Chair Kimberly Furumo’sFinal Report

2014-15 Faculty Congress

During the 2014-15 academic year, the UHH Faculty Congress accomplished several things. As Chair, it was my goal to formalize processes and develop a documentation system that would allow for the collection and storage of all relevant materials. Upon assuming the position of Chair in June 2014, it became clear that there was no official historical record of things that had taken place in previous years. The institutional memory was limited to a few faculty members who still remained employed at UHH. Therefore, the first thing I worked on as Chair was to develop a set of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) documents which formalized the budgeting process and the funds that would be made available to the Faculty Congress. Once those documents were in place, and signed by the Chair of Faculty Congress and the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, I updated the Faculty Congress website and developed a structure that allows for the collection of all documents and notes. Both faculty and administrators have told me how useful the site has become.

Motions and New Programs

During the academic year, Faculty Congress approved nine motions. All were sent forward to the Chancellor and the following table provides a summary of the status of those motions.

Motion Number / Motion / Status
1 / Hire a full-time Curriculum Coordinator in a Curriculum Office within Academic Affairs / Approved by Chancellor. Individual was hired and began Summer 2015.
2 / Fast Track Selected Minor Curriculum Changes / Approvedby Chancellor. Process will be formalized with new individual hired in Motion 1.
3 / Inclusion of the Registrar’s office in the early curriculum review process rather than at the faculty curriculum review committees level / Approvedby Chancellor. Process will be formalized with new individual hired in Motion 1.
4 / Track all foreign students in order to understand the poor retention rate of these students at UHH / Approvedby Chancellor. Tracking procedure is being established by the Student Success and Admissions Committee of Faculty Congress.
5 / Develop an Academic Leadership Development Program / Approved by Chancellor. The Faculty Congress Academic Policy Committee is working on details related to this motion.
6 / Require incoming freshman to be placed in a one-credit UNIV 101 course / Approved by Chancellor. All incoming first time freshman will be placed in a UNIV 101 course beginning in fall 2015.
7 / Establishment of the Faculty Development Committee and recommendation to approve the review of all information considered ‘faculty development’ presented by Faculty Congress and the UH Hilo Administration. / This motion was approved by Faculty Congress and sent back to the Academic Policy Committee for implementation.
8 / Revision of the Academic Policy Flowchart and Accompanying Notes. / The motion was approved and the flowchart was linked to the Faculty Congress website.
9 / Revision of the Curriculum Review Flowchart and Accompanying Notes / The motion was approved and the flowchart was linked to the Faculty Congress website.

In addition to the motions, Faculty Congress also approved a new program request for the Aviation Program. That program has moved forward to the system Academic Affairs Chancellors committee.

General Education Forum

In April, a faculty forum was convened to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the UHH General Education program. Approximately 30 faculty members attended the forum or provided online comments. Those comments can be viewed with the committee reports on the Faculty Congress website.

Other Accomplishments

A motion that was approved in the 2013-14 academic year called for the modification of course numbering to indicate on-line laboratory courses. The Chancellor did not approve this motion since it impacts all the schools in the system. This issue was brought to AACFSC (the system-wide council for Chairs of Faculty Senates) and is being considered at the system level.

In 2014-15, a Faculty Lounge was dedicated and is now available for use by all UHH faculty. Guidelines were established for the rooms use and three coffee socials were held to improve communication between faculty and administrators.