Meeting Minutes for March 28, 2018
Minutes
The Academic Senate Committee on Academic Development/Elective Academic Programs met on March 28, 2018 at 2:00 pm in M 344A
Committee Members in Attendance:
Tirandai Hemraj-Benny (Chairperson); Neera Mohess (Secretary); Rezan Akpinar (Faculty); Anuradha Srivastava (Faculty); Manachanallur Ravi (Faculty); Merlinda Drini (Faculty Jodi Van Der Horn-Gibson (Faculty); Ilse Schrynemakers (Faculty); Joel Kuszai (Steering Committee); Emily Tai (Steering Committee); Susan Riekert (Steering Committee)
Business:
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 pm
- The minutes of the last meeting were approved.
- The Committee welcomed Academic Senate members Joel Kuszai and Emily Tai to participate in the meeting and provide guidance on evolving the Committee’s Bylaws Charges.
- The Chairperson referred to the ADC Guideline found online and proposed that the names of members be updated to those currently serving. Joel Kuszai offered to look for and provide the Word version of the document to the Committee. It was also noted that the QCC ADC website might need to be updated.
- The Committee went through the five bylaws charges:
“Arrange for the presentation of lectures, seminars, workshops and exhibits to specifically include effectiveness of instruction.” Comments included:
i. CETL has become the central QCC hub for instructional pedagogy - perhaps instead of creating workshops this Committee could focus on helping promote CETL’s events through:
- committee members bringing up events at department meetings
- e-mailing CETL’s calendar to faculty
ii. Why not create a “Faculty Research” event where QCC faculty could present their research and creating videos of those (and other) workshops that could be posted online
iii. Emily Tai discussed becoming involved with student academic clubs by promoting them and locating gaps in club offerings
iv. Sponsor student workshops (e.g., in the Chemistry department) may have a beneficial effect on the students/ student club
“Review, evaluate, and report to the Academic Senate on the system of student evaluation of faculty.” Comments included:
v. There were 137 faculty responses from the Committee’s survey regarding the student evaluation form for faculty. It was suggested to send out an additional 1-item survey asking whether faculty were satisfied with the survey.
vi. Create a long-term study/analysis of the student evaluation form, reporting findings to the Academic Senate.
vii. This Committee can recommend changes to the form, submitting these recommendations to the Academic Senate
“Consult with the departments concerned, regarding specific programs being planned.” Comments included:
viii. The charge is so broad as to lack clarity/meaning
ix. The charge’s expansiveness allows the Committee to create any number of different projects to focus on
“Consult with the Director of External Affairs, the Director of the Performing Arts Center and the Vice President of Institutional Advancement regarding scheduling events.” Comments included:
x. Does this charge still apply since there is the Queensborough Events e-mail that includes weekly scheduled events?
“Oversee and promote activities beneficial to elective programs such as the CUNY-BA/BS, International Studies and Honors programs.” Comments included:
xi. Perhaps remove the “oversee” from the charge and focus on reviewing and promoting these programs
xii. Overseeing these programs are within the committee’s purview and can be a focus
xiii. Even if overseeing were within the Committee’s purview, some members expressed reluctance to oversee programs in a supervisory manner.
5. The Chairperson thanked Steering Committee members for attending and promised to discuss their suggestions and advice at the next ADC meeting
Adjourned at 3:30 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Neera Mohess
Committee on Academic Development/Elective Academic Programs, Secretary
Minutes typed on 3-28-2018
