Dean's Council Meeting

College of Arts and Sciences

October 3, 2007

Present:  E. Boquet, M. Coleman, R. DeWitt, M. Gogol, F. Hannafey, D. Keenan, M. Kubasik, P. Lane, J. Leatherman, M. LoMonaco, J. McCarthy, D. McFadden, J. Orman, S. Peterson, S. Rakowitz, R. Rodrigues, G. Sauer, J. Shanahan, J. Simon, M. Sourieau, and D. Winn

Not Present: L. O'Connor, J. Escobar

The meeting convened at 3:30 p.m.

Dean's Introductory Remarks

Campus Currents—The Dean shared a request from Meredith Guinness, Assistant Director of Academic Marketing and Communications. Meredith asked that department chairs inform their faculty of the Newsbreakers column in the Campus Currents, which highlights faculty accomplishments University wide. The Dean asked chairs to encourage their faculty to share their successes with Ms. Guinness for publication. Ms. Guinness mentioned that junior faculty were under represented and felt that part of the reason could be due to unawareness. The deadline date for the November and December issue is October 22. Ms. Guinness will contact the Dean's office with future deadline dates. The next issue will be published in February; however, the deadline is not yet determined.

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Meeting—The College faculty meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 17. During the meeting, the Dean will introduce all new tenure-track and full-time visiting faculty within the College. A brief highlight of new faculty should be sent to the attention of Ms. Jean Daniele via e-mail to assure appropriate introduction. A welcoming reception will be part of the College meeting.

Work Study Update—Dr. Elizabeth Boquet shared additional information relative to the newly implemented work study procedures. Boquet contacted Kim Droniak, Director of Financial Aid, to ask if there were a limit to the number of work studies allotted per department. Ms. Droniak mentioned that a questionnaire was distributed to departments in April offering the opportunity to express their work study needs. Financial Aid will evaluate the needs for each department and divide the work study students accordingly. In the next few weeks, there may be an opportunity to address additional work study needs for those departments who are in need. Boquet recommended that chairs, who require additional students, contact Ms. Droniak at extension 2063.

Training Workshop—the Dean informed the Council that Human Resources and/or Computing and Network Services will invite them to a training workshop for electronic submission of Payroll Action Notice forms. The paperwork relative to non-exempt staff will no longer be submitted by hardcopy. Invitations will be sent approximately sixty days prior to the department's staff person's review. The Dean attended this workshop and assured the chairs that the workflow system was very user friendly.

Approval of Minutes

Dr. John McCarthy moved to approve the September 12, 2007 Dean's Council minutes, and Dr. Phil Lane seconded the motion. All were in favor of approving the minutes.

College Travel Funding

The Dean reminded the chairs to forward their request for any foreseen additional travel needs they might have for the academic year 2007-08. The present departmental travel budget allotment is $1,000 per full-time faculty member, which was set approximately five or six years ago. Because of inflation it seems that the average travel costs for the majority of faculty is approximately $1,400. The Dean encouraged the remainder of the chairs to forward their requests a.s.a.p. via e-mail to his attention with a copy to Ms. Daniele, so he could plan the College budget appropriately for the year. Those not requiring additional travel should still communicate with the Dean, so he could confirm they are not in need of assistance. Because the Dean's discretionary account was decreased by approximately fifty percent, it will be difficult to approve 100% of the departments' total requests. The Dean assured the chairs that he will do the best he could with the funding that he has.

Program Director's Responsibilities

The Dean requested of Drs. Richard DeWitt and Susan Rakowitz that the roles and responsibilities for program directors document be brought before the College faculty to consider adding it to the College Governance Document. Presently the Governance Document only addresses the responsibilities for the department chairs. Dean Poincelot and Dr. Miriam Gogol worked together with a committee to draft a list of program directors responsibilities.

Gogol mentioned that the process was relatively non-controversial. A sub-committee, consisting of Drs. Mary Anne Carolan, Adam King, Rose Rodrigues and Ellen Umansky, engaged in writing the proposed responsibilities for program directors. Drs. Poincelot and Gogol worked with a College Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary Studies to discuss the recommendation of the sub-committee. Approval to move forward with the implementation process was agreed upon. These responsibilities were posted on the College website in March 2007. Dr. David McFadden motioned to recommend that the responsibilities of program directors be added to the College Governance Document; this was seconded by McCarthy. All were in favor of the recommendation. Rakowitz will put the Council's recommendation on the agenda for a future College Faculty meeting. A two-thirds vote will be needed before implementation.

The Core Unmasked

Dr. Kathryn Nantz discussed the upcoming event, The Core Unmasked, which is designed to allow departments in the College of Arts and Sciences to provide the University community with information about their core course offerings. She thanked the Dean for his support and assistance in naming the event. The Core Unmasked will be held on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 from 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. in the Barone Campus Center Oak Room. Each department will design a display to provide students with a way to learn about their offerings. This event was planned prior to registration in hopes that students will become more knowledgeable about what courses are offered to best suite their needs. From the social sciences prospective, some students are not aware of the difference between economics, politics, psychology and sociology.

The purpose of The Core Unmasked, which was developed to initiate the Core Integration Initiative, is to benefit the University community, in general, not just the student body. It is of value to the College that the broader faculty body learns more about core offerings, because they are on the frontline advising students. They may be aware of what courses are required to fulfill the core, but knowing what courses departments actually offer could be very helpful. Knowledge about the core can potentially be advantageous to departments such as Admissions and Development. The Development area can utilize this information when speaking to potential donors about the core curriculum.

Nantz recommended that the departments be as creative as possible. She offered assistance from the Center for Academic Excellence. The Center for Academic Excellence will transfer $400 to defray expenses related to this project—supplies, such as pens, pencils, bookmarks, or other give-aways, along with the possible need for the use of Printing and Graphics or the Media Center. Arrangements will be made to place the funds into the operating accounts of each department, account number 7300. Regardless if departments utilize the entire $400 the money will remain in their account for future departmental needs throughout the academic year.

Nantz opened the floor for questions and/or suggestions.

• Gogol asked how they would publicize this event to students. Nantz mentioned that they will use multiple sources—such as FUSA, First Year Experience (FYE) and posters. Gogol suggested that the "A" Dean's talk up this event when the students come in to visit them for assistance.
• Dr. Dennis Keenan suggested that a reminder be sent to all College faculty a few days prior to October 31. Gogol mentioned another option to publicize this event would be through StagWeb. An announcement through StagWeb can be arranged by contacting Mr. Bruce Bastien, and a desired time frame to run the announcement could be made—the entire week prior to the event was suggested.
• Ms. Susan Peterson encouraged the departments to enlighten students with information particularly on the courses that tend to have difficulty meeting the enrollment requirement. Nantz agreed, because sometimes the reason these courses do not run is due to the lack of knowledge on the students' part; they do not have any idea what these courses are and how they would fit into their curriculum. Keenan mentioned that the overarching goal is not to fill in the gaps but to educate the students about the core.
• Rakowitz asked if departments, within social sciences, should coordinate their presentation together or should they individualize their displays? All social science courses most likely focus on the same population. Keenan commented that, as a member of the Core Advisory Committee, the University's objective is to work together to help our students understand why the core is important, the importance of the integration of the core, and how we demonstrate the overall picture.
• Boquet mentioned that the University's goal is to think in integrated ways about the core. The Dean's Council is the body to facilitate these initiatives, so she suggested that individual presentations be demonstrated with a linkage to other departments keeping in mind the integration piece of the University's Core Integration initiative. Boquet mentioned that use of a horizontal/vertical image could be very helpful in making connections that would cut across departments and demonstrate the way core experiences could assist students to grow deeper within their major.
• Dr. Marti LoMonaco mentioned that there are obvious courses based on a student's interest and/or major that could be linked together. She recommended that departments exhibit a sampling of core options that would integrate nicely with a student's specific major and would supplement their learning. Making these links is helpful to the students. Nantz agreed that an interface analogy would be helpful.
• Rakowitz recommended that departments have some descriptive materials that link to another department. For example, the dialogue could read that psychology answers interesting questions that sociology raises.
• Dr. John Orman mentioned that a poster gearing towards the undecided would be advantageous. The idea is to send a message informing students that surfing the core could lead to a major of interest.

Preview Day Problems

The Dean received feedback from some departments that Preview Day did not run smoothly. He opened the floor to discuss why the department chairs felt this event was problematic.

• The date was a problem, because it was Yon Kippur.
• McFadden mentioned, on a good note, that the History Department experienced the most widely attended Preview Day this year opposed to previous years.
• McCarthy mentioned that was concerned with the size of his room for the past several years. The Biology, Communication and English departments experienced the same difficulty with their room assignment. Lane mentioned that there just are not enough large size rooms to accommodate all departments.
• Sauer recommended the Pre-Med advising session be held at a different time then the academic programs. This may eliminate some of the difficulties with traffic flow.
• Dr. Matthew Kubasik recommended that two sessions per day be organized to alleviate the room size situations. Rakowitz shared that this was the procedure in the past, but they experienced difficulty finding faculty volunteers. Boquet thought that with the increase in faculty hires for the College, it may be a good time to revisit the possibility of having two sessions again.
• Dean Poincelot mentioned that he would request that the department chairs be contacted prior to room assignment to determine their needs.
• Dr. James Shanahan had difficulty answering the students' questions within a 45 minute time frame. He suggested that a one hour session be implemented.
• Sauer recommended that the Bookstore be opened on Preview Day, so perspective students have the opportunity to purchase memorabilia. He observed that other institutions request e-mails from their visitors, so that they could follow up with useful information. This is another way to reach out to potential students.

Dean Poincelot will schedule a meeting with Karen Pellegrino, Director of Admissions, to discuss these issues. Drs. Keenan, Sauer, and Shanahan were interested in attending this meeting. Ms. Daniele will schedule a meeting to accommodate everyone's schedule.

The meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.