Senate Document Number 0500S

Date of Senate Approval 1/20/2000

Statement of Faculty Senate Action:

APC Document #1: Incorporation of CLAS 495 (Senior Research Thesis) as mandatory part of the Classics major and Revision of Course Descriptions

Effective date: Fall 2000

Delete: Course description for CLAS 495, pgs 82 and 84

Add:
Supervised independent study on a departmentally approved research topic of the student's choice, leading to the completion of a thesis. (IP grades are approved for this course.) Prerequisite: senior standing. See department chair.

Under Concentration in Greek, pg 79

Delete:
Required courses in the major--30 hours….480, 495.

Required courses outside the major--None.

Other departmental requirements--…..competency requirement.

Add:
I. Required courses in the major -- 30 hours, including CLAS 211, 221, 495; 3 hours from the classical Culture courses; 18 additional hours chosen from 310, 320, 330, 340, 360, 400, 410, 450, 460, 480. Special topics courses may be substituted with prior approval of department chair.

II. Required courses outside the major -None. Courses dealing with the Graeco-Roman world offered by other departments may be substituted for the Culture course with the prior approval of the department chair.

IV. Other departmental requirements--Major and oral competency will be demonstrated by a final examination consisting of 4 hours of written Greek translation, and a one-hour oral examination on literature, history and culture based on student readings over the course of the major and on the content of the thesis completed for CLAS 495.

Under Concentration in Latin, pg 80

Delete:
Required courses in the major--30 hours….484, 495.

Required courses outside the major--None.

IV. Other departmental requirements--…..competency requirement.

Add:
I. Required courses in the major -- 30 hours, including CLAS 212, 495; 3 hours from the classical Culture courses; 21 additional hours chosen from 322, 332, 352, 412, 422, 432, 452, 462, 468, 484. Special topics courses may be substituted with prior approval of department chair.

II. Required courses outside the major - None. Courses dealing with the Graeco- Roman world offered by other departments may be substituted for the Culture course with the prior approval of the department chair.

IV. Other departmental requirements--Major and oral competency will be demonstrated by a final examination consisting of 4 hours of written Latin translation, and a one-hour oral examination on literature, history and culture based on student readings over the course of the major and on the content of the thesis completed for CLAS 495.

Under Concentration in Greek and Latin pg 80

Delete:
Required courses in the major--36 hours….484, 498.

Required courses outside the major--None.

IV. Other departmental requirements --…..competency requirement.

Add:
I. Required courses in the major -- 36 hours, including CLAS 211, 221, 212, 495; 3 hours from the classical Culture courses; 21 additional hours (with at least 6 hours in each language) chosen from 310, 320, 322, 330, 332, 340, 352, 360, 400, 410, 412, 422, 432, 450, 452, 460, 462, 468, 480, 484. Special topics courses may be substituted with prior approval of department chair.

II. Required courses outside the major -None. Courses dealing with the Graeco- Roman world offered by other departments may be substituted for the Culture course with the prior approval of the department chair.

IV. Other departmental requirements--Major and oral competency will be demonstrated by a final examination consisting of 4 hours of written Latin translation, and a one-hour oral examination on literature, history and culture based on student readings over the course of the major and on the content of the thesis completed for CLAS 495

IMPACT STATEMENT
Concurrences
The Education department has already approved this proposal, which is intended to have an effect only upon majors within the Classics department, and should have no effect on the University at large. Classics majors will now have to complete a more substantial piece of independent research than has hitherto been possible within the confines of 300-400 level courses which include term papers as part of their requirements. Classics minors will not be affected: they can still elect to do CLAS 495, as they could previously, but it is not compulsory.

Resources
Our department is currently understaffed, so that we are already in need of more resources. This particular proposal will, however, not cause any extra strain on the department, and if anything, may somewhat alleviate our workload problem. The kind of supervision that will be necessary is different from conducting a regular class session and less intensive in terms of contact hours: according to Archer Gravely, faculty receive 0.2 Credit Hours for each student credit hour of thesis supervision, so that 1 student registered for 3 credit hours of thesis work would generate 3 X 0.2, or 0.6 faculty workload hours. In semesters where graduating numbers are larger, we will diminish the number of advanced level courses offered to graduating seniors, so that we will not be adding anything extra to our teaching loads.

Rationale
Currently our graduating students' schedules are very full, and they have no time to write any extended essays beyond term papers, or follow up topics that particularly interest them. We think it very important that they should hone their writing and research skills in a longer and more independent piece of work than is possible in the confines of a class that meets two or three times a week for a whole semester. We would also like to expand opportunities for Classics majors in the undergraduate research that is an important part of UNCA's mission. Additionally, they often have no real chance to review the texts that they have read during their careers at UNCA in order to prepare properly for their competency examinations. By making CLAS 495 compulsory, we hope that they will be able to arrange their graduating semester both to have time to work on a scholarly project related to what they have read over their time at UNCA, and to include time for review of the texts they have read.