Committee on Faculty

Subcommittee on Academic Affairs

Unapproved Meeting Minutes

 

Date:                January 22, 2004

 

Location:          Sensenbrenner Hall, first floor conference room

 

Members Present:         Edward Fallone, Chair, Andris Jaunberzins, Debra Krajec, Susan Lamon, Larry Nosse, recorder, William Pink, Michael Schilke, Robert Stango, Steven Taylor

 

1.                  Minutes of the meeting of November 20, 2003 were unanimously approved.

 

2.                  Larry Nosse and Ed Fallone reported a positive and supportive response of the full COF to the committee’s program elimination document.  COF Chair, James Courtright, will author a cover letter to introduce the document, and will submit both the letter and the document to the Provost.  The meeting with COF resulted in the suggestion that our program elimination document could serve as a template for program initiation and evaluation as well.  To serve this purpose, some terminology changes were to be offered in the cover letter.  Bob Stango was asked to make minor diagrammatic changes in the program elimination flow chart, and to provide blank flow chart templates to accompany the report to Courtright, for submission to the Provost. 

 

3.                  The committee then considered whether faculty members who teach CORE approved courses had concerns about their academic freedom, i.e., limitations on what they teach because of CORE course criteria.  Informal inquiries made by committee members from several departments and colleges uncovered no such issues.  The committee assumed that the CORE has not been in existence long enough for faculty to experience all its impacts on their teaching.  After significant discussion, the committee agreed that it was premature to look at this issue. Bob Stango asked for a clarification of the SAA involvement in academic freedom per se.  Ed Fallone noted that the grounds for involvement in any such undertaking would need to be carefully determined beforehand.

 

4.         Other endeavors discussed were the method of evaluating teaching effectiveness                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

             (dismissed--it is being acted on by an ad hoc committee), helpfulness of services of the 

 Office of Sponsored research, unification of academic support services throughout the

 university, and faculty involvement in university governance. This latter item generated

 much discussion. It was discussed at the January 16, 2004 COF meeting.  Many

 questions came up regarding how the Provost perceives faculty being involved in

 governance, and how the Provost’s views impact the jurisdiction of faculty

 committees. Ed Fallone will contact Jim Courtright regarding issues involved in both

 faculty governance and the Office of Sponsored Research.

        

5.        The next meeting will be held on February 19th.  The agenda will aid efforts to refocus            

            the committee’s time and talents. New and old ideas are invited for discussion.