University of Hawaii at Hilo Faculty Congress
2007-2008 Academic Year
Date:
To:
From:
Re:
May 16, 2008
UH Hilo Faculty Congress
Barbara Leonard, Chair (2006-2007, 2007-2008)
2008 Annual Report from the Chair
Aloha UH Hilo Faculty. At the beginning of the current academic year, the Congress
Executive Committee set forward the following goals. I have appended a comment at
the end of each goal in italics with my assessment of our success at achieving these
goals.
1. Develop a good working relationship with the new Vice Chancellors and
Chancellor. Work on Administrative Review for the Spring.
I am happy to report that we have developed a good working relationship with Dr.
Debra Fitzsimmons, VC for Administrative Affairs and Dr. Luoluo Hong, VC for
Student Affairs. I was happy to serve on the Long-term Budget Planning Committee
with both of them and found them very open to process and content issues. Other
members of Faculty Congress have reported good working relationship with both of
them.
I have not had the opportunity this year to work with Dr. Michael Crosby, Interim VC
for Research, but hope that next year’s Congress pursue a relationship with him and
the Graduate Council.
Our relationship with Dr. Phil Castille, VC for Academic Affairs has had its ups and
downs this year. Dr. Castille did not have the opportunity to attend the Mary Allen
workshop for administrators on assessment because he was out of town which may
have helped with some misunderstandings with him this year. After the General
Education proposal was approved by faculty, faculty release time (or overload
payment) was requested for the General Education Certification Committee and Dr.
Castille stated that he didn’t believe (on principle) that faculty should be given
release time for service activities. He subsequently changed this position and has
agreed to grant faculty release time to the General Education Certification
Committee. I hope that as faculty release time issues arise in the future, a more
collegial process can be followed. Since Dr. Castille recently announced that in the
future only Deans and Directors will be invited to his VCAA Executive Committee
meetings, I strongly recommend that he establish a monthly standing meeting with
Congress leadership to discuss academic issues and to work more closely with
faculty..
My relationship with the Chancellor has been generally positive this year but I
recommend that regular meetings be scheduled with her during the academic year to
defuse any potential crisis situations. I would like to commend Dr. Tseng for working
with Faculty Congress to obtain faculty representatives for search committees and
award committees, and hope that this practice persists in the future. I also want to
commend Dr. Tseng for inviting the Faculty Congress Chair to attend her
Chancellor’s Executive Meetings.
2. Work on items identified by the Strategic Plan Review:
a. Faculty satisfaction
1. tenure and promotion procedures
2. faculty pay issues
3. faculty governance at the university and system level
b. Classroom standards – improving academic challenge (may need to utilize
other means of evaluating teaching such as peer or Dept. Chair review)
Progress on improving tenure and promotion procedures has been slow. The
Academic Policy Committee has not submitted a proposal to Faculty Congress to vote
on this year. I hope that the Academic Policy Committee meets more regularly next
year and comes up with specific proposals to improve the tenure and promotion
process at our campus, especially since this was an item indicated with low
satisfaction among UH Hilo faculty.
Faculty Congress approved a motion that salary compression issues be addressed at
the system level, and the motion was forwarded to the ACCFSC and UHPA. UHPA
has included salary compression in their list of negotiating points for contract
renewal.
Faculty Governance at the University level has improved over the last year in my
view. The General Education proposal was approved by the entire faculty at UH Hilo
and was a collaborative effort between all the colleges and units. Teaching
evaluations have been standardized which should assist the TPRC when evaluating
faculty for tenure and promotion.
The WASC draft report commended Faculty Congress for improvements to university
faculty governance. However, the WASC draft report continues to cite the concerns
that the dual faculty governance system at UHH (college level Senates and the
university level Congress) is not working well and listed in its conclusion that this
issue will need to be addressed. (See excerpt below) Finding senior faculty willing to
serve on Faculty Congress has been an issue because of all the other (college level)
committees that faculty are serving on. Reducing the number of committees and
meetings university-wide would hopefully encourage more faculty to serve on Faculty
Congress, and reduce some redundancy in the campus system. I encourage Faculty
Congress to continue to work with the college Senates on this issue.
(WASC Draft Report, pg. 32,
http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/uhh/congress/documents/WASC_UH_Hilo_team_report_
draft.pdf)
Classroom standards and educational effectiveness were addressed this year by the
work of the Assessment Committee, which wrote recommended review procedures:
Guidelines for Academic Program Review. This document was approved by
Congress. A faculty workshop on Assessment was co-sponsored by Faculty Congress
and all the Department Chairs attended the workshop facilitated by Mary Allen.
Incorporating Student Learning Objectives in our courses and programs will help us
measure how well we are meeting our goals, and perhaps identify areas in which
faculty development resources may be directed. George Kuh, NSSE founder, also
visited our campus this year and gave us recommendations on how to improve
student engagement. He stressed first year student engagement as a way to improve
our retention and graduation rates. The WASC visit team recommended the
establishment of a Faculty Congress campus-wide curriculum review committee. A
motion to amend the bylaws to add a new standing Curriculum Review Committee
was deferred for the next Faculty Congress to consider. Among the issues to consider
are the review of undergraduate vs. graduate courses and establishing written policy
regarding these reviews.
3. General Education Curriculum – Develop (with faculty input) and implement new
general education curriculum for UH Hilo.
I am happy to report that 60% of the faculty voting approved the new General
Education proposal, and that the new General Education Certification Committee
will all receive a one-course teaching release or a one-course overload payment for
the Fall. Courses to be offered for General Education credit will be certified in the
Fall‘08 for the Fall’09 Academic Year.
4. Assessment - Integrate program review with assessment of learning objectives for
students. Close the loop between what we want our students to learn and what
they actually are (or are not) learning.
See comments above under (2).
5. Academic policy – develop new procedures for faculty tenure and promotion,
develop a plan for distance education with the new Director of Distance Learning
and Technology
The faculty tenure and promotion issues are discussed in (2) above.
UH Hilo did not hire a new Director of Technology and Distance Learning this year.
The previous director, Dr. Bill Chen, was brought in on a part-time basis to fill in.
Faculty Congress passed a resolution calling for the commencement of a search for a
new full-time Director of Technology and Distance Learning. The Chancellor has
responded that she will begin the search in the fall of 2008 with faculty
representatives from Faculty Congress for this important position.
6. Budget committee – request that 1% of UH Hilo’s budget be set aside for faculty
salary adjustments. Request that UH Hilo implement more energy saving and
sustainable building and operating practices.
The creation of the Long-term Budget Planning Committee by VCAA Debra
Fitzsimmons was a great step forward in creating more university-wide
participation and transparency in the budget process. It is recommended that
Faculty Congress continue to be represented on this important committee. Dr.
Fitzsimmons has included in the budget more energy saving and sustainable
building and operating practices. The issue of faculty salary adjustments is a
continuing issue that needs to be addressed.
7. Admissions committee – Work with the admissions department to improve
admissions, improve evaluation of student’s readiness for collegiate work,
develop remedial tools for students to ensure greater student success. Help
develop a First Year Experience for new students to improve retention.
Dr. Emmeline de Pillis has provided leadership in Chairing the Admissions
Committee this year. Her committee was commended by the WASC visit team and
encouraged to continue its work in the future to examine data-based admissions
decisions at UH Hilo. The creation of a First Year Program was included in the
biennium budget request for UH Hilo. The WASC visit team made the following
observations and recommendations:
(WASC Draft Report, pg. 12)
8. Other: Follow through on the social contract for faculty proposed by Prof.
Castberg last year. SODEXO food contract – can it be improved? Allow for other
vendors? Work with UHHSA on improving student participation in university
governance.
Unfortunately, there was little follow-up on the social contract for faculty
proposed by Dr. Castberg. It is recommended that this issue be visited early on in
the fall for the 2008-09 Faculty Congress. There was a food committee created by
Dr. Fitzsimmons this year that involved both faculty and students in polling the
UH Hilo community regarding our SODEXO food contract. The outcome of that
committee’s work is still unresolved. The UHHSA leadership has worked closely
with Faculty Congress this year and has regularly attended the Faculty Congress
meetings. I encourage next year’s Congress to continue to work closely with
Student Government.
9. WASC Commendations and Recommendations. I recommend that next year’s
Faculty Congress follow up on these recommendations from the WASC visit
team:
(WASC Draft Report, pg. 14-15)