Report of the Committee on Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Programs
Presented to Congress on April 28, 2006
On October 28, 2005, the UH-Hilo Faculty Congress established an ad hoc committee to examine issues related to undergraduate interdisciplinary programs. The members of the committee shall consist of the affected Deans, the VCAA, the directors of interdisciplinary undergraduate programs, and a liaison from the Academic Policy Committee. The committee will report back to
Congress by February 15. Its charge is to 1) determine if there are issues that need to be resolved and 2) make any recommendations it deems appropriate.
This report is based on the outcome of several meetings held in the winter of AY-05-06. The following persons were invited to participate: all the directors of interdisciplinary programs (See appendix), affected Deans, the office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and a liaison from Congress. Not everyone attended, and as a result this report does not represent all the viewpoints of all the interdisciplinary programs.
Persons that attended one or more meetings:
Jene Michaud, Robin Takahashi, Kenith Simmons, April Komenaka, Rick Castberg, Amy
Gregg, Jim Juvik, Doug Mikkelson, , Marcia Sakai, Randy Hirokawa, Kelly Burke
Persons that did not attend meetings but communicated by email or in person:
Judy Gersting, Steve Worchell, Sheryl Mleynek
Invited Guests: Cathy Zenz
The Committee Chair was Jene Michaud, and the Secretary was April Komenaka.
1) Brainstorming at the first meeting identified issues of concern to program directors and administrators:

We should avoid starting new programs on soft money

New program proposals should come from the faculty, not from administration, and must have broad buy-in from faculty

New programs should be built as much as possible with existing courses.

The home department of the participating faculty member has first say as to what courses that faculty member teaches. In other words, the departmen t’s needs come before the IP’s needs.

When a fulltime faculty person is replaced by a lecturer, for whatever reason, all efforts must be made to ensure that the lecturer is well qualified and effective, and that the curriculum is not unduly modified.

We need a person in charge of facilitating, coordinating, and scheduling courses required in
IPs, and responsible for the budget and other administrative matters.
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2) Committee members were also asked to provide written responses to the following three questions. All the written responses to these questions are tabulated in the
Appendix.

What are the top 1-3 issues that face your Interdisciplinary Programs (I.P.)?

What are the top 1-3 General issues related to efficient management of interdisciplinary programs?

What are some specific issues you would like this committee to address?
3) A tabulation of responses to the three questions (see above) found that the following issues were mentioned repeatedly:

About thirteen responses addressed questions related to the availability, coordination, and long-term scheduling of courses required for interdisciplinary programs.

About ten responses addressed budgets that are insufficient or not clearly identified.

About seven responses addressed competition between traditional departments and interdisciplinary programs in terms of staffing and management.

About seven responses addressed the need for rational planning, particularly with respect to initiation of new programs..

About five responses addressed inadequate leadership.

Two responses cited insufficient marketing.
4) Kenith Simmons reported that the VCAA is eager to learn what issues the committee identifies and to work to address them. He has raised the possibility of creating a Director of
Interdisciplinary Programs to administer a budget for interdisciplinary programs (rather than to direct the content of the programs); however, he wants faculty in-put on problems and possible solutions before proceeding.
5) April Komenaka read the CAS Dean’s observations on several interdisciplinary programs: The
CAS dean
 hopes to find external funding for a revitalized Honors Program;
 supports external reviewers to assist the Linguistics and Women’s Studies programs;
 reports that English and Communication are developing a Media Writing certificate program;
 notes that the Occupational Health and Safety program is in limbo because the supporting grant expires at the end of this year.
6) There are a variety of perspectives on the OSH program and its demise not fitting the larger institutional picture. According to the program director, it was focused on x-cultural issues, it supported minority students, it met a community need, and it had external funding for the first five years. The director felt caught in the middle of dealing with the UHH administration, the departments, the funding agency, the community, and the students. Nevertheless, there are those who felt that the OSH program did not have sufficient buy-in from the affected departments, did not fit into the larger institutional picture, and suffered from staffing problems after the external funding ended.
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7) Cross-Listing

Cross-listing on the one hand makes it easier for students interested in interdisciplinary courses to find them on MyUH during registration, but on the other hand leads to inaccurate enrollment counts during registration period and makes advising and graduation audits
(manual and automatic) difficult, multiplying the number of course alpha/numbers that must be checked.

We reviewed the listing of courses on the “Check Class Availability” webpage and the listing on the MyUH “Search for Courses” webpage. The “Check” listing includes a note below each crosslisted course referring student to the correct CRN to use in registering. On the “Search” listing, cross-listed courses are listed but cross-listing and other information is accessed only when the user clicks on the highlighted CRN. It was reported that experienced students tend to use the “Check” webpage more than the “Search” webpage because it is faster and easier to use.
8) Crediting of cross-listed courses a. In the cases of cross-listed courses, the department of the instructor is credited with the
SSH. (This assumes that the home department of instructor is the same as the alpha of the course being taught. If the course is improperly scheduled (e.g. students can enroll for either ENG 300 or GEOG 300) then the situation becomes muddled. b. If a professor from department X teaches a course in department Y, and the course is not cross-listed, then department Y gets the SSH even though department X provided the instruction. (Example: A geology professor teaches MARE 200. The Mare department gets the SSH.) c. There are special circumstances for HON courses, WS 151 and WS 495. These courses are not cross-listed, therefore the humanities division gets the HON SSH and the Social
Sciences Division gets WS SSH. Thus, the home department of the instructor does not get credit for providing instruction. d. In certain cases (e.g. b and c above) the department that provides the instructor does not get the SSH, even though the cost of the instruction is “billed” to the department. This serves as a disincentive for interdisciplinary teaching.
9) In designing Liberal Studies major equivalent programs, students tend to focus on certain subjects. In the last four years, three students have designed majors in Art History, three students have designed majors in Environmental Studies, and three students have designed programs in Performance (dance, drama, music). Only one student has designed a journalismrelated major. Other students designed programs in which no single discipline predominated.
10) For some interdisciplinary alphas (particularly IS), it is not clear who has the responsibility/authority to approve and schedule courses.
11) The summer abroad program is administered by using existing 199 and 499 courses from existing alphas. If there are people who go on the trip but do not enroll in the course, the instructor may be over-exposed in terms of liability.
12) The IS alpha is particularly problematic because it is not clear who administers it. There are three groups of IS classes:
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
IS 393 (Foreign Field Experience) is used to facilitate semesters abroad for UHH students.

IS 199, 251, 299, and 399 are no longer offered and have no reason to exist. Rick Castberg will purge them from the catalog.

IS 351/LING 351 will be converted to LING 351 so that LING 351 is not cross-listed and IS
351 no longer exists.
 IS 298 was offered in the Fall of 2006 with CAS Dean’s approval, but without any academic department’s approval.
13) Information about current practice in regards to budgeting and staffing of courses, staffing, and decision-making:

In CAS, neither IP nor regular departmental programs receive line item budgets at the Dean's level. Divisions receive budgets which are then allocated among departments. Some IP are given small supply budgets by the division chair.

Courses required by IP programs fall into several categories: First, courses that are offered primarily for students in IP programs. Second, courses that are offered primarily for departmental programs, but that also serve students in IP programs. Budgeting and staffing issues are different for these two groups.

In some cases, the college/division provides lecturer money to fund instructors teaching courses with interdisciplinary alphas (e.g. WS 151 and 495).

It is more common for departments to "donate" (and thus subsidize) faculty to teach courses required by IP programs. This has been the case for HON courses, at least during certain times in the past.
14) Information about current practice in regards to decision-making and organizational charts:

Some IP are firmly housed in a department. An example would be the Planning
Certificate in Geography. Other IP are freestanding without strong attachment to a single department. Good examples of the latter would include WS and Honors.

Religious Studies is somewhat anomalous in that its director is part of the Philosophy department. The addition of a single religious studies professor to the Philosophy department seems to be an administrative convenience. Situations such as this have the potential to create tension when it comes to decision making.

Some IP are guided by a self-selected group of interested faculty, headed by the IP program chair.

There are twenty-one IP but only a handful (say, 5-7) had representatives at any given meeting. For many of the IP it is therefore unclear what the budget, decision-making and organizational structures are.
15) Multi-college IP present special challenges in terms of budgeting and decision making.
16) It has come to the attention of the committee that some IP are on the VCAA schedule for program review, but others are not.
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1. Recommendations of a Housekeeping Nature
A. Occupational Safety and Health minor: Because the program will be terminated effective Fall
2006, it will not be included in the 2006-2007 catalog. Students already in the minor will be enabled to complete the minor requirements.
B. Liberal Studies-Religious Studies: The Religious Studies major will continue to be offered as a pre-approved Liberal Studies major. The Religious Studies program Director will ve housed in the History Department. Courses previously offered under the Religious Studies alpha will be converted to courses under the History alpha (starting with the 2007-2008 catalog). The
Director will submit program modification, new course, and course modification forms to the
Senate.
C. Liberal Studies-Recreational Management major: Because of the problematic nature of many of the major requirements, and because there are few majors, the coordinator is terminating the program, while continuing to offer students the option of a self-created liberal studies major equivalent in the field. The coordinator will submit a program modification request terminating the program to the Senate. The RecMgt program description will be deleted from the 2006-07 catalog.
D.
Honors program: Several 100/200-level Honors courses are accepted for GE; these will be referred to explicitly in the GE area listing in the 2006-2007 catalog.
E. IS alpha:

IS 199, 251, 299, and 399 are no longer offered and have no reason to exist. Rick Castberg will purge them from the catalog.

Courses that are not in the catalog should not be offered (e.g. IS 298 in Spring 2006).

IS 351/LING 351 will be converted to LING 351 so that LING 351 is not cross-listed and IS
351 no longer exists.

IS 393 (Foreign Field Experience, where IS stands for "Interdisciplinary Studies") should be changed to an alpha that means "International Studies". This will result in the elimination of the Interdisciplinary Studies alpha. It is not clear which unit should administer the
International Studies offerings. The VCAA office would be a logical alternative. IS 393
(Foreign Field Experience) is used to facilitate semesters abroad for UHH students.
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2. Cross-listing in catalog
We recommend that interdisciplinary programs publicize their cross-listed courses more actively during advising/registration periods, and that the Advising Office and academic advisors show students how to use MyUH resources, including the “Search” option.
We recommend that all catalog references to cross-listed courses and programs that include cross-listed courses refer to such courses by all relevant alphas. This is not yet consistent in the catalog.
For example: The description of the Linguistics major should specify required courses as follows:
Syntax/Grammar: Eng/Ling 321 – Morphology and Syntax
Anth/Eng/Ling 347 – Pidgins and Creoles
Jpns/Jpst/Ling 452 – Structure of Japanese
Haw/Ling 454 – Hawaiian: A Polynesian Language
In the departmental/program course descriptions at the back of the catalog, course descriptions should uniformly refer to all cross-listing:
Anth 347 Pidgins and Creoles. . . (Same as Eng 347 and Ling 347. . .)
Eng 347 Pidgins and Creoles . . . (Same as Anth 347 and Ling 347. . .)
Ling 347 Pidgins and Creoles. . . (Same as Anth 347 and Eng 347)
3. Organizational Chart and SSH
A. In general, each interdisciplinary alpha should be assigned to a department that has responsibility for administrating it. In some cases, however, (IS, WS, HON, UNIV) the alphas are sufficiently interdisciplinary that no single department is appropriate. In such cases an alternate arrangement needs to be made. The VCAA office is a logical alternative.
B. The departments providing instruction for HON and WS courses should get credit for the
SSH.
1 2 This is a MAPS problem and needs to be corrected by the Records Office, the administration, and the system office for institutional research.
C. When department X provides an instructor for a (non-cross listed) course in department Y, the SSH should be credited to department Y (don’t you mean Department X?). 1 This is a
MAPS problem and needs to be corrected by the Records Office, the administration, and the system office for institutional research.
D. The department of Languages should be converted to a department of Languages and
Linguistics. The Linguistics major and minor and the Japanese Studies major and minor would be housed in that department.
1 This appears to be feasible, but would require reprogramming of MAPS at the system level. Sharyn
Hirata (system office of institutional research) is the MAPS contact.
2 Similar issues arise for any other interdisciplinary alpha such as CHUS or CBES.
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4. Availability of courses for students and long term planning/scheduling
We recommend that all departments and programs develop rolling two-year course plans that are posted on the UH Hilo website for students and others to consult. These will be updated regularly.
Courses to be included are GE courses, courses required by other majors, cross-listed courses, and core courses for the major.
5. Communication among programs about cross-listed courses and about courses required by other departments or offered by other departments.
We recommend that a process be instituted to ensure that departments/programs planning to offer new courses/programs or to begin requiring courses offered by other departments discuss such changes with these other departments.
We recommend that a process be instituted to ensure that all departments involved in a crosslisted course communicate during course scheduling, so that schedule conflicts are avoided and to assure that courses are offered in an orderly sequence.
6. Giving interdisciplinary programs a stronger position in the administrative consciousness.
We recommend that coordinators/chairs of interdisciplinary programs submit annual reports to the
Dean (or, if one is appointed, a coordinator in interdisciplinary programs) regarding growth in student enrollments, number of courses, anticipated shortages in instructors, etc.
7. Program Review
The committee recommends that the VCAA office develop a rationale for determining which IP should undergo full program review and which should not. Once this is done a schedule for review for IP programs should be developed.
A. The Women’s Studies certificate program should have the services of an external reviewer as soon as possible to help faculty to further develop this successful program.
B. The Japanese Studies major should be reviewed.
C. The Linguistics program should complete its ongoing program review process as expeditiously as possible.
D. A program review should be scheduled for the Natural Science program.
8. The Honors program should offer courses outside of humanities.
9. It must be made easy to track student semester hours for courses that are not cross-listed and that are not housed in a department: WS 151 and 495 in particular. Tracking of this kind is essential for program review and to justify expansion of, for example, Women Studies, to a minor
(under Liberal Studies) and eventually to a major and department. The Institutional Analysts and
Records Office should be tasked with implementing this change.
10. It must be made possible to track numbers of second majors, minors, and certificate candidates.
Such data would be useful to departments in planning and program review, and are necessary for proactive advising. The Institutional Analysts and Records Office should be tasked with implementing this change.
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11. The committee recommends that "A" budgets be made more explicit in the case of interdisciplinary courses that are not cross-listed (e.g., HON and possibly UNIV, WS 151, and WS
495). These programs should have "A" budgets to be used for lecturers and buy-outs of faculty that teach in the interdisciplinary programs (thereby foregoing a course in their home department). If this recommendation is implemented there would be no increase in the total university-wide "A" budget, but there would be a more accurate accounting of the cost of interdisciplinary programs and department-based programs. This recommendation does not apply to cross-listed courses because departments are already getting credit for these courses.
12. Although interdisciplinary graduate programs are technically outside the purview of this committee, it does seem that the China-U.S. Studies and Tropical Conservation Biology and
Environmental Studies programs should also have "A" budgets for buying out faculty time. If a department is reimbursed when one of its faculty teaches in a graduate program, then it will possible to track the true cost of both the graduate and undergraduate programs.
13. This report should be forwarded to the Graduate Council, which faces similar issues with respect to interdisciplinary graduate programs.
14. Several organizational ideas were discussed. These ideas require further discussion. a. The possibility of an IP coordinator that provides centralized services and promotes IP. b. Hiring of a new IP faculty member. c. Having VCAA's office provide oversight for multi-college IP.
Interdisciplinary Alphas
IS
RELS
JPST
WS
HON
NSCI
OSH
UNIV
LING
ESL (non-academic)
AJ (at HCC)
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Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Programs (Directors listed in parenthesis)
MOP Certificate (Jim Beets and Walt Dudley)
International Studies Certificate (Rick Castberg)
ESL Certificate (Masafumi Honda) e-Commerce Certificate (Judy Gersting)
Women's Studies Certificate (Amy Gregg)
International Studies/Tourism Certificate (Marcia Sakai)
Planning Certificate (Jim Juvik / Cathryn Besio)
Physical Studies Certificate Environmental Studies (Jim Juvik / Cathryn Besio)
Pacific Studies Certificate (Craig Severance)
OSH Minor (Steven Worchell)
Earth and Space Science Minor (Ken Hon and Bob Fox)
Linguistics Major/Minor (Masafumi Honda)
Administration of Justice Major (Rick Castberg)
Natural Science Major (Jene Michaud)
Liberal Studies-self-designed major equivalents (April Komenaka)
Liberal Studies-Religious Studies major (Doug Mikkelson)
Liberal Studies-Recreation Management Major (Robin Takahashi)
Japanese Studies Major (Chris Reichl)
Honors program (Doug Mikkelson)
Planned majors in Environmental Science/Studies (Jim Juvik / Cathryn Besio)
Mailing List and Potential Committee Members
Jim Beets (MOP Certificate)
Walt Dudley (MOP Certificate)
Rick Castberg (Administration of Justice Major and International Studies Certificate)
Judy Gersting (e-Commerce Certificate)
Amy Gregg (Women's Studies Certificate)
Masafumi Honda (ESL Certificate and Linguistics Major/Minor)
Jene Michaud (Natural Science Major)
Jim Juvik (Planning Certificate; Environmental Studies Certificate, Env. St. /Sci majors)
Cathryn Besio (Planning Certificate; Environmental Studies Cert., Env. St. /Sci majors)
April Komenaka (LS-self-designed major equivalents)
Doug Mikkelson (LS-Religious Studies major and Honors program)
Chris Reichl (Japanese Studies Major)
Craig Severance (Pacific Studies Certificate)
Robin Takahashi (LS-Recreation Management Major)
Steven Worchell (OSH Minor)
Ken Hon (Earth and Space Science Minor)
Bob Fox (Earth and Space Science Minor)
Randy Hirokawa (CAS Dean)
Marcia Sakai (CoBE Dean and International Studies/Tourism Certificate)
Kenith Simmons (Assistant VCAA)
Steve Hora (VCAA)
Kelly Burke (APC Liaison)
Active Committee Members
Rick Castberg
Jene Michaud
April Komenaka
Steven Worchell
Judy Gersting
Marcia Sakai
Doug Mikkelson
Kenith Simmons
Amy Gregg
Jim Juvik / Cathryn Besio)
Robin Takahashi
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Written Responses to Three Questions
I. What are the top 1-3 issues that face your Interdisciplinary Programs (I.P.)?
1. Insufficient compensation for program director.
2. Need better campus support for advertising, etc.
3. The demands of the I.P. come at the expense of director’s home department.
4. Advanced planning for faculty assignment (one year advance).
5. For specially produced courses, lecturer replacement, and supplies budget.
6. Recognition that interdisciplinary program directors need to negotiate with home department chair and dean.
7. I'll answer for linguistics because I'm a member of the Linguistics faculty and because "my" program, self-designed, major equivalents, have no issues. Linguistics has 40 majors, but several key courses either have not been offered recently or were not offered regularly (> once a year) or once every two years. The program faculty rarely meet. Most majors approaching graduation this year and last have been forced to meet the course requirements with 99 courses taught by one professor and content is frankly, not appropriate for students aiming for grad school in Linguistics or English or further training in ESL. Because the program does not have firm leadership or at least one faculty who primarily in the field, we cannot establish/document quality.
8. Scheduling required elective courses in disciplines involved in degree programs.
9. Required/elective courses in my major restricted by departments to their major.
10. Increasing reliance on lecturers.
11. Large number of lower division required courses in order to take required upper division courses.
12. Large number of required courses Period.
13. If interdisciplinary program approved some "line" budget attached (as appropriate).
14. Appropriate compensation (and thus responsibility) for "program" chairs/directors.
15. Not having a department.
16. Not having a dedicated faculty position or adequately compensated facilitator.
17. Lack of effective cross listing via banner.
18. Cross-listing
19. Tracking of participating students.
20. Adequate funding source which is administered in a rational way.
21. Course scheduling both 10 projected out over several years (2? 4?) for program coherence.
22. Human resources management-faculty time is drawn from department programs to interdisciplinary program.
23. Support of program curriculum by department offerings.
24. "Chain of Command"
25. Effect of additional roles of RELS faculty member on RELS program.
26. Uncertainty of knowing whether other departments will be able to offer courses needed by the I.P.
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II. What are the top 1-3 General issues related to efficient management of interdisciplinary programs?
1. Inadequate accounting of costs and SSH.
2. Conflicts between staffing needs of I.P and department programs.
3. Lack of planning to ensure future availability of courses, resources.
4. Clearly Identified Budget.
5. Accountability of budget manager.
6. Accountability of program chair for expanded on behalf of program.
7. Scheduling of courses from different departments over semester within a within a semester.
8. Coordination and sharing of information among participating departments.
9. Quality Control.
10. No overall coordination.
11. No money.
12. Insufficient promotion of many Interdisciplinary Programs.
13. Role of authority of program chair in relation to department.
14. UHH interdisciplinary "coordinators' needed out of VCAA office with some funding and clout to assist
"smooth" operation of interdisciplinary programs.
III. What are some specific issues you would like this committee to address?
1. What is the faculty's recommendation re: the proliferation of programs that draw resources from
"traditional"? departmental? programs. How can faculty be drawn in to the discussion of adding programs which draw an existing faculty early in the process.
2. I.P's sometimes depend on faculty interest rather than on rational program planning. So I.Ps are sometimes built on less than totally rational planning.
3. If courses required for interdisciplinary programs are major restricted, can interdisciplinary program be included as within the major they meet prerequisites for the course?
4. Formation of an Interdisciplinary Studies Department.
5. Cross-Listing that really Works.
6. Cross-listing.
7. Banner?
8. Banner and policy on interdisciplinary programs.
9. Importance of programs to fulfillment of stated goal of being a comprehensive liberal arts institution.
10. Insufficient opportunities/incentives for teaching interdisciplinary courses.
11. Uncertainty of knowing whether courses required for an I.P will be taught by another department.
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