Faculty Council Meeting of Tuesday, 22 April 2003

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

Minutes

Announcements

Joe reminded everyone that at the 6 May FC meeting, Bill Carey will attend the FC meeting.  We may want to discuss the relationship between the faculty and the Board, the multi-year contract for the ED, and/or the role of the faculty in the formation of the vision for NCSSM.

Joe reminded everyone to complete their evaluations of the ED by the end of the month.

Marilyn Link announced that Research Symposium Day is coming up.  She requested that faculty members bring their laptop computers for student presenters to use, be prepared to take attendance, and make sure things are running smoothly for the student presenters.  She will send an email request for volunteers.  (Many are needed.)

Joe introduced and welcomed Jim Cunningham—Emily Gallagher’s temporary replacement during her maternity leave. 

Agenda Item: Discussion and voting on issues related to the proposal by the Curriculum and Standards Task Force regarding a trimester system.  (See appendix to these minutes for a list of the 15 items on the ballot.)

Joe began discussing the 15 proposed ballot items one at a time.  Discussion ensued.

Steve pointed out that wording on some questions was a bit ambiguous and should be clarified during the discussion so the Task Force could know how to interpret the votes.  (e.g., should item number one say “most juniors” instead of “the average junior”?  And is it talking about six courses at a time or about the equivalent of six courses during the school year?  In response to the latter of these questions, there was general agreement to interpret this question as “… is the current six-course load too heavy…”.  In response to the former question, there was general agreement to change “the average…” to “most…”)

Similar changes and interpretations were made to item 2.

In item number 6, “we” was changed to “NCSSM”.

In item number 7, there was disagreement about what was meant by an “equitable curriculum”.  Does it mean, for example, that all students had the opportunity to work to his or her fullest potential?  Or that assessment is the same in all classes?  Or something else?  Steve said that in fact the Task Force was thinking of the same assessment in all classes.  Someone commented that “fair and equitable” does not mean “the same”.  It was agreed upon to have two voting items: (a) for curriculum and (b) for assessment.

Item 9 caused a small stir.  People did not think the two alternatives were mutually exclusive or distinct.  It was suggested to change 9 to read, “Should we be teaching college-level material to students who are ready for it, so that they can place out of it and not have to take it in college?”   That change was made.

In item 10, there was a suggestion to change “prominent” to “available”.  It was agreed to have both on the ballot as 10a and 10b.

It was suggested to add an item 16: “Should Internet access in the dorms be limited at night?”  That was added.

Votes were then made and the meeting adjourned.

Appendix: Items voted upon and results.

Below are the results of the survey taken in Faculty Council yesterday. Forty-eight surveys were returned. Since not everyone answered all questions, the totals for some questions are less than forty-eight. Since many people did not fill in the blank for question eleven, we did not separate the answers by discipline.

1. Most juniors take six academic courses. In your opinion, is the current six-course load too heavy for most NCSSM juniors? 5 42 1

2. Seniors are required to be enrolled in at least five academic courses. In your opinion, is this requiring too much academic work for most seniors at NCSSM? 0 48 0

3. Do you believe students would have a richer academic experience as a result of taking fewer classes at one time than in our current schedule? 6 31 9

4. Would you like to see an academic program that allowed students to increase their academic loads based on successful academic performance? 44 1 2

5. Do you think that teachers should teach fewer classes at one time than in our current schedule? 9 30 8

6. In your opinion, have we adequately assessed our current curriculum? 5 39 3

7. a. In your opinion, is our current curriculum fair and equitable overall? 36 3 8

b. In your opinion, is our current assessment fair and equitable overall? 20 15 5

8. In your opinion, should the focus of our curriculum be on serving the best and the brightest in N.C.? 44 1 3

9. Should we be teaching college level material to students who are ready for it so that they could place out of the course in college? 42 5 0

10. a. In your opinion should Advanced Placement courses be prominent in our curriculum? 7 37 2

b. In your opinion should Advanced Placement courses be available in our curriculum? 41 3 0

11. In your opinion, does your discipline __________________ need to redesign its curriculum? 22 21 4

12. Do you believe we should be planning curriculum changes for a trimester system? 13 30 3

13. Do you believe we should be planning curriculum changes for a semester system? 32 9 4

14. Do you endorse the Draft Recommendation of the Curriculum Assessment and Standards Task Force as currently written? 11 30 5

15. Do you have confidence in the curriculum change process as defined so far? 9 34 3

16. Should internet access be limited at night (sometime after midnight)? 37 4 3