The
regular monthly meeting of the Faculty Senate was called to order by President
Henry Sayre on October 4, 2001, at 3:04 PM, in the LaSells Stewart Center.
There were no corrections to the minutes of June 2001.
–
Action Items: Category I - Nuclear Engineering Rename; Statement of Support
regarding September 11 events; and Installation of Faculty Senate President
[Motion 01-568-01 through 02]
– Discussion Items: Proposed Bylaws Revisions and Student Evaluation of
Teaching Forms
– Committee Reports: Bylaws and Nominations Committee
– New Business: None
Members
Absent Without Representation:
Ahearn, Ahern, Baggott, Balz, Bliss, Bowman, Braker, Brooks, Burt, Burton,
Tolar Burton, Cluskey, Collier, Cornelius, Davis-White Eyes, De Carolis,
Deschesne, Douglas, Downing, Esbensen, Flahive, Gonzales-Berry, Gross,
Haggart, Hamm, Horne, W. Huber, Jones, King, Mundt, Nelson, Obermiller,
Pearson, Pegau, Plant, Reyes, Schuster, Selker, D. Shaw, Smythe, Stang, Trehu,
Wallace, Warner, Weber, and Winner.
Faculty
Senate Officers, Ex-Officios and Staff Present:
H. Sayre, President; N. Rosenberger, President-Elect; G. Matzke, Immediate
Past President; Ex-officio - J. Lundy; R. Iltis, Parliamentarian; and
V. Nunnemaker, Senate Staff.
Guests
of the Senate:
S. Francis, B. McCaughan, P. McMillen, R. William, and K. Williamson.
Category 1 Proposal - Nuclear Engineering
Mike Quinn, Curriculum Council Chair, presented an abbreviated Category I Proposal to rename the Department of Nuclear Engineering to the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics.
Quinn offered the following rationale for the name change:
Liaison was accomplished with both Public Health and Physics and neither department had any objections to the proposal.
Motion
01-568-01 passed by voice vote with no dissenting votes and no discussion.
Statement
of Support
President-elect Nancy Rosenberger presented for approval by the Senate
the following statement of support in response to events occurring on
September 11, 2001:
We the faculty at OSU grieve at the cruel and senseless loss of innocent
lives following the recent terrorist attacks. As we face the aftermath,
we reaffirm OSU's commitment to honoring diversity and to respecting all
members of our community. We encourage faculty to engage students in open
discussion of ideas and points of view on the local, national and global
implications of this situation.
Motion
01-568-02 passed by voice vote with no dissenting votes and no discussion.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
Bylaws Revisions
Ken Williamson, Bylaws and Nominations Committee Past Chair, presented
for discussion proposed Faculty Senate Bylaws revisions (in bold below)
to add the senior IFS Senator to the Executive Committee. These revisions
are scheduled to be voted on at the November Senate meeting.
ARTICLE VII: EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Sec. l. Membership: The Executive Committee shall consist of the Senate President, the Senate President-elect, the Immediate Past Senate President, and the Provost and Executive Vice President, or that person's designee, as an Ex-Officio member; the senior IFS Senator as an Ex-Officio, non-voting member; and six others elected from the membership of the Faculty Senate. The elected Executive Committee members shall retain their Faculty Senate seats for the remainder of their Senate terms.ARTICLE VIII: INTERINSTITUTIONAL FACULTY SENATE
Sec. 2. Duties. IFS Senators are the representatives of the OSU Faculty in matters that cross institutional lines. IFS Senators shall be responsible for seeking opinions of the OSU Faculty and the OSU Faculty Senate as a body. The senior IFS Senator shall serve as an Ex-Officio, nonvoting member of the Executive Committee.
Williamson explained that the revision was proposed by IFS Senators who felt it would be beneficial to have greater interaction between the IFS and Executive Committee (EC). Williamson noted that since IFS is beginning to take a much more proactive role in support of faculty during legislative sessions, they need to have a better understanding of specific issues on campus. Williamson also explained that the senior IFS Senator would be a nonvoting EC member, and would be allowed to participate in discussion only.
Senator Coakley, Science, asked for the rationale behind the nonvoting clause. Williamson indicated that the Committee had discussed this issue and determined that the IFS Senator is not elected to represent the Senate, while the EC members are elected to represent the Senate. Matzke noted that the difference between elected EC members and IFS Senators is that EC members must be elected while serving as a Faculty Senator, while IFS Senators are not required to have ever been a Faculty Senator.
Senator Niess felt it was reasonable to have the IFS person a voting member of the EC since they are representing the OSU Faculty Senate outside the University. Parliamentarian Iltis clarified that, under Parliamentary rules, the reason that an ex-officio member can vote is because they are under the authority of the organization.
Senator Tiedeman, Liberal Arts, felt that the Bylaws do designate elected IFS Senators as members of the Faculty Senate.
The
relationship of IFS Senators to the Faculty Senate as whole will be researched
prior to the November meeting.
Student Evaluation of Teaching Forms
Ray William, Advancement of Teaching Committee (AOT) Chair, presented
information and recommendations for discussion regarding possible changes
in the student evaluation of teaching forms. The Committee's recommendations,
are available on the web at:
http://osu.orst.edu/dept/senate/advtch.rec1001.htm.
It is anticipated that these recommendations will be presented to the
Senate for approval at a later meeting.
William explained that the AOT was charged to consider adding a question about diversity to the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) forms. In the process of researching this charge, the AOT researched the form itself and tried to determine if it was research-based (see criteria below). During the past year the AOT met with numerous departments and provided an opportunity for faculty to respond to a website survey regarding the SET forms. He noted that it is important to quickly make a decision regarding the direction of the evaluation forms since OSU will soon be purchasing the forms for the 2002-2003 academic year. The hope is to revise the SET forms and improve teaching through assessment.
The criteria used by the AOT to review the SET form included:
The
AOT recommends that OSU contract course and teaching assessment with the
Office of Educational
Assessment at the University of Washington. Overall, faculty responses
to the survey, as well as faculty comments in departmental meetings, indicated
that the UW forms were favorable because:
Academic Programs Vice Provost Burton requested the AOT to develop a second option which consisted of rewriting the questions on the current form (listed below) using the criteria that these questions would focus on instruction, assuming validation from other universities. AOT advisory suggested writing questions to be useful across classes, Extension Service, and Distance Ed. Since the College of Engineering is required to address outcome-based learning as part of their ABET accreditation, they are working with the Computer Center to add questions to whatever form is used.
William noted that the AOT needs assistance in wordsmithing the following scanable questions contained on the Modified OSU Form that was distributed at the meeting :
William felt that the UW may be willing to allow OSU to use the following written questions:
The AOT also recommends selective evaluation which would include all faculty/instructors to encourage written comments from students. If the scanable assessment was selective, the AOT believes it would improve student response, it could be cost or information effective, and it may improve faculty use and/or interpretation.
The formative questions, or those meant to improve teaching, should be encouraged by faculty anytime they wish to improve their teaching. The issue surrounding formative questions is who should receive the responses; should they go to the department head or should they should go to a peer committee. The thinking is that if the responses go to the department head, it is already in the administrative stream. Current research and policy suggests that formative responses should remain confidential between the faculty and, perhaps, another group since they are not meant to be used for promotion and tenure, merit, or awards and are, in fact, invalid for that purpose.
In terms of frequency, the AOT recommends that OSU adopt the following policy regarding summative data, which is used for promotion and tenure and merit:
Regarding the matter of a diversity question, the AOT discovered that it was an extremely complex issue and they could find no American university that included a diversity question on their evaluation forms. They did learn that Nana Lowell, UW Research Director for Educational Assessment, has completed an extensive "campus climate" survey that indicated the need to integrate the community, campus, and classroom functions when assessing this complex issue. Lowell has been invited to present a seminar at OSU to identify the key questions and facilitate a discussion with the Diversity Council, AOT, and others interested in creating appropriate actions or decisions. It is hoped that this seminar will result in an action plan to identify an assessment of diversity.
William then opened the floor to receive faculty comments to be used by the AOT during the next month to assist in formulating final recommendations.
Senator Landau, Science, felt that it was not a bad idea to modify the form, with a strong emphasis on instruction. He would like to see a question asking students if they read the materials and what grade they think they are getting.
Senator Wrolstad, Agricultural Sciences, felt that more emphasis should be placed on how much a student learns from a course.
Senator Coakley, Science, felt that rewording #1 of the new written questions was necessary.
In response to Senator Tynon, Forestry, expressing the feeling that instructors should be able to choose which questions are used, William explained that the University is now paying 3-4 cents per form and individualized forms would increase the cost.
Senator Niess, Science, stated that the AOT felt that there should be four standard questions with an additional handout containing other questions. Senator Cloughesy, Forestry, felt that questions could be customized and still use the same scan sheet.
Senator Jansen, Science, questioned the need for forms and suggested that JavaScript be used instead. William noted that Mark Merickel is currently using that method for Distance Education. Senator Thies, Science, commented that getting students to complete the form online is not easily accomplished.
President Sayre felt that the UW forms are attractive since they have a variety of choices.
Senator Thies felt that question #10 does address diversity.
Senator
Doescher, Agricultural Sciences, cost and William explained that OSU currently
pays 3-4 cents per form, or about $12,000 per year, and the Milne Computer
Center scans the forms for free. The UW would charge 8-13 cents per form,
or about $40,000 per year; he acknowledged that the money may not be available.
In response to Senator Helle, Liberal Arts, question if the modified form
would be available online, William indicated
Senator Cloughesy, Forestry,
William - frequency
Senator Jensen noted the need to evaluate courses consistently.
Senator Brayman Hackel, Liberal Arts, questioned how this compares for promotion and tenure and merit on the summative portion.
Senator Thies felt it was helpful to have courses evaluated every term to determine trends.
Senator Coakley felt that if evaluations became optional or random, the perception will be that we don't care.
Senator Prucha, Associated, echoed Senator Coakley sentiment and noted that, if she were an undergraduate, she may never have the opportunity to evaluate an instructor if the evaluations only occurred every five years.
Senator Lee, Science, suggested a compromise of having four standard questions on every form and have other questions that instructors could choose from to use.
Immediate Past President Matzke felt that it was important for the chair to intervene as problems arise, not after five years.
Senator Oye, Associated, supported Matzke's position and noted that feedback is only useful if it is timely.
President Sayre reminded faculty that former Provost Spanier recognized that data on course evaluations was useless unless he could see consistent data.
Senator Landau felt that if there was an option to customize the form, the student will be more interested.
Senator Sorte, Agricultural Sciences, felt that timing and consistency are important and suggested changing the timing of the evaluation to be about 2/3 of the way through the term rather than at the end.
Senator Helle suggested informing students who reads the evaluations.
Senator Cloughesy felt that the cost should be the least concern.
Senator Brayman Hackel suggested making the bubble form shorter and expanding the written form.
Matzke felt that students should have access to the written forms.
Regarding the question of whom the formative data should go to, either or both the department head/chair or peer committee, Senator Landau felt that the decision should be up to the faculty member.
Matzke felt that there is no reason for anyone other than the faculty member to see the evaluation since the department heads see the numerical values.
Senator Wrolstad felt it was important for department heads to see the evaluations since this is one piece of data they have to use in evaluating the faculty member.
Senator Coakley noted that department heads would get the summative data and under promotion and tenure guidelines, only the numerical data is used.
Senator Dollar, Liberal Arts, felt that the formative data should go only to the faculty member.
Senator Jansen emphasized that the faculty member needs to see the data to use in improving their teaching.
Senator Cook, Engineering, argued that making formative data available may discourage innovation. Conversely, Senator Wrolstad felt that it would encourage innovation.
Senator Thies felt that question #10 may want to be known by the department head.
Senator Wrolstad felt that the department head has the right to know.
President Sayre didn't feel that any of the questions can be public.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Bylaws
and Nominations Committee
Gordon Matzke, Chair, outlined the nomination process for Faculty Senate
President-elect and Executive Committee and Interinstitutional Faculty
Senators. He encouraged faculty to send him names of potential candidates
by October 8.
Information Items
–
Building Dedication - Social Science Hall is being renamed in honor of
Gordon Gilkey. The dedication will be October 22 from 3:00-5:00 PM.
Meeting was adjourned at 4:35 PM.
Respectfully
submitted:
Vickie Nunnemaker
Faculty Senate Staff
