Courses to include new requirements
FAYETTEVILLE -- New requirements for undergraduate students will be embedded in a broad set of courses as approved Wednesday by faculty members.
Faculty members in May 2018 adopted 11 learning objectives for students that include ethical reasoning and engagement with global issues.
"It's not just about passing a course. It's, literally, can you do what those outcomes say," said Kevin Hall, a civil engineering professor and member of the General Education Core Curriculum Committee.
The faculty senate approved 103 courses that include content tied to one or more of the 11 new learning outcomes.
For content in each of the courses, faculty members can say "we think this course will meet this [learning] outcome, and this is how it meets this outcome," Hall said.
The goal continues to be a fall 2020 implementation of the new learning outcome requirements, Hall said.
Courses on the list are existing courses or previously planned new classes, Hall said, rather than courses created specifically to match up with the new learning outcomes.
Remaining unchanged are core course requirements.
To earn a bachelor's degree, students attending any public university in Arkansas must complete a 35-semester-hour core fulfilling requirements in five areas: English/communication, mathematics, science, fine arts/humanities and social science. Students at UA need at least 120 hours to earn a degree.
Texan set to head technology office
FAYETTEVILLE -- The university office that works to move research breakthroughs to the marketplace has a new leader.
David Snow began Oct. 28 as director of the Technology Ventures office.
His $240,000 annual salary is being paid with money from a $23.7 million Walton Family Charitable Foundation grant announced last year, said university spokesman Andy Albertson.
The Walton grant aims to boost the commercialization of research while also providing money to attract research talent, university leaders have said.
Snow arrived from Texas Tech University, where he worked as senior managing director for the Texas Tech Office of Research Commercialization. He earned a doctorate in chemistry from Texas Tech, where he also earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and a master's in electro-analytical chemistry.
In a statement, Snow described an ongoing effort to make the Technology Ventures office "a primary access point for the Northwest Arkansas innovation ecosystem."
The university previously had an interim director of Technology Ventures, Bob Beitle Jr., an engineering professor and associate vice chancellor for research, Albertson said. Before Beitle headed the Technology Ventures office, Jeff Amerine held the director job, Albertson said.
Metro on 11/17/2019