Eastern Michigan University College of Arts and Sciences College Advisory Council Minutes Thursday, September 6, 2012 Scheduled Meeting Time: 3:30-­‐5:00pm Pray-­‐Harrold, Room 219 Present: Perry (AAS), Sacksteder (Art), Hammill (CMTA), Woodland (ECON), Dionne (ENG), Dieterle (H&P), Plagens (POLS), Ensor (SAC), Higgins (WGST), Vosteen (WL), Angell (BIO), Johnson (CHEM), Bradley (G&G), Rescorla (MATH), Behringer (P&A), Dove (PSYCH), Venner (CAS Dean), Mehuron (AD), LaPorte (AD), Ramsey (Arts DH), Sambrook (Sciences DH), Doug Baker (Guest—Newly appointed assessment committee chair) Absent: Moore (COSC), No Music and Dance Representative appointed yet I.
Call to order by CAC Chair, Jill Dieterle, at 3:30pm II.
Introductions—Members introduced themselves by name and department III.
Elections—Jill Dieterle was re-­‐elected CAC Chair; Amy Johnson was elected Vice Chair; Natalie Dove was elected secretary and Geoff Hammill was elected to the Procedures Committee, along with the Vice Chair IV.
Old Business a. CAC now appoints representatives for the University Research and Sabbatical Leave committee. The College of Arts and Sciences has two representatives on this committee, one from Science and one from Arts. CAC members are to ask in their departments if anyone is willing to serve on this committee. It may make sense for these representatives to also be on the parallel college level committee (CCRSL). b. There is also a newly forming faculty workload equivalency committee. CAC members received an email about this committee. CAS has one representative on this committee. Again, interested department members are being solicited by CAC members for this committee. c. The issue has been raised about whether CAC should meet during the summer if members are not compensated for their service work in the summer. Dean Venner indicated that compensation for CAC members V.
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during the summer term would be a lower priority budgetary item, given that his budget was cut for the current academic year. If CAC does not meet in the summer, proposals for new courses and course changes would be due February 1 instead of the current deadline of April 1. Discussion ensued about whether departmental input would be needed to make this change. One member indicated that perhaps CAC could meet in May, thereby making the deadline March 1. In the end, it was decided that we would obtain departmental input and table this issue until such input was obtained. New Business a. Kate Mehuron gave a presentation on plans for assessing student outcomes within the college. She noted that this is part of our accreditation process but we would like to think of this issue beyond just issues of accreditation. She presented a plan for assessment of these outcomes for our next round of program review. She noted that CAS will want to get some preliminary reports from departments by the end of the year about their own plans for student assessment. In addition, an assessment committee is being formed and the Dean’s office is looking for nominations from departments for those willing to serve on an assessment committee. Doug Baker will be the chair of this committee. Doug spoke a bit about the work this committee will be undertaking in the coming year. Dean’s remarks a. Dean Venner began his remarks by discussing the slightly edited version of the College of Arts and Sciences strategic plan. He pointed out ways in which the plan was edited since the last draft was presented to CAC for comment. The newest version of the strategic plan was unanimously passed by a vote of 15-­‐0-­‐0. b. Dean Venner then continued by discussing how the Dean’s office would implement the strategic goals from the strategic plan. The Dean’s office has identified 7 major goal areas: Budget, Fundraising, Curriculum and Program Prioritization, Outreach to the Community, Enrollment and Student Advising, Faculty Development and Facilities and Infrastructure (in no particular order). Under each major goal area, the Dean’s office has several tasks that they will focus upon in order to help the College achieve the goals. Dean Venner discussed a few of these tasks in detail. He then noted that he hopes as departments discuss their departmental goals, they will consider aligning them with the goals of the college as a whole. c. Marianne LaPorte spoke about the issue of program sustainability. She indicated that ten programs that are either rapidly growing or rapidly shrinking will be chosen for study during the 2012-­‐2013 VII.
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academic year. Data will be generated regarding these programs so that decisions about how and whether to funnel more resources toward growing programs can be made. In addition, the data will aid decisions about whether to help or possibly eliminate programs whose enrollments are dwindling. As such, Marianne was seeking CAC members to volunteer to participate in a committee (that she will chair) to decide how such data should be generated. Brad Ensor, Jill Dieterle, and Ernest Behringer volunteered for this committee. Chair’s Remarks None. Faculty Remarks None. Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 5:00pm. Respectfully submitted, Natalie Dove CAC Secretary 2012-­‐2013