Academic Affairs Committee

Minutes of February 10, 2004

Present: David Blankenship, Jason Carter, Lisa Chase, Hala Elhoweris, Ben Endres, Wilma Feliciano, Russell Hilliard, Glenn Geher (Chair), Yoav Kaddar, Yoni Schwartz, Chih-Yang Tsai, Greg Wirszyla

The meeting began at about 11:35 AM.

The Minutes of February 3, 2004, were approved with corrections of some spelling and typographical errors.

Lisa Chase announced that she had contacted the Center for Peace and Social Justice about sending a guest to discuss the holidays that might be important to designate in some way in the calendar. Our committee appears to be leaning toward having a list of holidays appended to the calendar so that everyone might be informed of holidays that are important to various members of our community.

Glenn Geher announced that he will give the report of the Academic Affairs Committee at the Faculty Meeting of February 13. His report will include: (1) proposed calendars for the three academic years 05-06, 06-07, 07-08; (2) information about the “diversity” calendar we are discussing; (3) a summary of the work we are undertaking to revised the SEI. Concerning (1), there are several strategies that could be followed: (a) present the two versions (religious and secular) one semester at a time; (b) present them each year at a time; (c) present the two versions for all three years. Glenn will begin with strategy (b). An e-mail will be sent to all faculty with calendar information so that they can prepare for the meeting. If the Faculty Meeting should be terminated upon a quorum call before the calendars can be voted on, they will be sent to the faculty for an e-mail vote.

We next discussed the SEI Ad hoc committee. There were two handouts: (1) a summary by Greg Wirszyla of the SEI articles on ERES; (2) a “Student Evaluation of Instruction Assessment Plan” prepared by Glenn Geher. In the box at the beginning of (2) the words “to the University administration” should be crossed out. The route of recommendations will be the usual one: from the Ad hoc committee to our Committee, thence to the Academic Senate and the Faculty.

It was decided that the Ad hoc committee should include a faculty representative from each of the five schools, a student or students, and the chair, Greg Wirszyla, representing the Library. It was noted that the Ad hoc committee should consult in some appropriate way with the two central personnel committees. When faculty and students are surveyed, the survey form should include a statement of the history and use of SEIs on this campus. It was noted that one possible problem with our current SEI is that it is voluntary; someone also pointed out that New Paltz was virtually unique in this respect.

Glenn Geher recommended that everyone read the article by Greenwald, “Validity Concerns and Usefulness of Student Ratings of Instruction” to gain a sense of the empirical findings concerning SEIs and thus avoid some common misunderstandings.

The meeting was adjourned at about 12:25 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

J. David Blankenship

Secretary pro tempore