Report to Faculty Council from the Professional Development Committee

Report to Faculty Council from the Professional Development Committee

Report to Faculty Council from the Professional Development Committee

Clinton Community College

2013-2014

Committee Members:

Jill Tarabula, Chairperson

Paula Brooks, Recording Secretary

Ray Judware, Funding Subcommittee Chairperson

Brooke Castine

Michael Helinger

Lisa Kelley

John Mockry

Charge: The Professional Development Committee shall have the responsibility for creating and promoting opportunities in professional development for the membership of the Faculty Council. Opportunities could include speakers, forums and workshops. The Committee shall continue to develop the Professional Development Center by promoting resource material.

Activities:

  • Throughout the year, the committee maintained its website making forms and policies easily available to faculty, and served as a clearinghouse for professional development activities.
  • Due to inclement weather and scheduling issues, the committee only met in person four times; review of funding requests was done exclusively electronically to streamline the process and decrease turnaround time
  • In February, the committee reviewed the committee description as listed in the FC bylaws at the request of the FC President. Changes were submitted in March.
  • In February,the committee was scheduled to host a noon workshop on remedial education. Session was cancelled once due to illness and rescheduled, but cancelled again due to weather. Speaker declined to reschedule.
  • In February, the committee hosted a noon workshop presented by tutoring center staff on the progress of Smarthinking.
  • In April, the committee hosted a noon workshop presented by the VPAA and VPSA on student classroom behaviors.
  • In April, the committee hosted a panel discussion on portfolio development. Three faculty members served on the panel and shared experiences with the portfolio process.
  • In May, the committee’s request formswere edited to clarify wording with regard to receiving past funding.

Funded Opportunities:

During the 2013-14 academic year, the college allotted $18,000 for professional development support for full-time faculty. The committee received 17requests for use of these funds. As of the writing of this reporta total of $453remains available, however not all final expense reports have been submitted. Clearly there is a strong demand for and need to maintain funding for faculty at this level.

It was brought to this committee’s attention that many NTFs on campus do not have financial support available through their departments to participate in professional development opportunities. As the eligibility criteria are currently written, NTFs are not eligible to apply for funding through this committee even though NTFs serve on this committee. This was brought forward to the Faculty Council body for its consideration and action. It is the consensus of this committee that if NTFs are to be included in the applicant pool for funding through this committee, the budget line should be increased accordingly so as not to negatively impact faculty requests.

The committee is also pleased to report that funding for travel for Faculty Council chairpersons/delegates was not charged to this committee this year as it was last year. The committee strongly recommends that funding for delegates/chairpersons continue to be funded through other sources.