Annual Report, 2006-2007
Department/Division:
Philosophy, Religious Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities
College:
CAS
Part I-SP, Summary Report on Status of Strategic Planning Goals/Objectives
Strategic Goal/Objective
1. Streamline Online offerings
(assign adjuncts two sections of
their respective General Studies
course)
2. Increase course offerings and
increase headcount in Religious
Studies
3. Increase course offerings in
FWB area.
Met
X
Status of Goal
Not met
In progress
Our number of majors, across
Philosophy and RS, has
dropped from appx. 80 to 54,
and from 30 to 15 within the RS
specialization.
June Watkins is regularly
offering upper-level courses
there.
Annual Report, 2006-2007
Department/Division:
Philosophy, Religious Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities
College:
CAS
Part I-ALC/ALP/AFP, Summary Report on Assessment of Student Learning
Undergraduate Programs:
Graduate Programs:
General Education:
Assessment Information
(if applicable)
We have reduced the number of
adjunct faculty from 10 to 6,
while increasing online offerings.
X
X
Comments
Academic Learning Compacts (ALC)
Academic Learning Plans (ALP)
Academic Foundation Plans (AFP)
To be completed by academic units offering degree programs or general education.
These numbers are unreliable,
and data-mining at the
departmental level is still much
more difficult than it needs to be.
I.
Undergraduate Programs: For Each Program
I. Undergraduate Programs - To be completed by academic units offering degree programs.
Department/Division:
Philosophy, Religious Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities
College:
CAS
Part I-ALC, Summary Report on Assessment, Academic Learning Compacts (ALC)
Program Title:: Philosophy/Religious Studies
Domain
(check one)
Degree: BA
CIP Code: 38.0101/38.0201
__Content
__Critical Thinking
__Communication
_x_Integrity/Values __Project Management __Discipline-specific ALC
Student Learning Outcome: Engage
with others, and contribute to the ongoing and open-ended
discussion that is philosophy in an honest, responsible, and respectful manner
Method(s) of Assessment
In all of our required courses, students must engage the history of philosophy and prepare
scholarly, carefully researched original papers that respond to that history. They learn to avoid
fallacious means of dismissing views alternative to their own. In many classes students are required
to present their work to the class and be prepared to defend their arguments. Students in advanced
courses are encouraged to submit papers to academic conferences, including the Florida
Philosophy Association’s Undergraduate Essay Prize (and a student of claimed that prize for the
first time last year) and the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics. In our gateway course, student papers are
peer-reviewed.
Summary of Assessment Results
Most student research papers that are assessed for their grasp of ethical values merit letter grades
of C+ or higher. The incidence of plagiarism in all written work is very low. More specific data is not
yet available.
Use of Assessment Results to Improve Program
We have designed a reporting mechanism to evaluate what percentage of our Capstone Course
students exceed, meet, or fail to meet this and other learning outcomes. We will then revise our Exit
Survey and Syllabi for the Gateway and Capstone courses to provide more explicit information and
elicit more informative responses about each of the Domains.
Evaluation of Assessment Plan
We have not had the plan in place long enough to do a meaningful evaluation.
Domain(s) to Be Examined in Assessment Plan in Following Year
We will evaluate Ethical Reasoning
Assessment Questions to Be Addressed in Following Year
What is the nature of an ethical dilemma? Can we evaluate the quality of ethical decisions based on welldefined criteria?
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URL – ALC website: http://uwf.edu/cutla/CUTLA/ALC/newer/PHILOSOPHY.pdf
Department/Division:
Philosophy, Religious Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities
College:
CAS
Part I-ALC, Summary Report on Assessment, Academic Learning Compacts (ALC)
Program Title: Interdisciplinary Humanities
Degree BA/MA
CIP Code: 24.0101
Though we have an academic learning compact in place for the undergraduate program, at
http://uwf.edu/cutla/CUTLA/ALC/newer/IH.doc we have not yet an assessment plan
designed for these programs. We are awaiting recommendations from a formal
assessment group looking into all of CAS’s interdisciplinary programs, headed up by Greg
Lanier.
II. Graduate Programs: For Each Program
A.
Submit an electronic copy of the Academic Learning Plan, including assessment strategy,
identifying programs by Title, Degree, and CIP Code.
Our graduate program, Humanities, Interdisciplinary, MA, has been suspended, with no
new admissions as of fall 2007. A meeting with Barbara Lyman; Richard Podemski; Bob
Shaw; Jane Halonen; Jay Clune; Nicholas Power; Greg Lanier; Peter Metarko; Sally
Ferguson is scheduled for late august to finalize the cancellation of this program.
III. Academic Foundations: General Education Status
A. Describe the two domains that your department has agreed to measure as the contribution to
Academic Foundations.
Both of our sub-domains fall under the Values/integrity Domain, to wit, Academic Integrity and Ethical
Reasoning.
B. Speculate about how the department will begin gathering data on those outcomes in the fall
semester.
We have already met with our regular and adjunct faculty that teach in General Studies, and solicited
some feedback on embedding assessment measures in their respective courses, which include
Introduction to Logic, Introduction to Philosophy , Intro to Religion, and Ethics and Contemporary
Society. We have decided to begin with the Introduction to Logic sections in the Fall, and will work
with those faculty to develop a specific assignment or two which measures student success in ethical
reasoning.
IV. All Programs: Institutional Support
Based on the department’s experiences in assessment this year,
 What feedback would you give the Center for University Teaching, Learning, and
Assessment (CUTLA) about faculty development activities?
5
Be patient; faculty are over-stretched.

What kinds of assistance would you like from CUTLA with next year’s faculty development
needs?
Assistance is organizing adjunct faculty orientations to the assessment initiative. Incentives for
active participation in this movement.
6
Annual Report, 2006-2007
Department/Division:
Philosophy, Religious Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities
College:
CAS
Part II-A, Major Unit Accomplishments and Changes in Programs and Services
List major department/division accomplishments and changes in programs and services for 2006-2007.
(Add lines as needed.)
1. Initiated the process of suspending an in-efficient and low quality graduate program, having solicited
comments and forged consensus from its broad range of interdisciplinary faculty.
2. Completed new degree plan and ALC for new “Philosophy and Politics” and “Environmental
Humanities” “streams within the new interdisciplinary humanities program.
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Annual Report, 2006-2007
Department/Division:
Philosophy, Religious Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities
College:
CAS
Part II-B, Distinguished Individual (Faculty, Staff, and Student) Accomplishments
List college/departmental distinctions earned by faculty, staff, and students during 2005-2006.
(University- and Academic Affairs-level recognitions—such as promotion, tenure, Distinguished Teaching
Award—need not be listed. This information is already available in the Provost’s Office.)
A. Faculty: 1. Sally Ferguson has an article, “Evolutionary Psychology: Theory and Practice”, appear in
Biology and Philosophy, a top-tier journal
She submitted an article to the Southern Journal of Philosophy—again, top-tier—and made a
presentation to the ever-increasingly competitive Florida Philosophical Association Annual Meeting,
She also served as an officer for a professional organization: Secretary/Treasurer of the Executive
Committee of the Florida Philosophical Association.
2. Nick Power co-edited a book, The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, for Rowman and
Littlefield.
He served on a state-wide committee developing and evaluating certification tests for k-12 humanities
teachers.
3. Toby Howe has had two articles appear In Press. “Henri Bergson,” The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief
(Prometheus Books) and “Conflating Erotica and Pornography: A Brief Re-assessment of Applying and
Old Themes to a Contemporary Problem,” in the peer-reviewed journal Contemporary Philosophy.
He presented a paper at an international conference—the First International Conference on Climate and
Philosophy.
4. Wilson Maina had an article appear in the peer-reviewed African Christian Studies
He submitted an article to Theological Studies, a top-tier journal and is working on a monograph on 21st
century African theology.
He successfully completed e-training on online instruction.
B. Staff: Jo Garber received training on the new Banner acquisitions system, and attended a course
scheduling workshop.
C. Students: We sent alumni to graduate programs at UNF, North Texas, FSU and the Socratic Society
planned and raised funds (from SGA and CAS as well as the department) for 6 majors to travel to the
Florida Philosophical Association’s Annual Meeting in Tampa Bay.
8
Annual Report, 2006-2007
Department/Division:
Philosophy, Religious Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities
College:
CAS
Part III-A, Strategic Planning Goals/Objectives for 2007-2008
List strategic plan goals/objectives for 2006-2007 and planned method of assessment (if applicable).
Strategic Goal/Objective
Finalize status of IH MA program.
Implement Assessment plan in RS program.
Method of Assessment
Submission of Program CCR.
Submission ALC.
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Annual Report, 2006-2007
Department/Division:
Philosophy, Religious Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities
College:
CAS
Part III-B, Strategic Planning Goals/Objectives for 2006-2010
List strategic plan goals/objectives for 2006-2010 and planned method of assessment (if applicable).
Strategic Goal/Objective
Redesign Interdisciplinary programs.
Hire an ethicist.
Increase headcounts in all majors.
Method of Assessment
Submitted CCRs
Job search approval.
Headcount increaseds.
10
Annual Report, 2006-2007
Department/Division:
Philosophy, Religious Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities
College:
CAS
Part III-C, New Degree Program Projections
No new degree programs or specializations are under consideration at this time, given depleted faculty
resources.