COMMITTEE ON MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM TRANSFORMATION
Notes from Meeting of
21 January 2014
The fourth meeting of the Committee on Multicultural Curriculum Transformation was held on
Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. in Altgeld 203.
Attendance
Gary Chen (Engineering & Engineering Technology), Teresa Fisher (Education), Bill
Goldenberg (Visual & Performing Arts), LaVerne Gyant (Director, Center for Black Studies),
Kristin Huffine (Director, Center for Latino and Latin American Studies), Murali Krishnamurthi
(Director, Faculty Development & Instructional Design Center), Anita Maddali (Law), Robin
Moremen (Liberal Arts & Sciences), Kristen Myers (CMCT Chair; Director, Women’s Studies),
Donna Smith (Supportive Professional Staff, Catalog Editor/Curriculum Coordinator), Beth
Towell (Curricular Dean College of Business), and Carly Seibel (CMCT Graduate Assistant).
Minutes
The minutes from the meeting of November 19, 2014 were approved without any changes.
Announcements
Myers explained that a meeting was held regarding the future vision and structure of the MCTI.
During that meeting, it was confirmed that there is a national search for an Academic Diversity
Officer which will impact the future of the MCTI. Myers announced that it is possible that the
future Academic Diversity Officer will be in charge of the MCTI and possibly re-structure it.
Myers announced that President Doug Baker and Dr. Lisa Freeman (Executive Vice President
and Provost) will be sent an invitation to attend the February or March meeting to further discuss
the future plans for the MCTI.
Gyant shared that this week is Martin Luther King Jr. Service Week, and the events are listed on
the NIU website.
Assessments on Final Reports and Syllabi
Committee members shared their thoughts and scores for the final reports and syllabi they were
assigned to review. Myers calculated an average score for the assessment of the final reports and
syllabi. It was noted that the score will need to be recalculated when all assessments have be
completed and submitted to reflect a more accurate overall average. After much discussion,
committee members shared their overall thoughts and suggestions for revising the pilot rubrics.
Overall thoughts & Suggestions for revising pilot rubrics:
 Many agreed that the syllabi were much harder to assess than the final reports.
o The final reports were much more informative than the syllabi when assessing
change.
 Suggestion to have some inter-rater reliability for assessing the reports.
 Some of the categories on the rubric were difficult to assess. It was suggested to re-word
the categories so that they apply to all educational disciplines.
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The rubrics are not a one-to-one correspondence with the final reports and syllabi, so it
may be necessary to edit the rubrics to reflect more of a correspondence.
The items on the rubric called “Assessment of Student Work” and “Communication with
Diverse Students” cannot be judged by using the final reports or the syllabi.
Suggested that focus groups be created to help in assessing actual change that occurred
from participating in the MCTI.
Add a specific section in the report asking each participant to do a “self-assessment” of
their before and after syllabi. This will allow us to compare our perceptions of positive
changes made versus the participants’ perceptions of positive change.
Suggested that the syllabi may be a good tool to use during the MCTI to get the
participants reflect, discuss, and begin changes to transform their courses, but it may not
be meaningful to measure the syllabi through an assessment.
Possibly put examples of good reports and syllabi on the MCTI website for future
participants to reference for guidance in writing their reports.
Figure out a way to measure total curriculum transformation.
Stress the rubric to the participants during the MCTI so that participants know what is
expected of them.
Adjust rubrics to match overall goals of MCTI.
Brainstorm “outline” for promotional video
Myers announced that she met with Jennifer Howard, in Media Services, regarding the
promotional video. Myers shared that Howard said that the best way to create this video is to
start by making an outline or script. This outline will reflect exactly what we want the video to
look like (e.g. exact quotes, location, etc.). It was suggested by the committee that we postpone
the promotional video until after out meeting with the President and the Provost.
Discuss ideas for potential plenary and session presenters for next year’s institute
Myers shared that President Baker attended an institute with a great speaker that could be a
possible plenary speaker for the next MCTI.
Other business
Committee members discussed possible areas to address during the meeting with President Doug
Baker and Dr. Lisa Freeman.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:09 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday,
February 18, 2014 from 10:00-11:30 a.m. in Altgeld 203.