January 9, 2002, 12:30 pm, Room 260B
Present: Dan Jacoby, Carole Kubota, Ray Lou, Mary Abrums, Linda Watts, Kelvin Sung,
Absent: Kevin Laverty
Approval of Minutes
The EC reviewed minutes of 11/28/01. Motion was made, seconded and approved to accept the minutes.
Accreditation and the Faculty
Vice Chancellor Ray Lou brought the EC up to date on the accreditation of the three campuses of the University of Washington by the Commission on Colleges and Universities of the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. As part of the accreditation process, the University of Washington (which is coordinating the process centrally) is preparing a self-study to which UWB will contribute.
Vice Chancellor Lou has formed a work group at UWB composed of Sandeep Krishnamurthy, Becky Reid and himself to draft segments that will be included in the self-study. From the various programs, the work group will solicit documents (e.g. strategic plans, exemplary student work, scholarly work, syllabi, etc.) that exemplify best practices of teaching and learning across the campus to use to draft the UWB self-study portion. The work group plans to meet with every academic program to begin the process of information gathering. Information will also be gathered from student surveys, alumni surveys and grant proposals. It is anticipated that several iterations will be prepared as Program Directors and GFO representatives share the draft with faculty and provide faculty feedback to the work group. A final self-study draft for UWB is due to UW Seattle by May 30th.
There are 9 standards that the Northwest Association uses to measure whether an institution is effective in achieving its educational mission. UWB will focus on the second standard, Educational Program and Its Effectiveness. The GFO will provide information on two other standards that deal with faculty hiring, professional development, governance and administration.
Vice Chancellor Lou distributed the "Student Learning Objectives" survey from the UW Seattle Office of Educational Assessment. The survey will be used to provide a "structural analysis of the curriculum." E very faculty member on all campuses will be requested to complete a survey for each course taught. Professor Jacoby asked if this information (SLO) would be independent of faculty evaluation, since it is not confidential. Vice Chancellor Lou stated that it should be separated from the faculty evaluation and he will find out how the database is managed; who will have access to the information.
100/200 level courses
Professor Jacoby began the discussion on the 100/200 level courses with a question on whether UWB can offer these courses or should community colleges (Cascadia) offer these courses? Our concern is how do we address the academic deficiencies of students coming in when they cannot take 100/200 level courses on our campus. Vice Chancellor Lou stated that a Memo of Understanding between UWB and Cascadia will frame this discussion in a broader context. This topic will be on the agenda for further discussion at a future GFO meeting.
Brotman Letter
The Brotman Award letter is ready to be signed and sent. Professor Kubota and Professor Jacoby will sign the letter. A question arose if Vice Chancellor Ray Lou should sign the letter as an ex officio member, since the letter is coming from the Executive Council. Rather than sign the letter, Vice Chancellor Lou will compose a separate letter of support.
Report on Council of Faculty Affairs/UW Senate
Professor Jacoby reported on the Council on Faculty Affairs and the UW Senate regarding the status of lecturers. Their recommendations would preserve the status of lecturers as non-tenurable, though it would attempt to improve employment security. Lecturers could apply for a tenure line position if one is available. However, UWB may try to draft a proposal for a provision in the legislation that will give us our own option on lecturers. Professor Jacoby will check with AAUP on reasons for lecturer exemption from AAUP tenure guidelines.
Identifying EC role and work
It is still not entirely clear what the EC's role and work is especially given that the EC's full "committee title" is: Executive Council/Strategic Planning and Budget Committee. It is also not clear what processes need to be implemented to make EC work and communication to all faculty more efficient. Professor Sung suggested that the EC could be structured so that we move through one issue at a time and resolve it so that it is not carried over for a lengthy period of time.
As one small move toward clearer communication, the EC Chair will begin adding a statement to each agenda item when the agenda is emailed to all faculty. The statement would explain the item and indicate whether and what type of action needs to be taken on that item.
As another means of communication the Chair of the GFO will write a "State of GFO" message. This would provide information on issues impacting faculty and provide updates on the work of the various committees/councils.
Professor Jacoby stated that we need a clearly defined budget process that provides structure and guidelines for the new program formation process. A program planning process with budget parameters will keep us on track and we will have a stronger decision making tool.
There is a Strategic Positioning document that has generated productive conversation at the administrative level (Chancellor/Vice Chancellor/Cabinet). At our next GFO meeting (Jan 30th) we will discuss strategic positioning and the Vision Statement. It is hoped that we can vote on whether to accept the Vision Statement and Mission Statement at the next GFO meeting.
Minutes submitted by Barbara Van Sant
