Minutes of ALS faculty Assembly 5/5/2015
Recorded by Angela Hunter, CALS Assembly Secretary
Called to order by Presiding Officer Floyd Martin at 10:05am
1)Minutes of August 2014 meeting: Yoder moved to approve minutes, Cheatham seconded. Minutes approved.
2)Nominations from floor opened. No nominations were offered. Nominations were closed. Elections for college and university committees held.
3)Reports: [note that some committees sent in written reports for the minutes that include more information than they were able to present at the meeting]
Assessment Committee: Jeremy Lane
Reviewed reports for all departments in CALS. Transition to new college seems, at least from assessment standpoint, to have gone fairly smoothly. Dean Furnish funded all requests for assessment support, which was used for a variety of activities including test purchases, hiring of outside consultants, and other similar work. Copies of each departments reports should be available on Provost’s website soon.
Undergraduate Curriculum Committee: Moira Maguire
The CALS undergraduate curriculum committee dealt with 43 curricular/program changes this semester, many of which were required to accommodate changes in the curriculum that became effective in the Spring ’15 semester (ie programs choosing to get rid of the language, or choosing to maintain the minor requirement). At the beginning of the year we had to address some procedural issues in order to accommodate restructuring – specifically whether we would meet in person or virtually (we chose to meet in person so we could begin to get to know colleagues from departments that previously were part of a different college, beginning to understand one another’s curricular issues, etc). The two big issues that the undergraduate curriculum committee will have to address next year are establishing a procedure for dealing with CCFs for interdisciplinary courses that cross not just departmental but college lines, and CCFs for new honor’s courses and/or programs. I want to thank the members of the curriculum committee for their hard work this semester. The committee dealt with quite a lot of business this year, and we did so with grace, humor, and collegiality.
Teacher Licensure Committee: Paul Crutcher
The Teacher Licensure Committee was a new committee for 2014-2015. The committee is comprised of disciplinary content-area specialists who direct programs in English, history, art, music, math, chemistry, physics, biology, and foreign language.
During this year, we met three times, and dealt with significant issues concerning
-accreditation and Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) policy
-teacher leadership (or licensure, assessment, policy)
-student intern supervisory issues
-teaching load
We serve on this committee and on the STEPPS committee, coordinating issues and communication between the disciplines and the Teacher Education program in the College of Education and Health Professions. We're working on new and ongoing initiatives in education at UALR and in Central Arkansas.Notably, CALS composes all but two of UALR's content teacher licensure programs (i.e., health science and geography).
Ad Hoc Committee on Core Curriculum: Paul Yoder
There has not been movement at the Senate level on the interdisciplinary courses such as those proposed by CALS College. Yoder is happy to share the course model that he has on hand with anyone if they’d like to use it as a model for their own course ()
Graduate Curriculum Committee: Jeffrey Grubbs
The committee received and approved only a few items this semester, such as a new program in 3D design studies and minor changes in the MAs in Second Language Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies.
Awards and Scholarships Committee: Stacy Pendergraft
This year they worked on consolidating processes from both of the previous feeder colleges to create a coherent CALS structure. They also chose the college faculty awards and the college-wide student awards.
Student Research and Creative Projects Committee: Roxy Green
They have written a proposal for a college-wide research/creative activities expo. They also hope to be able to offer stipends for individual and collaborative research. This year was about laying foundations.
Dean’s Advisory Committee: Rosalie Cheatham
This is a newly formed committee and they did not meet frequently this year.
4)Explanation of Faculty Governance committee changes
- Rosalie Cheatham, a current member of the University Faculty Governance Committee and Parliamentarian for CALS, explained that this committee is not going to be composed of the same membership as it was previously and thus there will be an election—postponed until the fall assembly meeting—for a member of the college to serve as a representative. This is a time-intensive commitment: it will involve reading and providing feedback on department and college governance documents. Questions about the committee and process were answered. If you have further questions, you may direct them to CALS faculty Rosalie Cheatham, Ed Anson, or other members of the current committee.
5)Other Committees
- Andrew Deiser indicated that he has enough nominees for the university-wide committees that needed members. He will confirm next week with those selected and, if needed, he will also communicate news of any further vacancies.
Comments by Dean Furnish
He recognized that we all had many commitments and said he would thus keep his comments brief. He acknowledged that we’d had a difficult year and were dealing with a budget crisis. However, he stated that we in CALS had handled it well and noted that we are well-placed to move forward. He thanked us for our cooperation. He reminded us of the CALS Awards Ceremony and Reception and encouraged us to come and celebrate the successes of our students and colleagues.
Martin called meeting to close. Motion to adjourn was made by several members at once. Adjourned at 10:25am