Minutes of ALS faculty Assembly 8/14/2014

Recorded by Angela Hunter, CALS Assembly Secretary

Called to order by Presiding Officer Floyd Martin at 10:07am

1)Minutes: Yoder moved to approve minutes, Cheatham seconded. Minutes approved.

2)Introduction of Dean Furnish, who introduced staff of dean's office.

Johanna Miller Lewis, Associate Dean for undergraduate programs

AnindyaGhosh, Associate Dean for graduate programs and research

Mary Baxley, Assistant to dean (and the fastest way to get on his calendar).

Angela Bell, Student Development Specialist for online programs

Michael Hale, Learning Technology Services Specialist

Kim Harper, Communications Director

Alisha Harris, Education Counselor for Science Pre-Admits

Laura McClellan, Director of Finance

Carmen Robinson, Assistant Dean for Student Services

Jackie Willis, Administrative Assistant

Announcements

Recent retirees and new faculty were announced in the various departments.

Report by LilianWichinsky: Community Connections Center interim executive director

The CCC will be overseeing all service learning and community engagement. She will be setting the infrastructure this first year. A service learning academy will be held in spring; deans will recommend faculty for participation. There will be a stipend. The CCC can create partnerships for specific classes or projects. She wants to encourage participation: currently only 10% of faculty participate in service learning of some kind, and they would like to increase that over next 3-5 years.

Report by Brad Cushman, Curator of the Fine Arts galleries

Highlights for semester: some printsgifted to the gallery will be on display soon. In Gallery 2 there will be a Cathy Nugent art installation opening at the end of August. Later in semester there will be a faculty biennial. Gallery hours are 9-5 M-F and after Labor Day there will be weekend hours as well. Do come by or arrange to bring a class by if there are connections between any of your courses and an exhibit in the galleries.

Paul Yoder, Director of Cooper Honors Program in English

Cooper honors lectures: April 1-2 Martha Redbone Roots Project will be here for a 2-day residency with many events. Other lectures and events will be announced as they develop.

Rolf Groesbeck, on behalf of Art Spree

Art Spree is a concert series. Most events are free to UALR faculty and students, with reduced admission for students from other universities. Handout provided with events for the year.

Yslan Hicks, on behalf of Theater Arts and Dance

Season begins with The Little Shop of Horrors in October. The BFA dance students will present the Fall Dance Harvest. The Fringe Festival in the spring showcases short student works. Spring dance concert in April (student and faculty works). Other events will be announced.

Floyd Martin: Request to continue the various ad hoc committees, especially the college core ad hoc committee. They (and we) still need to consider the final 3 hours of the college core (commonly called “flex hours”). If you were on that committee and would like to continue, please let Floyd Martin know.

Committee Elections for CALS Committees

Notice about committees that require department elections--these are listed on the agenda

There are some that are not in the generic governance document that are in the CALS proposed document, and those would be ad hoc committees for this year. These are distinguished with a special symbol on that list. Department chairs should make sure that these positions are elected or filled in the next few weeks. Let Floyd Martin know the results.

A. Motion (Ad Hoc CALS Faculty Governance Committee, chair Linda Holzer):

That the Constitution for the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences Assembly be approved. (See attachment A)

Linda Holzer presented the document and asked for a motion to accept ALS Governance document. Moved and seconded.

Cheatham: needs an implementation process and a date: perhaps the semester after which the chancellor signs the document.Holzer accepted this as friendly amendment. No further discussion. Approved by acclamation with amendment. Holzer will distribute to CALS listserv.

B. Motion (Ad hoc CALS College Core Curriculum Committee, chair Erin Finzer):

That students majoring in disciplines within CALS, beginning Fall 2015, may fulfill the 8 hours in the core of lab science courses by taking any lab science courses approved by the University Core Council.

Motionpresented by Erin Finzer, chair of ad hoc core curriculum committee. Moved and seconded. No discussion. Approved by acclamation.

C. Motion (Ad hoc CALS College Core Curriculum Committee, chair Erin Finzer):

That students majoring in disciplines within CALS and graduating under the 2015-2016 Undergraduate Bulletin, may fulfill the 3 flexible hours in the core by taking any social science, humanities, or oral communication course approved by the University Core Council.

Seconded. Discussion:

Hunter: Note that these categories are chosen because they are required by the Faculty Senate language in the new core curriculum. Finzer stated that this set of options would be in place until a different course or set of courses, perhaps interdisciplinary, can be created and approved. Moved and seconded.

Yoder: who is going to decide what counts as social science or humanities?

Finzer: University Core Council will set parameters for now. Going forward different parameters may be set and new configurations created by ALS, but then those will have to be passed by Univ Core Council (and curriculum process).Approved by acclamation.

Comments by Dean Furnish

He welcomes us back and to a new college. He hopes we will come to be a family in the CALS College. He believes there is renewed energy and opportunity. With change comes turmoil, but it may be that we are beyond the hump and can start moving forward. There is much that UALR can do that it is not yet doing, and he would like to be a provider of energy for these initiatives.

We are currently about 10.5% off in enrollment from last year which was already a down year. He's seen this before in Youngstown. The homework is well-known nation-wide: we need to reach out to non-traditional students, international students, work with concurrent enrollment, and consider graduate program expansion. UALR is already on this path. We (as faculty of CALS) can no longer reside in a silo and wait for admissions to do this work. Admissions and enrollment are everyone's job on campus. We don't seem to have an enrollment problem but a terribly significant retention problem. Freshmen don't stick to us very well. That's something Admissions can't do anything about, but faculty can. He encourages us to be more intentional with students, to watch their progress closely. In April we should look around our classrooms and try to see if students are likely coming back; if we’re not sure, we can reach out or turn to professionals to help intervene. All possible remedies are welcome. He solicits our input.

Dean Furnish has 3 emphases for this year:

  • One is enrollment: we need to get on the road with this. If you have not volunteered for acollege night with LR schools or a bus trip for a recruiting fair, or something similar, please consider it (or recommend others who have a good presence and would be able to help recruit, including students).
  • Second is regularizing and standardizing processes. Re-structuring seems to have addressed some looseness, but now we need to streamline, make processes more efficient, more consistent and fair. We must find a “new normal.”
  • Third is development. He plans to build relationships with the community and learn about local philanthropy. We have many things to offer the community. He is pleased to hear about the focus on service learning through the Community Connections Center—he also encourages us to consider placing students in internships, practica, etc. This is wonderful for students and is also good for the community. He will be on the road a fair amount this year, for enrollment and in development. He is taking a special look at business and industry to cultivate development practices, as well as the arts community.

Martin calls meeting to close. Adjourned at 10:59am