Minutes of the Faculty Council

Faculty Council Agenda & Meeting Minutes
April 16, 2020

228 Chambers Bldg
2:30-4:30pm

Faculty Council Agenda & Meeting Minutes

September 17, 2020

2:30-4:30pm
Meeting held via Zoom

Attendees: Dr.’s Julia Bryan, Fran Arbaugh, Wendy Coduti, Gwen Lloyd (partial), David Post, David McNaughten, Bern Badiali, Ashley Patterson, Kelly Rosinger, Tanner Vea, Tracy Raulston, Brian Belland, Esther Prins; and, Sagun Giri (GSC Rep), Joey Clark (UGSC Rep)

Guests: Joon Yoon, Royel Johnson, LaWanda Ward

Quorum was reached to conduct official business.
Chair called the meeting to order at 2:30 PM.

1.     Minutes of the Preceding Meetings --  April 16, 2020

1.1.  Motion made to approve and passed with one abstention and no objections.

2.     Announcements by the Chair

2.1.  Julia Bryan oriented members to the purpose and membership of Faculty Council using the ByLaws.

2.2.  Member introductions

3.     Communications to the Council

3.1.  Undergraduate Student Council Updates (Joey Clark)

3.1.1.   Student Council Activities

3.1.1.1.  Kick-off mentorship program (26 mentors/49 mentees) on Sunday, Sept 13.

3.1.1.2.  Soar and Restore: alternating week seminars for students with speakers one week and yoga/hangout the next. (Thursday nights)

3.1.2.   How semester is going: Thankful for classroom environments in all modes. Feel safe to attend in person.

3.1.3.   Mental Health Services are well advertised but missing what we can do to help students not get so stressed before they need counseling services.

3.2.  Graduate Student Council Updates (Sagun Giri)

3.2.1.  September 24 kick-off of Lion’s Pride Speaker Series. First 2 speakers: Erica Frankenburg and Startlett “Star” Sharp.

3.2.2.  Graduate students have been volunteering for mentoring program specific for graduate students and undergraduate students.

3.2.3.  Thankful to Dean for weekly updates and for efforts for keeping campus safe.

3.2.4.   How semester is going: Teaching Assistants are doing better. Some concerns around vaccines (when? how to get when available?).

4.     Comments by the Dean of the College (Gwen Lloyd)

4.1.  Gwen’s portfolio as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs: faculty development and faculty review (sabbatical/PT); faculty awards; curriculum review process; WC portfolio. Member of new university-level Faculty Affairs Advisory Council, through the office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. This group has subcommittees including Covid Equity and Promotion and Tenure. Gwen is a member of the P&T subcommittee, which is looking at both tenure-line and fixed term promotion.

4.2.  Question posed: Some of us are unclear about when there will be an announcement for budget to support faculty travel.

5.     Reports of Standing Committees

5.1.  Faculty, Staff, Student Concerns  (Tracy Raulston) – no report

5.2.  Curricular Affairs  (Fran Arbaugh)

5.2.1.  First meeting is on Monday, Sept 21, 2020

5.3.  Graduate Studies and Research Policy (Ashley Patterson) – no report

5.4.  Technology (David McNaughton)

5.4.1.  Held mMeeting yesterday to talk about changes to bylaws.

5.4.2.  Josh Miller reminded committee that the university is switching from Box to OneDrive over the next 2 semesters.

5.4.3.   Discussed round-tables for 2020-2021 and tabled discussion until next meeting.

5.4.4.    Will Diehl and Peggy Schooling were invited to join the committee. They are developing professional development sessions for school districts.

6.     Reports of Special and Ad-Hoc Commitees

7.     News from the University Graduate Council – no report

8.     News from the Faculty Senate (Wendy Coduti)

8.1.  President and Provost provided information on “off-ramp” options if Covid situation gets really bad.

8.2.  Provost: Overall we are doing pretty well financially.

8.3.  Hope to partner with Faculty Councils about faculty concerns and information – creating a two way conduit.

9.     Unfinished Legislative Business

10.  New Legislative Business

11.  Forensic Business

11.1.  Faculty concerns regarding COVID pandemic

11.2.  Technology Committee proposed change to Bylaws with regard to committee composition (presented by Joon Yoon).

12.  Comments and recommendations for the good of the College

Next Faculty Council Meeting:

October 15, 2020, 2:30-4:30 PM, Zoom meeting

Faculty Council Agenda and Meeting Minutes

October 15, 2020

2:30-4:30pm

Held via Zoom

Council Attendees:  Dr.’s Julia Bryan, Frank Arbaugh, Kimberly Lawless, Gwen Lloyd, Tracy Raulson, Bernard Badiali, Ashley Patterson, David Post, Tanner Vea, Kelly Rosinger, Esther Prins, Brian Belland, Wendy Coduti; and Joey Clark (USC), and Sagun Giri (GRSC)

Guests:  Shannon Telenko, Kristen Nadermann, Hyung Joon Yoon

A quorum was reached to conduct official business.
Chair called the meeting called to order at 2:33 PM.
 

1.     Minutes of the Preceding Meetings (9/17/2020)

1.1.  Motion made to approve, 2nd. Motion unanimously approved.

2.     Announcements by the Chair

 3.     Communications to the Council

3.1.   Undergraduate Student Council Updates (Joe Clark)

3.1.1.  How do faculty feel about the upcoming spring semester?

3.1.1.1.   What is the student’s perception on being “on camera” during the zoom classes?  We can’t require it, but we can let student’s know it’s an expectation.

3.1.2.  New member placed on the Council for Sustainable Leaders.

3.1.3.   SOAR and Restore is going well.  We’ve hosted several organizations and talks. If your or anyone you know would like t join and present about a program or something else, lease contact Joey.

3.1.4.   Are there any faculty needs from the undergraduate student council?

3.1.4.1.  Fran: has there been thought to having technology tutors for faculty?

3.2.  Graduate Student Council Updates (Sagun Giri)

3.2.1.  Lions Pride Speaker Series – hosted by the College of Education Student Council

3.2.1.1.   September 24 is the kick-off of the series. Speakers:  Erica Frankenberg and Starlette “Star” Sharp. Audience include both faculty and students. Twenty-
five joined live, and 1- requested the series be recorded.

3.2.1.2.   October 29 speaker series will be 5:30-6:30. Topic:  What Social Justice Initiatives Look Like in the Context of Schools, Business/Industry and Universities.  Speakers: Dr’s Amy Meisinger, Ashley Patterson, SeriaShia Chatters, and William Rothwell.

3.2.2.  College Graduate-Undergraduate Student Mentor Program

3.2.2.1.  Program kicks off next semester.

3.2.2.2.  Mentors and mentees are in the process of being matched.

3.2.3.  How can TA’s and students help with online and remote classes? Technology help with observers of group work? (students want to help)

4.     Comments by the Dean of the College

4.1.  Spring Schedule has been submitted. Beginning to be deployed to students. Ran more smoothly this time.

4.2.  College Strategic Planning (SPC):  First draft of goals/actions and tasks was received. The Executive Committee of the SPC is working on massaging the plan.

4.3.  SIMBA:  Implementation has hit some hiccups and the university and college are learning to navigate the system. Budget wise, we are aggressively thinking about how to use our funds so we don’t have too much carryforward in the future as we will now be penalized.

4.4.  College of Education Action Plan – Implementing the development of a council of color that will serve as and advisory body to the college leadership team. This has been put in the hands of the faculty, staff, and students of color to form.

4.5.  Deans Equity Forum – Two scholars confirmed to present to the College.  On Mildred Boveda from Arizona State University will present on November 12. Marcus Jenkins from the University of Arizona will present on December 8th.

4.6.  Climate/Culture speaker session to engage students

4.7.  Sabbaticals requested for 2021-22 have been approved by the College.  They are currently in the vice provost’s office.

5.     Reports of Standing Committees

5.1.   Faculty, Staff, Student Concerns  (Tracy Raulston)

5.1.1.  Committee Members: Tracy Raulston, Tanner Vea, Matthew Kelly, James Yao

5.2.  Curricular Affairs  (Fran Arbaugh)

5.2.1.  The curriculum committee met on Monday, October 5, 2020.  Most of the meeting was a conversation with Bill Clark, associate dean of the Graduate School. The conversation centered on the graduate program review process that is being administered. Graduate programs were given a set of data and need to comment on trends, errors in the data, and/or provide explanations for trends if needed.  No curriculum applications were discussed.

5.3.   Graduate Studies and Research Policy (Ashley Patterson)

5.3.1.  Committee met on October 9 to review and recommend awarding for Student Dissertation Research Initiation Grants. Four applicants submitted materials; two were eligible for funding and will funded.  Rayne plans to contact the remaining two  whose requests were not commensurate with our funding ability.

5.3.2.  Rayne briefly discussed with the committee the early spring recruiting funding programs with a particular focus on the Dean’s Graduate Assistantship which is for new incoming students showing promise in research to work with a faculty member who either has externally funded research or is planning to submit for external grant funding.

5.3.3.  Currently reviewing 1 “Category R” Recommendation for Graduate Faculty Status.

5.4.  Technology (David McNaughton)

 5.4.1.  Positive experiences with using Archive to support live captioning in Zoom have been reported. If interested, contact Joshua Miller in CETC.

5.4.2.    Proposed bylaw change for the committee’s membership was presented at the last faculty council meeting. Joon attended today's meeting to discuss, but the committee agreed to wait until other bylaw changes can be presented and then move all to “new legislative” business for a vote in December.

5.4.3.    Proposed new wording:  With the goal of representing departments and centers within the College, Committee membership consists of, but is not limited to, one representative from the elected members of Faculty Council, two College faculty representatives, one representative from the Carrara Education Technology Center, and one staff representative. At least one graduate student and the Dean’s representative shall serve as non-voting members.

5.4.4.  Roundtable Series on Technology

5.4.4.1.  Student session planned for mid-November (via Zoom).

5.4.4.2.  Tentative plans for faculty session(s) in Spring.

6.     Reports of Special and Ad-Hoc Committees

7.     News from the University Graduate Council  

7.1.  Floating idea of having a residency requirement for all doctoral students.

7.2.  Requiring Chair of professional studies doctoral committee be a graduate faculty member.

7.2.1.  Esther Prins shared that this would adversely affect the ADTED program and shared the response that the program is submitting for the council’s review.

8.     News from the Faculty Senate (Wendy Coduti)

9.     Unfinished Legislative Business

10.   New Legislative Business

11.  Forensic Business

11.1.  Faculty Survey

11.1.1. Talked about feedback from the survey. Discussed and edited.

11.2.  Technology Committee

11.2.1.  New language for the committee membership was reviewed and it was decided it  would move to “new legislative business” for a vote at the December meeting.

11.3.  Standing Committees – Revision of Articles of Authority

11.3.1.  Additional suggested changes will be shared at the next meeting with the expectation that the committee will vote on those changes at the December meeting.

11.4.  Work Load and Enrollments

12.  Comments and recommendations for the good of the College

Meeting adjourned at 4:33 pm

Next Faculty Council Meeting:

November 19, 2020, 2:30-4:30 PM, Zoom meeting

Faculty Council Agenda

(Revision 2 – 11/17/20)
November 19, 2020
2:30-4:30pm

Attendees:  Julia Bryan, Fran Arbaugh, Kim Lawless, Brian Belland, Bernard Badiali, Wendy Coduti, David Post, Kelly Rosinger, Esther Prins, Tracy Raulston, Tanner Vea, David McNaughton, Ashley Patterson, and Joey Clark (UGSC), Sagun Giri (GRSC)

 Invited Guests & Visitors:  Ed Fuller, Joshua Kirby, Jayne Leh, Gwen Lloyd, Christi McClellan; Karen Murphy; Jim Herbert, Tiffany Nyachae

A quorum was reached to conduct official business.

The Chair called the council to order at 2:30 PM.

1.     Minutes of the Preceding Meeting (10/15/2020)

1.1.  Motion made to pass the minutes of October 15, 2020. Motion passed unanimously.

2.     Announcements by the Chair

2.1.  Update on Faculty Council Survey to Faculty

2.1.1.     Only the three faculty council executive committee members with have access to the raw faculty data.  Working to prepare an accurate and thoughtful report from the survey data.

3.     Communications to the Council

3.1.  Undergraduate Student Council Updates (Joe Clark)

3.1.1.     Student Council has been doing more outreach and events with the college than any other semester.

3.2.  Graduate Student Council Updates (Sagun Giri)

3.2.1.     The 2nd Lions Pride Speaker Series was held on October 29. The topic was What Social Justice Initiatives Look Like in the Context of Schools, Business/Industry and Universities. Speakers:  Dr.’s Amy Meisinger, Ashley Patterson, SeriaShia Chatters, and William Rothwell. Thirty people attended live. The audience consisted of students and faculty.

3.2.2.     The 3rd Lions Pride Speaker Series will be held December/January. We’ve reached out to potential speakers and are waiting for confirmation.

3.2.3.     Donuts and Cider with the Deans was held on October 28.

3.2.4.     The council is currently planning and organizing a Student Symposium for the spring semester.

4.     Comments by the Dean of the College (Kim Lawless)

4.1.  Sent early Sway before upcoming break.

4.2.  Thanks to everyone for all the work you’ve been doing this semester. Students notice the efforts that are being put in and see a better educational experience.

4.3.  Up to 18,000 students have tested already prior to leaving for break, and it is expected that more will be tested before the weeks end. It’s expected that 75% of undergraduates will leave campus.  Students will be counseled to stay if they test positive. We can’t force students to test, but we can make it so it’s prudent for them to test. PSU is moving to 3% testing per day. Tests are more rapid.

4.4.  Bylaws:  Gaps should be looked at carefully.

4.5.  Workload Policy: There are some big disparities in terms of what counts as faculty load, onload/offload. Faculty Council was asked to work on this at my request.

4.6.  Strategic Plan:  Draft delivered for review. Committee made up of representatives across programs and departments, and staff.  Deadline of December 15 for the “initial” draft of our mission, vision, values, goals, and objectives are due. 

4.7.  (Gwen)  Ad-Hoc College of Education on Equity Minded Curriculum: College equity team and college of ed equity committee. First official meeting will be in December. Direction of integrating equity and anti-racism into the curriculum. Creating resources for faculty, exploring and making recommendations on processes in department and college level.

4.8.  (Gwen) New Promotion & Tenure timeline was instituted this year.  We are on time this year.  Thank you everyone for your hard work.

5.     Reports of Standing Committees

5.1.   Faculty, Staff, Student Concerns  (Tracy Raulston)

5.1.1.     In process of scheduling first meeting.

5.2.   Curricular Affairs  (Fran Arbaugh)

5.2.1.     The CA met on Monday, Nov 2 and discussed the suggested changes to FC bylaws (for today’s meeting) and one curriculum application (LDT 867; Designing and Researching Games and Online Communities for Teaching and Learning

 5.3.   Graduate Studies and Research Policy (Ashley Patterson)

5.3.1.     Discussed two applications for “R” status. One was granted and one was tabled.

5.4.   Technology (David McNaughton)

5.4.1.     Classroom technology in Chambers is being reviewed with the goal of providing needed updates. Other buildings in the College will be reviewed and updated over time 

5.4.2.     Box to OneDrive transition has begun at the University. College of Education will be transitioned in the summer of 2021 

5.4.3.     New CoE website will be available in early 2021. There will be a content freeze soon in preparation for the launch. 

5.4.4.     Bylaws change for Technology Committee membership ( saved until January, 2021, to process with other bylaw changes?) 

5.4.5.     Strong response (participants from over 300 institutions!)  to webinar series coordinated for PDE by Peggy Schooling and Will Diehl (see  http://distancelearningforum.com/5PaST/ )  

6.     Reports of Special and Ad-Hoc Committees

7.     News from the University Graduate Council 

8.     News from the Faculty Senate (Wendy Coduti)

8.1.  Website with all recordings/agendas for faculty senate meetings (special and plenary): https://senate.psu.edu/senators/agendas-records/

8.2.  Most recent updates were adoption of alternate grading for fall 2020 for undergraduate courses 000-4xx. Grad School hasn’t adopted alternate grading policy so may be some confusion. Programs that use 400-level courses in grad program should know that alternate grading is available to anyone taking a 400-level course even if they are enrolled in graduate level program.

8.3.  Changes to SRTEs for fall 2020. Streamlined and simplified and reworded. Results won’t report means but report median and mode for each Likert-type.

8.4.  Next Senate mtg is Dec 1 (1pm). Zoom info available via Senate website for anyone wishing to attend (https://senate.psu.edu/senators/important-dates/)

9.     Unfinished Legislative Business

10.  New Legislative Business

11.  Forensic Business

11.1.  College Strategic Plan Draft: At the invitation of Julia Bryan (Chair), Jonna Kulikowich, Ed Fuller will facilitate a discussion of the college strategic plan draft.

11.2.  Changes to ByLaws/Articles of Authority: Fran Arbaugh (COE Curriculum Committee Rep) and Tracy Raulston (Faculty Concerns Committee Rep) will present and lead discussion of changes to the Bylaws descriptions and scope of work of these two committees.

11.2.1.  Julia Bryan will put together an Ad-Hoc committee to review the Faculty Council Articles of Authority.

11.3.  Work Load Guidelines: Julia Bryan and Fran Arbaugh will lead a discussion of the College of Education work load policy

12.  Comments and recommendations for the good of the College

12.1.  (Kim) How can sharing communications from the faculty senate to the faculty in the college be done better?

 Meeting adjourned 4:51 pm

Next Meeting:

Thursday, December 10, 2020  ~  2:30-4:30 PM

Faculty Council Agenda & Meeting Minutes
December 10, 2020
2:30-4:30pm

Attendees:  Julia Bryan, Fran Arbaugh, Kim Lawless, Brian Belland, Bernard Badiali, Wendy Coduti, David Post, Esther Prins, Tracy Raulston, Tanner Vea, David McNaughton, Ashley Patterson, Gwen Lloyd, Erica Frankenberg; and, Sagun Giri (GRSC)

Visitors:  Joshua Kirby, Francesca Lopez, Peggy VanMeter, Wendy Coduti, Tiffany Nyachae, Stephanie Schroeder, Erica Frankenberg, Susan Land, Royel Johnson, Heather Zimmerman, Liz Cummings, Rebecca Tarlau

A quorum was reached to conduct official business.

The Chair called the council to order at   2:32 PM.

 1.     Minutes of the Preceding Meeting (11/19/2020)

1.1.      Motion to approve made. Motion passed unanimously.

2.     Announcements by the Chair

3.     Communications to the Council

3.1.     Undergraduate Student Council Updates (Joe Clark) – no report

3.2.     Graduate Student Council Updates (Sagun Giri)

3.2.1.     Student Mentorship Program:  A sub-committee has put together applications and mentor match protocols.  The mentoring project will be underway this spring semester.

3.2.2.     Lion Pride Speaker Series:  The council has reached out to potential speakers for the 3rd presentation.  Currently waiting for confirmation.

4.     Comments by the Dean of the College (Kim Lawless)

4.1.     Faculty Governance

4.1.1.     Faculty governance is a partnership, university-level faculty senate, central, and on down, and also at the college-level. We need to find ways for sharing the information. Also needed is a distributed leadership model. Representatives from various areas that engage in a meeting making and messaging would play a large part in sharing the information. Faculty Council elected representatives should be sharing information with their department faculty.

4.2.     Role outs regarding next semester from Graduate School, Faculty Senate, Provost’s Office – we’ll get this information out to you as we receive it.

5.     Reports of Standing Committees

5.1.     Faculty, Staff, Student Concerns  (Tracy Raulston)

5.1.1.     Contacted Wanda Wasilko for guidance on the Faculty, Staff, and Student Awards program.  There are six awards.

 5.1.2.     Committee is meeting tomorrow.  

5.2.     Curricular Affairs  (Fran Arbaugh)

5.2.1.     Reviewed multiple curriculum applications. One moved forward, some needed more work.

5.3.     Graduate Studies and Research Policy (Ashley Patterson) – no report

5.4.     Technology (David McNaughton)

5.4.1.     Soft launch for new College web site early 2021, date TBD.

5.4.2.     Planning for the move to OneDrive, supports for faculty training are moving forward.

5.4.3.     Josh Miller is working with new Apple products. M1 testing is going well.

5.4.4.     per Julian Morales) Restrictions on new tech are being eased to some degree. Any computer that is in the window of 3.5 -4 years old can be considered if faculty are experiencing problems.

5.4.4.1.   Restrictions are in place in terms of replacement models.

5.4.4.2.   Faculty should schedule an appt. With CETC for a diagnostic – can be carried out remotely.

5.4.4.3.   Departments still fund and ultimately need to approve.

5.4.4.4.   Department Administrative Coordinators have access to age of computers.

5.4.4.5.   Trying to encourage a culture of replacing upon need, not just age of computers.

5.4.5.     Changes to FC  bylaw regarding the constitution of the Technology Committee are being considered as part of a number of changes to Faculty Council bylaws.

5.4.6.     Will Diehl and colleagues continue to meet and support PDE in distance education initiatives, details can be found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qN9iWYrDlwDG4ZqXVlvZIfvOAHUJrbXG/view?usp=sharing.

 6.     Reports of Special and Ad-Hoc Committees

7.     News from the University Graduate Council  

8.     News from the Faculty Senate (Wendy Coduti)

8.1.     Link to recording of meeting from 12/1/20:  https://senate.psu.edu/senators/agendas-records/december-1-2020-agenda/

8.2.     For historical purposes you can find Senate newsletters here:  https://senate.psu.edu/senators/newsletters/ 

 

8.3.     The next Faculty Senate Plenary meeting is on January 26th.

8.3.1.     “Save the date” announcement for a Senate Forum “listening session” as a follow-up to the October listening session we’ve scheduled for Tuesday, February 2, 2021, at 2:00 pm.

9.     Unfinished Legislative Business

10.  New Legislative Business

11.  Forensic Business

11.1. Faculty Survey: Julia Bryan, Fran Arbaugh, & Brian Belland will discuss the faculty survey

11.1.1.  Fran led an orienting activity for faculty council representatives to see if everyone is on the same page regarding the purpose of the survey.

11.1.2.  How can we help the Dean and overall college leadership address any concerns on the climate of the college.

11.1.3.  Are there hidden agendas we aren’t aware of?  Don’t want to share findings and draft report that could be weaponized if that’s the case.

11.1.4.  Concern raised for sharing the data if all is not presented.

11.1.5.  Fran Arbaugh presented a PowerPoint with the findings.

11.1.6.  Looking to prepare trend report to ask faculty to suggest concrete actions that can be taken in areas that were problematic.

11.1.7.  Chair recommended the executive committee hold a special meeting next week to generate recommendations that can be sent to the Dean. The full report would be shared with FC members for discussion at that special meeting.

11.1.7.1.    Julia will create an ad-hoc Committee and Fran will send out a doodle poll to find a time to meet next week.

11.1.8.    How does the FC work together to go through the report, gather information from departments, and come up with concrete recommendations to share with leadership?

11.1.9.    Question posed to recognize faculty visitors on their opinion on how to send out trend analysis. 

11.1.10. Faculty member didn’t feel their information would be protected so didn’t take the survey.  Many faculty of color did not participate because they could be identified and thus potentially harmful.

11.1.11. The survey was desegregated and that was problematic.

11.1.12. Suggestion to do shorter surveys more frequently to help get the climate temperature as time moves on.

11.1.13. Concern voiced spending any more time on this particular data as things have changed so much and many didn’t take the survey. Is it worth it? 

11.1.14. Dean requests that the recommendations prepared by the council be valuable and workable. Recognize if all of the recommendations point to the Dean then we have a cultural problem as we’re a community. Think about partnerships in how to address the issues. Create better solutions to gather data from ALL faculty that do not make people uncomfortable responding.

11.2.  Discussion of changes to ByLaws: Julia Bryan and Fran Arbaugh will lead a discussion of changes to the ByLaws.

11.2.1.  Special Committee on By-Laws

11.2.2.  Membership

11.2.3.  Representatives

11.2.4.  Election of Chair

11.2.5.  Standing Committees

11.3.  Work Load Guidelines: Julia Bryan and Fran Arbaugh will lead a discussion of the COE workload policy

11.3.1.  Special committee on Workload

12.  Comments and recommendations for the good of the College

Meeting adjourned at 4:28 PM

Faculty Council Agenda & Meeting Minutes
January 21, 2021

2:30-4:30pm
via Zoom

Attendees:  Dr.’s Julia Bryan, David Post, Bernard Badiali, William Rothwell, Brian Belland, Kim Lawless, Ashley Patterson, Kelly Rosinger, David McNaughton, Bill Brendel, and Joseph Clark (UGSC),

Guests:  Karen Murphy, Gwen Lloyd, Wendy Coduti, Susan Land, Heather Zimmerman, Kathy Heid, Peggy Van Meter,

A quorum was reached to conduct official business

Chair called the meeting to order at 2:34 pm

Minutes of the Preceding Meetings (12/10/2020)

• Motion made to pass and approved. Minutes unanimously approved.
  • 11.1.7 – Clarification - Special Meeting of the Exec. Committee noted was held on Dec 18 to review the faculty survey.

Announcements by the Chair

• Two new members from LPS this Spring. (Bill Rothwell and Bill Brendel)

Communications to the Council

• Undergraduate Student Council Updates (Joe Clark)
  • Graduate-Undergraduate Student Mentorship applications have begun. 
  • Virtual programming is shifting to biweekly Restore programs to ease stress.
  • The 2nd annual student symposium will be held virtually. The date is to be determined.
  • Virtual recruitment events will be taking place throughout the spring
     
• Graduate Student Council Updates (Sagun Giri)_ -- no report

Comments by the Dean of the College

• Remote classes have begun and we’re 24 days from launching in person classes. Still going with this plan.
• Currently, PSU is not designated as a vaccine distribution center. If this changes, information will be shared.
• College is relaxing constraints in allowing faculty access to their offices. If using your office to deliver classes, be sure to use the “drop in” form and try to select times to come around your class time.
• Rumors of new petition to extend grades for spring.
• Strategic Plan draft went into central Dec. 15, Townhall was held Jan 15. Well attended. Still awaiting feedback from the Planning and Assessment Office. So far we’ve had glowing comments.
• Gather & Go events for students upcoming.  Planning them for March, early April, and late April
• Students have received permission to have student group meetings.
• Create a plan or engagement that allows spaces for cross department/program gathering where faculty/students can engage in research ideas.

Reports of Standing Committees

• Faculty, Staff, Student Concerns  (Tracy Raulston) -- no report
   
• Curricular Affairs (Gwen Lloyd) -- no report
   
• Graduate Studies and Research Policy (Ashley Patterson)
  • The committee will be reviewing Student Dissertation Research Initiation Grants and program nominations for the University Graduate Fellowships (UGF), Bunton-Waller Assistantships (BW), and Dean’s Graduate Assistantship (DGA) in mid-February.
     
• Technology (David McNaughton)
  • Box will be accessible during the transition to OneDrive. Our college will be one of the last to make the switch. 
  • College is looking for ways to our reduce paper footprint by exploring ways to make more materials digital only. 
  • Changing Technology Committee structure to make it more “accessible”. Dividing meeting time in half.  Half of the time will be to discuss emerging technologies initiatives which will be open to the community.  Will provide regular technology updates.
  • Nittany Artificial Intelligence (AI) Initiative:  AI in Education is a major research theme. 
  • Technology Committee has a ByLaw change recommendation pending with Faculty Council. 

Reports of Special and Ad-Hoc Committees --  none

News from the University Graduate Council  (Kathy Heid)

• Vote passed:  Graduate Council Standing Rules to allow members of PSU community to request to attend Graduate Council meetings.

• Vote passed: GCAC-701 Residency Requirement. All resident professional doctoral programs must contain a period of residence to ensure the acquisition of the full scope of knowledge, skills, and professional attributes specific to their discipline.

• Discussion on qualifying exams (GCAC-604) centering on Research doctorate.  The student’s major program must establish guidelines for the Qualifying Examination that are uniformly applied to all students. These guidelines and evaluation criteria must be presented in the graduate program’s handbook, which must be provided to the student upon matriculation.

• Discussion on Professional Doctoral (GCAC-702) committee composition. Minimum Committee Membership: A student’s Committee shall consist at minimum of three members of the Graduate Faculty (see GCAC-101 Graduate Faculty Membership) each of whom shall be in a position to contribute substantially to the student’s education.

• Discussion on Professional Doctorate (GCAC-704) Qualifying Examination. The student’s major program must establish guidelines for the Qualifying Examination that are uniformly applied to all students. These guidelines and evaluation criteria must be presented in the graduate program’s handbook, which must be provided to the student upon matriculation.

• Any questions or issues please let Kathy Heid, James Yao, or Jim DiPerna now so they can bring it forward to the council.
   

News from the Faculty Senate (Wendy Coduti)

• Senate Forum Listening Session for University Faculty Senators. The University Faculty Senate is evaluating our current models for assessing faculty teaching. Three Senate Standing Committees (Faculty Affairs, Intra-University Relations and Educational Equity and Campus Environment Committees) have been charged to develop a more comprehensive model that broadly addresses the impact of faculty teaching. 
• Next meeting is January 26, 2021. Agenda can be found here: https://senate.psu.edu/senators/agendas-records/january-26-2021-agenda/
• Faculty Senator opening for 2021-22 – Jacqui Reid-Walsh’s term is ending and she isn’t running for re-election.
• IE Taskforce (Policies Influencing Equity) on alternate grading report: https://senate.psu.edu/senators/agendas-records/january-26-2021-agenda/appendix-f/  
• Faculty Senate conducting 5-year visits to colleges.

Unfinished Legislative Business - none

New Legislative Business - none

Forensic Business

• Update on Faculty Survey Report (Julia Bryan)
  • Met December 18 with elected council members to receive their feedback on the survey. Will use their feedback to make minor revisions to the report. The report will be from the Faculty Council Chairs.
  • How will it be shared with faculty?  Brian Belland reminded that an email was sent to faculty that it would be forthcoming in January.
  • Any concerns on the format?
  • How will it be used? To make improvements, or just collecting data? What is the next step once the report goes out?
    • Members of the faculty council will discuss the report with teir departments to get feedback and recommendations.
    • It was suggested that structure is given t the departments when it is presented for discussion. Possible handout on how to facilitate and an outline.
• Work of the Council for Spring Semester (Julia Bryan)
  • Communications with Departments
    • How are the council members seeing their role in communicating with their departments on information shared at faculty council?
      • Council representatives have a spot on the department meeting agendas to report out which is followed by discussion.
      • It was agreed that it would be helpful to have talking points to take to the department meeting.
• By-Law Revisions
  • Julia will create an ad hoc committee to make the revisions. Brian Belland volunteered to serve on the committee.  Julia will reach out to remaining council members to seek participation on the committee.
• Faculty Governance: Role of Faculty Council in College
  • Tabled until the next meeting
• Workload Across Programs
  • Julia to create an ad hoc committee.  Council members who volunteered during the meeting include:  Bernard Badiali, Bill Brendel, and David Post. Julia will email council members to seek additional member participation.

Comments and recommendations for the good of the College - none

Meeting Adjourned 4:20 pm