Directors Council Notes

Directors Council Notes

January 6, 2015

3:30pm – 5:00 pm, Churchill 133

Present: DeNeui, Ettlich, Gayton, Humphrey, Jones, King, Rex, Shrewsbury, Stone, Waters. Guest: Deborah Lovern

Course Planners (Lovern)

Lovern demonstrated the pathway to find course planner templates. She gave details on how to complete thecourse planners, including recording co-teaching, cross-listed courses, estimated enrollment, etc. Lovern invited Directors to schedule a meeting with her and chairs and directors. (Lovern left the meeting at this point.)

Budgeting Process

Karen Stone said we need a tighter budgeting process this year with earlier deadlines.

We’ll need to present the budget to the new Board in June. Ettlich asked if the faculty loading report be moved so it’s not in one long stream; the answer is yes.

Chair/Director Workshops

Jody Waters said we need to set a date for a Chair/Director workshop in winter term. The Assessment Committee is also anxious to attend and discuss the annual program report. Stone said we probably need a morning session and afternoon session because not all chairs can attend at the same time. Rex said some Chairs are frustrated that they get told they didn’t do assessment right, but they didn’t know they were doing it wrong. We need a basic primer on how to work with this. There was continued discussion about different alternatives for agenda; there are different needs among departments.

Sabbatical applications

There’s a section on the application that is being overlooked by many people/directors. The application doesn’t include a sabbatical replacement plan; applications are with the Faculty Personnel committee now; does the FPC need to have this information? Ed Battistella doesn’t think so. We’ll match your course planners with the sabbatical application. We’re not wanting a five-page report, just a paragraph; an example of how a person’s sabbatical will be handled, such as who will teach the person’s courses, or if the courses aren’t being offered. Mary Ann Gardner is the contact person for this information.

Syllabus statements

Syllabus statements: an announcement was posted on the Provost’s website today. We’ve used these in the past to document that proper information was available to students. It’s not just a best practice; it’s part of a larger requirement.

Passport Initiative

The Interstate Passport Initiative is a WICHE initiative. It pairs a 2-year college with a 4-year school, to match joint learning outcomes; stamping the passport that student takes to the next institution. Articulation agreements aren’t needed. It creates multi-state and multi-institution agreements; learning outcomes are developed by faculty. Students look more closely at the general education requirements and progress. Categories are Physical and Natural World; Evolving Human Culture;Creative Expression. The Passport Initiative benefits the institution and provides greater visibility. The group discussed the kinds of involvement we would want; and which faculty members might want to participate. We hope to have 1-2 people from the three main areas to be trained (in Boulder, February 10). Give names of people who may want to advance the conversation to Jody by early next week.

Furlough Day clarification

John King said he’s heard of some faculty who had been planning to teach on the January 20 furlough day, and they are now aware they will not be teaching that day. Can they move some instruction online, sort of a Moodle session? Are we allowed to do this without violating the furlough? SherryEttlich: we are required to deliver a certain package of learning. We can do this as long as they don’t have to do something by/on Jan 20. Waters said the Provost’s Office can send something out about this. DeNeuichecked with JimRible about this, andRible said we don’t have any specific language to use about the furlough days.

Dual Credit

John King asked adual credit question. He attended a meeting with RoySaigo, Steve Thorpe, and Brian Shumate (Medford school superintendent); the issue is pushing very quickly.
There is great interest in departments other than Education offering some 500- level content for high school instructors to teach in dual credit situations. King will get something to Directors so they can start weighing in on this. Schools are interested in math, art, etc. King floated to them to start with programs that are already offering these: applied math, summer institutes, etc. We need a model to make these decisions. Waters said she has discussed this with Vicki Suter; we need to build ononline offerings that make sense, not just ones that attract students. King gave specific examples of some things we could do, and that we’re already doing; need to package it for a no- traditional audience.

Other items

Humphrey: we have a winning football team, but there’s nothing on campus yet to recognize this. It took 3 days for the SOU website to be updated about the national championship win.

Gayton: Walsh asked for a Learning Commons statement; will present to library faculty on Thursday and will present here later. The Library has applied for a grant from Steelcase for collaborative learning spaces; we want to do something with the lightboard room; want matching money.

The meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.