17 April, 2006 FPC Faculty Meeting Minutes
Spring Faculty Meeting
April 17, 2006
Terrace Room
Purposes: to report on this year’s accomplishments and to look to next year’s activities
1. FPC Updates (Hazel Jones)
Lectures, Seminars and Awards: developed the Graduate Teaching Award; assisted with speakers for Centennial Celebration; reviewed applications for the Dissertation/Mentor Award; reviewed sabbatical applications
Long Range Planning: revised the dean’s evaluation; began conversation with Fran Vandiver concerning increasing collaboration between Norman and PK faculty
Research Advisory: Interviewed candidates for the position of Director of the Office of Educational Research; revised B.O. Smith Professorship guidelines and will review applications in near future; reviewed CRIF applications; collaborated with the OER on travel awards
College Curriculum Committee: revised directions for submitting course and program proposals; approved 10 graduate courses in STL, and 1 each in Ed Psych and Special Ed; approved a new Education Minor and terminated two outdated minors; approved a self-supported bachelor of science degree in Early Childhood Studies; will review an additional 19 graduate courses and 1 undergraduate course at the 4/24/06 meeting
Faculty and Budgetary Affairs: developed guidelines for non-tenure track faculty T and P; have begun conversations about faculty load and faculty involvement with COE budget; will revise T and P guidelines for tenure-track faculty next year
Student Recruitment, Admissions, and Petitions: Developed a proposal to the Dean concerning the use of COE funds for graduate student recruitment; clarified focus of the committee on policies regarding student recruitment
2. Strategic planning updates
Research Initiatives (Paul Sindelar): 2 retreats held during fall; developed agenda for the year at those retreats; accomplishments: developed policy related to faculty mentoring; developed memo to Dean concerning space for a faculty commons area; deferred discussion of faculty load to Faculty and Budgetary Affairs; started brown bag seminars (e.g., Luis Ponjuan’s today); developed online survey of faculty training needs (online til this Friday)—use “faculty” as password; developed a draft policy for first-year research fellows (to be sent to appropriate source); developed OER website; task force has met monthly this year
Faculty/Student Recruitment, Retention and Professional Development: March 24 workshop, Fostering Diversity and Success in Academia through Professional Development, was attended by 16 COE; the committee plans to have more of these next year
Note: Task force co-chairs will meet with deans and FPC representatives on April 28 to get organized for next year
3. Faculty Senate (Stephen Smith): Please see www.senate.ufl.edu for information about the Faculty Senate; elections for chair of Senate to happen this Thursday; shared governance task force report to be voted on this Thursday; senate-union relations/frequently asked questions; conversations about UF budget (these are all links on the Senate’s home page); Meetings link—agendas and minutes for all meetings; Stephen encouraged us to join university committees (our representation has not been good in the last few years); UF strategic work plan, an evolving document (please note the absence of the COE in text related to Children and Families—bring this up with Kim Tanzer, President, Provost, Barry Ash; Amelia Hugas; the Dean encouraged us to make our voices heard—there is an ad hoc committee to revise that document)
4. P.K. Yonge and Baby Gator
PKY (Lynda Hayes): 1155 students at PKY; 60 students/grade in K-5, 120/grade in 6-12; 43% minority students; 50% F/R lunch; 33% on IEPs and 504 plans; no severe disabilities; over 95% graduate from high school; 90% pass third-grade FCAT; 84 faculty members; 75% hold advanced degrees, 85% more than 5 years experience; last 5 years, a lot of professional development in surrounding districts, particularly related to Florida Reading Initiative; 11 faculty have taught COE courses in last several years; Ellen Amatea was there for 4 years; Nancy Waldron for 3 years; about 30 research projects conducted by faculty from colleges across UF; recently, research has focused on reading, family involvement, and professional development; summer program for K-8 struggling readers—this summer, up to 30 teachers will work for 2 weeks to do in depth learning related to reading; next year, Saturday series for teacher professional development; a great place to “figure things out” before taking program to scale; possibilities for collaboration—coordinate classroom experiences with COE course requirements; longitudinal studies (stable student population); pilot studies. Seek deliberative, extended partnerships, including with graduate students (e.g., doc student working with Senior Project). Want a joint COE/PKY collaborative research council.
Baby Gator (Pam Pallas): Goal is to move Baby Gator from a childcare facility to a research facility. Have improved quality of staff. Most teachers moving toward associates degrees and bachelor’s degrees. Have expanded the curriculum and plan to publish a Baby Gator curriculum. Curriculum has been accepted by state as VPK curriculum. Ran VPK this year, Will run a summer program if have enough children, and will run VPK in
fall. Ts are doing a lot of mentoring, helping childcare providers, speaking at conferences. A goal is to expand physical site. Have 500 on waiting list! Want to increase research. Get children at 6 months; can follow them over time. Goal is to be viewed as a center for excellence in early childhood education. Have 131 children enrolled, through pre-K. 20 countries represented (as of today). Have some trained Montessori teachers, sign language expertise, include students with special needs, use of portfolios as assessment tool (are doing training in this area). Have worked with School of Medicine, College of Nursing from UF and Lake City Community College, College of Agriculture, College of Dentistry, College of Design (to design new building). From 5-7 PM on 4/24, can see design for new building. Or, see the designs outside of 158 Norman earlier that day.
5. Other College Initiatives:
Theresa Vernetson: International Education minor for the COE; Faculty discussion in January with interested faculty. Int’l Ed minor: 15-hour undergrad minor; would include Global Studies course that may become a general education course; also, a study-abroad experience. Study Abroad Programs–faculty interested in faculty-led study abroad. Will continue to work on this. For 2007, potential trips to Costa Rica, India, Britain. This summer, a full to the brim trip to South Africa
Chris Sessums, Director for Distance Education; 15 COE courses for spring semester; 18 to be offered this summer; Next steps: Chris has met with all department chairs; putting together ad hoc faculty advisory group as a sounding board (may be the FPC Technology Committee); developing a strategic plan for Distance Ed for the COE; workshops for instructors interested in distance teaching and learning; Chris is in 173 Norman and is available by email (csessums@coe.ufl.edu)
Trace Choulat: Stole Dan Brooks from operations at UF; Dan is coordinating a new help-desk initiative; new fire wall in January for the COE; if you want your individual mail scanned, let Trace know; quantitative and qualitative software available—contact Trace; Inspirations software available (version 8); information display in hall in dean’s area (contact Larry Lansford or Trace); there is an effort underway to improve services at UF (there is a three-year timeline, but Trace thinks this may be overly optimistic); considering doing a survey of faculty to check on technology needs
6. Dean Emihovich
Announcements: Scholarship of Engagement dinner this Thursday (biggest turnout); Nov. 2-4 conference on Closing the Achievement Gap; proposals due 5/15; Joy Rodgers has left and will be replaced (Larry Lansford’s office); Margaret Gaylord leaving to work in pediatrics, so we’ll be looking for a replacement; we have surpassed this year’s target for fundraising; Concentrated effort next year will focus on Engaged Scholarship (Nancy Dana and Don Pemberton, co-chairs) and Curriculum and Program Development (Dorene Ross and Fran Vandiver, co-chairs). The focus on serving the public interest will continue at the national level and here at home. Coming up: development of trans-disciplinary programs, particularly at graduate level; (Catherine will chair dean’s search for dean of the graduate school); we have received $400,000 for renovations in “historic” Norman Hall.
The video: Old Norman renovation project ($18,000,000)
