Faculty Council Meeting of Tuesday, 14 January 2003

President: Joe Liles; Vice-president: John Woodmansee; Secretary: Floyd Bullard

Minutes

Announcements

Joe called the meeting to order at 3:53PM.

Joan Barber announced that Supervised Study continued throughout the entire second quarter under her own supervision. Faculty assignments will be made during the second semester, but the number of remaining days and the single location do not necessitate everyone’s involvement. About half the faculty and staff who are academic advisors will be asked to supervise a single study session during the second semester.

She also announced that minor changes in the disciplinary procedure have been discussed and will be brought to the faculty soon and later to the Board of Trustees.

Ginger Wilson introduced Sarah Russell to the faculty. She will be teaching history.

Joe asked a question on behalf of Carol O’Dell who is on the admissions task force. How would the faculty feel about all full-time faculty being required to serve on the selection committee on a rotational basis, about once every four or five years? Discussion ensued for about 10 minutes. Most people felt it was important for faculty to be on the selection committee, and some felt it should count as a committee assignment, though there was not total agreement on the latter. Ginger Wilson, who is on the admissions task force, took note of the comments to take back to the task force.

Agenda Item: Homework Policy

Joe announced that this would be the only agenda item. He shared via a handout (see appendix at the end of these minutes) a proposal developed by an ad hoc committee for addressing the issue of how much homework is assigned to students at NCSSM.

There was some discussion about the item in the Opening Principles that stated that AP classes would routinely require more out-of-class work. Some teachers felt that this suggested a greater importance to AP classes, while others felt it reflected the greater density in the content. The former believed that all classes should be treated the same as regards homework.

The fifth bulleted item, about being “understanding and compassionate” and “recognizing different learning styles” was the subject of some discussion. Concern was expressed that it seems to say there’s something we’re not doing, while its intent (Joe said) was to acknowledge what we’re already doing. A suggestion was made to state “We believe that the faculty at NCSSM are…” rather than “...it is necessary for faculty to be…”.

Discussion began on the second part of the proposal. It began with a desire that it be even more explicit that “out-of-class work” means the grand total of all work, including reading, research, lab preps, problem sets, etc.

There was discussion about the meaning of “on average”. Dot Doyle said that the intent was that “the average student [if well placed, in a class where there is placement] will work 4 hours a week to make a B”. Some faculty members were unhappy putting any number of hours on paper because of the variability in the amount of work students of different abilities/backgrounds require for success.

Concern was expressed that perhaps some few teachers are out in the blue assigning way too much work. What if this is true, and the rest of the faculty, who assign a reasonable amount of work, are the ones to compensate and compensate? The solution is for Steve to address those faculty individually who need to assign less work.

It was suggested that bulleted item number 3 become merely an example of item number 2. Joe agreed to do this.

There was more concern expressed about the four-hour limit. Are we setting up a situation in which our best and brightest students are not challenged to reach their full potential?

It was asked whether a decision would be made about this by the administration soon. Steve answered, Yes. By the end of this week, Academic Programs will send a written statement to parents, students, faculty, and staff sating what will be done to make sure students are given a reasonable amount of work to do. It will likely include a statement including a number of hours of homework assigned per class.

Joe expressed concern (and some faculty voiced agreement) that homework has become the “whipping boy” of the stress problem, when in fact the problem results from much more than that. It was also pointed out that at many schools, parents are sent letters (and asked to sign them, acknowledging their consent) whenever students take AP courses, saying that the student will spend 1.5 hours a day on this class alone. If we start advertising that we give less homework, it diminishes the value and the perceived value of the education at our school.

Jerry said that this was only a beginning, not an end, and he would like to revisit it later and modify it as needed if it isn’t working.

The meeting adjourned at 5:17PM.