FC Minutes October 17, 2014

Introduction

Meeting Date: October 17, 2014.

Meeting Location: EKH Building, Room 127.

In Attendance: Julie Ann Luiz Adrian, Mitch Anderson, Andre Bachmann, Roberta Barra, Jim Beets, Iota Cabral, Kimberly Furumo, Norbert Furumo, Mary Louise Haraguchi, Kekoa Harman, Jean Ippolito, Seri Luangphinith, Avis Masuda, Faith Mishina, Janet Ray, Mike Shintaku, Vladi Skorikov, Shih-Wu Sung.

Also In Attendance: Vice Chancellor Matt Platz, Vice Chancellor Marcia Sakai, Thom Curtis, Chelsea Kay-Wong.

Absent: Michael Bitter, Alice Davis, Jesse Goldman, Todd Shumway, Kathleen Stacey.

Call to Order: 3:00 P.M.

Approval of minutes from the last meeting:

  • Changes, corrections to September 19, 2014 minutes:
    • Corrected Student Success and Admissions Committee report to read “Faith reported on “membership, admission standards for TOEFL, and committee proposed several plans of action. Committee will prioritize issues to tackle at next meeting.”
    • Corrected Curriculum Liaison Report priority deadline should be May 1st.
    • FS chair update from CAS Faculty Senate should read “not vetted by UHPA”.
    • Corrected Library Report spelling of ‘lbrary’ to library.
  • Julie moved to approve minutes; Jean seconded the motion; vote: o 15 approve/0 not approve /0 abstain.

Topic: FC Chair Report

  1. Academic Policy Committee – Post Tenure Review a. A 2013 motion was passed by Faculty Congress asking the VC for Academic Affairs to implement the policy that has been developed and to follow policy on books. b. UH-Manoa recently enacted a Post Tenure Review (Five Year Review) process. c. The question is “Do we want to use a process similar to the one recently implemented at UH-Manoa or do we want to create our own process?” d. To Gather feedback from Faculty, an open faculty forum has been scheduled for November 6, 2014 from 3:30-4:30pm in UCB 127. e. Please let your faculty know. f. Kim Furumo to send out email to faculty.
  2. The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs charged a committee with the study of the UNIV 101 course. The committee is chaired by Emmeline de Pillis and the faculty congress representative is Norbert Furumo.

  3. The Chancellor has asked Faculty Congress to assemble a committee to study whether a Standardized Weekly Schedule (MW or TR courses with Fridays being saved for labs, specialized classes, and meetings) is appropriate for UH Hilo. Faculty Congress submitted a motion, September 6, 2013 to form a committee to study the possibility of a standardized weekly schedule. The Chancellor initially declined the motion because he interpreted the motion to state that the Faculty Congress requests that a standardized weekly schedule be implemented. The Faculty Congress Chair, Kim Furumo, will assemble a committee. Faith Mishina volunteered to be on the committee.

All Campus Faculty Senate Chairs Meeting (ACCFSC): At the last ACCFSC meeting), a Memorandum of Agreement Regarding the Roles of the UH Professional Assembly and the UH Faculty Senates was discussed. This MOA was developed as part of a settlement agreement between the University of Hawaii and UHPA. The Settlement Agreement and the MOA were distributed and Kim Furumo asked members to discuss this with their constituents and report any comments to her by the end of October.

Update from Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

  • Update on Engineering
    • Not brought to Council of Chief Academic Officers (CCAO) to date as it may not be appropriate timing.
  • Update on Women’s Studies
    • Program well received at CCAO; on track.
  • Neuroscience
    • Not well received; work yet to be done.
  • Heritage Management approved by Board.

WASC (Seri)

  • WASC Accreditation Visit Schedule provided: Please note Faculty Forum Thursday, October 23rd, in W-1, 2-2:45pm.
  • Assessment Committee & Accreditation report: Concerns with time management, time assessment not built in; internships usually have 3-way relationship (student/ faculty supervisor, internship site supervisor); inconsistent exemplars.

  • Comments:

    • Guidelines for applied learning are useful; no policy (Jim Beets)
    • Thom Curtis requested that applied learning policies not be established without faculty input; consideration for successful programs; more holistic approach needed.
    • Vice Chancellor Platz will accept self-nominations for advisory board members for ALEX.
    • Seri recommends guidelines not to be formally voted on today, based on faculty comments, discussion.

Committee Reports and Vote to Approve Committee Membership

  • Assessment Support (Seri Luangphinith, Mitch Anderson)
    • Mitch reported: QR assessment to be given to introductory math courses.
  • Academic Policy, James Beets: Move to approve membership; Mitch seconded; voted on and approved unanimously.
    • Faculty Development: Motion forthcoming for coordination with adhoc committee on faculty development; another motion also forthcoming on Academic Leadership Program.
  • Student Success and Admissions (Faith Mishina): TOEFL – lack of consistent tracking of proficiency levels—guidelines for teaching of foreign languages (language breakdown); no general classification for those students whose first language is not English; no data on students who fall into various categories who apply, are admitted, enrolled.
    • Faith will prepare motion for next meeting to address this issue.
  • Curriculum Review, Norbert Furumo: Met twice; approved 30+ courses; programs, subject certificate; meeting once more to approve ESL courses.
  • Program Review, Mitchell Anderson: Sub-committees set; external reviewers identified except Political Science.

Topic: Ad Hoc Committee Reports

  • Standard Weekly Schedule Analysis Committee, Committee to be formed.

Topic: Other Committee with Faculty Congress Representation

  • Prior Learning Assessment Committee, Faith Mishina: Brochure on Prior Learning; Committee will review 4 tracks.

Topic: Liaison Reports

  • Curriculum, Jean Ippolito (points discussed with review of Motions 1, 2, 3 below).
  • Professional Development, Distance Learning, Jan Ray: Course Evaluation Committee (system wide); 2nd brown bag new faculty; PD grants next round; Dossier prep support; updated DL webpage; updated Sabbatical Leave Reporting site.

Topic: FS Chair Updates

  • CAS, Jean Ippolito – All Senate met today; VCAA gave briefing; Dean Hirokawa; guidelines for changing Instructor positions to tenure track; written policy on teacherstudent relationships
  • CAFNRM, Mike Shintaku: Identified external reviewer for Program Review.
  • CoBE, Roberta Barra: Meet next week to discuss new academic qualification standard.
  • CoP, Andre Bachmann: $33M given for new building; Accreditation Council recently visited College.

Topic: Old Business

Jean Ippolito reported recommended changes to motion read at previous September 19, 2014 Congress meeting. Jean read/presented revised motion, which was revised to clarify ‘minor curriculum changes’; Norbert seconded motion.
Motion #1: To Fast Track Selected Minor Curriculum Changes
Whereas it can take as much as a year and a half or more for any curriculum changes to go through the curriculum review process.
Whereas there are instances where minor modifications to curriculum are necessary, such as catalog corrections, course title or description clarifications, minor numbering or alpha changes, and prerequisite substitutions within departments.
Whereas these changes are not substantive and do not require the entire review.
process, but rather a review by the Curriculum Coordinator and a representative from FC.
Therefore, it is recommended that a list of minor modifications to curriculum such as simple catalog corrections, course title or description clarifications, minor numbering or alpha changes, and prerequisite substitutions within departments (items that do not impact the structure of the existing course or program) be identified, documented, and submitted to the Campus-wide Curriculum Review Committee Chair of Faculty Congress to approve for fast tracking to the Registrar, rather than going through the entire curriculum review process.

  • Discussion: on sequence of reviewers and clarification of Curriculum Manager as APT; Jim Beets moved to defer motion be tabled for later discussion; Kim Furumo seconded; all approved.

Topic: New Business

1) Jean Ippolito presented the following motion; seconded by Shih-Wu. Motion #2: For hiring an APT to fill the full-time Curriculum Coordinator position requested by Faculty Congress in the Spring 2011 motion
Whereas the following motion to create a full-time Curriculum Coordinator position was passed unanimously by FC in Spring 2011: “The CCRC requests that the University create a full-time position for a Curriculum Coordinator who will be responsible for facilitating the development and review processes of curriculum.” (Vote was 16 for, 0 opposed, 2 abstain. Motion passed.)

Whereas the problems with the process of Curriculum Review still remain a major concern. Whereas these problems cannot be resolved by a single faculty member with one course release. Whereas curriculum decisions and their implementation need to be owned by Academic Affairs. Therefore, the administration is encouraged to fill the full-time Curriculum Coordinator position with an APT in a Curriculum Office within Academic Affairs, and that this is done as soon as possible.

  • Jim Beets recommended revision to motion; discussion resulted in re-wording last section: “Therefore, the Faculty Congress requests the administration fill the full-time Curriculum Coordinator position in a Curriculum Office within Academic Affairs as soon as possible.”
  • Jean Ippolito moved to approve revision; Shih-Wu seconded; Voted 15 approve /0 not approve/1 abstain.

2) Jean Ippolito read Motion #3; Norbert Furumo seconded:

Motion #3: For including the Registrar’s office in the early curriculum review process rather than at the CCRC level.
Whereas, curriculum proposals and modification requests go through several levels of review before being reviewed by the Campus-wide Curriculum Review Committee of Faculty Congress, and then are sent back for alpha, numbering and syntax changes when there is not enough time for the proposer to make revisions before the Registrar’s final deadline. Whereas, it would be more appropriate for the Registrar’s delegate to make requests for alpha, numbering and syntax revisions at an earlier stage in the curriculum review process. Whereas, members of the Campus-wide Curriculum Review Committee may change yearly so that institutional history concerning process and method can be lost from year to year. Therefore, it is recommended, that the Registrar’s Office be included in the early reviews by the Curriculum Manager for catalog entry, formatting, syntax, numbering errors and conflicts, prior to submission to the CCRC level, and that a curriculum representative from Academic Affairs be invited as an ex-officio member of the Faculty Congress Campus-wide Curriculum Review Committee to maintain the institutional memory of the curriculum process.

  • Discussion: on charter specifies Registrar or R’s delegate be part of Curriculum Review Process; having Registrar review earlier was experimented with this year; suggestion made to specify where/when in the review process Registrar be included “will be included in the initial review”; responsibilities for Curriculum Manager vs Curriculum Coordinator (APT) need to be clarified and defined; changes to Curriculum Review Flowchart would be needed.
  • Jim Beets moved we postpone voting on Motion; Mitch Anderson seconded; Vote: 13 approve /0 not approve/3 abstain.

4) Vice Chancellor Marcia Sakai reported on and distributed: i. FY 2014-15 Initial Budget Allocation, October 3, 2014 - memo to Chancellor Straney: We have a flat budget; VCs authorized to make unit allocation decisions based on System strategic directions, UH Hilo Strategic Plan and unit priorities; Resources: $68.7 M; Expenses: $68.4 M.
ii. Second document distributed on G&TFSF Revenues & Expenditures: Built financial reserve over previous years sufficient to sustain us 3 years; revenues projected to be less than expenditures; focus on enrollment; Roberta noted that UH Hilo spending in line for utilities with other institutions.

Topic: Vox populi

Report: None.

Action: None.

Topic: Adjournment

Report: None.

Action: Mike Shintaku moved to adjourn meeting; Julie Adrian seconded; all approved. Meeting adjourned at 5:04 P.M.