THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE FACULTY SENATE Senate Document Number 2494S Date of Senate Approval 3/10/94 Signature of Senate Chair ___________________________ Date _________________ Action of Vice Chancellor: Approval __________________________________ Date ____________________ Denied __________________________________ Date ____________________ Reasons for denial and suggested modifications: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Statement of Faculty Senate Action: APC Document #25: Changes in Computer Science curriculum Effective date: Fall 1994 The proposed changes to our curriculum are minor. We have replaced one of our present correlate course requirements in Mathematics with MATH 251, Discrete Mathematics. We have also dropped our requirement for PHYS 105, Contemporary Physics, from the Information Systems track. PHYS 105 has not been offered from several years, and its continued inclusion in our major requirements causes our students some consternation. Any student who has already taken a 5 hour science course will not be required to take PHYS 105 for the MIS track. We are merging two courses, CSCI 330, required by our Computer Systems track, and CSCI 443, required by our Information Systems track, into a single course CSCI 343, required in both tracks. This change will reduce our staffing requirements by one section per year. We have greatly simplified our requirements for the nine-hour ``selection'' of Computer Science courses within both tracks. We have proposed a modification of the requirements for our minor. Delete CSCI 330 Introduction to File Processing Impact statement This course and CSCI 443 will be merged into CSCI 343. Staffing needs should be reduced by one course per year. Rationale See CSCI 343. Add CSCI 343 Proposed title and description Database Management Systems (3) Study of the theory and application of database management systems. Topics include database design, data normalization, transaction management, and data access methods. Prerequisite: CSCI 202. Course offered every spring semester. Impact Statement CSCI 330 and 443 will be merged to form this course. Curricular requirements will be modified to follow this change. Since we are merging two courses into one, staffing needs should be reduced by one section per year. Rationale This change will allow us to serve all our majors with one course. The change of prerequisites will also make the course suitable to majors in other programs. Remove CSCI 443 Database Management Systems Impact statement This course and CSCI 330 will be merged into CSCI 343. Staffing needs should be reduced by one course per year. Rationale See CSCI 343. Changes in Requirements for Computer Science minor Change requirements from Minor in Computer Systems - 21 hours, including: CSCI 201, 202, 254; 12 hours chosen from CSCI 252, 320, 330, 332, 333, 346, 351, 431, or 460. Minor in Information Systems - 21 hours, including: CSCI 201, 202, 241; 12 hours chosen from CSCI 252, 254, 341, 342, 351, 443, 446, or 448. to CSCI 201, 202, 254 and 12 hours in CSCI at the 300 level or above. Impact Statement There should be little impact on staffing requirements. It is possible that this change may attract one or two more minors per year, but it will not make any significant increase in enrollment in our courses. Rationale It seems inappropriate to specialize a minor into tracks; consequently, we are merging our two-track minor into a single program. Change in requirements for Computer Systems program in Computer Science Replace major requirement for CSCI 330 with CSCI 343 Impact statement We are merging CSCI 330 and CSCI 443 into one course. Staffing needs will decrease by one course per year. Rationale Due to changes in the field over the last few years, it seems more appropriate to require a database management course rather than a file processing course. Replace major requirement for 9 credit hour selection Replace requirement for ``9 additional hours chosen from CSCI 241, 341, 351, 342, 440, 444 or 452, 460, 462, or any 371-4 or 471-4 Special Topics course'' with ``9 additional hours in CSCI at the 300 level or above.'' Impact statement There will be no impact in staffing needs. Rationale The present rule is quite cumbersome to follow. Its sole effect has been to disallow major credit for a small number of courses, e. g., CSCI 446 and 448, to students in this track. We feel that it is no longer appropriate to make this restriction. Replace cognate requirement for MATH 266 with MATH 251 Impact statement The Mathematics Department has agreed to teach this course once a year. We anticipate an enrollment of 20 CSCI majors in the course per year. Rationale This course teaches students theoretical concepts, such as Boolean algebra and graph theory that are required in many Junior-Senior level computer science courses. Almost all undergraduate computer science majors require this course. Coordination The Mathematics Department requested creation of this course in this year's APC document #5. Change in requirements for Information Systems program in Computer Science Replace major requirement for CSCI 443 with CSCI 343 Impact statement We are merging CSCI 330 and CSCI 443 into one course. Staffing needs will decrease by one course per year. Rationale We wish to expose our students to databases earlier in their academic careers. Replace major requirement for CSCI 341 with CSCI 351 Impact statement There will be no impact on staffing needs. Rationale Due to changes in our fields, we believe that we should teach our students a bit more about applications of personal computers and a bit less about applications of mainframes. Replace major requirement for 9 credit hour selection Replace requirement for ``9 additional hours chosen from CSCI 252, 320, 331, 333, 346, 351, 431, 440, 452, 460, 462, or any 371-4 or 471-4 Special Topics course'' with ``9 additional hours in CSCI at the 300 level or above.'' Impact statement There will be no impact in staffing needs. Rationale The present rule is quite cumbersome to follow. Its sole effect has been to disallow major credit for a small number of courses, e. g., CSCI 444, to majors in this track. We feel that it is no longer appropriate to make this restriction. Replace cognate requirement for MATH 192 with MATH 251 See Impact Statement and Rationale from previous page. Remove cognate requirement for PHYS 105 Impact statement There will be no impact on staffing needs. The Physics department has not offered this course for three years. Rationale The Physics department is now offering Astronomy (ASTR 105) as its primary course for satisfying UNCA's 5 hour requirement in natural science. They maintain that they do not have the resources to offer PHYS 105 to the ten or so students in the Information Systems program who would be expected to take the course each year. The majority of the Computer Science department believes that, under these circumstances, the university's natural science requirement will provide the Information Systems students with adequate course work in science.