Chair Kimberly Furumo’s Final Report
2014-15 Faculty Congress
During the 2014-15 academic year, the UHH Faculty Congress accomplished several
things. As Chair, it was my goal to formalize processes and develop a documentation
system that would allow for the collection and storage of all relevant materials. Upon
assuming the position of Chair in June 2014, it became clear that there was no official
historical record of things that had taken place in previous years. The institutional
memory was limited to a few faculty members who still remained employed at UHH.
Therefore, the first thing I worked on as Chair was to develop a set of Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) documents which formalized the budgeting process and the
funds that would be made available to the Faculty Congress. Once those documents
were in place, and signed by the Chair of Faculty Congress and the Vice Chancellor for
Academic Affairs, I updated the Faculty Congress website and developed a structure
that allows for the collection of all documents and notes. Both faculty and
administrators have told me how useful the site has become.
Motions and New Programs
During the academic year, Faculty Congress approved nine motions. All were sent
forward to the Chancellor and the following table provides a summary of the status of
those motions.
Motion
Number
1
2
3
4
5
Motion
Status
Hire a full-time Curriculum
Coordinator in a Curriculum
Office within Academic Affairs
Fast Track Selected Minor
Curriculum Changes
Approved by Chancellor.
Individual was hired and began
Summer 2015.
Approved by Chancellor. Process
will be formalized with new
individual hired in Motion 1.
Approved by Chancellor. Process
will be formalized with new
individual hired in Motion 1.
Inclusion of the Registrar’s office
in the early curriculum review
process rather than at the faculty
curriculum review committees
level
Track all foreign students in order Approved by Chancellor. Tracking
to understand the poor retention
procedure is being established by
rate of these students at UHH
the Student Success and
Admissions Committee of Faculty
Congress.
Develop an Academic
Approved by Chancellor. The
Leadership Development
Faculty Congress Academic Policy
Program
Committee is working on details
6
Require incoming freshman to be
placed in a one-credit UNIV 101
course
7
Establishment of the Faculty
Development Committee and
recommendation to approve the
review of all information
considered ‘faculty development’
presented by Faculty Congress
and the UH Hilo Administration.
Revision of the Academic Policy
Flowchart and Accompanying
Notes.
Revision of the Curriculum
Review Flowchart and
Accompanying Notes
8
9
related to this motion.
Approved by Chancellor. All
incoming first time freshman will be
placed in a UNIV 101 course
beginning in fall 2015.
This motion was approved by
Faculty Congress and sent back to
the Academic Policy Committee for
implementation.
The motion was approved and the
flowchart was linked to the Faculty
Congress website.
The motion was approved and the
flowchart was linked to the Faculty
Congress website.
In addition to the motions, Faculty Congress also approved a new program request for
the Aviation Program. That program has moved forward to the system Academic Affairs
Chancellors committee.
General Education Forum
In April, a faculty forum was convened to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the
UHH General Education program. Approximately 30 faculty members attended the
forum or provided online comments. Those comments can be viewed with the
committee reports on the Faculty Congress website.
Other Accomplishments
A motion that was approved in the 2013-14 academic year called for the modification of
course numbering to indicate on-line laboratory courses. The Chancellor did not
approve this motion since it impacts all the schools in the system. This issue was
brought to AACFSC (the system-wide council for Chairs of Faculty Senates) and is
being considered at the system level.
In 2014-15, a Faculty Lounge was dedicated and is now available for use by all UHH
faculty. Guidelines were established for the rooms use and three coffee socials were
held to improve communication between faculty and administrators.