Academic Affairs Committee

Minutes of April 20, 2004

Present: David Blankenship, Jason Carter, Lisa Chase, Ben Endres, Wilma Feliciano, Rachel Fetters, Glenn Geher (Chair), Russell Hilliard, Yoav Kaddar, Debra Miller, Chih-Yang Tsai, Gregory Wirszyla, Mohammed Zunoubi. Guests: President Poskanzer, Provost Lavallee, Vice-President Eaton.

The meeting was called to order at 11:30 AM.

The Minutes of March 23 and 30, 2004 were approved with corrections.

We discussed the Faculty SEI questionnaire and made changes resulting in the following new wordings and questions:

Under Format:

The structure of the current SEI should be modified.

[Keep second item as is.]

Future incarnations of the SEI should be totally anonymous (free of information that identifies specific students).

The current method of administering the SEI is adequate.

ADD: The SEI should be administered completely on-line.

Please provide suggestions about any of the items in this category.

Under Perceptions of SEI Effectiveness:

DELETE: The current SEI is a reliable instrument.

[Keep second item as is.]

Overall, students provide objective responses to SEI questions.

Under Content of SEI:

Generally, the items included ... [etc. as is].

[Keep second item as is.]

ADD: There should be discipline specific questions on the SEI.

ADD: The SEI should have some core questions that are used for evaluation of the instructor’s teaching and others that are voluntary and only for the instructor’s use.

Upon the arrival of our guests, we decided to take up the last category, Use of the SEI, at our next meeting.

President Poskanzer et al. came to discuss the calendar. The President explained that it was the decision of the Cabinet that, given the disagreements about the calendar on campus, we should stay with the traditional calendar for the time being, allowing that over time a consensus might develop for a change. The Cabinet discovered, however, that there is a problem with the traditional calendar proposed by the AAC for Spring 07 in that Spring Break in that calendar comes very late in the semester (in April). The Cabinet wishes, therefore, to consider a different calendar for that one semester, one in which Spring Break would come in March. After considerable discussion, the AAC passed the following motion unanimously:

We agree that the Cabinet has identified a real difficulty in the Spring 07 traditional calendar proposed by the AAC. Should the Cabinet decide that it is best to adopt a different calendar for that semester, one that is identical to or similar to the alternative one presented to us at the meeting, we will support that decision.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

J. David Blankenship

Secretary pro tempore