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Instructional Support Committee |
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Attending: Erin Hurley, Jon Chenette, Cecilia Knight, David Romano, Richard Fyffe, Roger Vetter, Laura Lienemann (SGA), Shuchi Kapila, John Kalkbrenner, Bill Francis, Monty Roper, Terri Phipps Minutes of last meeting approved. Fast Track Approval: Political Economy Reading Group $480 CTS Search: ISC in particular and all faculty in general are invited to meet with a candidate at 11:00 on October 3 in ARH 223. There will also be a public presentation by the candidate at 1:30 in the Creative Computing Lab. Curricular Development Guidelines: In the past, faculty applied for stipends for course development. ISC restructured the guidelines so that faculty are reimbursed for expenses rather than receiving stipends in most cases. This allows the committee to fund more and a wider variety of projects than before. ISC has received an increase in budget to accommodate EKI-related projects. Centralizing course development proposals allows for greater consistency in applying guidelines. ISC has not had much opportunity yet to determine how well the guidelines work for EKI-related projects. Faculty-Faculty Tutorial numbers have decreased. It is not clear why this is the case. Guidelines should reflect that applications are taken on a rolling basis. Deadlines are not hard lines. The length of the curricular development guidelines could be intimidating for some faculty. It has been suggested to have two documents: a shorter version with bullet points and a longer version with extended descriptions and examples available on the web. Terri and Jon will work on this. Curricular Development Proposals: Music: This is a proposal to develop a new teaching competency. Approved: $1555. PHI/PHY: Team taught course. The proposal was very brief, though they submitted a three-year, in-depth plan to the previous committee. EKI-related course development. Approved: PHI: $1355; PHY: $1410 Early Faculty Career Discussion Group: Continuing group. Approved: $1750 Post-Dissertation Discussion Group: ISC supports this group, though believes that it should be funded through another budget. The purpose of this group is to help faculty publish their dissertations. This objective is tied more to scholarship than to teaching, although research leads to improved teaching. It is recommended that the group apply for Mellon FCE funds. Sociology Department: There is no precedent to fund intra-departmental activities. When faculty are hired, they are expected to mentor colleagues, teach certain courses, discuss certain aspects of teaching and advising, etc., within their department. ISC views this as a normal part of being a colleague. The college should not have to provide incentives to mentor new faculty within a department. Occasionally, if a faculty member is struggling, he or she will be sent to a teaching seminar to help develop teaching methods, but that is handled confidentially through the Dean’s office. The question of departmental faculty retreats was raised. How have they been funded? If a department is going through a full self-study or is completely restructuring the curriculum, ISC will provide modest funds (no stipends). The request for these funds must be extraordinary and rare. Request denied. Copyright / FERPA will be addressed at the next meeting. Respectfully submitted, |