Faculty Council Meeting Minutes
November 15, 2007
10:30 a.m.
Memorial Room
Members attending: John Champagne (Chair), Dean Lewis (Secretary), Jack Burke
(Chancellor), Bob Light (Senior Associate Dean), David Christiansen (Associate Dean), Jennifer
Trich Kremer (Academic Computing), Terry Blakney (Athletics), Ron McCarty (Curricular
Affairs), Phil Iobst (Library Committee), Charisse Nixon (Research), Brian Young (Scholarships
& Awards), Kerry King (Undergraduate Studies) for Mary Connerty.
Student Representatives: Ben Gilson
I.
II.
The Faculty Council (FC) held its meeting on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 10:30
a.m. in the Memorial Room. John Champagne called the meeting to order at 10:34 a.m.
Remarks
A. John Champagne, Chair
1.
The minutes from the October 25th meeting were approved.
2.
Alignment of P&T and Annual Review – Teaching evaluation: Discussion was
initiated on the differences in how improvements in teaching and course
development is counted between Schools as well as between each School’s
Promotion and Tenure evaluation and Annual Review process. Sometimes it is
counted as teaching, other times as research, and because comparison between
faculty is being conducted both within and between Schools, a standard scale
would be logical. Some Schools’ evaluations are almost entirely based on SRTE
scores, while others have a weighted scaling based on additional factors. Since
the P&T evaluation takes into consideration many other evaluations, these
differences are not as significant as in the annual review. In some Schools the
director will conduct the review with the help of Program Chairs, and in other
Schools it is done by a faculty committee, which may lead to some
inconsistencies due to changes in emphasis by a revolving membership. While
officially the School director sets the policy for the annual review process,
Behrend has a history of including faculty input into the process. The Faculty
Affairs Committee will be asked to research different annual review processes
and submit a best-practices report.
B. Jack Burke, Chancellor
1.
Syed Andaleeb recently reported results from a study on teaching evaluation
ratings. He compared results between male and female faculty and between
senior and junior faculty, as well ratings given by male and female students. His
results did not reveal any significant differences in scores in any of these groups.
2.
Dedication of the Clark Café in the REDC will be held on November 28th at
10:30a.m. The Clark family owns Snap-tite company and has given a half million
dollars to the school.
3.
A meeting on the proposed Community College between the heads of the local
colleges and the County Executive will soon take place. A consultant on
community colleges is being hired by the county.
4.
The Delaware County campus of Penn State has changed its name to Penn State
Brandywine. At least two campuses, York and Brandywine, may be moved up to
collegiate status in the near future.
C. David Christiansen, Associate Dean: Remarks deferred until later in the meeting.
D. Zach Irwin, Senate Representative: No report.
E. Ben Gilson, Student Representative:
III.
1.
The Council of Commonwealth Student Governments meeting was held the
previous week. A business model was proposed to determine which campuses
were able to support new residence halls.
2.
It was reported that on-campus housing costs will be increasing by 6.8% next
year. Ben had heard that an additional 4% increase was going to be applied to
Behrend students to help cover upgrades to Dobbins, but this was not confirmed.
Jack Burke said that he had not heard about this.
3.
SGA’s Governmental Affairs Committee is working on getting voting booths
installed on campus for the 2008 presidential election in November. They will be
encouraging voter registration in the student body.
4.
SGA’s Public Relations Committee is working on getting a virtual reality tour of
campus by a Lion Ambassador that will be posted on YouTube with a link to it
from the Behrend website. It was noted that the group should check with the
departments on the content of the tour due to overheard inaccuracies of Lion
Ambassadors on their tours. A question was raised on the presence of Behrend on
2nd Life. No official presence in known.
Old Business
A. Reports of Standing Committees: None
B. Reports of Other Committees: None
C. Unfinished Business:
1.
Reconstitution of the CDC as the EECEC: The first meeting will be held
November 27th at 3:00 p.m. with Dave Christiansen as chair. One item that will
need to be worked out is what areas will be handled by this committee verses
what the Faculty Affairs Committee will handle.
2.
Framework to Foster Diversity: A question was raised on the status of the
document. Dave Christiansen said that it is a strategic plan on meeting the
challenges that the campus faces that serves as a set of principles that can guide
individuals as they address these issues. Those that have been listed in the
document are responsible for enacting the strategies in the document.
3.
Recruiting Minority Students: Dave Christiansen reported on the data obtained
from Admissions on the recruitment of students from under-represented groups.
a) A minority admissions counselor, Felicia Williams, has taken a large role in
recruiting minority students in and outside the Erie area. A significant list of
recruiting events was given.
b) Other recruiting initiatives not conducted by Admissions were also listed
including scholarships and financial aid grants, events held by academic
schools – many by the School of Engineering, Continuing Education’s Math
Options program, and the PEPP program.
c) Statistics on the number of minority students (self-identified) admitted over
the past six years were given, showing the numbers and percentages for each
group and overall. Currently, 8.4% of admitted students are from minority
groups, with a steady increase in numbers each year: a 26% increase in the
past two years and a 49% increase over the past five years. Also, many multiethnic students decline to choose one of the listed minority groups and are not
included in these numbers. A question was raised on follow-up with current
students and how the campus is meeting their needs. Last year a climate
survey was taken of all minority students and a sampling of white students,
and it was found that some questions indicated that some of the minority
students feel they don’t fit in on campus, which will be addressed by EECEC.
A question was also raised on how the faculty and students can help. Dave
Christiansen said that any potential students that these groups may interact
with can be reported to Felicia Williams. Mary-Ellen Madigan has welcomed
any ideas that individual faculty members or School Directors may have. A
question was raised on the comparison of our campus to other campuses. Jack
Burke said that within the Penn State system, campuses differ mainly by the
minority population in their location, and Behrend’s numbers are on par with
other Erie-area colleges. Dave will follow-up on a question of where in
Behrend the growth is most evident, with H&SS most likely the main area
with potential in nursing and secondary education
4.
IV.
Common Hour Scheduling: John Champagne asked how we should address the
issue with scheduling meetings, especially across Schools. The four Schools have
different requirements on when their faculty are required to be on campus, and
some lab courses run for many hours as well as athletic practices in the late
afternoon, which makes setting a reasonable time difficult. Two years ago the
faculty voted down a proposal to create a common hour. An hour each day would
result in many late afternoon and evening classes, as has occurred at the Altoona
campus, which has two common hours a week with classes until 10:00 p.m.
Some possibilities include early mornings (8:00 a.m., earlier?) or late afternoon
on Fridays, which are unpopular. A special task force had handled the previous
study on this topic. The issue was tabled for now.
New Business
A. Reports of Standing Committees:
1.
Academic Computing: Jennifer Trich Kremer reported that they met on
November 5th.
a) Lab Usage: The Committee is interested in closing or relocating some of the
computer labs. They have statistics on lab availability from Ron Hoffman,
and they will be researching student perception of the topic before taking
action.
b) Membership: The Committee discussed and will vote on whether to keep the
Associate Dean as an ex-officio member, especially now that he serves as
chair of EECEC.
c) Access of Student IT Employees: Discussion was held and input is being
gathered on the access that the student IT employees have to faculty
computers. Rick Sawtell is being asked to speak at their next meeting on this.
d) Public Access to Wireless Network: Currently, Behrend does not have a
convenient method for creating temporary computer access accounts.
University Park has an outside service provider handle accounts for guests at
the campus. No outside provider is available in the Erie area that can handle
this. Verizon may provide this service in the future.
2.
Athletics: Terry Blakney reported that their November 6th meeting had to be
cancelled due to the power outage. It is rescheduled for November 27th. One
issue that will be discussed is academic excuses and requirements for trainers at
events for club sports.
3.
Curricular Affairs: Ron McCarty reported they met November 13th. Some
glitches have been reported in the new ANGEL review process. One issue is that
course proposals are currently done electronically, while Program changes are
still handled on paper (but will be switching to electronic), so they don’t come
through at the same time, which makes it difficult to approve one without the
other.
Two revisions to minors were approved at the last meeting: the technical sales
minor and the MIS minor. It was noted that the MIS minor was a result of the
need to replace CMPSC 203, which had been dropped due to the curricular
alignment process, and that no consultation had been conducted, which may be a
problem down the line. The Senate is handling some of the editorial changes due
to curricular alignment.
The Creative Writing major proposal has gone on-line for review this week. This
proposal has revealed a problem with the “first step” of the review process. No
formal faculty input on the local level is available prior to review by the entire
Penn State community. Dave Christiansen recommended that the discipline
groups be utilized for informal feedback prior to starting the ANGEL process.
The process that Psychology uses with their disciplinary group can be viewed as a
model. It was noted that the Behrend faculty review process runs in parallel with
the Curricular Affairs Committee review.
The Software Engineering major revisions have been approved and can be used as
a good example of the process.
The Mechanical Engineering major and Creative Writing major revisions are
currently under review.
4.
Faculty Affairs: Currently meeting
5.
Library Committee: Phil Iobst reported that the Committee decided that in the
future, faculty and student members of their Committee will be selected jointly by
the library director, School directors, and SGA. A proposal will be brought to
Faculty Council at the next meeting to dissolve the current Library Committee.
6.
Research: Charisse Nixon had nothing new to report at this time.
7.
Scholarships & Awards: Brian Young reported that they are gathering information
and contacting the individual Schools to determine their satisfaction with the
participation and prestige of their awards. Schools with endowed awards are
usually handled through the financial aid office. Participation tends to be low for
these awards. The Committee will be brainstorming ways to increase the
exposure and prestige of the Faculty award next semester. It was noted that the
call for awards was late due to a new person handling the notification process at
University Park.
8.
Student Life: No report
9.
Undergraduate Studies: Kerry King reported that they are working with Qi
Dunsworth on a teaching seminar where a panel of students will be asked
questions about their views on successful and unsuccessful learning experiences
and what did or did not work for the faculty. They are also working with Qi on
class observation programs. Faculty will have the opportunity to sit in on classes
conducted by faculty who have been recognized for their teaching skills. They
are awaiting the result of a grant application for this program. The Committee is
also continuing to work on the ANGEL training modules to help incoming
freshmen with preparing for the academic expectations, possibly for some
incoming students in January.
B. Other New Business
1.
V.
Greg Filbeck is continuing to work on revisions to the Constitution to clean up
some errors. A draft will be ready soon.
Adjournment
A. Meeting was adjourned at 11:55 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Dean Lewis
FC Secretary