Executive Council Meeting
February 14, 2008, 3:00 pm, UW2 327
Present: Constantin Behler, Steve Collins, Bill Erdly, Dan Jaffe, Nancy Place, Gowri Shankar, Suzanne Sikma and Mike Stiber
Guests: Susan Jeffords, Ann Cox, Hung Dang and Jill Orcutt
Adoption of Agenda
The agenda was adopted as amended.
Reports of Officers
A. Chair - Mike
Mike reported on space allocation issues discussed at Academic Council. A policy was drafted on space allocation by the AC; this is an ongoing issue at UWB with academic implications. The possibility of a joint appointment for UWB faculty with the College of the Environment at UWS was discussed at a meeting with the Provost that Mike attended. Mike updated the EC on the North Campus legislation - bills in the House did not advance, one Senate bill is still on the floor. The STEM Task Force has produced a list of long and short range degree program proposals:
Short-term degrees
Core competencies will include Physical/Quantitative Science, Math and Chemistry. A report will be produced the end of Winter Quarter, with recommendations for funding for start-up and possible re-structuring of the STEM programs.
B. Vice-Chair - Dan
Executive Session was called to discuss one personnel matter. Following this, the Executive session was ended and the meeting re-opened to interested parties.
Dan updated the EC on the current status of the UWB budget. Budget proposals are being submitted, STEM planning has a place-holder in the budget. Funds are being allocated for the pre-planning stage of a technology oriented UW3 building (50,000 - 70,000 sq ft).
Approval of EC minutes of January 10 and 24, 2008.
The EC minutes of January 10 and 24, 2008 were approved as amended.
Reports from programs
A. CSS
Bill - a discussion of the holistic review for admissions at UWB was held.
B. IAS
Constantin - IAS has finished their faculty searches, one new hire for MAPS has been made and 2 new faculty hires in the MACS program have been made.
C. Nursing
Suzanne - Nursing has received earmarked funding to address nursing faculty shortages at community colleges. The program thanks Senator Maria Cantwell and Representative Jay Insley for promoting this bill.
D. Business
Gowri - Business has hired 4 new faculty members and will expand course offerings in the MBA program to Bellevue and Issaquah locations.
E. Education
Nancy - A committee has been established to conduct a search for a new director of the Education Program.
Reports of Committees
A. Campus Council on Academic Standards and Curriculum
Cinnamon - The CCASC has set up a Blackboard website primarily to review course applications, with other informational material included. This will hopefully streamline the review process and give program advisors direct input on course proposals. Cinnamon met with the UW Faculty Council on Academic Standards and will work with the Faculty Council on Tri-Campus Policy on a number of issues, among those are cross campus enrollment and tri-campus curriculum review.
B. Campus Council on Promotion, Tenure and Faculty Affairs
Constantin - no report.
C. Instructional and Research Support Committee
Nancy - agenda item C. under New Business.
Old business
A. John I. Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal - revised charter is available. EC recommendation to Chancellor needed.
The Goodlad Institute, proposed by Tom Bellamy is now ready for formal review by the EC. The EC read the memo from Tom and discussed the proposal.
EC discussion
Conclusion
The EC would like to have a clear policy that lays out the criteria to evaluate proposals for centers and institutes. EC members will get input from their programs, a recommendation should be made after program consultation.
B. Pre-major admissions
The discussion on pre-major admissions began with the critical issue of admission standards set by the HECB and UWB. After exchange between the EC, Jill Orcutt and Hung Dang a resolution was put forward (see Appendix A).
Motion
The EC approved the Pre-majors Resolution (Appendix A). Dan called the motion, Gowri seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
B. Review/comment on first planning retreat. (Susan Jeffords, VCAA joined the meeting for the remaining discussion)
Ann updated the EC on the outcomes of the first planning retreat. The first workshop identified key academic priorities and prioritized the outcomes of those recommendations. With these priorities in mind, how do we distinguish attributes for UWB, how do we set criteria to maintain our identity? Highest interest was shown in areas of STEM, health science, sustainability and justice. The next steps will be to integrate the data from the workshops, the campus retreat and surveys into one dataset and circulate the data campus-wide for feedback and input.
New Business
A. Supporting faculty efforts to develop several high demand majors.
Susan brought an issue to the EC involving faculty efforts to develop high demand majors. She has met with some UWB tenured faculty who brought forward ideas for majors that are not in any current program planning. These high demand majors are in areas of communications, social science, political science and economics. Should we consider developing majors intentionally here that may not appear in existing programs? How can groups of faculty make proposals that will support the needs of the campus and increase enrollment. How do we give faculty the space to develop these proposals?
EC discussion
No EC recommendation at this time.
B. FOCUS elections, revisions to charter, seat on EC and 3rd year review.
Agenda item will be carried over to the next EC meeting.
C. IRSC recommendation on seminar series
Agenda item will be carried over to the next EC meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 5:15 pm
Next EC meeting will be Thursday, February 28, 2008.
Minutes submitted by Barbara Van Sant
Appendix A
GFO Executive Council Pre-majors Resolution
The EC delegates to the UWB Director of Admissions the authority to admit transfer applicants who have earned between 1 and 79 credits, under the "General University Admission for Transfer Students". The Director of Admissions will ensure that these general admissions applicants are admitted based on
standards and the Holistic Review established by the EC. Students admitted in the general admission category can take classes at UWB and then apply for acceptance into the major of their choice when all appropriate coursework is completed. The faculty in all UWB programs will continue to determine the requirements for admission into their programs. General admission students will be informed of the process of acceptance into programs.
