February 19, 2002, 2002 Minutes

Members present: Trudy Banta, Karen Black, Victor Borden, Bob Bringle, Sharon Hamilton, Sara Heiliger, Susan Kahn, Steve MacLaughlin

Members absent: None

Status of NCA Accreditation Team

NCA has named a chair for our visiting team, Phillip Certain, Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Vic suggested that, in preparation for the team visit, we think about issues that might concern the team and plan experiences that address those issues-for example, the part-time faculty issue.

Status of Civic Engagement Self-Study and Task Force

Bob Bringle explained that the civic engagement inventory will be a key source of information for the Civic Engagement special emphasis self-study. He will also draw on various campus reports and on central initiatives sponsored by his office. For the civic engagement inventory, sample entries are being created, so that when deans go to fill out their information, they will see appropriate examples.

Steve explained that the inventory is set up so that the deans can first fill in basic information and then come back with more detailed information. The inventory is not intended to capture work carried out by individual faculty members, but rather unit- or program-wide initiatives.

Susan suggested that someone should search the IUPUI Web site for information on civic engagement initiatives in the schools. For example, the School of Science has a Web page for research that includes information on projects related to civic engagement.

For the purposes of self-study organization and Web organization, it was suggested that the civic engagement self-study and the teaching and learning self-study be constructed similarly.

For the teaching and learning self-study, Susan plans to write front pages for each menu item and then longer narratives to go behind these pages. Menu items will reflect the major goals and objectives for teaching and learning in the strategic plan.

The group discussed whether the teaching and learning section of the Web site should be a part of the self-study section or be an independent section. Karen commented that since the primary purpose of the teaching and learning section is to serve as part of the NCA self-study, then we should organize it as part of the accreditation section of the site.

Trudy raised the concern that the team might be disappointed in the size and quality of the research, scholarship, and creative activity section of the site, since we"re focusing mainly on developing teaching and learning and civic engagement. Committee members made several suggestions for building up this area of the portfolio: linking it to the Research and Sponsored Programs Web site; including back-up information for parts of the criteria that address research; and linking to school and department research pages and projects. We will need to make clear to the review team which sections are the special emphases and explain that other section will be more fully developed later.

Vic suggested that once the accreditation review is completed we save the portfolio as it was for future reference, and then continue to build on it.

Another suggestion was to change the menu bar for the teaching and learning section to include the following categories:

  • Student learning
  • Effective teaching
  • Student access and support

Karen added that the mission statement should be part of the navigation bar so that it is available on every page.

Status of Self-Study Plan, GIRs, Teaching and Learning Self-Study

Susan rewrote the self-study plan after the last Future Group meeting. The previous focus of the plan was on assessment processes; now we are focusing on the goals and objectives for teaching and learning in the strategic plan.

In addition, she made substantial additions to GIR 16.

Suggestions for E.C. Moore Session by Trudy and Susan on 3/1

The presentation is on the portfolio and the self-study. This is an opportunity to make IUPUI faculty aware of what we are doing. Sharon suggested soliciting examples of student and faculty work from symposium participants.