Dean's Council Meeting

College of Arts and Sciences

February 28, 2007

Present: D. Barton, P. Braun, M. Coleman, R. Crabtree, R. DeWitt, J. Garvey, M. Gogol, J. Goldfield, D. Greenberg, M. Kubasik, P. Lane, J. McCarthy, D. McFadden, K. Nantz, L. O'Connor, A. Payne, S. Peterson, R. Poincelot, S. Rakowitz, K. Schlichting, B. Torff, E. Umansky, D. Winn

Not Present: F. Hannafey, D. Keenan

Dean's Introductory Remarks

College Travel Policy – The Dean announced that the College has an official travel policy. We no longer need permission from anyone to go on international trips. He asked that chairs remind people of the policy details and also be sure to get to the Dean early in the year, should additional funds be required. This is necessary if we are to support colleagues and comply with the Handbook

Dr. Miriam Gogol announced that the interdisciplinary report is completed. Dr. Susan Rakowitz will be putting it onto the College website. The second of a series of meetings that Drs. Danke Li and Dina Franceschi are having will be March 8 at 12:30 p.m. in CNS 100, of the internationally-oriented interdisciplinary programs, but specifically about attributes, with Fran Potocky. Dr. Gogol also invited Dr. Dave McFadden to attend. She stated that we've tried to sort out study abroad issues that have frustrated many. Dr. Gogol congratulated the Dean on his new position at Loyola.

The Dean reminded everyone that when they're applying for grants, they need to get Development involved from the very beginning. Susan LaFrance does governmental grants, Noel Appel does foundational ones, and Rob Cottle does corporate.

The Dean mentioned that the Senior Vice President, the Faculty Salary Committee, the General Faculty, and then the Board of Trustees will be involved in setting this year's pay raises, and we need to have those before we can engage our merit process. The Dean has asked the numbers be available prior to spring break. He has mentioned to the AVP's office that faculty will need two weeks to work on all of this. Following that, the Dean's office will need at least one week so that the Dean can meet with each of the chairs. Spring break is March 12^th through 16^th. This will give the chairs the two weeks of March 19 through 23^rd and the 26^th through 30^th to do their departmental reviews. Dean/chair meetings will take place April 2^nd through 6^th. If salary determinations are not made before spring break, then it will push everything back by one week. Although the Dean has not sat down with Dr. Richard DeWitt or Dr. Rakowitz to determine where we would be under certain scenarios, the Dean is hearing from people on the Salary Committee that we're going to be at roughly 3.5% and that they negotiating the details from this. We need to sit down with our plan and see how many levels that would open up.

Dr. Kurt Schlichting then mentioned that last year this body unanimously approved a motion that two things happen. One was that the Senior Vice President take over meetings with the Faculty Salary Committee and the second was to move to a 3-year process. Dr. Rakowitz stated that Bill Lucas has been very sick and this year is a bad year to change things. The Dean noted that this was the Senior VP's first year, but that he was sympathetic to the suggestion and may act on it in coming years.

Dean's Passaround - The Dean then passed around papers which had positions available at other schools.

The Dean then moved to Item 3 and asked if anyone was opposed to that. Phil Lane so moved.

Copiers – The Dean introduced Art Payne, who had brought some issues to the Dean, and Don Barton, who works with the financial end of copying charges. Mr. Payne explained that the currentcopier lease was to terminate in July of this year but, unfortunately, we're stuck with them, for various reasons, until November '08. They have been trying to get out of the lease but it seems very unlikely that IKON will release us.

Mr. Payne itemized several issues that we have been experiencing:

1. There are currently 5 problem copiers in Canisius and Donnarumma. Mr. Payne has requested that IKON rebuild those units. Two have been rebuilt in Donnarumma and the 3 in Canisius are being rebuilt at present. However, some of the problems we have been experiencing recently are:

(a) Malicious Vandalism – in CNS 13 someone was opening the paper drawer, ripping a part out of it, and leaving it there;

(b) Overuse of copiers has always been a problem – it is cheaper to use P&G rather than using the copier;

(c) Physical Abuse – re CNS 13, Mr. Payne's suggestions were that we can put a lock on the door and only key people would have keys for it or, what Mr. Payne would prefer is to move the copier from CNS 13 and to CNS 311. Dr. McFadden stated that CNS 311 is a multi-purpose room for the History Department corridor, for make-up exams, for small group meetings, for lunch, and the laser printer, which makes the room overcrowded. Dr. McFadden preferred that the ground floor be locked. Mr. Payne then suggested that he could look into getting the laser printer and copier as one unit and Dr. McFadden and others agreed to that;

(d) Overheating – has been a problem in Donnarumma. P&G might be able to put vents in the door;

(e) Copy Paper – people are taking copy paper and putting it in their printer. Mr. Payne's budget is paying for that. He suggested that if a department needs printer paper, the paper can be requisitioned from Central Stores.

Mr. Payne stated that Printing and Graphics for the fall semester will have a wide-format printer. There will be an additional charge for that. Mr. Payne also stated that he was thinking of a satellite copy center and have one of his employees man it. He is trying to take some of the burden off the satellite units.

Mr. Payne stated that he recently went to a conference in Cornell, and they have a whole copyright department. It is a very involved issue. He suggested that maybe the University should hire a full-time copyright person.

Mr. Payne looked into course pack distribution, and Cornell sells the course packs from their printing and graphics department. It is a very involved process; Payne stated he could not see how printing and graphics could do that right now. Mr. Payne did check some things at the bookstore and stated that some things were in line but some were marked much higher than what printing and graphics would charge, i.e., P&G could do a book for $5 and the bookstore was selling it for $20. The Dean stated that we had agreed that the mark-up would be 25%. Mr. Payne said that they would look into it more.

Dr. Joel Goldfield asked if there was a way of tracking whether anyone was overusing the copier and Mr. Payne said that each person has their individual code, and printing and graphics can print out a report if requested. Several present stated that it would be helpful if they received a report from Mr. Payne monthly as to individual usage. Mr. Payne stated that he would check into it.

The Dean then asked Don Barton to explain the financial side of copying charges. Mr. Barton stated that Fairfield now has a new process where we're not encumbering any amounts at all for satellite copiers or mailroom charges. Prior to this fiscal year there was a pseudo encumbrance process that involved billing six months of expected charges based on the three years' prior spending and booking that at the beginning of the fiscal year and not removing it until the end of the fiscal year. After feedback from several faculty, they decided to scrap any kind of encumbrance for this fiscal year and go with just straight monthly billing. This put more work for Mr. Payne's group because they now need to go out and collect data from those areas that they cannot obtain electronic data from. P&G have been doing that. What you see in Banner is the actual usage. This is true for the mailroom as well. This is a test year. If it goes well, we'll continue it.

The Dean stated that this is an extraordinary move for us. To be able to get the reports on individual accounts, to be able to monitor where monies might be going – say students have gotten hold of codes (which inevitably happens), we could identify those persons and then have those monies fall back into our budgets by not having to spend them. Mr. Barton said that the technology is constantly improving, with any new leases that would be one of the priority discussion points.

The Dean reminded all that their departmental assistants should all be trained on Banner.

Aproval of Minutes

The Dean then asked for approval of the January 17, 2007 minutes. Dr. Crabtree moved to approve and Dr. Lane seconded. The Dean then asked if there were any comments about the minutes and Dr. Joel Goldfield mentioned that Dr. Mary Ann Carolan's name was misspelled on page 8.

The Dean thanked Dr. Kathy Nantz for attending and talking to us about the integration of the core, asking, "What would you seek in the best of worlds from the department chairs and from faculty? What should we be talking about with our departments?" The Dean stated that Dr. Nantz was notified about this meeting later than should be expected, and he appreciated her coming.

Dr. Nantz talked about the core integration initiative and what they're doing this semester. Dr. Nantz stated that what the Core Integration Initiative and the Center for Academic Excellence would appreciate is the chairs' support in encouraging people to come to these events, to encourage faculty to get involved in the project, and finally, to try to give this some weight in departmental merit systems. This will be very important as they go forward trying to provide reward and recognition for faculty who are doing this work. They have already been talking in the core advisory group the possibility of integrating this work, more particularly into the Handbook requirements for Tenure and Promotion.

Dr. Nantz stated that three major events this semester still to come. They had a very successful poster session last week. They had 10-12 posters and probably 70 or 80 people over the course of 3:00-6:00 p.m. last Wednesday afternoon in the Alumni building. They had a lot of good conversation about answering the question "What is integrative teaching and learning and what is it that you want me to do?" The idea of the posters was to give people idea of what they could do in their own courses, in their own syllabi, to try to make some of these changes. Dr. Nantz said that they're hoping to do this annually.

Dr. Nantz stated that two other events coming up this spring highlight the two big pieces to their next initiative. Dr. Nantz said that, as the Dean mentioned, faculty learning communities are going to give faculty the opportunity to work in collaborative, relatively small groups. These faculty learning communities will be put together this spring and work through the following spring, hopefully from May to May schedule with faculty learning communities, old communities dissolving in May and celebrating the birth of new communities in May that will work through the following year.

Dr. Nantz distributed some printouts and stated that Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens, who is an expert on faculty learning communities, will be visiting on Monday, March 5^th. She handed out some applications for Faculty Learning Communities. It will run from May to May and there will be a $2000 stipend attached to people who complete the faculty learning community over the course of the year. The requirements will be twice-monthly meetings for groups of around 6-8 faculty working on projects. They will attempt to group people by interests.

Dr. Poincelot stated that there is a theme group already at work, the Program on the Environment, which is already in progress has an idea of grouping people from Politics, from Communication, from English, from Economics. Various environmental themes weaving together from different disciplines.

Dr. Nantz stated that we are hoping that all of these communities can be somewhat equal in the terms of the way they are perceived, the way they're funded, their access to resources, etc.

Dr. Nantz stated that the second speaker will be Stephen Brookfield, who has written the book Becoming a Cricially Reflective Teacher and gave some handouts. Stephen Brookfield will be coming on March 28^th and 29^th and will be doing the same workshop Wednesday and Thursday from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m., with lunch both times. It's about reflecting on your own life and how your college experience is changing your life and can change your life. Dr. Nantz said that Fr. Jim Bowler and herself agree very strongly that this can be very powerful.

Dr. Nantz stated that two things have been emerging from the feedback of the events that they've done so far. One is that faculty seem to want more help trying to work on making changes in their own courses. "Working Together Towards Integrative Teaching and Learning" is designed as a workshop to jump-start people into the summer. The other piece would be finishing up the workshop with a picnic celebrating our accomplishments.

Dr. Nantz also stated that, with funding from the Humanities Institute, her team has established a committee that is putting together a job description for coordinator of part-time faculty. They will conduct a survey within the next month to gather information to see what part-time faculty want from us and what we could do to improve their relationship to the institution. Dr. Nantz said that since it was a Humanities Institute grant, she assumed the results would be reported to the Academic Vice President who wanted a new position for a person who would oversee a group of academics.

The Dean stated that the Humanities Institute Committee discussed this and thought that the AVP's Office would be the natural place for the position, but, if the AVP could not do anything about it, we could consider it within the College. The Dean mentioned that another dimension to this is the whole disenfranchisement and the lack of community for the part-timers. He stated that we see this, for example, with external reviewers, where a small group of part-timers get together and what comes out is shocking. Part-time instructors see this as both the faculty's and the administration's lack of reaching out. Dr. Miriam Gogol stated that it seems that this is not a problem that could not be resolve but that it does seem like a real issue. The Dean stated that we want to be careful not to say that this initiative will absorb our need for full-time faculty.

Dr. Nantz then stated that in the interest of promoting the core integration initiative, our Davis grant will help to support part-time faculty in English going to the 4Cs in New York. The Dean added that the Humanities Institute is a co-funder of this conference.

Dr. Nantz stated that they also had a mini retreat for core science faculty. Good conversations and some good ideas have emerged that they are pursuing with the core science lab. Dr. Nantz said that they do have some money to support those kinds of projects and to please let her know if anyone has any ideas.

Dr. Nantz stated that for this summer, they are looking at putting together a workshop on reflective writing for faculty. This will probably take place during a week in August. They are sending a team to Evergreen State University to start working towards not only faculty learning communities but also student learning communities. For next year, the main goal of the core integration initiative will be to bring students in. The Dean thanked Dr. Nantz.

The Dean then moved on to #5 – Service Learning. Dr. Robbin Crabtree, Director of Service Learning, distributed a handout and stated that she put together a definition of service learning as well as a brief discussion of the different models of service learning.

Melissa (Quan) and Dr. Crabtree have put together five key best practices and you can see that we are well positioned in terms of service learning being aligned with our mission and recently with the structures and resources at the university. There are a number of faculty that have been doing service learning for up to 15 years on their own without any support. Service Learning has developed an advisory team with representation from every division of the College and from every division of the University, and from the community as well. They foster collaboration between service learning and students. They see this as related to all three Strategic Planning goals. This is the first time in Fairfield history that there is faculty support provided; there's a full-time staff person, there's a half-time faculty person, we should have another full-time staff person next year, also shared with the Center of Faith and Public Life, two graduate assistants, and close links with Wylie Smith in the community service programs in Campus Ministry. We developed together the community partnership.

Dr. Crabtree said that within one year they have arrived nice position in resources. They have gotten into an advantageous position in terms of structural advantages, resources, and faculty support. Dr. Crabtree stated that the biggest portion of their budget goes to faculty development. They are doing some future planning with their advisory committee. They have been doing presentations around campus. They are hoping to do one major faculty development event with a national expert each year. They are hoping next year to bring Nadine Cruz, who is one of the key authors in service learning. Building Partnership - the summer course development stipend - they are starting to receive applications. They're working on a community summit for fall. They're going to see service learning courses designated in the schedule of classes beginning this fall – it's not a requirement but students will be able to find service learning classes and should know in advance if it's a service learning optional or a service learning required situation.

Dr. Crabtree also said that they are doing a lot of one-on-one with faculty. She stated that they are trying to bring people together in a networking function and a linking function. They want faculty and departments to keep them informed of who is doing community-based work. Their partnership with Habitat is now a major chapter in community service, the Business School is involved, the Engineering School is involved, the College is involved. Dr. Crabtree said they are trying to build those kinds of partnerships and in the process raise the profile of the institution as a local citizen. One of the outcomes of good service learning is improved town-gown relations.

Dr. Gogol mentioned that one of the components that's new to Fulbright in terms of being a requirement is that students have some community service abroad. Dr. Crabtree stated that that they make sure that all students have had significant service experience before they graduate, and service learning experience is an enhanced experience because they are connecting their disciplinary knowledge. Similarly, their academic learning is enhanced by the experience and is deepened by civic learning, understanding the structural relationships in society, and learning to critique that. Dr. Crabtree hoped that they would get to a student leadership model where there would be students working with faculty and with students as mentors in their class.

Dr. Gogol asked Dr. Crabtree is she was aware that Fairfield has a leadership award. Also, Dr. Gogol asked if Dr. Crabtree had thought of tapping AHANA. Dr. Crabtree stated that they have a good relationship with the Center for Multicultural Relations, and they have a pretty diverse advisory board.

Dr. Crabtree also stated that the departments need to have a conversation reviewing and seeing if certain courses that adopt service learning components are still meeting the core requirements. We need to alert faculty who are teaching core courses, make sure you are having discussions within your department, and that is why in their course development stipend, they ask for a letter from the department chair stating that this is working toward their departmental goals in some way, or this is exactly right for this course because of where it is in our curriculum. The department should be having those conversations related to programmatic learning goals but also related to the question of core courses.

Dr. Crabtree stated that they would love to be invited to departmental meetings and would prepare a conversation around service learning in the discipline. They would like to have disciplinary-specific conversations. Dr. Crabtree also said that if you have faculty who are doing community based work, they would like to know about it.

The Dean stated that Manyul Im, a candidate in the Department of Philosophy who called during the meeting, has agreed to come to Fairfield, and he thanked all for coming.