5 down, 11 to go
Not that I'm counting, but only 11 more weeks of the semester to go, can you believe it! Time flies. A couple of reminders and updates:
Jim Applegate visit this week: You've all received a schedule of events that you've signed up for to meet with Jim this week.The schedule I gave you was for folks who already signed up. If you didn't sign up earlier, you can show up at any open faculty time with Jim. I've added a happy hour with Jim and selected alums Wednesday night at 5:30 at JBucks (at the mall). You are welcome to come by for a drink, if you' d like. He's having dinner with some alums at 6:30. Come on by.
Advising Update: In working with a transfer student, Janis came across a new policy with respect to community college degrees. From this point on, the university is accepting all completed Associate of Arts degrees from all states. Completed AA degrees take care of all requirements except for Senate Bill 4 (Missouri constitution requirement) and GEP 397. In meeting with transfer students, please be aware that as long as they complete their community college degree, they will be done with gen ed, except for Senate Bill 4 (unless taken in MO) and GEP 397 (everyone). Thanks Janis.
Travel Requests: I said this during my last blog, but I really hope this week to get you your travel requests back this week!
University Resources at your fingertips: Please check out these awesome resources for development offered by the university:
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Sabbatical leave applications are due to me by November 1 and then to the Dean by November 5. Please do let me know before you apply that you intend to do so
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Faculty development international seminars for Summer 2008: go to
www.ciee.org/IFDS.aspx. Briefly, these are short-term, concentrated, educational experiences designed to explore fascinations, challenge preconceptions, and open eyes to a wide variety of issues shaping the world today. Expect one or two intensive weeks of: lectures given by local faculty or experts from prestigious public and private institutions; lively discussions with overseas academics and colleagues; and coordinated site visits to academic, economic, educational, environmental, historic, political, religious, and social institutions.
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Faculty-Led International Programs Workshop/Luncheon: Thursday, Oct 4, 11:30-1:30pm. Thinking about developing a short term, faculty led international program? This is an informational workshop on how to develop such a program. RSVP to 836-6368
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Did you know there is a
Virtual Resource Center for just about any faculty development opportunity of campus? Yes, there is! Go to
www.adc.missouristate.edu/virtual1.htm and search to your heart's content.
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Thinking about writing for an external grant? Staff from the
Grants Resource Center (part of a consortium of unviersities) will be on campus November 26 and 27 to conduct a series of workshops on seeking external funding. Look for more information to come on this and check out the Office of Sponsored Research website at:
http://www.srp.missouristate.edu/
That's it for now. More to come later, I'm sure.
Faculty Meeting Follow-Up
Thanks for a productive faculty meeting yesterday and for staying a bit longer than I intended. You are troopers ☺. The next faculty meeting is Wednesday, October 17 at 3:00, Craig 337.
Please keep Sandra House and her family in your thoughts as her mother passed this week. Reminder, there is a funeral service at GreenLawn East this Friday at 11:30am. Flowers have been sent from the department.
*One thought about COM Week--if you can, offer some participation points or extra credit to students who attend a master classes as long as they write up a short reflection on their experience.
The first two items are topics I didn’t get to review yesterday, however, they ARE important to cover here. Please review and let me know if you have questions. Meeting minutes follow after. Happy reading.
1) Advising Corner. In the future, I don’t want to push this topic off, so I will be putting it at the start of all future faculty meetings. Here is a short run down of what I had planned to go over yesterday.
TIP 1: Filing the admission to the major paperwork. About two years ago, we added another step to the process of being admitted. On the backside of the green application form is the degree plan. This plan is a significant advising tool for us AND our students. Filled out properly it becomes the contract we have with students that those courses are the only remaining requirements to graduation. As advisors it’s YOUR job to assist the student in filling it out. Please do not tell your advisees to fill it out before turning in the paperwork. I recommend you have your student start a draft of the plan and then bring it with them at the advising meeting. I recommend you fill it out in pencil so that you can move things around if necessary as you are reviewing it. Please pay attention to the following guidelines:
• Include ALL remaining courses (major, minor, gen ed, and electives) semester by semester in the order they plan to take them.
• *Pay attention to course sequencing based on pre-requisites. Do not allow a PR student to have COM 439 and 449 in the same semester. Likewise check minor course sequencing, for instance, the advertising and promotion minor is heavily sequenced fall and spring semesters.
• *Add up all upper division coursework to be sure there are a total of 40 hours completed by graduation semester.
• Add up each semester hours and be sure it adds to 125.
I receive the degree plans and review each one very closely. If courses are missing or clearly you did not review it, I will return it to the student as not approved and you must review it again with the student. That means another meeting. Please don’t make the students return a second or third time…that’s just wrong. Students will receive a copy for their records after it is approved.
TIP 2: Be in touch with your students via email checks. The F/ARC allows you to email all advisees as once. Create a personal email and send it out to everyone indicating when your office hours are, deadline for paperwork to be filed, and registration dates. You already know the spring schedule for COM classes, share that information with your students so they can begin to plan now for spring classes. For graduating seniors, they need to declare their intent to graduate through the Registrar’s office and/or website.
2) A few unannounced announcements:
o Janis King has agreed to chair an ad hoc to recommend specific changes to the COM 499 requirement. I will provide a charge to them at their first meeting and we will get a report from them by the end of the semester. Liz Dudash and Deb Craig will serve on that committee also.
o Project Hallway is underway again. Jerri Lynn’s class is working on updating more bulletin boards in Craig Hall.
o Colloquium is underway. Please put the first and third Mondays on your calendar at noon. Susan started us off nicely this past Monday. Remember, desserts and drinks are now provided at each colloq, so bring lunches and enjoy. Look for a schedule of topics from Jerri Lynn soon.
o I’m working on travel requests. As in the past, you should know that generally everyone would have funding for at least one conference at $800. You may do this in fall or spring. If you have not submitted your request, please do so as I need to budget for it. I will provide notification to everyone next week of their amounts. I hope you have already made plans for NCA!
3) As a follow-up to the merit discussion, a next step in this process is to review personnel guidelines to be sure that T&P decisions are roughly in line with merit activities. So I need to charge the personnel committee with making recommended changes in light of the merit plan. The deadline for this will likely be by the end of the semester.
A follow up item to curriculum is that we are waiting on word from the Theater and Dance faculty on the proposed changes the BSed in Speech and Theater program we approved at the August meeting. If changes are necessary to their option and not ours, I think, we will move those forward to college council’s October deadline.
Meeting reminder: Graduate Faculty Meeting, Wednesday, September 19 at noon.
At that meeting, faculty will review proposals for revisions to the graduate certificate in conflict (and review the undergrad one?) and discuss the proposed conflict option in the MSAS.
Meeting Minutes
4) We discussed revisions to the merit plan. Based on that discussion, we agreed to the following changes:
• Limiting items within a category to three occurrences (e.g., observed faculty members teaching). The rationale was to steer faculty towards a variety of activities within a category.
• Being able to add an item not on the list, with rationale for why it should count and how many points you believe it should count for. Additionally, you can make a case for additional points based on amount and quality of workload.
• Increasing point values by moving an activity between categories of teaching, research, and service. However, one may not move points within a category up to a 4 or down to a 3, for example. This is another attempt to encourage faculty to diversify activities within categories. To be sure, you can move activities across, not within a category.
All the revisions were unanimously approved by the faculty. I will work with John to develop a cover page of these changes and submit them to the Dean before the October 1 deadline. We also agreed to use this system again this year and to reassess next year to determine if changes are necessary. I added the additional language regarding points earned means a person is minimally eligible for a rating. A final question was raised about “opting out” of the merit evaluation and the potential repercussions in future years if cuts are necessary in a “financial exigency.” On this, I will follow up with Dean Adams and the compensation rep from our college.
NOTE: It is the firm belief of this department that the merit process should be a positive one, where excellent work is rewarded and supported. We are committed to ensuring that the merit process allows us to maintain the good collegiality that we’ve worked so hard to establish over the years.
5) We also had one curricular item to discuss: the Accelerated MA in COM. Isabelle forwarded this item after it was reviewed by the graduate faculty. After some discussion about issues of how this would affect presidential scholar, that MJF and Drury should have a preview of the program, and to review the graduate assistantship selection process, we voted. The new program was unanimously approved by the faculty. Thanks to Isabelle for her hard work on this. Randy and Isabelle should work to get that paperwork ready for college council by the Sept 26 deadline for agenda items.
6) Dean Carey Adams joined us for a time in order for us to ask him questions about the state of the college. In his words, “it is good,” and this is especially true with respect to the college budget. As a result of strong carry forward amounts in the budget from last year, the college now has more responsibility in supporting faculty (travel, summer stipends, a research coordinator, etc.) He also discussed FREUP plans noting that COM submitted a proposal to ensure that all basic course staff move to Craig Hall during the Siceluff renovation next year. More on this in a future faculty meeting. Finally, he discussed some good things we do as a department and for us to continue those efforts including distance ed programs and effective teaching and advisement practices. He also encouraged us to consider interdisciplinary work within the college departments along the lines of global studies, languages, and culture. This would be a great discussion at a future faculty meeting.
7) The remaining items on the agenda included:
• Information on Jim Applegate’s program review site visit. I had everyone sign up for visits with him. I will post those assignments in the next week. Thanks to everyone for being so willing to work with this busy schedule.
• COM Week 2007 is next week. Flyers and registration forms are in your mailbox now to distribute THIS WEEK to your classes. For 115 classes, you may announce it and encourage potential com majors to attend at least one event. DON’T FORGET TO SIGN UP YOURSELF FOR THE LUNCHEON next week. T-Shirts are in and they are awesome.
• I updated you on the recruitment efforts for the two assistant prof positions. Remember, Friday at NCA, 5-7 in the Palmer House. This is an alumni event and recruiting opportunity! Invitations will be provided in advance.
• I shortened area reports. But, Char mentioned victim-offender mediation training. Flyers are in the main office. Gloria reported on the changes to our personnel procedures starting in January 2008. Please contact Gloria with questions, she’s got it down!
Whew there was a lot there.
HeadsUp Week of September 10, 2007
I hope your semester has been progressing nicely. This week’s HeadsUp is dedicated to preparing you for a series of events for this month of September. Please get your planners/calendars out to put these items on your schedule! It's going to be busy--hold onto your hats girls and boys, this is going to be fun.
Faculty Meeting, Wednesday, September 12, 3:00 in Craig 337.
Topics on the agenda include:
- Curricular items for consideration (items will be forwarded to you)
- Discussion:
- Merit Plan revisions
- Site Visit by Jim Applegate
- A proposed Speech Lab
- Searches
- Area Reports
- Advising Corner
- Visit from Dean Carey Adams
COM Week, September 17-21, various locations
Register for your spot at the student-alumni networking luncheon, Friday, September 21 from 11-1 in the PSU ballroom (see Karen). The cost is $10 and it includes a COM Week shirt. We’ve got twelve alum who have RSVP’d to be there and interact with students. In addition to doing our regular introductions, we’re going to have students do a networking activity after lunch to interact more closely with the alums.
Look for flyers this week on bulletin boards and in your mailboxes about the week’s schedule of events. Don’t forgot to announce these events in every class you teach this semester. Students pay attention to department events to the extent that YOU TELL them about it in class. Master classes will again be offered Monday-Thursday from 3:30-4:45 each day
New Student Welcome, Friday, September 21, Craig Patio at 3:00.
Please invite all of your student to attend this welcome event, with free ice cream snacks. This event is for YOU too. This is an opportunity for faculty to welcome all students, as well as our newest students.
Jim Applegate site visit, September 25-27.
This will be a discussion topic at the faculty meeting, but I wanted to remind you to make time in your schedule those days to meet with Jim. We’re going to have a few open times for faculty to meet with Jim. You’ll get a sign up sheet Wednesday at the faculty meeting. I want you sign up for a specific time so you can plan on it, rather than doing it as a walk-in.
This visit is very important for everyone to participate in, so be planning your time that week to visit with Jim, attend a social event with him, and the like. I want everyone to have some face time with Jim while he’s here. I am also inviting undergraduate and graduate students to meet with him.
September is amazingly full of events and activities! Hopefully we’ll get a respite in October? See you Wednesday at 3:00 for the faculty meeting.
Kelly