THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE

FACULTY SENATE

Senate Document Number 8211S

Date of Senate Approval 04/28/11

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Statement of Faculty Senate Action:

APC Document 66: Remove CHEM 428 and 435 from requirements for

B.S. Concentration in Biochemistry, and add CHEM 413

Effective Date: Fall 2011

1. Delete: On page 92, under Bachelor of Science Degree – Concentration in Biochemistry:

25-26 hours as follows: CHEM 315, 335, 416, 417, 418, 428, 435, 437, 440; BIOL 116; and one 3-4 hour upper-level BIOL course approved by the Chair of Chemistry.

Add : On page 92, in place of deleted entry:

21-22 hours as follows: CHEM 315, 335, 413, 416, 417, 418, 437, 440; BIOL 116; and one 3-4 hour upper-level BIOL course approved by the Chair of Chemistry.

Impact: 

There will be little impact on the staffing and resources in the Department of Chemistry. There will be a small drop in the enrollment in CHEM 428, Computational Chemistry. However, this should not cause the class to be a low-enrollment class, as it is required for the concentration in chemistry and is a popular elective for B.A. students and chemistry minors. CHEM 435, Bio-analytical Instrumentation Laboratory, is a class that regularly has low enrollment (5 students in Spring 2011, 6 in Spring 2010, 1 in Spring 2009) resulting in it being an overload class for the faculty member. These students can be incorporated into CHEM 413, Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, (enrollment of 11 in Spring 2011, 7 in Spring 2010, 6 in Spring 2009), a course which uses many of the same analytical techniques.

Rationale: 

CHEM 428 is where students are introduced to the use of computers in solving problems in chemistry at the quantum level. CHEM 440, Physical Chemistry and Bioinformatics of Macromolecules, is where students are introduced to the use of computers in solving problems in chemistry at the biological level. In trying to streamline the major, it was decided that there is some redundancy in requiring students in the Biochemistry concentration to take both courses. There is similar overlap between CHEM 435 and CHEM 413, where students make use of spectroscopic methods to identify metal species, and this is an opportunity to streamline the curriculum and ensure that one major 400-level laboratory course will have an acceptable enrollment.