COE Faculty Advisory Council
November 9, 2016
9:00 – 10:00 a.m. — Hill 314
Minutes
Dean Hough called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.
Attending: David Hough, Paul Ajuwon, Deanne Camp, Cory Fearing, Kim Finch, Robin Koerber, Annice McLean, Diana Piccolo, Debra Price, Melissa Schotthofer, Eric Sheffield, Rebecca Swearingen
- Program Support Requests
RFT: Educational Technology (EDT), Ching-Wen Chang: $1,957
RFT: Middle School, Kimberly Stormer: $4,844
RFT: MATL / SETL, Eric Sheffield: $4,808
CEFS: Family and Consumer Sciences Education, Debra Price: $4,998
Total amount requested: $16,608.00
The maximum amount per requests is $5,000. FAC members reviewed the requests one at a time. Some of the requests had student travel in them which could be covered by the student travel fund, but after discussion it was decided to leave it in the requests. Debra Price discussed her request. She would like to promote their undergraduate and graduate programs to prospective students. Some of her equipment requests may be covered by DESE. She requested funds to attend the National FCCLA Conference since it is close to Springfield this year and they may be able to recruit some students. She is also applying for SOFAC funding. All four requests were approved unanimously by the FAC, but Debra was asked to add more detail to her activities/costs and send it to the dean. Most people come under the amount requested. The dean will take these to the next Budget Committee meeting.
- Draft COE Mentoring Policy
This document will be discussed at Friday’s college meeting by Michele Smith. The document is being emailed to faculty this morning along with The Hough Post. It will not be voted on as a final document. Michele will discuss a “toolkit”.
- COE Fall Faculty Meeting – This Friday
The department heads and associate deans are going to lead a discussion on long-range plans. They will discuss the following topics with faculty: diversity, recruitment, retention, faculty scholarship and quality of student learning.
- Publications/Presentations
The college continues to strive to create a high profile. Department heads have asked if a document regarding research focus should be developed or if the research active guidelines should be strengthened. One person asked if we possibly need to define “focus”? The discussion led to presentations vs. publications. The group agreed that presentations should be developed into publications. The dean asked for responses to an idea regarding giving “X” amount of dollars to a faculty member to attend a conference, but additional money if they develop their presentation into an article that is submitted for consideration of publication and more again if their submission is published. It was discussed that articles submitted for publication can depend on depth/length/quality. Is the article reviewed? How do we address quality/rigor for presentations? Some organizations accept anything and the dean will no longer fund faculty to attend them. Some organizations do reject applications to attend/present. Most conferences do not have their acceptance rates published. Possibly faculty could be asked to provide how rigorous the conference is in their request for funding. Presentations go from posters to discussions. Eric stated more important is the connection with the presentation being developed in to a publication. Could we then add more rigor to the research active document and/or P&T guidelines? Possibly if a presentation leads to a publication there would be more incentive/higher rating. The discussion went on to giving more money for travel to untenured faculty if presenting at a conference. The dean reminded everyone that new tenure-track faculty get start-up funds their first year. The group agreed that P&T should have a rubric for rating quality of manuscripts and publication outlets. No action was taken on the dean’s suggestion of providing additional monetary incentives for developing presentations into publications.
The group discussed the University’s goal of improving the quality of student learning; courses are not as rigorous as they should be, according to students. Dean Hough met with the COE Living/Learning Community students last night. One of their questions was regarding if it is true or not that earning a masters is easier than an undergraduate degree. One FAC member stated that graduate students are totally focused and do not have as many distractions as undergraduates. They do what they are asked as far as assignments. Their relationships with their professors is very different; there is more working together and in partnership. The Dean suggested addressing this topic by highlighting students in the media and promoting the exemplary programs or projects such as the Internship Academy.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:04 a.m.
Submitted by Sharon Lopinot