate Council 7-year Reviews
Helene Shugart presented the following:
Department of Biomedical Informatics
The Department of Biomedical Informatics is one of the oldest such departments in the nation, and it remains one of the most distinguished. The department offers two degrees: the Master of Science, across three tracks (Bioinformatics, Clinical Informatics, and Data Science), and the Ph.D. Reviewers commented extensively on the department’s research excellence and legacy thereof—its high-caliber faculty and its continued status as a national leader in the field; as well as its effective training and placement of students. To assure continued success, the department is encouraged to build and stabilize tenure-line faculty, expand partnerships, and work to improve graduate student support and program resources.
Department of Political Science
With the establishment of a Division of Public Affairs that productively restructured the Department of Political Science, informed in part by internal and external review reports, the department currently offers the bachelor’s degree; the master’s degree (M.A. and M.S); and the Ph.D., as well as a certificate in International Relations. Reviewers commended faculty productivity as well as departmental culture and collegiality, especially relative to support for and mentorship of junior faculty; staff excellence; and strong curricular offerings across undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Following the resolution of the primary, focal recommendation across review reports—the aforementioned restructuring—the department is encouraged to identify innovative ways to address increased teaching demands and to grow and support its graduate program.
CSO Annual Report: Threat Assessment & Management Partnership
Keith Squires, chief safety officer, and Keith Livingston, associate director of threat assessment and management presented the following:
The Threat Assessment and Management Partnership is a multidisciplinary team of campus partners who work collaboratively to reduce the risk of targeted violence on campus. This multidisciplinary team allows our management strategy to address a potential public safety risk in a holistic manner.
Targeted violence is a dynamic process, Threat Assessment and Management attempts to intervene early and through proper management strategies to take an individual off of the pathway towards targeted violence. Threat Assessment focuses on prevention not prediction.