FACULTY ASSEMBLY WINTER RETREAT

January 25, 2013

William Phillip Hall

Attendees: J. Fitzgerald, K. Keown, R. Martinez, J.Lawless, K. Baird, Z.Barsness, B. Becker, L. Blair, R. Card, A. Cardinal, D. Chinn, D. Coon, Y. Dierwechter, J. Clarke, D. PanililioDinglasan, M. Dobratz, D. Drevdahl, J. Eaton, J. Finke, M. Garner, J.W. Harrington, J. Heller, T. Ikeda, T. Kayaoglu, M. Kelley, D. Kinder, M. Kula, K. Landenburger, M. Lazzari, G. Macdonald, W. McGuire, D. McMillin, G.K. Nelson, J. Purdy, J. Quinn, P. Selkin, C. Stanich, H. Sun, E. Sundermann, T. Thompson, R. Vanderpool, M. Weinstein, C. Williams, D. Wills, A. Wilson, and D. Young

I. FACULTY ASSEMBLY - Chair Katie Baird

  1. Announcements
  • Distinguished Research Award Presentations
  • 2012 DRA winner DivyaMcMillinwill present February 21, 2013, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm in Jane Russell Commons
  • 2011 DRA winner, Rich Furman will present March 7, 2013, from 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Location TBA
  • Pop Up Faculty Club: Debra and JW have scheduled fivefaculty lunches for casual interactions with faculty. Space is limited, so faculty should which lunch they’d like to attend using the Catalyst survey sent by JW on January 24, 2013. Faculty lunches will be held from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm as follows:
  • 1/30 – Indochine
  • 2/19 – Brown bag in Tacoma Room
  • 3/19 – Old Spaghetti Factory
  • 4/23 – Brown bag in Columbia Bank Lobby (WPH)
  • 5/26 – Two Koi
  • Winter bookclub will read from “Embracing Non-Tenure Track Faculty: Changing Campuses for the New Faculty”. The next two book club meetings are February 20th and March 13th from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm in Faculty Resource Center, WG 208.
  • Faculty Development Seminars will be held at Anthem coffee house next to the WA History Museum. The seminars will be an opportunity for faculty to learn more about the promotion/development process.
  • Assistant Professors: Feb. 27 from 3:30 – 5:00 pm
  • Associate Professors March Lecturer: TBD
  • Pre-Majors Retreat:Faculty were reminded to respond to a Catalyst survey sent by the Office of Undergraduate Education asking for input on activities and workshops for the Second Annual Pre-Majors Retreat at Pack Forest in Fall 2013. The planning committee is looking for activities and workshops that will fully engage all the students’ different learning styles. Faculty may provide their input at
  • Capstone Colloquium: The capstone colloquium on May 16, 2013, is open to all students on campus. Students will be invited to specific lectures to be trained on how to speak and present their research
  • New Physician Assistant Program: Henry Stoll, Director of MEDEX Northwest, announced that theUW School of Medicine’s physician assistant training program is expanding to the UWT campus, and will be here next September. The have picked their first class of 26 students, 14 of whom are military veterans, which is an important part of their mission.
  1. Standing Committee reports (see agenda)
  1. Campus Fellows and Lecturer Affairs
  • Lecturer Affairs: There’s a growing national trend among colleges to hire morecontingent faculty to teach more classes in place of tenured-track faculty. UWT’s changing faculty composition certainly reflects this national trend with more contingent faculty being hired to teach lower division courses then in previous years. An ad-hoc committee called Lecturer Affairs was recently created to look at issues pertaining to growth, sustainability and equity for contingent faculty at UWT by reviewing UW lecturer hiring and promotion policy. For more information, please visit
  • Campus Fellows: EC created three Campus Fellows workgroups to explore issues that impact the quality of our education. The three topics identified for the Fellows: Writing, Quantitative Literacy and Online Learning. Each group will provide a written report and recommendations to FA for consideration.
  • Writing Fellows:Member of the writing fellows are Nicole Blair, Alison Cardinal, Michael Kula and Deirdre Raynor. The charge of the Fellows is to improvestudent writing at UWT. The group will be inviting professional writing consultants from the Council of Writing Program Administrator’s Consultant Evaluators Service to review and diagnose problems associated with writings at UWT. The consultant will provide a written report detailing the writing problems as well as recommendations to improve writing at UWT. Dates of consultants’ visits to campus are in the process of being confirmed. A Catalyst survey will be sent to faculty for input on issues they’ve encountered that have affectedthe quality of writing at UWT.
  • Quantitative literacy:Member of the quantitative literacy fellows are Doug Wills, Linda Dawson, Julie Eaton, Peter Selkin and Cynthia Stanich. The Fellows are investigating concerns about UWT students’ weak quantitative skills and are identifying how to improve the skills of native and transfer students. The Fellows will work to change the culture to get quantitative literacy embedded in curriculum and get long-term buy in from faculty and administration.
  • Online Learning: Members of the online learning fellows are Matt Kelley, SushilOswal, Jenny Quinn, Ruth Vanderpooland Jeff Cohen. The Fellows are charged with examining online teaching and learning at UWT. They will research the best institutional practices to increase online learning. There are currently no clear policies governing online learning at UWT. The Fellows will work with faculty, students and administration to develop a comprehensive online learning process for UWT. Two Catalyst surveys will be developed, one for faculty and one for undergraduate students, to gauge the interest in online learning.
  1. Faculty Governance
  • Unit Level Faculty Governance: FA has been working to strengthen faculty governance at the unit level by helping to foster conversations regarding roles and responsibilities within units. The Strategic Budget Committee recently developed a “Statement of Values that Guide Awarding of Annual Salary Increases” at UWT to communicate the values that should be imbedded in units’ procedures. Documents such as the SBC guiding principles and Faculty Affairs’ guide to unit level processes on raises were shared with faculty to help facilitate conversations.
  • For the rest of this year, the SBC will explore the possibilities of year round academic programsand the challenges, benefits, political implications and impact on students and faculty. Faculty were encouraged to suggest topics for SBC to work on using the suggestion box.
  • Events: FA has been working to sponsor more events for faculty in order to stimulate the intellectual and social community on campus.
  • Communication: FA has been working to improve communications and keep faculty updated on things happening at campus, such as decisions and developments that are relevant to faculty. To help improve communications, FA has created a monthly newsletter for faculty(posted on FA’s website), added a suggestion box and offers office hours with the EC Chair and Vice Chair on Thursdays from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm in WCG 309. Faculty are encouraged to connect with their faculty representatives regarding questions or concerns.
  • Increased effectiveness of FA committees:To help improve the effectiveness of FA committees, FA recently merged and streamlined two committees into one (Academic Policy and Curriculum), reconfigured the standing committees and created Campus Fellows to investigate issues identified by the EC that impact the quality of education.
  1. Faculty Role in UWT Budget
  • Faculty within units provide consultation and advice on unit budgets. The Executive Council of Faculty Assembly provides consultation and advice on the campus budget.
  • Future EC meetings:
  • February 6, 2013, 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm in the Tacoma room. The meeting will focus on the budget overview and updates from the Campus Fellows.
  • February 21, 2013, 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm in Jane Russell Commons.
  • March 7, 2013, 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm in the Tacoma Room. Debra will present the FY 2014 campus budget and hiring proposals, as well as seek consultation and advice from EC.
  • We may be proposing changes to the by-laws with respect to the organization of faculty role in the budget.
  • EC will be developing a guide that will be updated annually that compiles key statistics and data that faculty are most interested in, i.e. trends in student admissions. Katie shared data on the Faculty Composition, Students, Teaching (class size, teaching loads and grades), Research, Faculty Salaries and the UWT Budget.

II. CAMPUS UPDATE - Chancellor Debra Friedman

1. Core Commitments:Debra attended the presidential inauguration in Washington DCas a guest of Congressman Derek Kilmer. A spirit similar to that event is found at UWT which we have collective interest in doing the very best for this campus, shared ambitions, and combined admiration and love for this campus. Faculty, staff, and administration are committed to making this campus everything that it can be. Although we will sometimes disagree about the best path forward, as long as we are respectful in our exchanges and genuine in our goals, we will find our way and will leave this campus a better place than we found it. Debra identified our core commitments:

Top education for students

A great workplace for staff and faculty

High functioning urban serving institution, both academic and administrative

Space innovation where faculty and staff can create and innovate, and students feel this is a fantastic place to realize their dreams.

Urban serving

2. Data Presentation on UWT

Debra shared data about the campus highlighting key issues and challenges. The presentation can be found at

Items Requiring Attention

  • UWT funding source –Currently, 25% of revenue comes from the State and 65% are from tuition. State funding will continue to decrease and funding from tuition revenue is expected to increase. Faculty were encouraged to stay focused on this issue because it will impact how we maintain our public mission when our funding source has changed and will likely continue to change.
  • Financial aid for undergraduate students–Financial aid to undergraduates has increased steadily and will likely continue to increase. UWT students rely heavily on financial aid so we need to think strategically about the financial security of UWT and students. There is clear evidence at UWT and nationally that financial aid is directly related to academic success.
  • Graduation and retention rate for undergraduates – The success of our students are the fundamental measure of our success. UWT’s retention rate after the first year has decreased slightly from previous years, but the graduation rates for first-time entering as first-year and transfer students after 3, 4, 5 and 6 years continue to increase.
  • Research funding – Research proposals submitted in 2012 has increased over two years. The number proposals submitted for 2012 is 38, with $14.1 million requested and $1.7 received to date.
  • Key public policy issues:
  • The changing faculty composition will have implications on our students. There is a growing trend at UWT, and nationally, with contingent faculty teaching more courses.
  • Faculty involvement: Honoring voice, time and expertise

Strategic Budget Committee is working on very complex strategic issues

Strategic Enrollment Management is a new committee that will look at best enrollment practice and approaches to ensure operations and goals are in accordance.

Faculty Assembly Executive Council provides consultation and advice on the campus budget.

Access to the Chancellor – Faculty requested more informal access to the Chancellor so Debra will work to create more opportunities for faculty to have informal interactions. Faculty were encouraged to provide suggestions for informal access by using the suggestion box.

  • Changing physical space
  • Prairie Line Trail – UWT will break ground in the Spring 2013 to begin work on the trail.
  • Japanese Language School memorial – The memorialwill tell the story of the school through public outdoor sculpture and interpretive plaques that will honor, celebrate and remember the school.
  • University YMCA – UWT Tacoma and YMCA have partnered to create a YMCA on campus that will be open to the campus community and YMCA members. Students will contribute $4 million towards the project.
  • Building Innovation and Partnership Zone (IPZ)
  • IPZ is designed by the state to help place faculty research and university graduates at the core of building economic strength in an “industry cluster”
  • IPZ attracted $2.8million in State capital funds to build a research lab on campus and $800,000 for partnership with WSU Puyallup to enhance a laboratory.
  • Focuses on urban clean water technology
  • Serves as a model for additional IPZs based on other strengths in faculty research
  • Will allow for additional research capacity on the part of the community as well as

3. Upcoming Issues

  • Faculty Assembly Community Engagement: we have devoted a huge amount of institutional resources to accelerating our connections; spring will be a time to really understand those engagements. A spring celebration is being worked on by Lisa Hoffman and JW to honor faculty and students who are engaged in community partnerships.
  • Innovation funding: the Summergrants research campwill be repeated this coming Summer; faculty have been chosen for this program and the I-Tech Fellows. We should always be pressing on the innovation front.
  • UW Capital Campaign: University of Washington willstart another capital campaign soon
  • Volunteer involvement: we are looking at how we are structuring volunteer involvement, as well as how Faculty will want to be involved
  • New Advancement Team:Debra will be introducingthe new advancement team, and other folks engaged in advancement we’ve replaced and/or hired

4. Questions from Faculty

Q: You had an interesting comparison through the years of the breakdown of funding between state funding and tuition funding for our campus and how does that compare to Bothell and Seattle?

A: Not sure about Bothell, but there is a more extreme gap in state funding in the case of Seattle.

Q: Will the University YMCA be another opportunity for students to have jobs on campus?

A: The University YMCA is intending to employ students; may employ 80-100 students.

III. THE DIGITAL COMMONS PROJECT-UWT Librarian Justin Wadland

1. Digital Commons.As part of a three year pilot project beginning in the summer of 2012, the UWT Library is using Digital Commons digital repository platform. UWT Digital Commons collects, preserves, and makes publicly accessible the scholarly and creative work of the UW Tacoma campus and affiliated educational partners. The goal of digital commons is to enhance and share the university's rich intellectual life by gathering in a single online repository with materials that support teaching, learning, and research at UW Tacoma. Collections will include Undergraduate theses (Global Honors Theses), Capstone projects (Social Work Capstones), Journals (Tahoma west), and Conference proceedings (Center for Social Responsibility academic conferences). The homepage for UWT Digital Commons is on the library homepage at

  • Benefits of Institutional Repositories
  • Complements traditional publishing and allows immediate open access to scholarly work.
  • Asserts copyright ownership and allows faculty to freely ad and legally link to research.
  • Makes research visible through Google and other search engines.
  • Enables archiving and permanent public access to both research and data
  • Features include not just hosting IR, but also journals conference proceedings, -ebooks, etc.
  • Reasons for choosing Digital Commons
  • Heard from faculty and assistant vice chancellor for instructional technology a need to make research more visible
  • Decision coordinated with UW libraries and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs
  • Timeline for Pilot Implementation
  • January 24: letters sent to faculty members who have materials available in publisher PDFs
  • February 11: Response deadline to “opt out”; BEpress begins posting content
  • February 28 and March 1: Site visit in Tacoma and training for those who wish to create Selected Works pages and or host collections
  • March and Beyond: Continuing to add selected Works pages and building individual collections

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