University Committee Year-End Communication
Unit Standards Committee
Committee Name
2013-2014
6 plus emails
Academic Year
Number of Meetings
Committee Members (available at http://www.umt.edu/committees/) 
Stephen Lodmell, DBS (Chair)
Kimberly James, Music
Lee Banville, Journalism
Katie Kane, English
Ona Renner-Fahey, MCLL
Nate McCrady, Physics and Astronomy
Tim Manuel, Accounting & Finance
Eric Hines, Political Science
Steve Schwarze, Communication Studies
Donna McCrea, Mansfield Library
Please describe your experience on the committee (What information would you share
with a faculty member who is considering service on this committee?)
As with previous years, “the Committee split into teams of two reviewers whose charges were to
review the submitted documents for clarity and consistency with campus (CBA) standards. The
reviewers made margin notes on the documents and completed the review checklist provided by
the Provost’s Office. The whole committee then met and reviewed comments and prepared
suggestions for the units.” (2010-2011 report)
The committee met in person six times, and occasionally via email. The first meeting was
designed to discuss the work of the committee and to assign standards to review pairs. As in the
past, more experienced committee members served as primary reviewers and first-year members
worked as secondary reviewers. The last two meetings in early February were used to discuss
the findings of the subcommittees and to finalize the recommendations being sent to the units.
Email was used to communicate and share findings between meetings. Associate Provost Nancy
Hinman and Jasmine Zink were copied on email messages.
The committee did not receive several units’ standards for review because of delays at the unit or
because the responsible Dean had requested further revision from the department before they
could be sent to the USC. The review of these units’ standards will (most likely) be carried out
next year (2014-2015).
Kimberly James has (tentatively) volunteered to serve as chair next year.
The most significant concern of the USC is widespread delays in receiving units’ standards ,
which makes it difficult to maintain the committee’s timeline. The Chair of this year’s
committee sent out a memo in May 2013 to departments whose standards were scheduled to be
reviewed during this cycle to try to mitigate delays, but some standards were still delayed.
Topics Addressed (agenda items)
Continued the ongoing review of new and updated unit standards for six of the seven units due to
submit documents this year. Standards were reviewed for clarity of content and consistency with
the CBA.
Actions Taken (resolutions, proposals, recommendations)
Unit Standards
Subcommittee
Assigned*
Action Taken
Art
NOT REVIEWED DUE
TO MISSED
DEADLINE
S Lodmell
D. McCrea
N/A
Communication
Studies
Chemistry and
Biochemistry
History
Philosophy
NOT REVIEWED DUE
TO MISSED
DEADLINE
NOT REVIEWED DUE
TO MISSED
DEADLINE
S. Schwarze
O. Renner-Fahey
Print Journalism
N. McCrady
T. Manuel
Psychology
NOT REVIEWED DUE
TO MISSED
DEADLINE
K. James
L. Banville
Public Health
Radio/TV
T. Manuel
N. McCrady
Social Work
E. Hines
D. McCrea
Sociology (deferred
from last year)
S. Schwarze
K. Kane

Reviewed, Suggestions
for revisions returned to
unit
N/A
NA
Signature page
N/A
3/15/14
N/A
NA
Reviewed, Suggestions
for revisions made to
unit
Reviewed, Suggestions
for revisions made to
unit
N/A
3/15/14
Reviewed, Suggestions
for revisions made to
unit
Reviewed, Suggestions
for revisions made to
unit
Reviewed, Suggestions
for revisions made to
unit
Reviewed, Suggestions
for revisions made to
unit
3/15/14
3/15/14
N/A
3/15/14
3/15/14
3/15/14
Only the primary and secondary reviewers are listed, but all documents were discussed
by the entire committee after the initial review and checklist preparation were completed.
Unresolved Issues 
No unresolved issues.