Minutes for Faculty Council, March 24, 1998

Meeting called to order at 3:50 by John Kolena.

Guests in attendance included Sally Adkin and Joan Barber.

Agenda Items:

  1. Fairness and Diversity Commission Report: The Board is holding a special meeting to review this report on Wednesday, March 25. It has been suggested that since this report was commissioned by the Board and is directed to the Board, that we should wait until the Board has reviewed and/or accepted the report. It was also noted, however, that the faculty has rarely sat back and waited for others to act and that we should perhaps discuss those things that we, as a faculty, can do something about. Such issues as a faculty vision for the school, the "old versus new" faculty division, diversity training, attracting minorities to the staff, and faculty orientation were given as some of those issues that we should address. We concluded that the short time allowed in a Faculty Council Meeting was insufficient to discuss these issues and that we need to look for some other way to have more lengthy, in-depth discussions. Faculty members were urged to attend parts of the Board meeting.

Student Workload Discussion: Most of the time allotted to this discussion was used to give the results of several informal surveys that faculty had made of students and/or alumnae.

Marilyn Link - survey of three classes

Marilyn asked her students about the workload in their course, whether they thought their workload was average, above average, or below average. Most students replied that their workload seemed slightly above average.

Helen Compton & Julie Graves Faculty Survey:

This survey was based on the number of grades, tests, projects, labs, etc. that students did in each teacher’s class. From these "typical" students schedules were created, showing the number of graded assignments each student would have in a quarter. It was noted that tests are natural ending to a unit of work, so the number of test should not be all that important. It was also noted that many of us are giving more graded assignments than we did in the past. The number of labs, reports, and projects has increased.

Leslie Brinson’s Advanced Biology Classes:

Leslie asked her classes how stressed they were and what they were stressed about. Most felt good about their own situation and academics but felt least good about food, facilities, and technology on campus.

Leslie Brinson as Curriculum Council Member

Leslie Brinson and John Borwick surveyed student near the end of the third quarter. Sixty seniors and 88 seniors replied. Result of their survey were handed out. Choices on the survey ranged from 1 to 5 and in most cases the distribution of responses was "bell-shaped", as expected. One question, "How challenged are you by the courses you are taking?" was heavily skewed toward the upper end with nearly 80% of all students responding either 4 or 5, indicating that they feel very challenged by the courses they are taking.

John Kolena – Alumnae Email Survey

One hundred forty-four recent graduates (’96, ’97) were polled and 127 replied. When asked whether they were more stressed at NCSSM than at college, 48% said yes, while 23% said they had about the same level of stress while 30% said they experienced less stress at NCSSM.

In the discussion that followed, it was apparent that quality of life, stress, and workload are difficult issues to quantify. Giving fewer grades means that each grade counts more. Shift work from the junior year to the senior year may have a negative impact on seniors completing college applications. Many students are less "well-rounded" when they leave NCSSM than when they came because we stress academics too much. Much of our concern is based on the small group of students for which the workload and stress are overburdening. Some of these students fail and are robbed of their self-esteem. For some students the transition from schools that are too easy to a school that is difficult, along with leaving the security of home, is and will always be too much to handle. Some students feel that they were not adequately warned that NCSSM would be as hard as it is. We may never be able to eliminate this problem. It was agreed that if we think we are requiring too much of our students that the entire faculty needs to be a part of the discussion and cutbacks will have to be across the board and agreed to by all.

 

Submitted by

John Goebel, Secretary