UH HILO FACULTY CONGRESS
MINUTES FOR MEETING OF AUGUST 31, 2007
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm, K-127
Members Present: Michael Bitter, Jason Cabral, Emmeline dePillis, Alohalani Houseman, Kerri
Inglis, Jim Juvik, Barbara Leonard, Chuck Malenfant, Bruce Matthews, Cam Muir, Mark Panek,
Jennifer Richardson, Sabry Shehata, Regina Titunik
UHHSA Member: Shawn James Leavy
Others Present: Philip Castille, Marcia Sakai, Kennith Simmons
Meeting called to order at 3:03 pm by Congress Chair Barbara Leonard
1. Approval of the minutes 5/11/07 meeting.
Approved by acclamation
2. Report from Congress Chair Barbara Leonard:
 The Board of Regents and President McLain will be coming to Hilo this fall. The
Chair recommends preparing for a question-and-answer session with McClain and
the faculty similar to the one held last October, and a luncheon with the Congress
and the BOR.
 The Congress will continue to work towards incorporating an administrative
review into the official Human Resources performance review process. At the
next meeting an ad-hoc committee will be appointed to review the administrative
review issue. Sabry Shehata volunteered to be a member of the ad-hoc committee.
3. Appointment of Committee Chairs and Committee Membership:
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Regina Titunik, nominated for Chair of General Education Committee, has
recommended the following membership: Regina Titunik, Social Science;
Norbert Furumo, Natural Science; Seri Luangphinith, Humanities; Bruce
Matthews, CAFNRM; Hiapo Perreira, CHL; Roberta Barra, COBE; Helen
Wong Smith.
Emmeline de Pillis, nominated for Chair of Admission Committee, has
recommended the following membership: Emmeline de Pillis, COBE;
Raina Ivanova, Natural Science; Gail Makuakane-Lundin, Student
Services; Cathy Zenz, Registrar; Jim Cromwell, Admissions; Brendan
Hennessey, IR; Nina Buchanan, Education.
Michael Bitter, nominated for Chair of Academic Policy Committee,
including the following members: Jerry Calton, COBE; Barbara Heintz,
Student Affairs.
Barbara Leonard, nominated for Chair of Budget Committee, including
the following members: Sabry Shehata, CAFNRM; and Norm Stahl,
Student Affairs.
All approved by acclamation.
Old Business:
2. The VC Academic Affairs office requested approval of proposed changes to the
document "Contract Renewal, Promotion, Tenure for Teaching Faculty," found on
the VCAA’s website. Propose referring this issue to the Academic Policy
Committee for clarification and recommendation.
Deferred until 9/21 Congress meeting.
3. Hawaii Community College has requested that History 153 Hawaii and the World
I and History 154 Hawaii and the World II be accepted in fulfillment of the
General Education World Cultures requirement at UH Hilo. More information is
provided on the Faculty Congress website at
http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/uhh/congress/documents/GeneralEducationHawai
iCCArticulation.pdf. Propose referring to General Education Committee.
Referred to the General Education Committee.
New Business:
4. Welcomed to Dr. Phil Castille, new Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
5. Discussed Goals for Faculty Congress
http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/uhh/congress/documents/Fall2007Agenda.doc
proposed by Faculty Congress Executive Committee.
 Budget Committee: will work to involve the faculty more in both the
biennium and supplemental budget processes.
 Admission Committee: will work to better define our retention “problem”
and improve the fit for incoming students; will address the concern of
UHH’s high number of non-resident students; will make evidence based
decisions regarding decisions about admissions policy.
 General Education Committee: will focus on WASC recommendations for
improving Gen Ed at UHH, including working to come up with
appropriate assessment tools to measure outcomes in the range of UHH
Gen Ed courses.
 Academic Policy Committee: will address the problem of UHH faculty
satisfaction by reviewing tenure and promotion procedures, faculty pay
issues, faculty governance at the system level, and the issues of standards
and rigor in UHH courses.
6. Brendan Hennessey discussed student teaching evaluations.
Motion: Regina Titunik moved to accept the new Student Feedback Form in
place of the old Perceived Teaching Effectiveness form for evaluating all UHH
instructors and courses, including summer courses. The results of the Student
Feedback Form will include comparative data, and a standard deviation measure.
Guidelines will be provided to DPCs and TPRCs via the Academic Policy
Committee on how to interpret such statistics.
Jenifer Richardson seconded the motion.
Motion passed unanimously.
7. A CAS Senate Motion on Funding Salary Adjustments was handed out. The
motion will be discussed, and the Congress will decide whether or not to adopt
the motion for all UHH faculty at the 9/21/07 Congress meeting.
8. A Chair for the Assessment Committee will be nominated at the 9/21/07 Congress
meeting.
5:08. Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted September 5th by Mark Panek, 2007-08 UHH Faculty
Congress Secretary.