UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA
                                                       
                                    Faculty Senate 2007-08
________________________________________________________________   

University of South Alabama
Faculty Senate
2007-2008
January 16, 2008
University Library, Rm.110

Approved Minutes

Present:        Amare, Baggett, Britt, Brown, Bru, Burnham, Carnahan, Crumb, Engin, Estis,  Falkos, Hamilton, Heins, Irion, Johnsten, I. Khan, Z. Khan, King, Kinniburgh, Lauderdale, Loomis, Major, Meyer, Morris, Perez-Pineda, Porter, Prendergast,  Prescott, Prokhorov, Romey, Robinson, Sachs, Simpson, Tate, Woodford, Tony Wright, Tootie Wright.

Excused:      Aliabadi, Aucoin, Carter, Doran, Fresne, Haas, Li, Pettyjohn, Rowell,
Santoli, Vrettos.

Unexcused: Allsion, Byrne, Dardeau, Douglass, Green, McNair, Phelan, Sherman, Teplick.

1.  The meeting was called to order at 3:00 P.M. by Chair Tate.  Quorum present.

2.  Approval of Minutes:
Motion by Chair to approve minutes for the November 28 meeting; no changes or suggestions; unanimous approval.

3. Guest Speaker:
Gordon Stone of the Higher Education Partnership spoke to the general caucus about the upcoming March 6 Higher Ed Day in Montgomery.  He encouraged everyone to attend this meeting and he distributed promotional fliers to share with our colleagues. Also he made everyone aware of their expanded summer program and their developing student groups. Membership is $12 annually.   

4. Chair’s Report:  Chair Tate summarized points from the written report which is available in its entirety online. Highlights are listed as below:

• Faculty Senate Executive Committee, Nov. 29, 2007
  At the request of the Faculty Senate, the Executive Committee met to write a letter outlining the concerns the Senate had regarding the process that the administration has taken in determining whether football should be added to the athletic program at USA.  The letter was presented to President Moulton on Dec. 3rd by Chair Tate and Chair-elect Sachs.  A copy of the letter is available at:  http://www.usouthal.edu/fsenate/records/reports/footballletter.html
• Faculty Senate Executive Committee, Dec. 5, 2007
  The Executive Committee met to discuss suggestions for challenges for the university, as requested by the university administration.  The president’s office will be updating the five-year progress report “Achieving a Collective Vision” that was issued in 2003.  Many of the suggestions dealt with expanding the international profile of the University.
• USA Board of Trustees, Dec. 6, 2007
  The USA Board of Trustees unanimously adopted the resolution for adding NCAA-sanctioned football to the athletic program and for adding a marching band program to the academic programs. 
• Faculty Football Survey
  A five-question web survey about the football issue was conducted Dec.3-14.  The initial results from the first 3 days of the survey, with responses from 939 participants, were presented to the USA Board of Trustees at their meeting. 
• Faculty Senate Executive Committee, Jan. 9, 2008
  Susan Santoli, current chair of the Environmental Quality committee has had to resign her position due to personal reasons.  A member of the committee will act as an interim chair until the new term starts in April.

5. Old Business:
The Academic Affairs Policy Committee discussed the “Resolution Endorsing a Modification to the Late Course Withdrawal Policy”.  The discussion centered mainly on the problems involved with implementing the proposed policy.  There has been strong objection from the Registrar’s Office for the policy and there was concern that the benefits for having this policy may be outweighed by the cost of implementation.  The group is looking at a compromise which could move the withdrawal deadline up to the end of the 10th week of classes, as well as increase communication regarding the consequences of withdrawing from a course.

6.  New Business.
Cynthia Crumb brought forward an issue from the Mathematics & Statistics Department regarding the student evaluation forms.  She noted that the preparation of these forms represents a significant cost to their department in secretarial hours.  In addition, she pointed out that the documents that accompany the returned forms which show comparisons between scores by department, by college, and by university are flawed.

In view of the fact that these forms represent what could be used as a measure of teaching effectiveness while also providing a comparison of this measure with different individuals and groups in the university, it would be in the interest of the faculty to insist that the comparison problems be addressed.  The problems stem from the manner in which the forms are processed. 

A second problem is that there is no year by year comparison of the individual score so that the evaluator could discern whether improvement in a given area occurs over time.

The faculty of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics would therefore request that an ad hoc committee be formed in the Faculty Senate with the mission of creating an instrument to measure student evaluation of teaching effectiveness.  This measure would then need to be designed in such a way that data can be collected from it allowing departmental, college, and university comparisons and time line comparisons for each individual instructor or professor being evaluated.

Pertinent questions:
1.  Who should carry the burden of cost for these evaluations?
2.  Who should complete the evaluations?  (Should only students who finish the course - - or who finish a specified portion of the course?)
3.  Is an on line survey a possibility?  Is there a way to make this instrument meaningful in that a significant part of each class completes it?
4.  How much bearing do comparative results have on tenure and promotion decisions?  How much bearing do comparative results have on award decisions?
5.  Who are the campus experts on surveying and on questionnaire development?  Have they had a part in this instrument?  Should they have a part in the data gathering for this evaluation of teaching?

In response to this request, Chair Tate asks that all senators send digital/paper copies of their various course evaluations so that the Senate may move forward in this inquiry.

7.  Committee Reports:

• Academic Development and Mentoring (Steve Morris): This committee will be sending questionnaires to new faculty regarding their evaluation of new faculty orientation.A survey as been sent out with regards to mentoring.  Report to be given at a later meeting.
• Environmental Quality (Susan Santoli): Smoot Major will be replacing Susan Santoli as Chair of the committee for the rest of the term.
• Evaluation (Tom Johnsten): The Faculty Survey is almost ready to go and the final results will be shared with the Executive Committee before they are posted on the web.
• Planning and Development (John Sachs): No report.
• Policies and Faculty Handbook (Eric Loomis): No report.
• Salary and Benefits (Jean Irion): No report.
• Technology Utilization (Jie Li): No report.

8.  Caucus Leader Reports:

• Allied Health (Zari Aliabadi): No report.
• Arts and Sciences (Tony Wright): No report.
• Continuing Education (Elliott Lauderdale): No report.
• Computer and Information Sciences (Michael Doran): No report.
• Education (Leah Kinniburgh): Founders Day will be celebrated the first of February. Linda Darling-Hammond, a renowned educational researcher will be featured as a distinguished lecturer on Feb. 7. There will be a conference held within the College of Ed. featuring presentations by faculty members and their partners with whom they have collaborated in Mobile and Baldwin Co. School Systems.
  Search committees are in place for the following positions:
  Dept. Chair - Leadership and Teacher Education
  Faculty member in Gifted Education
  Faculty member in Reading Education
  Faculty member in Secondary Language Arts Education
  A committee is in place that is working on the creation of a Master's Degree Program in English as a Second Language
  Engineering (Ali Engin): No report.
• Library (Amy Prendergast): No report.
• Mitchell College of Business (Greg Prescott): No report.
• Medicine (Kevin Green): Dr. Strada has been named the new Dean of the College of Medicine.
• Nursing (Karen Hamilton): No report.

9.  Meeting adjourned at 3:52 P.M.

University of South Alabama  -  Faculty Senate -  Mobile, AL 36688-0002
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Last date changed: March 26, 2008
URL: http://www.usouthal.edu/usa/fsenate/records/minutes/20080116.html