Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Present: Karen M. Turner (Pres.), Paul S. LaFollette (V. Pres.), Bonnie Averbach (Secy.), Robert M. Aiken (Past-Pres.), Z. Joan Delalic (Engr.), Marge Devinney (CLA), Michael Jackson (STHM), Luke Kahlich (BCMD), Stephanie Knopp (Tyl), Lois Millner (SSA), Mark C. Rahdert (Law), Charles Ruchalski, Joel B. Sheffield (CST), Roberta Sloan (SCT), David Waldstreicher (Fac. Herald), Cheryl Mack (Coord)
Absent: David Baron (Med), Pauline Hurley-Kurtz (Ambl) Joan P. Shapiro (Educ), Jay Sinha (FSBM), Roy Stevens (Dent)
1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 1:05 PM
2. Approval of the minutes:
The minutes of March 31 were approved as amended.
The minutes of April 1 were accepted with one sentence to be clarified.
3. President’s Report: Karen M. Turner
- Turner had a meeting with the President and the Provost. She informed them of the dissatisfaction and frustration of the faculty and of the motion, Status of Contract Negotiations and Involvement of the Presidency, to be made by the Steering Committee. Turner spoke about faculty feedback on the motion. The President and Provost saw this as the first step toward a vote of no confidence. Turner assured them that this was not the purpose of the motion. The faculty just wants action. Turner suggested that the President should give her response through the Faculty Herald.
- Turner has just found out that there has been an Honors Committee working with the Compass Process, which is separate from the Honors Oversight Committee. This group is working on a plan for Honors as part of strategic Compass Process.
- Turner then brought up the issue of Academic Freedom guidelines. If a faculty member has a problem from a student with respect to Academic Freedom, guidelines are needed. Turner has spoken to the Provost and we will be working on this issue in the fall. Possibly the Teaching and Learning Center should be involved in dealing with how faculty should respond.
- The Standing Committee on Continuous Revisions in the Faculty Handbook.
- The Provost will be at the Representative Faculty Senate Meeting and give an update.
4. Guest: Bernie Newman, Chair of the Student Feedback Committee
The Committee has been working on the transition from the CATEs to the Student Feedback Forms. The Committee has been divided into four work groups, each discussing one of the following concerns:
1) Alternative ways for grading small classes.
2) Should the results be submitted to the University?
3) Developing a template for using SFF results for promotion
and tenure.
4) Research agenda which can be developed with the results.
The first committee has looked at what other Schools are doing with respect to small class evaluations and has found that various methods are used. The committee is recommending that we do not rely on quantitative evaluation, that we use an alternative method of a questionnaire which is qualitative in nature and/or student peer review.
Many comments and suggestions were made. Among these were the following
- This method is not anonymous.
- Someone could be assigned to read the qualitative remarks and assign plus’s and minus’s to the remarks to obtain a quantitative measure.
- With a small sample size, the quantitative methods are not reliable.
- Even with classes of 10 or 15 students, one bad evaluation can “torpedo’ the instructor, whereas in large classes this will not happen.
- Instructors of smaller classes are at a disadvantage over instructors with large classes. People reviewing these outcomes have to be sensitive to the sizes of the classes.
- It would be better to test the students and see what they have learned.
- The answer is flexibility and not to rely only on the numbers.
Newman stated that when she meets with the template committee, the committee will try to address some of these concerns. The committee’s recommendations so far are to have peer review and that every school come up with a peer review protocol with some universal standards as to who will be reviewed and who will be the reviewers. It will take a while to answer these and other questions. There is also a suggestion of self evaluation.
As to the results of the information of the SFF’s, it was suggested by that committee that the instructor indicate on the orange sheet whether or not the results should be put on the internet. For the instructors who agree, the information would be posted on TU Portal.
- LaFollette mentioned that the faculty has to be informed of the purpose of the forms. It predominately needs to be for the instructor to improve performance, not as something which enables students to pick and choose teachers. If a person refuses to publicize his/her information as a matter of principle, he/she should not be penalized by being denied merit. If the students want to evaluate the instructor, this should be done by the student government.
- Rahdert mentioned that universal standards are not good for different courses and Colleges, and that questions which are not important should be omitted..
Newman replied that she had in error misstated the Report of the Committee. She then stated that each department should establish a peer review protocol. She also said that the previous committee on the CATEs had a reason for each question used.
- Sheffield suggested that the dissemination of these forms should be limited to administrative uses.
Newman mentioned that students want this information. She handed out a draft of a report and discussed its contents. She will send the comments and suggestions of today’s meeting to Peter Jones.
Turner asked if we could have the opportunity to see the report of the committee after their next meeting. She would like the faculty to have the opportunity to react. Newman responded that she would make sure that we will.
5. Vice President’s Report: Paul LaFollette
The number of people who voted was 202. The only contested election was for RPPC. The two winners are Marina Angel (Law) and Jennifer Crowley (Educ.).
6. Guest: Larry Alford, Dean of Libraries
The first question people ask is “What is the role of the Library?” His reply is related to the 21st century library which is a virtual and physical place. It has over 450 electronic data bases and electronic journals, 51,000subscriptions, with lots of data bases across all disciplines.
- The library had a celebration of the 3,000,000th book for the library. It was a limited edition of Hamlet which has beautifully illustrated art work.
- The Library is has many collections to support teaching and research needs.
- About 60% of the resources are spent on electronic access to materials including scientific and medical materials. In addition, thousands of printed material has been added to the library. The number of books and monographs over this past year has increased by 19%. This does not include text books or resources in the library that replace text books. However there is a lot of material which can be obtained electronically which can be used to learn the material needed.
- There are great collections of books at Temple. Among these is the Blockson Collection.
Recently, the Library obtained a collection of World War II letters from the Daily News, and a collection of 30,000 recordings from KYW Channel 3
- Paley is heavily used. Out of 113 University Libraries, in 2004, Paley was ranked 83; 60 in 2007.
- The newest feature of the virtual library, students can text message in on the online catalog.
- Students in the first course of English are having two sessions in the library. Faculty is encouraged to send transfer students for sessions given in the Library.
- There are three $1000 prizes for research projects sponsored by faculty are sponsored by the Library.
- There will be a comprehensive Health Sciences Library in the new Medical School. It will have about 1000 seats, about 36 group study rooms and about 140 desk top computers. It will be open about July 1.
- There is a new media center in the basement of Paley.
- The Library is now involved in fundraising. There will be a cut on their budget for the year. Unless the University gives more money, the Library will suffer since the cost of scholarly licenses and material is rising from 7-10% each year.
- Alford is talking to the Provost about a new Scholars Communication Committee at Temple to talk about issues of communication among scholars.
- In response to Knopp’s question as to when Tyler’s Art Library will be moved to Paley, Alford replied that it is probably in the stacks and has to be put out on the shelves.
There is now a survey to determine satisfaction of the users of the Library. Aiken mentioned that it is important to make sure that some of the things that the Library is involved in are not duplicated by other sections of the University. Alford’s response was that he has worked with Gen Ed and the Teaching and Learning Center. There were 670 responses to the survey.
7. Old Business:
None
8. New Business:
None
9. Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 3:10 PM.
Bonnie Averbach, Secretary
