Do you recognize this place?
Perhaps not. This is a picture from a few weeks back of one of the rooms in the house that Jay and I are remodeling...Yikes huh? Let me assure you, OUR DEPARTMENTAL HOUSE IS NOT IN THIS DISARRAY. In fact, with respect to our operational budget we are doing very well, so take a deep breath. However, as with any house, there are places to tidy up.
We have a scheduled faculty meeting this Wednesday at 3:00 in Craig 337. Please make every effort to attend—it is our last faculty meeting before break. And, with the news of budget cuts recently from Dr. Nietzel as well as discussions on UDIG and in the halls, we have a number of items to discuss. In particular I will be looking to you for feedback on a number of staffing, course planning, and budget issues. In advance of the faculty meeting, I am meeting with the administrative team to review these items to get some initial ideas floated. Once we’ve narrowed down some of the issues, I’ll email you with ideas to review before the meeting on Wednesday. At this time the faculty meeting agenda will revolve around adjustments to the spring 2009 schedule, planning for fall 2009 course offerings, and some possible curricular items. I’ll also share with you some updates on academic policy changes that are coming down the pike relative to Banner implementation. We also have a number of accomplishments of our faculty and former students to celebrate. My plan is that our meeting will be frank and realistic relative to budget planning and that it includes some enjoyable items too. The holidays are coming, you know.
Events of Note This Week
1) Departmental Colloquium: Noon-1pm, Craig 337. Graduate Student Seminar Paper Presentations.
2)Tuesday, December 02, 2008, 7:00 PM, Glass Hall 101. Leadership Speaker Series will present a lecture by Shawn Askinosie.
3) Wednesday, December 03, 2008, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, PSU 313. Provost Research Forum
Art Spisak, Modern and Classical Languages, speaking on Leadership
Chad Stearman, Chemistry, speaking on Chemistry applications.
4) Thursday, December 4, 11am-1pm, COAL Holiday Open House, Craig Hall Lobby
5) Thursday, December 04, 2008, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, PSU 313. Advisor Forum: "Including the Public Affairs Mission in Advising Sessions." Madeleine Kernen, Dave Lutz and Rhonda Ridinger will serve as panelists on the topic.
6) Friday, December 05, 2008, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM, PSU 313. Banner Informational Session:
Topics will include the registration and advisement time line, the new repeat policy, admission to degree program changes, the overload policy and the last date to drop or withdraw.
7) Friday, December 05, 2008, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, PSU 313. Academic Advisor Forum: Gloria Galanes and Susan Waters will meet with interested academic advisors to present information on generational issues.
8) Friday, December 5th from 5:30-7:00 at PCOB. The CDR is hosting an open house for Volunteers and COM faculty. This open house also coincides with first friday artwalk.
Draft Faculty Meeting Agenda
Budget Update
Scheduling and Course Offerings
Spring 2009 schedule: Enrollments so far
Course caps
Fall 2009 schedule
Summer 2009 (who wants to teach?)
Curricular items
Brief review of Banner policy changes
Tentative: Changing permissions in online courses
Others to be added?
Kelly
Announcements and Upcoming Events
1) Faculty Senate agenda to include our new minor and major option in Ethical Leadership
Plan to attend this session to support the new programs! Thursday, November 13 at 3:30 in PSU 313.
2) Compensation and the Evaluation of Teaching
On Friday, November 14, at 1:30 p.m. in Meyer Library 101, there will be a meeting targeting Personnel Committee Chairs, administrators and interested faculty on features of the Compensation System which have been developed in response to assessment information collected by the Senate and other discussions that occurred last spring. Members of the Compensation committee will be available to explain aspects of the Best Practices document which is now on the Provost’s website.
The second half of the meeting will focus on emerging practices in the evaluation of teaching. Initially, the focus will be on formative approaches used to improve teaching. Implications for how merit and Tenure & Promotion plans might include various approaches for the evaluation of teaching in the future will be explored.
3) Craig Hall sisal to be removed summer 2009! Yes indeed, the reports are due. All of the 3rd floor classrooms, which still have sisal, will have it removed. Good news/bad news. Good news that we’ll have clean walls beginning fall 2009 semester. Bad news this will take the whole summer, so we will not be offering classes in Craig hall next summer. So, if you plan to teach next summer, plan on your class being somewhere in the vicinity.
4) NFA tournament in April confirmed! Again the dates are April 16-20, 2009. Thursday-Sunday sessions will occur on MSU campus and Monday’s final rounds will occur on Drury’s campus. I’ll invite Curt Gilstrap to a future faculty meeting to discuss the tournament and how students and faculty may participate.
5) New color printer for the COM lab has arrived! Thanks to the Provost's major equipment budget, we were approved for this and it was delivered on Monday. The printer is HUGE and so we need to purchase an appropriate desk/cabinet and reconfigure the lab to accommodate it. I will be working with Brooks and Karen (and the PR faculty) to get something ordered soon. I anticipate we could have the printer up and running for classroom use (initially) by Thanksgiving.
6) Craig Hall space utilization discussions beginning to take shape. When MCL moves to Siceluff Hall next August, faculty offices and lab space they occupy now will be available for redistribution to COM, Theatre and Dance, and MJF. I am in preliminary discussions with those heads right now. Next I will be talking with our directors of administrative programs affected by this. I don't want to give any details until we get this finalized and approved by the dean. I can say this though, with the number of faculty spaces in MCL being freed up, all three departments should have space for one faculty member per office--no more sharing for full time faculty! This should begin in fall 2009.
Faculty Meeting Draft Agenda
Discussion Topics
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Report from Faculty Concerns Committee by Liz. She wants to ask you a few questions that are being tossed about in the FCC including developing a policy for assigning credit/pay for faculty who work on independent studies, theses, and possibly service learning.
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The Compensation Committee is currently discussing a number of topics. One of them I wanted your feedback on: How would you feel about moving the evaluation period for merit to an academic year? In that scenario your application would be due in September (and involve work done the past spring and fall semesters).
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Administrative Areas reports: Basic Course, CDR, Debate, Grad Program, Dean's Fellow
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Public Affairs in the Major continued: I’ll share with you some of the ideas that are being floated about in the college for various ways to incorporate public affairs through college wide activity.
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Classroom upgrade money for to upgrade Craig hall classrooms for use in the basic course. Where are we now?
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Advising Tips and Reminders
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Other Items? If you have something you’d like to discuss, please let me know and we will include it.
Kelly