Instructional Support Committee

Interdisciplinary Common Ground lunches: There have been more repeat lunches than expected. It is unclear at this time what product(s) may result or how to measure the success of these lunches. Jon will meet with Marci Sortor to discuss feedback from and goals for the lunches, the Interim Advisory Board's vision for how to proceed from the lunches to well-developed proposals for interdisciplinary curricular development or staffing, and ISC's role in the process. Discussion will continue at the next meeting.

Update on Librarian search: An announcement will be made to campus very soon.

Update on paper grade reports: Online system needs to be easier to access and print. The most recent semester's grade reports for advisees are not available separately online; only a complete report of all of an advisee's grades. ISC will make the following recommendation to the Dean and Registrar:
1. Online advising resources need to be enhanced to allow for easy printing of all of a faculty member's advisees' grade reports for the just-completed semester.
2. Until a user-friendly system is available for online access to and printing of recent-semester grade reports of advisees, faculty members or departments may request paper grade reports from the Registrar. The Registrar should send these reports to faculty members through Campus Mail or allow faculty members or appropriate representatives, such as academic support assistants, to pick them up - within the constraints of FERPA.

Computing and the Forum: A cyber café atmosphere, with staffed coffee bar, is unlikely to receive administrative support since staffing is expensive and such a facility would duplicate spaces envisioned for the Campus Center. It may be feasible to install a good-quality vending machine for hot drinks and/or snacks, although some question whether "good-quality" and "vending" can go together.
Lab/Gallery space or cyber café?: Not an either/or choice. The Forum can include both spaces. ISC believes that it should not be schedulable as a classroom, and we should not recreate the TDC.

ITS functions are important to the educational mission of the College. ISC, in its advisory role concerning academic computing facilities and policies, should be involved in the planning of the space. The Forum will need some mechanism to draw campus users into the space. Will there be group-teaching spaces, or mainly individual collaborative areas? What is the most efficient use of the space? It is possible that some of the technology in the Forum will not be available elsewhere on campus. Current perception is that the space will be more student-oriented, both a learning and a social space, a "media-oriented living room". Jon will refine the proposal submitted by him, Dave Lopatto, Wayne Moyer, Sam Rebelsky, and Susan Strauber to say more about the atmosphere of the space and how it could be configured to draw more people in. He will bring the revised draft back to ISC and circulate it to other committees such as the Executive Council.

Curricular Development Grant Applications: due Monday, Feb. 6.

Respectfully submitted,
Terri Phipps