Mānoa Faculty Senate Executive Committee
Minutes of July 7, 2008
Mānoa Faculty Senate Executive Committee
2:30 pm Monday – July 07, 2008; Hawaiʻi
Hall 208
Present: Wakayama, Crookes, Hilgers, Crosby, Ross
Meeting with Peter Quigley, 2:30 pm
--Update on WASC requirements
--The capacity preparatory review (CPR) we are preparing for the March ’09 visit.
WASC used to visit only once every 7[or 5?] years. It has introduced additional components or elements within its new 10 year cycle. We are preparing for the Preparatory Review, targeted March 2009. After that, we will have an Educational Effectiveness Review (EER) in March 2011. The visiting teams now receive a rubric telling them what to look at – they are standardized (compared with how they used to be); these were written by Mary Allen [consultant who previous visited UHM and did a workshop here on Student Learning Outcomes, etc]. We know what they are going to be looking at in the EER, though there is no rubric for the CPR. The proposal for the CPR was written in ’06 (before Quigley was in post). The CPR measures the extent to which we are prepared to do the things we said we would do, and whether we are capable of doing the things that WASC expects us to do (measure budget, provide staffing, have adequate facilities, assess learning).
The last full accreditation visit to UH was 1999. Status Report and Special Visit (and other things) can occur after the EER (i.e., within the remaining 7 of the 10 years).
Presently, UHM “teams” are developing “essays”.
The proposal for the CPR was apparently fairly ambitious, as well as somewhat ambiguous in some places. Ross asked if the ambition puts us at risk. This question did not get a direct answer, because discussion went on to consider the way that GEC was instituted partly as a response to concerns (from WASC and elsewhere) that students didn’t know how to navigate the UHM curriculum.
Quigley drew our attention to the UHM accreditation webpage,
which has a link to the CPR. It describes exactly what the CPR is (“evaluate key institutional resources and processes…”). There are three central Themes (Building a community to support student success, campus renewal, reform campus governance) a timeline, and an organizational matrix (for the essay writers, including history on the topics), a set of resources (examples from other universities, etc). There is also a “tracking site” which says what we said we were going to do, and what we have and haven’t done, by when/which year.
Theme 1 – Building a Manoa community in support of student success (Lilikala, Osorio)
Theme 2 – Campus renewal (Cutshaw, Don Young; Hafner, Hernandez)
Theme 3 – Reform campus governance to promote communication and student success (Sara Rudder, Christina Stidman; Pat Cooper, Joe O’Mealy).
[UHM chose to present its report not in terms of a set of WASC standards, but in terms of themes; this was an option that WASC provides.]
Essay writers are able, if necessary, to say that the theme specified in 06 may not be appropriate in light of current circumstances.
Open forums for each of the six essays will go on through to September.
Quigley observed that some problems have emerged in the essay drafts in that they often indicate a lack of familiarity with what has been done, what has previously been discussed, on various topics by previous staff, faculty, etc. SEC’s response is that this is hardly surprising, even though there have been one or more recent open forums on WASC developments.
Discussion proceeded concerning the workload on faculty that prevents engaging with “open forums” (or at least, any more given the enormous number of fora on reorganizations, administrative hires, UH System strategic plan re-jigging).
The possibility for “community” (or at least, communities), and the obstacles to achieving a sense of community at UHM, was then pursued at length. VC Quigley is very much in favor of initiatives that would create a greater sense of community; he regards UHM as having very little sense of identity.
New topic: SLOs. More precise and prescriptive than in the past; the result of pressure the regional accreditation agencies have felt at the hands of the federal gvt.
CFR 2.3 SLOs required at the course, program, and degree level. There must be explicit statements of student learning.
Analyses of student learning etc must be embedded in program review.
Voluntary accountability template – the Cal State system is putting data out on their websites that shows graduation rates, retention rates. The idea is that this will then bring the Berkeley’s etc into line. WASC rejected Berkeley’s “mid-term” report (and Quigley believes this is connected with the associated press for data reporting).
Relatedly, the CLA is being used by the CSU state, and “is getting higher scores by academics on its veracity”. Quigley’s return to this topic (which he was interested in more than a year ago) prompted a response by Ross, who was familiar with the topic from his term on the Fac Sen Assessment Task Force. He reminded SEC of the unanimous rejection of this instrument by the Task Force.
Anyone interested in more details of VC Quigley’s presentation is welcome to contact him for the slides etc.
SEC Meeting, 3:00 pm
Approval of minutes of June 23rd meeting. Minutes were approved
Old Business
1. Budget of Faculty Senate and General Education Office submitted to Kathy Cutshaw. This was submitted; individual letters for faculty senate relief must go in to SEC Chair Keil. SEC has reasserted its control over GEO by way of this submission to the VCAA’s office. We have requested funds from Kathy Cutshaw, to be released through Marie Ohta’s office (Cutshaw’s Fiscal Officer) to Jan Costa, Administrative Officer for Ron Cambra (Undergrad Education) to supply the funds. MWP and GEO were supposed to transferto Undergrad Education five years ago. Org charts have this, but the financial side has not. Hilgers says that it is important that Faculty Senate reassert its control over GEO, because GEO was created as an academic initiative of the Senate and approved by the chancellor as such.
SEC discussed this matter and agreed that we should investigate this matter. Historically it is correct that GEO is a Faculty Senate responsibility. We should be prepared to remind administrators repeatedly of this point. We need to be pro-active in light of high administrative turnover and lack of filled positions.
2. Referral of Proposal to Plan, MA/Ethnic Studies to CAPP (action taken 06/23/08). This is not going to be referred to CAPP at present. Once it becomes a plan, it should be referred to CAPP.
3. Faculty nominations for Athletics Advisory Board
There are five appointments to be made, by the Chancellor, by or before August 1. CFS does not exist during the summer, so SEC acts in such matters during the summer. A call for self-nominations will be put out to the entire faculty email list (by Ross, in consultation with OVCAA Secretary Avis Morigawara). Interested individuals will be asked to contact Ross (by email) by the 19th July.
4. Degree Proposal for BBA of Entrepreneurship. This will be referred to CAPP. (SEC noted that the category of degree “BBA” does already exist at UHM CBA.)
5. Feasibility Study for Faculty Housing Interviews
Crosby and Ross will represent SEC at a meeting on this July 8.
SEC will wait to hear from Ostrander & Hinshaw if they have any topics for SEC before confirming tentatively scheduled meeting with her July 14.
6. Discussion of lack of movement on the hiring of a student recruitment specialist. Even though this position was advertized during VCAA Smatresk’s administration, the current administration is not moving on this and VC Hernandez appears not to be interested in moving on it at present. We also lack a range of relevant baseline data for this area. SEC believes this may be a mistake and will take the matter up with senior administrators at an appropriate opportunity.
Respectfully submitted,
Graham Crookes
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