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Chair: Susan Camp
Recorder: Kimberly Kenney
Members Absent: D. Parsons, W. Silky, P. Clark, J. McKeown, M. Ryniker, C.
Ballesteros, D. NauD. Parsons, W. Silky, P. Clark, J. McKeown, M. Ryniker, C.
Ballesteros, D. Nau
The meeting was called to order at 3:10 PM
I. Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved unanimously.
II. Approval of September 15th, 2008 Minutes
The minutes of September 15th, 2008 were approved
unanimously.
III. FA Chair’s Report – S. Camp
The Chair began her report by informing the Assembly that she has asked all
councils to convene. She also noted that she has worked with Ellen McCloskey,
Darlene Abrantes, Marta Santiago and Mike Pisa to secure an accurate voting
faculty list. If you have not reviewed the list with your chair, please do so
as soon as possible. So far, the list has shown to be very accurate.
Dr. Camp then asked members of the Assembly to recommend students to her
that will train to become the FA clerk for next spring.
Dr. Camp will have future reports from the Deans at the next several
meetings. On October 13th, Dean Mandel will report with Writing
Coordinator Murphy. On October 27th, Dean Petrella will report with
McNair Director Morton. On November 10th, Assistant Dean Kathy Evans
will report with CTO Moreau. On November 24th, Dean Skolnik and Dean
King will report. Lastly, Dean Messere and Dean Markert will give their reports
to the Assembly.
IV. Reports of Councils, Committees, and Task Forces
Academic Policies Council met and elected Sue Fettes as chair, Paul
Tomascak as the recorder and Jim Nichols at the FA reporter.They approved the
revisions to the Applied Mathematics BA and BS, as well as the Applied
Statistics Minor revisions.
Priorities and Planning Committee met with the Provost at their last
meeting to discuss the lines to be approved for searches.
General Education Council met on September 23rd to discuss
and develop learning outcomes for the Intellectual Issues category in the
course bulletin. Their next meeting is October 7th, at 8:00 a.m.
Information Technology Council met and elected Natalie Sturr as the
Chair of the Council and Mark Springston as the reporter. Since Email is
now an official means of communication on campus CTS is currently working
on the implementation of this policy with January 1, 2009 as the implementation
deadline.
Graduate Council met and has not as of yet elected a Chair. Patrick
Murphy was elected reporter. They also met with the Graduate Dean about
Graduate Week and the Graduate Fair that are coming up. They discussed ways to
streamline web navigation, along with the Festa Graduate Leadership Fellowship
and opportunities for faculty to develop course offerings, certificate
programs, and other events at the Metro Center. They also discussed events at
the Metro Center and approved the Gerontology Certificate Program.
Undergraduate Curriculum Council met on September 17th and
welcomed new member Jim Early from Computer Science. They agreed to set a
meeting time for Spring 2009 by early October in order to avoid the confusion
experienced this semester. The tentative meeting time for spring appears to be
Wednesdays from 1:50-2:45. UCC then approved the following courses:
--HIS 452 Colloquium in Regional and Local U.S. History, which was a
course update, and
--HIS 382 The State and Society in Late Imperial China, which is a new
course.
UCC would like to remind the members of the Assembly to please inform their
respective departments that the UCC course submission page is now online and
running smoothly. The approved and pending course spreadsheet will be up
sometime next week on the website. If there are any questions, Frank Byrne is
the contact person for UCC this semester. Their next meeting is October
1st at 1:15.
Campus Concept Committee met last week to begin discussion of a
Climate Action Plan and to organize further discussion for the West
Academic Quad (Hewitt Quad) project mission statement.
Writing Across the Curriculum and Steering Committee has discussed
ideas for what they would like to see infused into the writing program. Michael
Murphy has given ideas and they are going to be surveying faculty for their
opinions as well.
Enforcement of Prerequisite Task Force has sent an email to Chairs of
departments to review their prerequisites by November. For questions, please
contact D. Vanouse.
Catalog Coordinator Sue Fettes is the Catalog Coordinator for this
year. She reported that the deadline for submitting changes to the
undergraduate catalog is October 10th. This is only the deadline for
reminders of any business that has passed though governance that has not yet
been included in the draft, for changes to opening paragraphs and for reviving
or removing courses. As new business moves through the governance process,
changes will be made up until mid-February. The graduate catalog draft pages
should go out soon, and the deadline for submitting revisions is October
24th. Lastly, in working with ACALOG, the company hosting SUNY
Oswego’s online catalogs has transformed all of the paper catalogs and handed
over control of content to Oswego. Focus groups have seen the product and their
input is appreciated. The Provost and the Presidents council will also see a
demonstration and have input before the online catalog is available to the
general college community.
V. Elections
-Elections for 2 vacancies on Student Association Senate
- Andy
Westfall was elected to one of the open SA Senate seats.
VI. Academic Affairs Report – S. Coultrap McQuin
The Provost began her report with a side note that she was discussing with
Susan Camp and FAEB the option of giving more frequent, shorter reports instead
of a couple longer reports each year. She moved on to discuss "Expanding
Horizons: Academic Affairs Annual Report for 2007-2008," which was sent in hard
copy to each department and electronically to everyone. In staying
environmentally conscious, there is a copy online at the Provost’s website.
This report speaks to the good work done by the faculty, staff, and students
last year.
The report
is aligned with the five strategic directions of the sesquicentennial plan. In
regard to "Vitality," the Provost spoke to the good work of the faculty with
the NCATE accreditation, many revisions and new programs such as Software
Engineering, the Retenion Task Force, and the creation of College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences and the School of Communication, Media and the Arts, course
redesign projects, the 27 new faculty and staff hired, the launching of the
Metro Center, the development of the Professional Development Center, and
planning renovations to Sciences, Education, and Penfield Library.
In
discussing "Intellectual Rigor," the Provost spoke about the effective teaching
techniques used by the faculty, the discussions of graduation outcomes, the
scholarly and creative work achieved by both faculty and students, as well as
the assessment initiatives. The associate provost will be re-launching a search
to find an Assessment Coordinator sometime in the near future. The Provost then
spoke about "Engagement". The Civic Engagement Coalition sponsored very a
successful Constitution Day and Focus the Nation; departments and programs
sponsored many curricular and co-curricular activities. The college produced
many partnerships, volunteers, and alumni connections last year.
In terms of
"World Awareness," the Provost reported that study abroad participation has
increased to almost 340 Oswego students, whereas five years ago it was at only
90 students. All departments have identified faculty study abroad liaisons.
Many departments are working on internationalizing the curriculum. The number
of international students has been rising steadily through the years. Cathy
Santos was appointed the Associate Provost for Multicultural Opportunities and
Programs. She has many projects, including working on mentoring programs for
all new faculty members. These efforts have shown a positive effect on our
community by increasing the understanding of diversity among students and
faculty.
In the
strategic direction of "Solutions" on campus, many departments are looking at
world issues but attention in the report focuses on sustainability. Last year a
Climate Academic Steering Committee was created. Focus the Nation program as
well as other co-curricular programs will continue. Federal funding was secured
for Energy Education programs.
Looking
toward the future, Provost Coultrap-McQuin met at the Academic Affairs retreat
with department chairs, along with program directors and services in her
division to develop this year's goals. Please refer to her handout, which will
be posted on the Faculty Assembly website, to see these goals. Beyond these
goals, the Provost also noted many other activities will be underway: new hire
searches, resolving the budget challenge and finding new funding opportunities,
updating curriculum changes, and continuing discussions of graduation learning
outcomes and College Hour. Personnel policies is collaborating with the Provost
to develop a statement about external review. She ended her report by thanking
the faculty for their contributions to the success of the 2007-2008 year, and
expressed hope that the progress continues in this academic year.
VII. College Hour report- R. Mohammadi
Rameen
discussed in his report the history of the College Hour, and explained that
this was the fourth semester of a three-semester pilot. In the Fall 2007
semester, data was not yet analyzed, so he asked for another semester in order
to attain data from faculty, students and staff from the College Hour
events.
The data
gathered dealt with attendance and preferences of time. Wednesday was seen to
be the preferred day on which to hold a College Hour, but about 45% of the
students and 17% of faculty in the survey said they went to lunch instead of
the programs. The data was not clear on a preferred time by faculty, students
and staff.
"Big impact"
programs require open, convenient time when a lot of people will be on campus,
as opposed to smaller, departmental programs that can be held whenever the
department decides is a good time.
Rameen
commented that the majority of students, staff and faculty do want to have a
designated College Hour. In consideration of the data, Rameen put together a
sample schedule that would have Monday, Wednesday, and Friday classes the same
until 12:25. Monday and Friday, there would be an hour and twenty minute class
that ran from 12:40 to 2:00. Then classes would continue in their
55-minute segments from 2:15 through the evening. On Wednesday, there would be
a 35-minute "break" in the schedule during which people could go to lunch.
Then, there would be College Hour from 1:00 to 2:00 pm. Again, after College
Hour, classes would begin at 2:15 and continue as normal. To clear up confusion
and so that representatives may show their departments, a copy of the proposed
schedule will be emailed to all members of the Assembly.
VIII. Unfinished Business
-Calendar Approval—2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013
Rameen Mohamaddi wrote up a comprehensive calendar of the next four academic
years. It is a rolling 4-year calendar, and the calendar committee agreed upon
the framework. The committee kept in mind sports, holidays and student teaching
schedules. There was some discussion about the removal of Fall Break in the
last three calendars. This will be further discussed when those calendars come
up for voting. There was a motion to approve the 2009-2010 calendar, which was
seconded and then approved as presented.
-Faculty By-laws Appendix A: Section I. Paragraphs F and G
proposals
-Time did
not allow for discussion. This will be discussed at the next meeting, October
13th.
IX. New Business
Time did not allow for discussion
The meeting was adjourned at 5:02 PM.
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