5 November, 2007 FPC Meeting Minutes
College of Education (COE)
Draft Faculty Policy Council Minutes
November 5, 2007
Members Present: Jean Crockett, Rick Ferdig, John Kranzler, David Miller, Edil Torres-Rivera, Elizabeth Yeager, Sondra Smith
Members absent: David Quinn, Ruth Lowery, Bernard Oliver, Diane Ryndak
Non-Members Present: Associate Dean Jeri Benson, Steven Pape (for Ruth Lowery), Alyson Adams, Jade Coutts
Meeting began at 2:03 pm.
Yeager asked for a motion to approve the agenda with one correction to the budgetary affair. The motion was approved and seconded. The agenda was unanimously approved.
Yeager motioned to approve the September 10 FPC meeting minutes. Miller moved to approve the minutes and Ferdig seconded the motion. The minutes were unanimously approved.
Action Item– COE policy on the GRE (Dean Benson)
• Adams cannot be here today. She forwarded information on the GRE policy changes. Benson passed out a requirements sheet for the FPC to review and asked if there should be a 1000 score minimum. Currently, the college has no policy in place and individual programs can choose ranges for subpart requirements. If exemptions occur, the college wouldn’t know about them. Following a short discussion on exemption, Benson that programs need to think about how useful the subscores are to use as a screening system. She also questioned if the campus become too trusting of total score and if this works against our minority students. Benson said Thomasenia urges the committee to think about the college viewpoint. Miller said the interpretation is that the college does have exemptions. Benson says entrance into college should be more than one score on one day. Benson as if the FPC wants to think about a college point-of-view so we know what each department is doing. Yeager asks if this has been mentioned in departmental meetings. Torres-Rivera discussed how it effects rankings and confirms that it has been discussed at the departmental meetings. Kranzler says the GRE only comes into play on the college rankings. Yeager is struggling with a proposal for a specific policy because we are not sure what the Office of Graduate Studies is proposing. Benson proposed that each program profiles what students need to make application. Yeager thinks this is a good next step. We need this additional data to make any further decisions. Benson asks if it has been discussed. All members say that it has been discussed at departmental meetings. Yeager states that there isn’t any thing need to vote on yet and that the FPC will plan to look at the minutes and talk with Thomasenia. Benson and Miller say we need to discuss what the next step is. Benson says we should see
what the departments are saying about GRE scores and sources for criteria for application process. Pape mentions that his department has discussed new policies and that Colleen Swain has the document. Ferdig states that the action item is that we need to map out the levels and see what our programs are doing. Benson asks where we can get this information and states that websites need to be accurate for prospective students. The Dean’s office reports that the college should have some notion of what is going on. The graduate school is trying to open the door to look at the whole candidacy of the applicant. Crockett seconds that we need the acceptance information. Benson asks who is approving applicants and using what criteria. Additionally, who writes acceptance or denial letters? Benson states that the GRE is one of the pieces and that we need to open it up and look at the other criteria. Miller states that he doesn’t know if any minimum requirements can be set as a college using the requirements stated by the Graduate Council. He would like to know if we can set up minimum requirements and he personally would like to see something with respect to the different aspects of criteria. His department is concerned and wants sectional criteria but he isn’t sure if the wording is too restrictive. The Graduate Admissions requirements language is too loose referring to the cut off. We need provision and clarity of what can and cant be done. Follow up question for Thomasenia and the graduate deans were proposed. We need clarity in the language used on the admissions requirements. Torres-Rivera wants some clarity on boundaries. Ferdig points out that he is nervous about the wording as well. Benson states that we need appropriate reasons why we are turning students away. Yeager will take this information to Thomasenia for clarification and will help move things along if this is the next step.
Dean’s report
• Associate Dean Benson reported on the budget cuts and the market equity review. Dean Emihovich sent out an email stating we don’t have money now but that faculty are eligible through the contract with the union. The process is same as last year. Applications are due Dec 15, 2007. Currently there is not a standing committee to review these applications and FPC needs to decide if there should be a committee starting the spring. Yeager asked if departments and the Dean should appoint the council. Benson states that we need people who know what is marketable to sit on the committee. The committee last year was selected by Dean Emihovich and were full professors (Algina, Loesch, Steven Smith, Oliver). Kranzler says that this puts faculty in a difficult position and that the committee should be deans and chairs. This idea was rejected because chairs are considered in the union. The standing committee cannot be out of unit people and must be faculty members. Yeager proposes that voting takes place next meeting and that the team should be Dean appointed and department elected combined. Benson states that departments should discuss this matter. Benson asks if an FPC member should always be included. Yeager asks if everyone is OK with dealing with this as an action item at the next meeting after discussing. The FPC agrees.
• Benson confirms that the associate dean search applications are due today. Committee meetings are set and things are going. Crockett is a member and states
that there is a meeting Thursday. Benson assumes that there will be an announcement soon to meet with applicants.
UF Faculty Senate Report
• Crockett reported that they held a meeting at the Phillips center and the nature of the meeting was to talk about the museums and performing arts centers. Some name changes in departments were decided upon.
Discussion items
Budgetary affairs survey for faculty senate
• Smith passed out a handout that summarized the survey. She needs to know if there is a fair assignment and if the FPC approves it. Faculty senate has asked for FPC response to the survey. Yeager asks for questions or concerns. The council has none and recommends that it get passed back to the senate.
• Kranzler stated that it puts a positive spin on the spending and Smith stated that it represents what the FBACK did last year. Ferdig asks if we need to discuss implications for the college. Kranzler said his concern is that the problems are not being recognized and that the faculty isn’t having a say. Members are concerned that departments do not have a say in some budgetary concerns and that they have a more passive than active role. For example, Kranzler stated that faculty are not asked on how to spend discretionary funds. Yeager recommends that the passive nature of the faculty role should be included and that it is common across departments. Yeager suggests that revisions to the language be completed to reflect the FPC’s discussion and that the revised draft be sent to the FPC and this be discussed with departments. Miller proposes that the language get more concise.
Lastinger Center Resources and Budget
• Alyson Adams presented information to departments (special education, counselor education, and STL) to increase visibility and to invite people to play. Summary sheet was passed out. The mission is whole school reform centered on improving teaching, learning and leadership and child well being. The center has grant funding to support programs and is also a self-sustaining center. The biggest growth is in Miami-Dade with the Kellogg Grant. They are using a business model in Pinellas that is funded by the country and funded by them. There is high interest in Collier with low funding. Collier is the only county with middle school approach as well. Centers range from prek to 12. The center wants faculty help and has collaboration opportunities. They are welcoming anyone to come in and work. A handout was also provided on TLSI (Teacher Leadership for School Improvement) with some outdated criteria (GRE scores).
Follow-up on COE Day Away
• A matrix was provided with information added. Benson brings up the Center in Early Childhood and the funding activities. Dean Emihovich has been talking about
bringing people together across the college to bring ideas together that are similar that may lead to additional proposals.
Teachers College incident and racism on campus
• A Columbia University newspaper article was passed out. Torres-Rivera brought this up to see if this is something that we should respond to as a college. Yeager brings up a discussion that has taken place in counseling department on how to deal with this issue. Torres-Rivera states that we need to educate faculty and students on this matter and that we have a great deal of expertise on this matter at this college. Yeager asks if a brown bag lunch discussion should be sponsored and that Torres-Rivera could lead it. Kranzler agrees with an open forum. Ferdig agrees that a brown bag is a good idea and that we need to also explore research and find people in the college who are doing this work. Pape asks about the inclusion of gay/lesbian/transgender issues. Yeager will follow up with these ideas and see what type of forum can be put together. She will update the FPC at next meeting.
Action Item – FPC liaisons to FPC committees
Curriculum Rick Ferdig
• The CCC needs help with paperless forms for the CCC website. The Graduate Curriculum has put in place a new electronic method for graduate level forms and will shortly for undergraduate forms. If you need to do CC1 or CC2, you go online. CCC was bypassed this last October and some proposals were pushed over to the Graduate CC. Now, a new policy has been implemented so that the Dean will not go forward unless a memo is given from the CCC. Kranzler asked who would be moving the undergraduate system online. Ferdig stated that Dean Wubah would be doing so. Later this week, Ferdig will send out an email to the college regarding the new policy. Undergraduate is still paper-based. Instructions coming this week via email. Ferdig asks that FPC members will help to answer questions regarding this policy within their departments.
Faculty Affairs John Kranzler
• They are following tenure promotion meetings. The will finalize the draft and ship to FPC for approval. Kranzler says right now they are not looking at faculty load. They are considering concerns with non-tenure track review and other aspects. Smith said that load was something that was discussed last year and Kranzler said currently it is not on the agenda. Yeager received a report last year that has some information about load and she will check if that information was forwarded to Louise.
Budgetary Affairs Sondra Smith
• They met last week and had two charges. The first is what is the committee and the roles of the committee because it is new. The second is to respond to the survey regarding budget review and input. Initial conversations have been held.
Lectures, Seminars, and Awards Stephen Pape (Alt. for Ruth Lowery)
• No information given to pass along
Distance Education Task Force David Quinn
• David could not attend. No alternate present.
Shared Governance Task Force David Miller
• They discussed evaluating shared governance and what it is. They found that last year there were surveys developed to look at shared governance and are looking at these. They plan on using the same format used for the spring to evaluate the Dean. Ferdig asks if this is the same as the email they received. A response was not noted.
Research Advisory Jean Crockett (alt. for Diane Ryndak)
• Diane wanted to notify FPC that 2 of 4 programs are up and running. B.O. Smith and Opportunity Research Fund (Jan 4th, 4pm deadline). Paul’s office is resurrecting the Research Task force to look at the research doctorate to get a better sense of our current doctoral pathways.
Technology Edil Torres-Rivera
• Torres-Rivera hasn’t been able to meet with everyone. People are not answering their email.
FPC rep to Agenda Committee Jean Crockett
• No notes were taken.
Meeting adjourned at 3:40- motion by Yeager, Crockett seconded the motion.
Next meeting: COE Fall Faculty Meeting, December 10, 2-4pm
