MINUTES
Department Heads/Center Director Meeting
College of Arts and Sciences
April 18, 2007
Present: Seethoff, Broadway, Burns, Cherry, Cinelli, Compton, Grant, Lindala, Lucas, Quinn, Schiffer, Williams, Zalmai,
Good of the Order:
Three MFA graduates will be giving a reading on April 20 at the Federated Women’s Clubhouse. A week later, the M.A. graduates will have a similar event. Alyssia Rogers, an M.S. in Experimental Psychology candidate, will speak on “Effects of Source, Gender, and Age at Sound Exposure on Hearing in C57BL/6J Mice” at the April 27 Psychology Colloquium. Fifty-five graduating Art and Design majors are exhibiting a diverse display of artwork in the DeVos Art Museum through May 4. The 11th Annual NMU Jazz Festival taking place on April 20 will feature trumpeter Bobby Shew, a noted solo jazz artist and studio musician. The Marquette Choral Society will be presenting concerts on April 28-29 in the Reynolds Recital Hall. The world premiere of "A Song, A Prayer, A Voyage" and other music by John Biggs will be performed. Physics’ students demonstrated some basic physics concepts recently to students at Sandy Knoll Elementary School. A Geography major won the “best of poster” competition at the Celebration of Student Research event.
Northern Network:
April Lindala gave a demonstration of the features available on the NMU Alumni Association’s Northern Network, an on-line social and professional networking service available for alumni. This program began in December, and within a few months 640 alumni had registered as members. Within the network is a wide array of groups which alumni can join. These groups are communities built around a club, organization, location, or interest. Some of the College of Arts and Sciences groups established for alumni and current students are the following: Public Relations Student Society of America, Political Science alums, Marching Band, Art Students League, and the History Honor Society. There is also a “community” section available to all members where job announcements, NMU news items, calendar events, and blogs are posted. Members can indicate through their InCircle profile the region of the country where they reside, employment field, job title or function, and a list of “friends” who are members of the network. This is an excellent way to stay connected with alumni, and April encouraged Department Heads to schedule Alumni Director, Deanna Hemmila, for a department meeting and/or senior-level class to discuss this opportunity.
As part of Alumni Weekend next fall, in the near future the Dean would like to discuss the possibility of hosting an event for College of Arts and Sciences alumni or perhaps scheduling department-level receptions.
Budget:
The State of Michigan budget deficits are enormous, and March revenues were down 5% compared to last year. There has still been no agreement in the Legislature regarding the Single Business Tax, and a two-week hold-back of NMU appropriations is anticipated in the fall. The Dean imagines that carry-forward funds will continue to be sequestered into the 2008 fiscal year.
Emergency Response Plan:
In the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, the Dean reminded Department Heads that NMU does have a plan in place in case of an emergency. A copy of the Emergency Response Guidelines, approved on November 3, 2004, was distributed. The plan indicates who is in charge, who declares an emergency, the kinds of disasters that might provoke the declaration of an emergency, and the responsibilities of the Provost and Associate Provost of Student Services and Enrollment in the event of an emergency. The Director of Public Safety is in charge, overall, in any emergency. The Dean suggested that Department Heads should review the guidelines and determine who should be contacted in the event of an emergency in their departments. It was suggested that detailed instructions should be prepared for each type of disaster. Various emergency scenarios and appropriate responses were discussed. The order of contact is to go through Public Safety first, and a 911 call from anywhere on campus will be immediately directed to Public Safety. Departments need to have some further guidance, and this should be forthcoming. In the interim, especially for those in buildings with hazardous materials, Department Heads should be thinking through what to do in the event of emergencies they may encounter.
Summer School Update:
Departmental Summer Session spreadsheets were distributed which list each department’s courses, instructors, salaries, compensation, enrollments, tuition revenue less 39% overhead, projected profit/loss, and SCH. The College depends on its share of Summer Session revenues to fund equipment needs, travel, and activities of the departments throughout the year. In order to pass these dollars on to departments, it is crucial that departments attempt to more than just “break even” on Summer Session offerings. Less revenue available from Summer Session translates into less funding provided from the College for department projects. The spreadsheets should be reviewed for any problematic enrollments, but the aggregate level should be especially scrutinized. We may have to offer courses that will lose money, and the break-even point for senior faculty at the salary cap is 15+ students. Two-thirds of Summer Session profits are transferred to departments, and one-third is held in the College to fund departmental needs. The Profit/Loss column indicates the amount of profit a department is projected to receive.
CERP Update:
CERP expenditures are on hold due to the State of Michigan’s budget deficits and allocation hold-backs projected for public universities. $250,000 has tentatively been encumbered in CERP monies for the College.
Summer Faculty Appointments:
Many departmental bylaws explain how to appoint an adjunct or term faculty member. Before faculty leave for the summer, Department Heads should determine how they will conduct business in the hiring process and if e-mail communication with absent faculty is appropriate.
Course Schedule:
Only Department Heads can decide when to change a course cap, cancel a course, etc. Staff and faculty are only permitted to make these changes if given explicit permission by the Department Head.
Software Acquisition:
John Limback, Director of Academic Computing, requested that Department Heads confer with their faculty to determine what software licenses the University should purchase. A list will be prepared by Academic Computing, and Department Heads will be asked to prioritize software acquisitions.
Adjunct Pay:
The Dean stressed three points regarding adjunct pay: 1) There should be consistency across the University for adjunct faculty salaries; 2) adjuncts are due for a raise; and 3) there is presently no provision for increasing pay for long-serving adjuncts. The only flexibility given is the rank assigned to an adjunct with a corresponding increase in pay. The August 28, 2000 Policy Recommendation for Compensation of Adjunct Faculty will be sent electronically to Department Heads for their review. As the policy indicates, the last pay raise received by adjuncts was in 2002. Unfortunately, with the current budget difficulties, there is no projected adjunct pay increase on the horizon. Over $1,200,000 is spent by the College on adjuncts each year. It was noted that some departments outside of the College do not follow the salary guidelines, which makes the pay system inequitable. The Dean will bring this to the attention of the Provost.
Employee Personal Gain Policy:
The Policy Restricting Employee Use of University Association for Personal Gain or Interest was distributed. There may be inadvertent attempts to use one’s position and title when expressing views on controversial matters or political issues. However, according to the policy, a University employee may only speak on their area of expertise if using their NMU position/title. For example, a letter to the Mining Journal editor on sulfide mining cannot include a faculty member’s title and position at the University if they have no specific expertise in this area. The policy states, “No employee of the university shall make any statement or engage in any activity that falsely or misleadingly suggests or implies that the university endorses that statement or activity.”
College Goals:
The internationalization section of the College goals was discussed, and the Dean inquired if the goals were achieved as listed in the February 10, 2006 document or if they should be modified in some fashion. It was determined that the College does indeed “have a faculty that represents the world’s diversity.” The second bullet under the internationalization area is: “have cooperated with Student Affairs to encourage students to live their curriculum” The theme dorm houses, according to Kim Rotundo in Housing and Residence Life, have been unsuccessful in the past. April Lindala noted that the Native American house in West Hall will be eliminated beginning with the 2007 Fall Semester. Don Grant indicated there is no interest among the Music students for a theme house. Tim Compton noted that as Modern Languages’ students increase their competency in a language particularly during their junior and senior years, they no longer want to live in a dormitory. It was decided that Language and Music houses would be eliminated as a goal.
It was suggested that other initiatives would fit under encouraging students to “live their curriculum” rubric such as establishment of a interdisciplinary “think tank” and having a connected curriculum that integrates the departments. The ability to receive Liberal Studies World Cultures credit for overseas volunteer work was also recommended. According to Dave Lucas, Pre-Med majors often volunteer in the summer for four or more weeks in Third World countries and receive no credit. Some Modern Languages’ students participate in year-long Study Abroad programs and still have to take World Cultures’ credits when they return to campus.
Another bullet under the internationalization section, “development of an institute to offer English as a Second Language” has taken place. The institute is not enrolling a large number of students, however, due to the lack of recruiting. Three-to-five students were enrolled last summer. John Mallo, the International Program Coordinator, believes that unless we have face-to-face recruiting abroad, the program is not going to be very successful. The institute could be a great recruiting tool for enticing foreign students to enroll at NMU, and they could be granted provisional enrollment until they pass the TOEFEL. The only means of recruiting has been our Web page, and this has problems with the translation software. In order to recruit for the English as a Second Language program, it is important to develop personal relationships with the potential students. The Dean will contact Cindy Prosen and John Mallo to discuss these issues. Michael Broadway suggested focusing on one particular region rather than spreading our efforts too broadly.
Another internationalization goal could be the development of cooperative faculty and student research opportunities abroad. An example of this mentioned was the recent participation and presentation by two Computer Science seniors in the Second IT Student Conference in Copenhagen. It was suggested that another subset to the internationalization goal could be: “Seek to establish with universities around the world faculty and student exchange programs.” Another suggestion is to work with Susan Morgan, the Coordinator of International Student Services, in setting up consortia with several universities to broaden our efforts in this arena. How to include these initiatives in the curriculum may be problematic, such as design work in Milan for Art and Design students. Furthermore, not all departmental programs may be appropriate for these types of efforts, and this should not be a mandate for all students.
Another possibility for an internationalization goal subset is to increase the number of CLEA opportunities (Concentrated Learning Experience Abroad). The Dean asked that all these possibilities be shared with faculty at the departmental level, since it’s not feasible to get all 200 faculty together at the same time to discuss these issues.
Mary Kuczwara
June 1, 2007
MINUTES
Department Heads/Center Director Meeting
College of Arts and Sciences
March 21, 2007
Present: Seethoff, Rybacki, Broadway, Burns, Cherry, Cinelli, Compton, Cumberlidge, Grant, Greene, Lindala, Lucas, Magnaghi, Quinn, Schiffer, Williams, Zalmai,
Good of the Order:
There will be a piano recital sponsored by the Music Department on Friday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Reynolds Recital Hall by guest pianist and composer Richard Faith. Admission is free. The small operetta, Goldilocks, is being performed by Music students for local elementary and middle schools. A Psychology Colloquium will be held on Friday, March 23, at 3:10 p.m. in 167 Gries presented by K.C. Holder from the School of Education on educational psychology. Tawni Ferrarini is featured in a Marquette Monthly article on a late-night downtown taco stand she helped an NMU student, Amee Loftis, establish. Hsin-Ling Hsieh had a paper accepted for publication in the prestigious Contemporary Economic Policy journal. Three senior Geography majors have received full scholarships to graduate schools.
The Physics Club demonstrated some basic physics concepts to fourth and fifth graders at Lakeview Elementary School in Negaunee, and there will be a segment on the 6:00 p.m. TV-6 News. Modern Languages hosted Spanish Day with over 400 high school students on campus. The English Department electronic newsletter, EDEN, was sent out yesterday. The DeVos Art Museum’s current exhibition is Another Voice: Political Illustration, original late 20th Century political illustrations from the Progressive magazine. The Center for Native American Studies will be hosting a 6:00 p.m. reception on March 23 at the U.P. Children’s Museum to showcase their "Writing with Light: Waaseyaasibii'ige" youth photography project. The U.P. Indian Education conference will be held on March 25-27 in conjunction with the Equity in the Classroom Conference.
Fundraising:
As of March 15, the College fundraising campaign had raised in excess of $68,400, and the campaign has another three to four weeks to run. Don Rybacki suggested that Department Heads examine their Development Fund budget reports to see recent deposits in their accounts. The College has already raised an amount similar or in excess of what was raised last year. This year’s campaign will possibly raise another $18,000 to $20,000 more in the final weeks.
Fall Semester Staffing:
The number of new freshmen who have registered for an orientation session is down by 130 students compared to a point-in-time comparison last year but up by 20 transfer students. Contracts for Fall Semester adjuncts should be delayed until the end of the Winter Semester, if at all possible, to maintain flexibility. We don’t want to over-commit and not have enough students to fill the classes. It was asked if approval of staffing plans could be pushed back prior to September 1, because NMU is behind schedule compared to other institutions. Decisions have been made very slowly, and it has impeded some searches.
College Advisory Council:
Ballots for College Advisory Council members were recently mailed to faculty, and Department Heads were asked to strongly encourage faculty members to consider joining this important committee. For the past several years, the CAC has not had a full slate of seven members. Considering the important role the Council plays in the promotion/ tenure and Sabbatical Leave ranking process, every effort should be made to promote a full membership.
AQIP:
The Dean indicated AQIP is much about process and if these processes are working properly. Department Heads were encouraged to complete action projects in conjunction with their faculty. This will be on the agenda for the President’s Council this summer.
Outcomes Assessment: The Dean appreciates receiving the Outcomes Assessment Plans. The Deans are not in the loop on the submittal of these reports, and it has been helpful to review them. The assessment plan process has not been running smoothly partially due to practical problems implementing it. Membership on the Outcomes Assessment Plan Committee changes each year, and departments are never quite sure what is expected of them. It would be helpful if there were some continuity in committee membership and an ability to “play by the same set of rules.” Some departments never received a charge, or mandate, or directive regarding their plans. Some departments consider the plans too student dependent. For those departments with few majors, they may have an outstanding cadre of students one year and a mediocre group the following year. With two to eight graduates per year, it is difficult to compile meaningful statistics. A more insightful measure might be to survey recent graduates who have been in the field a year or two. In response to the comment on mediocre students, several department heads mentioned minimum G.P.A. requirements their departments have instituted for majors.
It was suggested that patterns of outcomes and trends should be analyzed, not simply results from a year or two. The notion that everyone did not receive an 800 on the GRE should not be a determining factor in modifying curricula. Some departments have a sense that the plans are imposed on them, i.e., mandated from above. There is also the problem of effectively measuring student outcomes for certain disciplines such as English which are difficult to quantify. Some departments already have a sense of what they can do to improve their programs, and there is no enthusiasm for outcomes assessment. Many exemplary practices may not show up in a portfolio. Assessment planning is taking faculty out of the classroom and out of their offices. The overarching College-level and University-level goals have to be articulated. It was noted that if outcomes assessment is not done, the state legislature will do it for universities. The faculty are most concerned with tangible things and feel there is insignificant value and little return in assessment. In the hierarchy of tasks to be completed by departments, where does this rank?
The Dean questioned how departments changed programs as a result of outcomes assessment and how often curriculum is revised. Generally, the things that are simple were changed, but the complex and abstract items are often left in limbo. The Dean’s advice is to make assessment plans simple. Some departments’ curricula will not change, but the way courses are taught or the methods used may be modified. These types of goals can be reached through more cooperative learning, more seminars, etc. Some departments are concerned with losing control of their curriculum and having standards imposed on them. It was noted that comparative data with other universities can be a problem. Michael Broadway suggested reviewing the Brigham Young University’s Web site which has outcomes assessment listed for each department.
College Goals: The College goals, prepared in February of 2006, were distributed. It was noted that they are fairly elaborate and encompassing, and departmental goals should be simpler and smaller in number. The College goals are not an edict and were prepared as a result of a request by the President. The Dean inquired which goals have been accomplished and which goals may need to be revised, expanded, reduced or eliminated for the future. The goals should be reviewed and discussed with departmental faculty, and the Dean would like to have a more accurate list in place before the new Provost, Susan Koch, arrives.
Recommendations for the second bullet on the first page: “Have curriculum options in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences that engage students and faculty in global and diverse issues and opportunities. The question was raised if 25% of the plan of study is too high for this goal, and it was recommended that this target not be used as the benchmark.
It was suggested that the third bullet on the first page be changed as follows: “Have curriculum options in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences that engage students and faculty in active learning, or apprenticeship or entrepreneurial learning opportunities.” Where does Superior Edge fit into this goal?
For bullet four on the first page, there is no staff in place to establish a Center for Electronic Arts and Contemporary Crafts, but it can be part of the five-year plan. The Writer’s Workshop is taking place, and there is no residency program in Music though they would like to have one. With only six faculty members in Economics, they can’t realistically form a School of Banking, so this goal should be dropped.
The fifth bullet listed on the first page has been met: “Have co-developed curriculum materials with NMU Public Radio and Television.”
The last goal on the first page should be reworded so it is easier to understand. The idea of admission standards is used by several departments who have minimum GPA requirements for their majors, and Banner prerequisite checking can be set up to stop students from registering for certain courses if they are below the minimum GPA. As a precautionary note, prerequisite requirements should be checked on Banner because there have been errors. These standards are used to weed out students who in all likelihood would not be successful. A contingency plan should be in place for students who do not meet the prerequisites. Faculty should have the option to make decisions about individual students on a case-by-case basis.
The first goal on the second page, “Have developed on-line courses for each division of Liberal Studies,” has been achieved, but there are few on-line courses available in the Natural Sciences. Is this a valid form of instruction? How do you insure it is working well? Should these courses be restricted to off-campus learners? One way of monitoring who is enrolling for these courses is to cap the number able to register and require students to check with the department head before enrolling.
The second goal on the second page, “Have maintained our commitment to fostering curriculum innovation” is being accomplished, but more could be done. Interdisciplinary and team-taught learning should be encouraged, but there is a problem of paying for team-taught courses. Furthermore, it is a long process through CUP to get curricula revisions approved.
Mary Kuczwara
April 18, 2007
