To: Sharon Knight, Chair, Graduate Curriculum Committee

To: Sharon Knight, Chair, Graduate Curriculum Committee

From: Terry L West, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Biology

Re: Proposed New Courses and Catalog Changes

Date: November 15, 2007

Attached are documents pertaining to three new courses that promise to contribute importantly to both our Master’s and Doctoral curricula.

BIOL 7240. The Evolution of Genes and Genomes (3): Genomics is a new field addressing the organization and evolution of genetic information directing an organism’s development. This is the first course to be offered that addresses fundamental issues in comparative genetics, and will be of value to graduate students pursing biological and biomedical studies. The following documents in the total package relate to this course:

BIOL 7240_Course Proposal_Final (Word doc)

BIOL 7240_marked entry(Word doc)

BIOL 7240_marked requirements(Word doc)

BIOL 7240_Signature Form(pdf)

BIOL 7240 FW Course number(e-mail)

BIOL 7350. Current Literature in Fish Ecology (1): We presently have no course in our graduate curriculum that focuses on primary literature in fisheries, despite the fact that nearly 15% of graduate students (Master’s plus Doctoral) are doing research on some aspect of fisheries. This course will fill a important gap in our curriculum for these students. The following documents in the total package relate to this course:

BIOL 7350_Course Proposal_Final (Word doc)

BIOL 7350_Marked Entry(Word doc)

BIOL 7350_Marked Requirements(Word doc)

BIOL 7350_Signature Form(pdf)

BIOL 7350 Course number(e-mail)

BIOL 7900. Ecological Statistics (2,2): Ecology is a discipline that relies heavily on a working knowledge of statistical analyses and experimental design for insight into the current literature, and for planning and conducting research. Furthermore, how data is collected, and the particular analytical issues in statistics that are manifested during the course of research, varies from discipline to discipline. This course will focus on the application of statistics to ecological problems, and will accordingly fill an important void in the Department’s curriculum. The following documents in the total package relate to this course:

BIOL 7900_Course Proposal_Final (Word doc)

BIOL 7900_marked entry(Word doc)

BIOL 7900_marked requirements Biology(Word doc)

BIOL 7900_marked requirements IDBPS(Word doc)

BIOL 7900_Signature Form(pdf)

BIOL 7900_IDBPS letter(pdf)

BIOL 7900 Course number (Biol 7350, 7900)(e-mail)

BIOL 7900 OBrien letter 1 (RE new course proposal)(e-mail)

BIOL 7900 Obrien letter 2 (RE new course proposal)(e-mail)

The IDBPS letter is from Dr. Don Hoffman, Chair of the IDBPS program, and provides permission to add BIOL 7900 to the core IDBPS curriculum as an alternate to BIOS 7200. The two letters from Dr. Kevin Obrien from the Biostatistics Center relate to the same issue.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,