Faculty Meeting Report
10/18/11
Summary
At the second faculty meeting of the fall 2011 semester much was discussed. Of particular
interest were concerns over the relevance of 605, combining of courses 561 and 659, ……………. In
addition it was stated several times that communication with adjunct faculty members needed to be
improved, and attention was paid to the fact that currently Digital Libraries is not taught outside of the
summer months.
*An amendment was made to the Admissions committee. It now includes Deborah Andersen, Donghee
Sinn, and Philip Eppard in addition to Fran Reynolds. Mentioned before the minutes from the last
meeting were approved.
Information and Announcements
Grant Information/Updates
The IMLS grant that Eppard and Iyer were working on fell through due to concerns that its focus was too
narrow.
Journal/Presentation Announcements
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Stefl-Mabry will be attending a conference of the AASL, and will be soon published in the School
Library Media Research Journal
Andersen was accepted to the APPAM research conference
Yuan will be attending a conference in California with a student for a workshop on Human
Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval, will visit the Google usability lab. Hopes to
encourage next year’s conference to take place at UAlbany.
Uzuner will be attending a medical…….conference in Washington D.C.
Advisory Committee
A list with updated information about the members of the advisory committee will be made available at
the next faculty meeting (11/15?/11)
Enrollment Update
Further elaboration on new student enrollment, numerical details have not changed since they were
released at the last meeting. Of note is the change in GRE test format; enacted in August of this year.
As a result it will be November before new student test scores are released, and it will be even longer
before faculty can evaluate the new students.
One student at the recent UAlbany grad fair claimed to have passed over UAlbany for three reasons. 1.
SUNY Albany requires applicants to take the Graduate Records Examination, 2. There is a 42 credit
requirement for graduation instead of the 36 needed at the University at Buffalo, and 3. The limited
availabiltiy of online classes.
Committees and Plans for 2011-2012
Curriculum
1. Barbara Via brought concerns about the relevance of 605 for the …………………. Via’s concerns
introduced thoughts about the
2. In light of the development of the new ‘Human Information Interaction’ track Deborah Andersen and
a Ph.D. student have developed a survey to be administered to undergraduate students in CCI to
determine whether description of the track attracts interest and to determine if undergrads might be
drawn into the new graduate level concentration.
Faculty Meeting Report
10/18/11
3. Classes 561 (Introduction to Web Design and Development) is to be combined with 659 (Digital
Imaging and the Web) on account of a high degree of course overlap. There were many concerns about
overlap between the proposed new course and 361 (Web Development), 666 (User Interface and
Design), and portions of 523 (Fundamentals of Information Technology). Most of the concerns were
discussed away and Fran will prepare the appropriate course action forms.
Student Affairs
D’Andraia reported on student suggestions to improve the program. Copies of the student suggestions
are available (in this link). There was a lot of enthusiasm for the way that UAlbany students used an
alumni table for the recent ASIS&T conference.
Assessment/SLOAR
To make reaccreditation by the ALA easier to obtain and to improve evidence-based evaluation about
which courses need reform ‘Student Learning Outcomes Assessment Report’ (SLOAR) will be distributed
to faculty members to evaluate their own courses in terms of fulfillment of programmatic goals outline
in the student handbook. Adjunct faculty will receive the SLOARs in time to rate their own classes by the
end of the spring semester.
Discussion
SUNY 2020 Initiative
Three proposals have been put together by CCI for approval for the SUNY 2020 initiative. One from
Computer Science and two from Informatics. The next proposal deadline is March first. Faculty are
hoping that information about what types of proposals are acceptable by studying those already
submitted by our college. Proposals will be discussed further during the November and December
faculty meetings.