General Faculty Organization

Executive Council Meeting: 12/04/2006

Executive Council Meeting

December 4, 2006, 9:30 am, UW2 327

Present: Constantin Behler, Steve Collins, Bill Erdly, Kevin Laverty, Alan Leong, Carol Leppa, Nancy Place and Mike Stiber.

Approval of EC minutes of November 20, 2006

EC minutes of November 20, 2006 were approved unanimously, with one correction.

Reports of Officers

A. Chair - Steve Collins

Steve updated the EC on the GFO committees - all the committees have met except the Faculty Affairs Committee, which will meet in January. Student Relations Committee has met and Pete Nye is collecting data on the freshman class which will help model potential for academic performance. He is in the process of gathering scores on the writing portion of the SATs and the GPA of freshmen admitted to UWB. These should serve as statistically valuable predictors. The final step is to set up a process to measure the strength of UWB's curriculum.

Constantin Behler will serve as Chair of the Curriculum Committee and Alan Leong is serving as the Chair of the Strategic Planning and Budget Committee. No other GFO committee has been able to find a willing member to serve as chair. This conundrum launched a discussion on the importance of service in faculty governance and the value placed on service at UWB. Steve shared relevant discussion points made at the Student Relations meeting on November 29 concerning the reward structure at UWB for campus-level service. A suggestion was made to bring forward an EC motion to consider service on GFO committees be recognized and rewarded within the programs as important and critical work toward promotion and tenure. Service on GFO committees represents a serious time commitment and vital work on this campus. One incentive that the EC considered as a proposal would be to offer course releases for EC members who also chair the GFO committees. This issue will be studied by the EC and could be assigned to the Faculty Affairs Committee for further consideration. Other discussion points on this issue:

Is the culture at UWB sending a different message on service than was originally developed?
Are we moving more toward a research-rewarded culture and away from an incentive structure that values service?
Does the culture at the campus level support who we say we are and the mission of the campus?
Are we moving toward a research model and away from a liberal arts model?
Are ad hoc committees, with faculty appointments by the administration valued more than service on GFO committees?
The re-structure of the GFO committees should yield more effective use of faculty time and strengthen leadership on campus.
What has become the priority at UWB regarding research and service? We should include Provost Wise in this discussion.
The role of FCAS in the oversight of curriculum and the perception that the UW "brand" must be protected across all three campuses.

Steve also reviewed the UWB Bylaws revision that he is working on with Vice Chancellor Bellamy, Marcy Stein at UWT, Alan Wood, Norm Rose, and Gail Stygall, Chair of the UW Faculty Senate. He distributed the proposal to the EC that he would like to present at the next FCTCP meeting. It is broken down into two parts: first, an appeal to the senate in its current session to add language at two places in the UW Handbook that would differentiate a campus from a school/college; second, a set of discussion points we'd like a tri-campus committee to work on over the next year or so. The discussion points outline more fully the distinctions between "campuses" and schools/colleges as they pertain to campus administration and shared governance. Greatest support has been generated in two areas: autonomy of UWB and UWT over academic standards and admissions. Other issues need to be fleshed out, the role of Vice Chancellors in the UW Handbook, both internally and externally, distinguishing program directors from departmental chairs, authority over promotion and tenure and legislative powers concerning the general welfare of the university.

B. Vice-Chair - Mike Stiber - no report

Reports of Committees

A. Curriculum Committee

Constantin announced that he was the new Chair of the Curriculum Committee and that IAS will provide the committee with course level guidelines.

B. Faculty Affairs - no report

C. Instructional and Research Support Committee

Nancy updated the EC on the IRSC's first meeting. The role of the IRSC in providing input on teaching outcomes and assessment and research at UWB was discussed. The committee will gather information from Dan Jacoby, Chair of the Institutional Research Committee, Carolyn Brennan, Director of the Office of Research Support and Becky Rosenberg, Director of the Writing Center.

D. Strategic Planning and Budget

Alan reported that the Strategic Planning and Budget Committee met and he is chairing the committee for Autumn Quarter.

E. Student Relations

Carol reported that the Student Relations Committee has met once, no Chair has been appointed.

New Business

A. Motion to approve proposal for BA in Applied Computing - Bill Erdly

Bill presented the "Application to the Higher Education Coordinating Board for a New Degree, Bachelor of Arts in Applied Computing, University of Washington Bothell, December 1, 2006 - Version 2". He told the EC that the CSS Program faculty have unanimously approved the application and he provided some background information on the program. This degree should fill a regional community and industry need for students with specialized knowledge across a wide range of knowledge domains (e.g., business, biotechnology, health sciences, education, the arts and other social/public service sectors). The strength of the program is the interdisciplinary focus, linking to other programs. The BA in Applied Computing will provide a technical base for students in the other UWB programs. Another option for students in the program is to transition to a BS in Applied Computing with additional coursework, these applications will be decided on a case by case basis. Budget information contained in the summary of program costs and revenue met with the EC's approval and the overall integrative potential of this new degree has the support of the EC.

Motion:

A motion to approve the CSS "Application to the Higher Education Coordinating Board for a New Degree, Bachelor of Arts in Applied Computing, University of Washington Bothell" dated December 1, 2006, Version 2 and move the application forward to the HECB for final approval. The motion carried.

B. Lower Division Curriculum: an integrated view

With the first phase of building the lower division curriculum implemented through CUSP, the EC sees it necessary to review the role of faculty governance in the process.

EC discussion points:

Given that CUSP is not an academic program, does it have curricular authority for the lower division curriculum or does FOCUS assume that responsibility?
Are curriculum decisions going through FOCUS?
Do the faculty in CUSP relinquish their vote in their programs or are they voting twice on curriculum?
What is the status of faculty governance with respect to designing and overseeing curriculum in CUSP?
Does the CUSP Charter make CUSP only accountable to the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs?
The UW Faculty Handbook gives faculty authority over curriculum, at UWB the EC retains the authority.
Is UWB outsourcing science and math rather than developing the curriculum in these areas?
It is perceived that the curriculum design process is proceeding in an autonomous way from the campus level, there is no administrative structure driving the curriculum.
With the freshman and sophomore curriculum we must assure that we build the foundations to enable students to enter UWB's majors and concentrations.
We must design pathways to our majors.
The "sunset clause" in the CUSP Charter calls for a review at the end of the third year.

C. Long-term "outsourcing" of courses to Cascadia

The "Agreement between Cascadia Community College and University of Washington Bothell" has been established to provide greater selection in credit courses for students of both institutions by creating a mechanism for co-locating sections of approved courses. Under this agreement, students of both institutions can register for a course through their home campus.

EC discussion points:

Cross-listed courses can be taught by either faculty - UWB's credited courses could be taught by Cascadia faculty, will this be problematic?
As part of UWB's strategic plan, how do we develop internal resources to offer these courses at UWB?
Why is this agreement with only Cascadia Community College, what about other colleges or UW?
As a long-term policy, will this lead to the continued decline of tenured and/or tenured track faculty at the University; it could be a quality issue.

D. Information item: Formula for Program FTE targets - Tom Bellamy

This agenda item will be carried over to Winter Quarter 2007.

E. Q & A on the bylaws revision (this being after consultation with Program faculty)

Steve reviewed the work he has done involving the UW Bylaws revision and distributed a "Draft of Proposed Handbook Changes" to the EC. The revision of the GFO Bylaws has been postponed until a decision on the definition of a campus, differentiating it more clearly in the UW Handbook from a school or college is made. Steve has asked that the EC review the both the "Draft of Proposed Handbook Changes" and the document "Items for Future Consideration by a Committee Charged with Revising the UW Handbook to Clarify the Tri-Campus Relationship" which outlines a set of discussion points that the FTCTP could consider. He would like to submit these revisions to an EC vote and then carry forward to a GFO vote the end of Winter Quarter. The EC requested that Steve provide a cover document with the purpose of the revision, scope of the revision and rationale for the revision for the "Items for Future Consideration by a Committee Charged with Revising the UW Handbook to Clarify the Tri-Campus Relationship" as was provided for the "Draft of Proposed Handbook Changes"

F. Information item: Reminder, joint AC/EC retreat on Wednesday, December 13, 2006.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30 am.

Minutes submitted by Barbara Van Sant