Publications Committee, May 20, 2019

The Academic Senate Committee on Publications met on Monday, May 20, 2019, 10:00AM, Medical Arts 209

Committee Members in Attendance:

Mohammad Javdan, Chukwudi Ikwueze, Aviva Geismar, Doleres Weber, Keri Ann Smith, Vazgen Shekoyan,Kwang Hyun Kim, Faustino Quintanilla 

Business:

The meeting was called to order at 10:00AM

1. Approval of the minutes of the March 15, 2019, monthly meeting.

• Mohammad Javdan moved the motion to approve the minutes and they were unanimously approved.  

2. Welcoming new members of the Publications Committee

• Mohammad Javdan announced the presence of two new members of the Publications Committee in the persons of Dolores Weber and Kerri Ann Smith.  Kerri Ann Smith asked to know if new members could formally participate in the meeting, and Mohammad confirmed for her in the affirmative. Dolores Weber wanted to know the role of the Publications Committee. Mohammad explained that the committee’s role included checking Queensborough Community College (QCC) website to remove typos and dead links, while Aviva Geismar told her that, in order to incentivize academic departments to maintain quality webpages, the committee also evaluated academic departments’ webpages and gave awards of best and most improved webpages to winning departments.

3. Elections of the new chairperson and secretary of the Publications Committee

• Mohammad announced that a new chairperson and secretary would be elected at the meeting, because he and Chukwudi Ikwueze’s tenures expired and Senate Steering Committee required that new chairperson and secretary be elected.  Then, he called for the nomination of two members for the vancant positions. Dolores Weber nominated Aviva Geismar for the chairperson position, and Kerri Ann Smith nominated Dolores Weber for the secretary position. No one opposed either nominee. Upon voting by members, both chairperson and secretary nominees were unanimously elected. Chukwudi Ikwueze assured Dolores Weber that he would send her the Content Management System which contains instructions on how to upload minutes and agendas to the committee’s webpage; alternatively, he suggested that she should contact Dave Moretti to get trainings on how to upload minutes and agendas. The incoming team discussed some issues that it would like to pursue. Aviva Giesmar, supported by Faustino Quintanilla, would like the new team to speak to the Academic Senate about the need to improve QCC website, for doing so could help attract more students to the college. However, Kwang Hyun Kim doubted the efficacy of the suggestion as he wondered if budgetary constraints would allow the college to embark on such a major website improvement. In response, Aviva Geismar clarified her position stating that the improvement would focus on ensuring that there were consistency in quality and contents of webpages. Kerri Ann on her part would like the new team to work on ensuring that there were fewer clicks on webpages than currently available, as a way to make the site less boring. She also suggested that departments be provided with a list of items that should appear on their webpage in order to achieve some consistency in quality and content across webpages. In support of Kerri Ann's suggestion, Aviva Geismar, as an example, suggested that faculty biography on the QCC website might be required to have consistent quality and content. Mohammad reminded the new team and members that any suggestions that they may have always should be channeled to the Academic Senate through the Senate Steering Committee.

4.   Winners of the 2018-2019 Academic Departments’ Webpage Awards

• Six members, including Kwang Hyun Kin, Vazgen Shekoyan, Aviva Geismar, Chukwudi Ikwueze and Mohammad Javdan evaluated 15 academic departments’ webpages to determine the best and most improved webpages. The Business and Engineering departments won awards for best and most improved webpages, respectively. Aviva Geismar suggested that webpage evaluation results be sent to departments so that they can use such feedbacks to update their webpage. On his part, Chukwudi Ikwueze suggested that the incoming team now should make it mandatory for members to include advisory comments on their webpage evaluation results so that departments could follow such recommendations to improve their webpage.

5.    The annual report for the 2018-2019 Academic Year

• Mohammad Javdan prepared the Publications Committee’s annual report for the 2018-2019 academic year. 

Respectfully submitted,

Chukwudi Ikwueze
Committee on Publications , Secretary

Minutes typed on May 27, 2019