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BSc PROGRAMS COMMITTEE MEETING

DIVISION OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES, COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

 Thursday, March 12, 2009

Room B103.11 Health Sciences Building

9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
MINUTES 

Present

Dr. N. Ovsenek (Chair), Dr. C. Havele, Dr. P. Krone, Dr. M. Pato, Dr. B. Verma, Maureen Webster

Regrets

Dr. W. Albritton, Dr. K. Desai, Dr. P. Lee

The Chair informed the Committee that Ms. Cindy Thomson officially started working in the Technician II position which supports the BMSC 240.3 Laboratory Techniques course. Cindy is quite resourceful and is anticipated to be a great asset to the Division. Dr. Ovsenek also reported that the equipment quotes for this lab have been received, and Dawn Giesbrecht is working through the details. The Interdisciplinary Search Committee is progressing with the search for the Lecturer position and interviews are expected to take place toward the end of March. 

Dr. Ovsenek gave a brief history of the teaching responsibilities for BMSC 200.3. The Department of Pharmacology initially agreed to take on this responsibility, but Dr. Gopal recently indicated that the Department of Pharmacology is now not prepared to teach this course. Nick decided to intervene and after discussions with Dr. Khandelwal, the Department of Biochemistry agreed to teach BMSC 200.3 in Term 1, and co-teach in Term 2 with the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology. Committee members raised concerns about Pharmacology pulling out if the initial arrangement. Dr. Pato commented that this is contrary to the spirit of the common core. Nick pointed out that there would be resource implications if Pharmacology chooses to opt out of this teaching in the second year. Nick asked Pharmacology to develop a plan to deliver 50% of one of the 3 credit unit BMSC course in the common core. The BMSC 200 course is critical to the success of the common core and Nick expressed gratitude to the Department of Biochemistry for absorbing the BMSC 200 teaching load for one year.

Dr. Havele suggested changing the CHEM 112.3 prerequisite for BMSC 200.3 to a co-requisite. Dr. Pato said this is not possible because students need the chemistry background prior to taking BMSC 200.3.

The Committee discussed at great length the issues surrounding HSC 208.6. Students are not allowed to take both HSC 208.6 and BIOL/BMSC 224.3 for credit.  HSC 208.6 was accidentally deleted and a new course proposal was submitted to reinstate the course. When approved, it will be called PHSI 208.6, and the content will remain the same. The Department of Physiology had previously asked if they could in the transition year (2009/10), allow some students to take PHSI 208.6 in lieu of BMSC/BIOL 224.3. This request was made to allow students applying for admission to Physical Therapy and the Second Degree Nursing option access to the Human Body Systems course as it is an admission requirement for these programs. The Department of Physiology was supposed to have developed a 3 credit unit course in Human Physiology, that when coupled with the BMSC/BIOL 224.3 course, would serve as a replacement for HSC 208.6. For a variety of reasons, the 3 credit units in Human Physiology did not get developed.  There was also a concern expressed previously be the Department of Physiology that the BMSC/BIOL 224.3 course alone will not adequately prepare students to take 300 level courses in Physiology. The PHSI 208.6 course will need to remain permanently as a service course because it is a requirement in the Pharmacy & Nutrition program. Since PHSI 208.6 is not yet approved, and because the common core platform was approved to include BMSC/BIOL 224.3 as the entrance point for Physiology, it remains unclear as to how students should be advised. Nick suggested setting up another meeting to include Dr. Desautels, Department Head of Physiology, in order to clarify and resolve the problems associated problems with PHSI 208.6. 

Pat Krone commented that there have been many positive changes resulting from the common core platform and that there has been more open discussions among the Departments then ever before.

The next regularly scheduled B.Sc. Programs Committee meeting is scheduled on April 16, 2009. 

Meeting adjourned.