MINUTES
Meeting of the Economics Department
Monday, October 5th, 2015, called to order at 3:33 PM
Present: Ahmad (Chair), Das, Ersal, Guo, Heinrich, Kashian, Lovett, Marks, Teferra,
Tao, Welsch, Winden, and Xue
1. Approval of September 14th, 2015 meeting minutes:
Winden moves, Welsch seconds. Motion passed unanimously.
2. Announcements:
a. Reminder for Scholarships: Deadline for scholarships is November 16th,
2015 (Monday). Ahmad requested that faculty announce the scholarship
opportunity in all upper level classes. The scholarship committee will
meet November 17th Tuesday and the recipients will be announced during
the December DoE meeting.
b. Assessment committee to review Econ 201 and Econ 245 questions in
Management 489: Admin Policy course.
3. Amanda Howell - Business Librarian:
Howell informed us about two new databases, Data Planet and Statista. She also
informed the department about the D2L course “Information Literacy for
Business Students – 01”, which could be embedded to courses faculty teach and
could be used to assess information literacy. Information literacy is one of the
LEAP essential outcomes to be assessed.
Kashian asked Howell about the library hours during weekends. Library is open
10 am – 6 pm during Saturdays. Kashian expressed interest in extended hours
during weekends.
4. Assessment (Kashian) + 6. MS Applied Economics (Welsch)
Welsch asked for more participation from faculty in recruitment of graduate
students and in supervising master’s theses during summer. Kashian emphasized
importance of building personal relationships with other universities and
colleagues at these other institutions to accelerate recruitment. Kashian asked
faculty to reach out to personal contacts. Further discussion ensued.
Ahmad proposed reflecting on the issues brought up during the week and asked
the volunteers to meet next week Monday at 3:30 pm to brainstorm recruitment
ideas.
5. Feedback to Research Committee (Das)
The input from faculty on metrics for impact of research was reviewed. Das
informed that this is a reference list to assess impact and it will be aggregated at
the college level. Ahmad suggested leaving the items within each category and
reporting the achievements under the aggregated categories. Welsch also
recommended not taking items out, and even possibly adding items to increase the
applicability of the categories to different departments. The department opposed
to elimination of any of the items and if at all, suggests adding more items under
each category.
7. New Business
Xue, on behalf of the CoBE International Committee, asked for feedback from the
department for issues that the department wants the committee to cover. Xue
suggested international recruitment for the master’s program could be one such
topic. Tao suggested recruiting through exchange students for the masters
program.
8. Old Business
N/A
9. Personnel Reviews
At 5:00 pm, on a motion by Welsch, seconded by Kashian, the meeting was
moved to CLOSED session to discuss personnel reviews, as permitted by
Wisconsin Statutes 19.81-19.98. The motion was approved unanimously by the
tenured faculty in the Department of Economics.
Respectfully submitted,
Eylem Ersal-Kiziler
Secretary Pro Tem