Attending: Carol Bell, Douglas Black, James Phegan, Jon Sherman, and Gary Stark (Chair)
TLAC meeting 9/24/10
Minutes
Attending: Carol Bell, Douglas Black, James Phegan, Jon Sherman, and Gary Stark (chair).
Gary welcomed Committee members, who briefly introduced themselves. The Committee has nine voting members and two ex officio:
Joan Cowell (Education)
Gary Stark (College of Business)
Lisa Flood (Nursing, Baccalaureate)
James Phegan (Art & Design)
Carol Bell (Mathematics & Computer Science)
Jon Sherman (Modern Languages & Literatures)
Douglas Black, Secretary (AIS/Library)
Leslie Cory (Technology and Applied Sciences)
CalePolkinghorne (Engineering Technology)
David Bonsall (ex officio; Student Activities & Leadership)
Tom Gillespie (ex officio; Instructional Technology)
Appointment of 2010-2011 officers:
James agreed to continue as Treasurer.
Douglas agreed to serveas Secretary.
The April 9, 210 meeting minutes have vanished; Gary was willing to reconstruct from his own notes, ran through what had been discussed, and asked for help. The reconstructed minutes, with additional discussion from this meeting:
- The March 12 minutes were approved.
- Gary Starkwas elected Chair for 2010-2011, and Alan Beauchamp was elected Secretary.
- Tom Gillespie reported onthe migration from WebCT to EduCat.
- A report on Winter semester TLAC Conference Grant winners was discussed: Ruth Watry and Kia Richmond were the winners. Further discussion involvedprescreening applications for eligibility, checking for prior grant winners not yet eligible again. Carol had raised the issue of Eric Anderson’s application, the committee having realized after their review that he’d already received a grant. However, on that winning project, he had been part of a group, and even though he’d risen to top of the later application process, the fact of his previous grant remained. TLAC should clarify policy and consistent review procedure. A related issue was the problem of conference grants for presentations that didn’t take place as planned, since the grant-application timeline didn’t always coincide with the conference-proposal timeline, and often, grant applications had to be submitted before conference-proposal notifications were available. For the latter reason, prior winners who hadn’t had the opportunity to present at their conferences—or whose conferences hadn’t yet taken place—carryover grants were provided as well. TLAC agreed to discuss in 2010-11 the grant timelines and clarification of eligibility rules.
- Jeff Bernstein’s presentation on SoTL was discussed; the turnout was disappointing, which could have resulted from vagueness in SoTL terminology in the publicity materials. The feedback from the nine attendees (including TLAC members) was positive, with requests for more information on the scholarship of application. [Followup conversation 9/24/2010: Especially given the last AAUP contract agreement, it seems surprising that a lot of people still don’t know what SoTL is. Gary recapped place and description of presentation, as well as SoTL in general. Carol recalls that the session was videotaped in order to make it available. Bernstein is at Eastern Michigan, which is part of a SoTL Collaborative including other MI schools, as well as a couple in Ohio. Last year’s conference was the second one; this year’s is May 16-17, 2011. There had been some discussion here about hosting a conference, but the question is whether attendees would come so far. It is two weeks after NMU classes end.]
- James reported thatthe budget balance was $826, which we needed to expend by June 15 or so; Rachel agreed to check on the date. The Committee decided to spendthe remainder of budget on Magna 20-Minute Mentors videos, and members agreed to send titles to Gary. It was not clear what the process of checking them out would be; Gary agreed to look into that.
Overview of TLAC mission and operations:Gary provided a copy of the handout for new faculty orientation, introducing TLAC and explaining how the Committee could be of support and assistance. Gary asked members to keep the TLAC mission (page 2) in mind as we go through the year:
Engaging (e.g., teaching engagements)
Providing resources (e.g., videos, etc.)
Conference grants (Carol noted that conference grants are now $800, not $500 as on page 1).
Expectations/Goals of TLAC for 2010-2011: Gary askedabout members’ hopes or expectations for 2010-11, and any changes we might want to make. Teaching engagements numbered four last year, and they’ve never been particularly well attended, except for one a few years ago, which drew ~60. We’d like to explore ways to increase attendance, discussing how to present them at the easiest times (usually midday, sometimes with lunch provided, about an hour/hour and a half long), promoting them in ways other than e-mail (e-mail overload, especially re meetings, renders them borderline spam), and seeking department co-sponsorship for improved visibility and engagement. Posters or something more visible might be more effective, though it’s difficult to get them all scheduled in advance for the year, assuming we have the whole year’s lineup set in advance. Posters for individual events might work better; discussion revolved around intended audience, possible regulations restricting specification of audience, whether Art & Design might be able to put together a poster, perhaps involving a student as a service-learning opportunity. Revising how we approach e-mail publicity might help: attaching posters as PDFs, which might or might not get through better;more visually appealing e-mails; e-mailing department heads and asking them to encourage faculty (general agreement, though the problem of department heads actually forwarding remains). It’s probably a good idea to downplay the committee sponsorship angle, which can be a turnoff.
Part of our mission is connection with other units and programs with similar missions. We’ve heard of concern that we could be working more closely with School of Education; with new member Joan Cowell, we might have closer communication. Perhaps the School of Education could even advise TLAC as a whole, providing suggestions.
Budget: We’ll probably submit something very similar to Rachel Nye’s 2009-2010 budget request. Gary had asked Rachel whether we should include more SoTL items, e.g., sending a few people to Ypsilanti for the 2011 SoTLconference. Rachel had responded that we might not include that in our budget, partly because it’s not solely TLAC involved and partly because the Provost/VPAA was likely to pay for it anyway. NMU is a member of the SoTL collaborative. It would be great to send a TLAC member or two to the conference, but there is a little risk that if we don’t request the funds, we might wind up not getting the funds at all (last year’s discussion with the Provost did yield agreement to pay for a committee member to attend). Gary didn’t think it would be a big risk to leave those funds out. He had some ideas to present a paper there and wondered whether he’d get funding to present without occupying the member slot. It did sound like the Provost wanted a TLAC member to attend, in the service of whatever it might take to promote SoTL more.
TLAC Conference Grant: The 2009-2010 Call for Proposals was discussed, along with deadlines, timelines, and the review subcommittee’s workload. Given the way conferences work in general, it seems reasonable to be somewhat flexible on timing. Provision #3 was revised to read: “Awarded funds may be allocated to conferences occurring from the start of the semester in which the award is received up to one year following the award date.” The current October 16 deadlinewas moved to October 29, with selection notifications two weeks later (November 12). The Winter semester deadline was set for March 18, with notifications by April 1. The final bullet point under “Criteria for Selection” was revised for clarity to read: “Additional consideration may be given to individuals who are presenting at the conference.” Following up on the April discussion, committee members expressed uncertainty over whether the ineligibility period for previous winners was one year or two years, agreeing on two years; Gary said he could probably lay hands on three years’ records, which is all we’d need for verification. The selection subcommittee had not been assigned, and Gary was soliciting volunteers from TLAC members.
TLAC Website: This topic was moved to the next meeting.
Meeting Times for 2010-2011: Members reached general agreement on Fridays 2:00 – 3:30 in Cohodas 300, with the next meeting initially set for October 22 and subsequently rescheduled to October 29.
Excellence in Teaching Award: Carol and Jon agreed to represent TLAC on the award committee.
Magna Online Seminars: This topic was moved to the next meeting.
Student Members: Having a student member requires going through ASNMU, and we agreed to ask ASNMU for one student representative.
Adjournment.
Respectfully submitted,
Douglas Black, Secretary