GPSEPC Meeting Minutes
November 13 2014 FAH 240

Review of Minutes
o We approved the minutes with minor changes.

Old Business
o Update: The Academic Senate approved discontinuance of the
Reading/Language Arts Program in KSOE
o Sarah read the proposed wording for the GPSEPC function of approving
courses to be in the Faculty Handbook
o The Academic Senate approved the LEAP waiver as recommended by the
GPSEPC. The checks that we proposed should be developed by LEAP faculty
rather than by the GPSEPC.

New Business
Bill Sullivan from Campus facilities attended our meeting to hear concerns
about graduate class facilities: Some of the concerns that we shared with Bill
were that on weekends the classrooms are often unclean; the trashcans are
often overflowing; or chairs are missing. In other words, the rooms are in
disarray. Bill responded by indicating that this issue is connected to a larger
facilities issue and need for additional facilities staff. Having the full
trashcans is especially troublesome. Bill will check to see if the trashcans
are emptied each evening during the weekend. We also suggested that we
have larger trashcans in the classrooms to accommodate eating in the
classrooms.
Additionally at times, we have special events such as celebrations and
baseball games when students use, for example, the FAH bathroom facilities.
This accounts for more trash and inadequate supplies in the bathrooms.
With that said, Bill said they should be on top of when there are special
events. We agreed that bathrooms are very important in terms of having
them well functioning, well stocked, and cleaned. If we notice problems,
however, we should take the initiative to contact Facilities Services.
Related to the room being disoriented with chairs and desks moved around,
there is little that Bill’s department can do. We do not have staff to move the
tables and chairs around at the start of each day. Bill did mention that he
does not assign graduate classes to tablet armed chairs as a rule – thus
allowing more space for our graduate students. Again we noted that
graduate students generally need more class space per student than the
undergraduate students.
There are other challenges with having rooms that accommodate graduate
students such as having electrical outlets for laptops. Garaventa is the only
building that can accommodate a large number of computers. The climate
control in the rooms is often a challenge especially those rooms where the
windows cannot be opened. If we have this problem, we should contact
Public Safety who will contact the facilities person on call to come and adjust
the thermostat. A suggestion was given to have directions for what to do in
case of an emergency or climate problems in each room. For example,
contact information could be listed for different types of challenges
encountered.
Bill talked about some of his challenges in accommodating the needs of all
classes. Try as he does, there will continue to be some students and
instructors who will not be satisfied with the room assignment. However, he
is aware of our concerns and tries to accommodate our graduate students.
Bill pointed out that we have a new scheduling system, and workshops to
help us understand how to use this new software.
o
Chris Porcello came to discuss the Faculty Evaluation process. See the
following handouts that he briefly discussed: Online Course Evaluation
Implementation Activities, Proposal to Review and Revise Course Evaluation
Questionnaire Content, Strategies to Increase Student Response. OIR
Guidelines for Administering the Course Evaluation System. Chris will send
us the electronic copies of these handouts, and we should share the
information with our colleagues.
Presently there is no formal evaluation policy. Chris developed a policy that
he has shown to the Provost and others, but the Faculty Senate has not
discussed and approved it. This policy, however, is de facto being carried
out. We agreed that the GPSEPC will request that the OIR Guidelines for
Administering the Course Evaluation system be put on the Faculty Senate’s
discussion agenda for possible adoption.
Given that we ran out of time, we will ask Chris to return for our February
meeting to further discuss evaluation issues. At that meeting, it would be
helpful to know what the online evaluation possibilities are and for us to
share our concerns about the existing evaluation system. Prior to that
meeting, we will read the materials that Chris distributed and discuss our
questions and concerns at our next GPSEPC meeting. The concerns and
questions could be sent to Chris prior to our meeting with him so we could
make best use of his time.
o
Masters in Business Analytics: Yung Jae Lee shared with us the latest
revision of the proposal, addressing concerns that we identified in an earlier
meeting. We will put the latest version of the proposal that he gave us on
the GPSEPC website. Each of us will review the latest proposal in light of our
feedback and have an e-mail conversation about the merits of the proposal.