Minutes – Department Meetings
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Department of Literature and Philosophy
English Faculty Meeting May 1, 2013
Minutes
Present: Adamos, Cyr, Dudley, Eaton, Edenfield, Edwards, Flynn, Gossai, Griffin, Karapanagiotis, Keeley, Kundu, Thomson, Villeponteaux, Whelan.
Dudley called the meeting to order at 4:05.
No minutes from the previous meeting were available for adoption. Dudley reminded the group that the previous meeting was an informal conversation with Interim Dean Curtis Ricker.
New Business:
Dudley and Villeponteaux moved that this letter of support for the appointment of Curtis Ricker and permanent Dean of CLASS be sent to Provost Jean Bartels. The motion was seconded.
Dear Dr. Bartels:
In most cases, we would object to the appointment of a permanent university administrator without a national search. Normal search procedures allow us to learn about candidates and make our opinions heard. The case of Dr. Curtis Ricker and his appointment as CLASS Dean is different, however. He is well-known to the CLASS faculty as a fair, knowledgeable, and capable leader. If there is strong support from the CLASS faculty for his appointment as our permanent Dean, we urge you to appoint him to that position.
We applaud Dr. Ricker’s leadership of CLASS during the past year, and we feel that Dr. Ricker’s appointment would bring much-needed stability to the college.
In the ensuing discussion, faculty members spoke in favor and against the proposed letter.
Two faculty members expressed opposition.
Another spoke for herself and for some others in stating that she has mixed feelings about sending a letter of support. Those opposed noted that it sets a bad precedent to ask the current administration to continue to flout written policies. They also pointed out that Ricker has not had the chance to express his vision for the college and that the next Dean will have to be an aggressive fund raiser; Ricker’s skills in that area are not yet proven. Those in favor of supporting Ricker note that he is a known quantity, that he would stay in the role for the long haul, and that he has an established record of fair dealings with faculty.
The faculty voted 10-4 by secret ballot to send the letter of support to Dr. Bartels.
Doug Thomson, Chair of the Major Program Committee, brought several items of business before the department.
He moved, and it was seconded, that the following catalogue course description be adopted for the proposed course ENGL 2132, Writing and Literary Research:
Catalog description: A study of the writing of literary interpretation and critical argument, with special emphasis on bibliography and methods of research. Prerequisite: a minimum grade of “C” in ENGL 2131.
The motion passed unanimously.
Thomson then moved the following additional items, all of which were seconded and passed unanimously:
2. The committee recommends that two well-prepared GA’s be assigned (8 hours a week for each) as tutors for English majors enrolled in the 2000-level course (especially, but not limited to, those with grammar problems). We need to find a room or office from which they could post available hours and offer tutoring services.
3. The committee recommends that the department develop a web site designed to provide on-line resources for our majors (for example, glossaries of literary terms. elements of style, MLA guidelines, etc.). As some faculty already provide students with access to these resources, we invite suggestions of what to include in this site. Doug Thomson has volunteered to create this site.
For inclusion in the Faculty Handbook (as few faculty reference this handbook, it might be a good idea to include the new policy when the chair assigns courses).
4. A research paper or documented critical essay should not be a requirement of the 2000-level British and American survey courses. One aim of the survey should be to provide study of the widest possible range of primary texts for the period covered.
5. A documented paper of a minimum of 2500 words, exclusive of works cited and notes, is required in all upper-division courses.
6. A documented paper of a minimum of 5000 words, exclusive of works cited and notes, is required for the Senior Seminar.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00.
Respectfully submitted,
David Dudley
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Department of Literature and Philosophy
English Faculty Meeting March 1, 2013
Minutes
Attending: Town, Villeponteaux, Kundu, Edwards, Cyr, Pellegrino, Lloyd, Costomiris.
Excused: Anderson, Keeley, Schille, Warchol, Griffin.
Dudley called the meeting to order at 1:35.
Minutes of the meeting of February 1 were approved as corrected.
Old business:
Those in attendance took up the question of whether or not we want to create a second writing course for English majors. For purposes of discussion, the course was referred to as ENGL 21332, “Research and Writing for the Major.”
Opinions differed about the advisability, indeed, the need for a second 2000-level course required for majors. While all agreed that our English majors need more training in literary terminology, theory, research, and writing, there was spirited (but always collegial) disagreement about whether adding a new course will help solve the problem.
Those not in favor of adding a new required course worry whether it will discourage students from majoring in English and also slow their progress toward earning a degree. They argue that in these days of “retention, progression, and graduation,” we shouldn’t do anything that might slow students’ progress. Those in favor of adding a new course allow that such a course might not be a panacea, but it’s worth a try.
If a second course is created, the group discussed what its contents might be, with an eye toward insuring that that simply not duplicate the contents of ENGL 2131. There was agreement that 2131 as it’s currently configured tries to accomplish too much in one semester. If a second course is created, it should cover some of the material currently covered in 2131, allowing for greater time to teach terms, theory, research, and writing.
The question arose of how a new course could be fit into a student’s schedule; there was agreement that it could (and would have to, actually) run currently with the British and American Literature surveys. Someone suggested that we cut the number of required survey courses from three to two, one British and one American. Consternation followed. This matter was left for further discussion at a later time.
It was finally decided that the Major Program Committee create course descriptions for two required courses, a new ENGL 2132 and a revised ENGL 2131, and that these be discussed and voted on at the next department meeting. This motion was moved and seconded and passed without dissent.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:30.
Respectfully submitted,
David Dudley,
Acting Recording Secretary
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Minutes of Department Meeting (ENGL Faculty Only)
Friday, February 1, 2013
David Dudley called the meeting to order at 1:35.
Three handouts were distributed. They were Olivia Edenfield’s notes from the previous week’s meeting, a copy of proposed action items provided by the Major Program Committee, and some thoughts from David Dudley on how we might proceed with revising the English major.
Discussion at this meeting centered on various proposals for reconfiguring Area F of the English major. Dudley’s handout offered four possible options.
There was considerable discussion about the various options, but the liveliest exchanges centered on what to do with the Foreign Language requirement. As we know, B.A. degrees require that students pass the 2002-level of a foreign language. Most of our students come needing 12 hours of language, since their high school preparation is weak. Currently, we place 6 hours of FORL in Area F and require students to take the other 6 hours as electives.
The prevailing sentiment at the meeting was to remove the 6 hours of FORL remaining in Area F and relocate them as electives, thereby eliminating all FORL hours from Area F. Doug Thomson spoke vigorously against that suggestion, nothing that doing so would deprive our majors from almost all free electives. Robert Costomiris noted that other majors in CLASS, Art and Music in particular, load their Area F’s with all Art and Music courses, respectively. [Other departments in CLASS still allow some FORL hours in Area F, so there are variety of options already in effect.]
It was reported that Area F requires at least one elective or choice between courses; we cannot prescribe all 18 hours of Area F.
Discussion turned to what we want to do with ENGL 2131, Introduction to Literary Studies. Majority sentiment is that this one course cannot teach our majors everything we want to them to know as they embark on their degree work. The group came to an informal agreement that we should divide 2131 into two courses and that these courses cover research, writing, the vocabulary of our discipline including terminology and familiarity with genres, and some literary theory. Although there was not extensive discussion about it, someone suggested that ENGL 2131 be moved to Area F.
Combining suggestions about what to do with the FORL hours and dividing ENGL 2131 into two courses and moving 2131 to Area F, this reconfiguration for Area F emerged with apparently strong support:
- ENGL 2131, Introduction to Literary Studies, focusing on terms, genres, and literary theory
- ENGL 2132 (possible number) New Course tentatively titled “Research and Writing for the Major”
- ENGL 2231, British Literature I
- ENGL 2232, British Literature II
- ENGL 2331 or 2332, American Literature I or II
- An elective from an approved list that would include ENGL 2111, ENGL 2112, and one FORL
Those in attendance agreed to further discuss this matter. The next scheduled Department Meeting is Friday, March 1, at 1:30 p.m.
Respectfully,
David Dudley
(acting recording secretary)
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Call to Order
Approval of minutes of meeting of August 16, 2012
General consensus that I should be flogged for forgetting to send Joe the minutes.
Reports
Assessment Update (big report to follow in October)
Joe, the awesome assessment demi-god, reported that he will be turning in the 80 reports he has overseen the following Monday. He stressed that they are still drafts until we approve them, i.e. we are turning them in but we still reserve the right to amend them.
David stressed that due to all of Joe’s work that none of us are to bother Joe about Folio. General agreement and discussion about where to get training for that unusual little program that is sure to lead to hair pulling and salty language use.
Graduate Program, including a bit about creating a new M.A. program brochure
Other Committees?
From the General Program Committee
Lengthy discussion about the Program evaluation and whether it should be in essay form or multiple choice. After weighing the pros and cons for rough 45 minutes the committee moved to vote with the results 6-4 in favor of multiple choice.
Subject: Addressing the size of single sections of ENGL 2111 and 2112
Another general discussion about actively proving to the administration that smaller class sizes are better than larger classes sizes. Some faculty expressed the desire to provide the administration with scientific data concerning course grades, retention, DFW rates and overall student satisfaction in smaller versus larger courses. Caren pointed to the CCG where it proscribes that the ideal class size is 30. Most faculty agreed that the larger course size was damaging their ability to teach well, forcing them to change their methods drastically and perhaps not for the better.
Letter of 9/25/12 from Committee Chair Villeponteaux to Dept. Chair Dudley, several proposals are suggested for lowering the size of single sections, viz.:
Seek permission again to hire a second lecturer to teach World Literature
Request funds from the university’s academic budget to hire part-time faculty to teach World Lit. until we can hire a full-time lecturer.
David mentioned here that we can’t get a full-time lecturer. Nevertheless, there was discussion about using the copier money to fund students to teach three sections of World Lit in the Spring.
Fund part-time instructors from our own department’s budget
Assign additional sections of World Literature to graduate students who have completed more than 18 hours of course work. Funding would have to be obtained.
Move money spent on supplemental instruction (which would be eliminated) and use it instead to hire part-time instructors.
Department Money
Operating Fund: $27,896.04
But: $5000 to Robert Higgerson to teach 2 upper-division PHIL courses in spring term
$11,250 to cover office expenses through end of fiscal year (June 30, 20130), a generous amount, we think
$8500 for a new copier (Rebecca and I agree we need a new one) See above.
Leaving $3146.04, which could be transferred to travel
Travel: $16,154.57 (with possible addition of “extra” from operating account, about $3150)
Requests for travel: $27,023.
A short discussion of how this funding should be distributed. No consensus was agreed upon at the meeting but we supported David with whatever choice he would decide here. David asked for advice from all faculty via email.
This amount includes $700 in requests to fund undergraduate and graduate attendance at conferences.
Some faculty had objections to student funding and directed students to the administration to seek funding so as to highlight the problem and pressing need to have more money for travel.
Chair seeks guidance in distributing available funds:
Possible categories of request:
Presenting a paper at a conference
Attend a conference and participate, including chairing a session, but not presenting a paper
Presenting a paper and acting as conference chair / coordinator / administrator
Planning to present at a conference, but paper not yet accepted or all conferences have not yet been announced
Travel to undertake research, but not attend a conference or present a paper
Due to time limits the following was not discussed but David requested input on all the below via email.
Other money matters:
We will receive additional money in the spring for courses taught online in the spring
It appears that departments are NOT receiving money for online courses taught in summer Minimester 1, which comes right at the end of the fiscal year, so monies earned in Minimester 1 come too late to spend, except on small items such as office supplies. To reap more benefit from online courses taught in the summer, the Dean recommends we move more online courses to Minimester 2. Any suggestions?
Evaluation of Teaching for Faculty Annual Evaluations.
Chair seeks guidance in how to evaluate teaching. Traditionally, I have relied heavily on student ratings and comments. With the new CLASS form in place, with the numerical rating system, a more precise method of rating teaching might be desirable. How can the chair account for marking someone’s teaching a 2.5 rather than a 2.7 or a 2.3?
Possible additional information to consider in rating teaching, besides student evaluations:
Does the faculty member keep office hours?
Does the faculty member meet class on time, hold class for the full period, and meet all classes except in case of illness or professional obligations?
Do the faculty member’s syllabi include all necessary information, including student learning goals?
Has the faculty member attended workshops or conferences relating to pedagogy or to keeping her or him up to date in the field so that his or her classroom teaching is current?
How do the faculty member’s scores on student rating of instruction compare with departmental averages?
How do the faculty member’s grades compare with departmental averages? Numbers of Ds’s, F’s, and W’s?
Has the faculty member undergone peer evaluation of teaching and furnished the Chair with results of those evaluations? If so, what are the results?
Has the faculty member included in her or his annual self-evaluation a full statement of teaching successes and challenges, strategies for improving teaching?
Has the faculty member developed new courses? Taught new courses? Developed a course or courses for online instruction?
If the department wishes to implement such a broader rubric for rating teaching, which of the above items should be taken into consideration and how much weight assigned to each area? The Chair seeks guidance from the faculty.
Summer teaching 2013.
SCH (Student credit hour) target for our department for summer teaching: 2971. Each enrolled student generates 3 credit hours, so dividing that number by 3, we are being asked to enroll 990.33 students this summer. (I’d hate to be that .33 of a student).
Everyone who wants to teach this summer is requesting 2 courses, which together pay 18% of their annual salaries. Adding together all those 18%’s, faculty salaries for summer come to $156,237.
If we do indeed enroll 990.3 students, we would be teaching at a cost of $52.58 per student credit hour. That is well below the target cost of $57-60 per SCH assigned our department by the Dean’s office.
Given the courses now on the schedule, we can meet our 990 student enrollment by offering classes with these size limits, and if all courses make.
(Remember that CLASS policy calls for the following minimum numbers in order for a class to make: 1-2000 level courses, 20; 3-5000 level courses, 15; 6000 and above, 8.)
Single sections of world literature, 25
Double sections of world literature, 125 (no way to adjust the CLASS policy on size of double sections)
ENGL 2000-level courses, 20
ENGL upper-division courses, 20
Graduate seminar, 10
PHIL 1030 sections at 25
PHIL upper division courses at 15
RELS 2130 at 25
RELS upper division at 20.
If we set all courses sizes at the minimum to take, we wouldn’t meet our overall SCH target. In order to still meet our target and allow some courses to make with fewer than I’ve figured, we would have to allow other courses to exceed the current limits. So for example, if an upper-division course ENGL course doesn’t fill to 20, it could still be taught if we added some extra seats to a single section of world literature. Please note: judging from discussions the CLASS chairs have already had with the Dean, I believe that classes failing to enroll the minimum number of students set by CLASS policy will NOT be allowed to go. There will be no reduced pay for faculty members whose courses don’t make. It’s going to be either all or nothing for this coming summer. So if you are teaching a course you suspect will have a hard time meeting minimum numbers, it’s up to you to recruit, and recruit early. I believe there will be early and final cut-off dates for allowing courses to make.
Educational Leave for Fall 2013.
Post freshman grades by October 5.
Tips for advisors as we enter the advisement period for Spring Term 2013.
From the floor.
Adjournment.
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Department Meeting – August 16, 2012
Rebecca Ziegler – Library Liaison
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- a. Three Handouts
- b. Discover Search Engine
- c. Consider adding her to Folio
- d. Offer to Grade/Read Summaries
- e. Office Hours TBA
- f. Request for Collections/Acquisitions
- g. Center for Research Libraries (Cynthia Frost)
Agenda
- Enrollment (Slightly better, about 100 or so, but mostly down not only in department, CLASS, university but also the state)
- i. Some had suspicions that this was due to the lack of jobs as well as scholarships/grants/difficulty of getting loans.
- University Budget
- i. No raises statewide
- ii. 3% cut this year plus 3% cut next year. Get ready to tighten your belts
- Keel (BIGGER is BETTER, More with less, GO EAGLES!)
- i. General consensus that this was an impossible goal
- ii. General consensus that Keel was more interested in Football, Administration etc.
- iii. General consensus that convocation was a Pep Rally
- Bartels
- i. Reactivation of Strategic Planning Committee ? Some worried that this would repeat the other SPC, while others had hopes that this might actually allow for a Faculty voice.
- ii. Assessment stressed during CLASS meeting
- iii. Promise that budgets for departments won’t be upset by budget cuts (Ricker made it clear after Bartel left that this was going to be a stretch and possible impossible. As David made clear later in our meeting, our budget comes from summer incentive and this can be touched versus our operating budgets which is a drop in the bucket for us).
- iv. Discussion of “Out in Four”
- Discussion of David’s Letter and Encouragement to join AAUP and Senate
- i. We are all so proud of our CHAIR!
- CLASS – Ricker interim dean for 2years as there is not enough man-power to search for 5 Deans at the same time
- Department
- i. Props of Program Reviews
- ii. Lots of Personnel Actions this year
- Beth (Tenure)
- Hemchand (Promotion)
- Dustin (Pre-Tenure)
- Search for Religious Studies Position as Religious Studies is bursting with 92 minors (Hire before December Break)
- a. The Hiring Committee
- i. Hemchand
- ii. Nicole
- iii. Beth
- iv. Joe
- a. The Hiring Committee
- iii. David Heading the Search for Writing/Linguistics Chair
- iv. Classes Full. Good for us and thus not reflecting the low enrollment problem of the university.
- v. TA discussion. TA’s hired and ready to teach, Karen will supervise
- vi. Class Seed to Howard!!! Awesome
- vii. Spring 2013
- 1. Temp for Philosophy because they need more Intro and Critical Thinking Courses (Rob)
- 2. Request for us to Check Wings in case our classes are assigned incorrectly
- 3. Richard got a Sabbatical AWESOME!!! (Only one who applied so be sure to apply for this program)
- a. Discussion of how we must hire temps or adjuncts if we are going to have this program for the Religious Studies and Philosophy Faculty
- viii. Summer 2012
- 1. Enrollment was Down and this hurt our summer incentive money
- a. No Pell Grants are a possible reason why
- b. Switch to Online classes in Sociology and Psychology
- c. Graduate Students Teaching for cheaper
- 2. Bartel doesn’t know (or won’t inform us) how much summer incentive money there is until Sept.
- 3. Without summer incentive money our operating budget sucks! Get your requests for travel in now!
- 4. We had a lot of money last year for travel because of summer incentive but this year we may not be able to provide for travel as well as we would like.
- 1. Enrollment was Down and this hurt our summer incentive money
- ix. Departmental Manual to be checked and updated
- x. Detail of Finances
- 1. Don’t give to Foundation Account – The university administration is skimming 5%
- 2. Some donors are angry about this and are already setting up off-campus donations.
- 3. Currently we have $79 in our budget (minus our lunch)
- 4. Are we to set up an Agency Account, Savings or should Rebecca stash cash in office???
- 5. Copier needs to be retired! We were supposed to get this in the summer but it was too late for large purchases and thus we stocked up on office supplies. We also purchased books for the Philosophy and Religious Studies student libraries.
- xi. Karen volunteered to represent at CLASS and Gautam volunteered to represent at SACSCOC
- xii. Discussion of when departmental meetings should be held (Friday seemed to be the consensus with a push to have fewer meetings)
- xii. Consensus that the room in which we were holding the meeting should be fixed (or burnt to the ground) due to air conditioning problems. Discussion of the fact that the building was going to renovate AGAIN the AC units.
- xiv. Independent Reports – Reports included below
Karen’s Report
State of the Graduate Program
This summer, we said goodbye to a number of students, many of whom are going on to further graduate work or teaching. (CJ, Duck, Wenying, Lyndsey, Rachel, Drew, Jenny). These students—along with several of our current students—have been active scholars, participating in a number of regional and national conferences. Thanks to those of you who mentored these students, encouraging them to submit conference proposals and helping them revise drafts.
We have admitted a number of promising new students this year and have a large contingent of fantastic returning students. Most of these students will be beginning their thesis work and will be looking for advisors and committee members (if they don’t already have them.). I hope you will be able to be generous with your time. Please feel free to consult me or the information online about theses if you are uncertain of the process or deadlines. Encourage your students from the moment they start work on their theses to be aware of these deadlines (which are much sooner than they think!).
We have six teaching assistants this year, two students who will be instructors of record in world literature, one who will be teaching in writing and linguistics, and one student who will be assisting in Writing and Linguistics’ Writing Lab. I am in the process of assigning TAs to research, teaching, and administrative roles based on your preferences. If you aren’t familiar with the policies and procedures for using TAs, please consult the graduate student manual on our departmental website (or ask me). Remember that if you receive a teaching assistant, you will need to complete an assessment of that student’s work at the end of the term.
To better assist our student teachers, the graduate committee will continue its practice of holding regular teaching workshops/discussion groups, and I will be observing the teaching of our new teachers of record and offering ongoing feedback/suggestions. We will also be again meeting informally with all of our graduate students over the academic year to hear their concerns and suggestions for improving the program. Mary Stephens will be our student representative, and please feel free to have students contact her with any questions or concerns about the program. You should contact any of the committee members (me, Richard, Gautam, Joe, Dustin) if you would like the committee to consider any graduate issues this academic year.
Over the past year, the graduate committee has successfully completed comprehensive program review, added the new theses requirements to the catalog and officially removed the non-thesis option, approved the requirement that students applying to the program submit both a writing sample and a statement of purpose, changed student learning outcomes and goals for graduate program assessment, and reviewed student assistants’ assessments of their TA experiences. Using end-of-year money, we were able to fund student assistantships for this summer. Overall, we attended to a number of administrative issues this year and are ready to start the new year thinking about ways to publicize and build the program.
Marc’s Report
POCO: We have severed ties with Continuing Education & are organizing the conference solo. We have raised the conference fee to $150, but this will now include two lunches and two open bars at the De Soto in Savannah, where the conference will be held (for the second year) in mid-February 2013.
Joe’s Report
As a University, our assessment processes are, in general, passable, but there are more than a few weak areas. Since we’re already on a monitoring report from SACSCOC, this is a significant problem. Joe spoke a bit about the history of assessment in this cycle, and why we’re suddenly playing catch-up to get to the point where we told SACSCOC we were back in 2006 (as a response to our first monitoring report). So we’re bootstrapping many of these processes with a skeleton staff, and, as usual, the lion’s share of the workload falls to the faculty.
As a department, we’re ahead of the curve in terms of our assessment processes:
We’re collecting information and beginning to write the reports for the 2011-2012 assessment cycle.
BA English: we’re assessing random papers.
BA Philosophy: we’re collecting papers, and will assess them as soon as we get a large enough sample size.
MA English: we’re completing the thesis and defense assessments.
General Education: we spent the summer comparing the validity of essays v. multiple-choice exams.
Religious Studies: assessment of papers is completed.
Irish Studies: we’re creating rubrics and collecting papers.
The Department Assessment Committee (DAC) will present its report to the department at the October faculty meeting.
At the September department meeting, the DAC will present two models for assessment of Gen Ed classes (ENGL 2111 and ENGL 2112), both of which have been piloted, for faculty approval. Joe will be sending out a comparison packet for the faculty to review before the meeting.
In order to incorporate all these processes more seamlessly into the life as a department, and to avoid the appearance that assessment is something that is imposed upon us externally, Joe proposed that the DAC be disbanded for the 2013-2014 academic year, and its workload be distributed to the committees which are responsible for each of the areas above. We would still retain an Assessment Coordinator, but the workload would not fall to just the DAC, but to the faculty members who work on each of the responsible committees. This would help to integrate thinking about assessment into our curriculum and instruction deliberations at a more organic level.
Hemchand’s Report
New Hire Qualifications (American Religious Studies), Hire before December Break
Undergraduate Conference and CFPs
Howard’s Report
A ton of stuff having to do with their away program and invited speakers. History has increased Irish studies curriculum.
Bill’s Report
No new info. Classes good. Planning for undergraduate conference in Spring. Likely topic Literature and Philosophy.
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Minutes of the Department Meeting
Friday, March 23rd, 2011, 2:30 PM
Department members present: Maria Adamos, Dustin Anderson, Marc Cyr, David Dudley, Bill Eaton, Olivia Edenfield,
Julia Griffin, Nicole Karapanagotis, Danny Layne, Tom Lloyd, Joe Pellegrino, Caren Town, Tomasz Warchol, Tim Whelan
(excused: Richard Flynn & Mary Villeponteaux)
Minutes submitted by: Dustin Anderson
Purpose of the Meeting: Review Departmental Committee work
At 2:35pm, David Dudley called the meeting to order, and called for a motion for the approval of the minutes from the
February 10th meeting. Minutes were approved.
Dr. Dudley introduced three issues pertaining to the General Program Committee: Assessment of World Literature I&II
(ENGL2111&2112); Supplemental Instruction; and enrollment in upcoming World Literature sections.
Dr. Dudley asked Dr. Pellegrino to report on the development of assessment models for 2111/2112. Dr. Pellegrino explained that he (along with Drs Griffin, Villeponteaux, & Anderson) had been working with Terri Flateby (Director of Academic Assessment with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness) to revise the model of assessment in these course in order to leave the smallest footprint possible. The newly revised model will consist of a multiple choice exam designed to evaluate how well the SLOs for 2111/2112 are met, rather than testing on course specific material. The exam currently consists of two short poems or excerpts (which are not covered in anyone’s course) that the student will read and respond to in a 50 minute period. All marking will be done by the assessment committee. This is designed to roll to a small number of course every year. The test will undergo a test-focus group, and then be piloted to select sections this semester.
Dr. Dudley then reported on the state of Supplemental Instruction. Given the departure of Dr. Brooks as coordinator, there are no new plans for changes to be made to SI. The CLASS Dean’s office is currently seeking a replacement for that position. Dr. Town asked that Dr. Dudley check into the possibility of the SI budget funding our graduate student(s) that teach the SI recitation sections (since the undergraduate SI mentors are paid out of that budget, the graduate student should be as well).
Dr. Dudley also announced that the upcoming sections of World Literature were at 40, but might rise. Dr. Griffin asked about the upper limit of seats per class. Dr. Dudley responded that Dean Smith was still moving forward with the new World Literature Lecturer hire, which should alleviate some of those numbers. He also noted that the current recourse that we have is to teach double sections, but there haven’t been many volunteers to do so. Dr. Adamos asked who assigns the non-core course class sizes. The Dean determines the minimum number of students enrolled in a course to allow it to make. The Department Chair determines the maximum number. The Chair takes student demand into consideration, but he also tries to keep PHIL 1030 and PHIL 2232 sections at about 35 students. Dr. Dudley suggested that we might be able to use some summer incentive money for part-time coverage. Dr. Anderson asked about other venues of additional funding, such as designing and teaching online courses. Dr. Town asked about the possibility of using TAs for additional courses. Dr. Dudley said that might be possible, but anything done in the summer has to go into the summer operating budget. Dr. Cyr pointed out the there is current legislation being considered at the state level for mandating at least one online course with each student’s curriculum.
Dr. Cyr reported on the Major Program Committee’s review Dr. Anderson’s proposal for developing a “Research Writing” course for majors. The current discussion of the proposal is to add a new course in Area F. This might not be possible if the six hours of Foreign Language in Area F are not open for modification. If that is the case, the committee will reconsider the revision of ENGL2131 suggested in the proposal. Dr. Lloyd noted that to make anything like this work, the faculty would need to agree on more clear outcomes and expectations for upper-level courses. Dr. Cyr announced that 13 faculty participated in the voting for the Outstanding Literature Student Award.
Dr. Eaton reported that the committee was still conferring on the Outstanding Philosophy Student Award, and is currently discussing course rotation. Dr. Layne reported on the upcoming Philosophy Conference, which will comprised of delegates from a wide variety of colleges and universities in addition to students and faculty from GSU. Dr. Dudley announced that the state has mandated that certain Philosophy courses be renumbered to facilitate transfer credits, which means large-scale changes to catalogue materials. These pervasive clerical changes are being made by Drs Dudley and Eaton.
Dr. Karapanagotis reported that Religious Studies has developed a number of new courses. She announced two student recognitions for the upcoming honors day. She also announced that Religious Studies is considering developing a thesis for the minor in order to facilitate students looking towards graduate programs.
Dr. Town reported that the Comprehensive Program Review (CPR) for the MA in English is currently at the University Graduate committee, and looks to be in good shape. She noted that the policy for in-progress thesis grading is in the university catalogue, and asked everyone teaching graduate courses to remind their students about dates for their program of study (especially graduation application deadlines). She reported on the issue she and Dr. Flynn raised with the University Graduate committee regarding continuous summer enrollment, and the approval to add a statement of purpose to the MA application. She also noted that the writing sample will play a larger role in admissions and appointments for graduate students in response to the new focus on admitting smaller high-quality cohorts rather than larger cohorts. She announced that the Graduate committee will consistently use the evaluation of RA/GA & faculty interaction.
Dr. Dudley announced current and upcoming Promotion & Tenure matters. Dr. Adamos successful completed post-tenure review. Drs Thomson and Whelan will go up for post-tenure review next academic year. Dr. Butterfield will go up for Promotion & Tenure to Associate status next academic year. Dr. Gossai will go up for Promotion & Tenure to Full status next academic year. Dr. Anderson will go up for pre-tenure review next academic year.
Dr. Dudley reported that registration for summer and fall are both strong, and all courses should make. He also reported that departmental travel funds are were a significant portion of the budget this year, and the remaining funds from the operating budget will go towards the new copier.
Upcoming Events:
• Banquet in honor of Dr. Pellegrino’s Departmental Service Award (6pm 3/26 at Holiday’s)
• Departmental Honors Day (1pm 4/4 at the Russell Union)
• Graduate Student & Faculty gathering: 4203 (4:20pm 4/20 at the Mellow Mushroom)
• Dinner for Graduating Students (6pm 4/24 at the Beaver House)
The meeting adjourned at 3:20pm.
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Minutes of the Department Meeting
Friday, February 10th, 2012, 2:30 PM
Department members present: Dustin Anderson, Marc Cyr, David Dudley, Olivia Edenfield, Brad Edwards, Richard Flynn, Howard Keeley, Gautam Kundu, Tom Lloyd, Joe Pellegrino, Doug Thomson, Caren Town, Mary Villeponteaux, Tomasz Warchol, Tim Whelan
Minutes submitted by: Dustin Anderson
Purpose of the Meeting: Review and Approval of Comprehensive Program Reviews for BA (Literature) and MA (English)
At 2:35pm, David Dudley called the meeting to order.
Dr. Dudley made announcements about the upcoming Philosophy Conference initiated by Dr. Layne, and organized by the Philosophy faculty; the upcoming British Commonwealth & Post Colonial Conference; and Dr. Town’s upcoming “Great Minds’ Lecture (Censorship in Public Schools); the Training Event for new and revised courses on February 24th at 2:30 in Newton (room TBA); and he also introduced the new iteration of CLASS Notes. He then requested volunteers for Honors Day and Spring Graduation.
Dr. Flynn raised the issue of the recent need to log complaints at the college level, and Dr. Dudley added it to the agenda for the next department meeting.
Dr. Dudley introduced the Comprehensive Program Reviews (CPRs), and gave a history of the last departmental CPR (which Dr. Flynn supplemented additional information), and the process the CPR would go through once the reports were approved. Dr. Dudley then asked Drs. Town and Cyr to introduce their CPRs for the BA and MA. Drs. Cyr and Town asked for comments, questions, or revisions to the CPRs distributed to the faculty earlier in the semester.
Dr. Cyr noted one correction to the “previous review” section, and Dr. Villeponteaux explained why certain information was culled. Dr. Cyr noted that both the Program and the Report itself would be judged during the review. Dr. Dudley asked for any further discussion, and Dr. Thomson moved that the department thank Drs. Pellegrino, Town, and Cyr for their work, and that the BA CPR be approved. Dr. Flynn seconded the motion. Motion passed with no opposition.
Dr. Town discussed the CPR and its inclusion of a narrative, and again asked for comments, questions, or revisions. None were made. Dr. Cyr moved the MA CPR be approved. Drs. Flynn and Anderson seconded the motion. Motion passed with no opposition.
Dr. Town announced the institution of a regular meeting with graduate students to address professional and pedagogical issues in a more informal group setting.
Dr. Keeley announced that we will be hosting a departmental Honors Day to follow the event last year; and that the Banquet for graduating seniors will likely be at the Beaver House. Dr. Dudley reminded us to start thinking about ideas for gifts for these students.
Dr. Dudley recognized that the first meeting for the Eagle Elite Literary Society (EELS) was a success.
Dr. Dudley closed the meeting with praise for how fruitful and productive our department has been this year so far, and commended the faculty for gathering in support of Dr. Town and Dr. Layne in their recent losses.
The meeting adjourned at 3:05pm.
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Minutes of the Department Meeting
Friday, October 28, 2011, 2:30 PM
Department members present: Dustin Anderson, David Dudley, Bill Eaton, Olivia Edenfield, Brad Edwards, Nicole Karapanagiotis, Howard Keeley, Danny Layne, Joe Pellegrino, Caren Town, Mary Villeponteaux, Tomasz Warchol
Minutes submitted by: Dustin Anderson
Purpose of the Meeting: Assessment Committee Report; Graduate Committee Announcements
At 2:35pm, David Dudley called the meeting to order, and the minutes of Sept. 9th were approved.
Dr. Dudley asked Dr. Pellegrino to deliver the Assessment Committee report. Dr. Pellegrino noted that there was a change to the Assessment goals at the university level, and we are now charged with assessing general education (Core) courses rather than our major’s courses as well. With this change, the focus no longer must be of student writing. Dr. Pellegrino provided a handout detailing the changes in our assessment goal. Of note, the University committee on Assessment is currently at level 4 of Bloom’s taxonomy, and each department should be at that same level. To do so, the General Programs Committee has proposed an assessment tool based on a common text model. With this proposal, the SLOs for our general education course need to be revised to reflect the goals of a more objective common text exam. The committee proposed that every section of 2111 & 2112 contain at least one of three common texts (three of 2111 and three for 2112)—the example provided was: each section of 2112 should contain Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” or Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” or Eliot’s “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock.” The assessment would then sequentially consist of a pre-test on one of these three texts, teaching that text, and a post-test (identical to the pre-test). The GP committee will draft the exams and present these to the faculty. Dr. Villeponteaux will send an email request for the faculty’s suggestions of our “top three” texts for each section. The motion to accept the revisions to the SLOs and the format of assessment tool was made, and the motion passed with no objections.
Dr. Town announced that Graduate Committee was in process of making changes to the Graduate Student Handbook and Application process. The handbook now contains new language on Independent Directed Studies. The Graduate Application process will now contain a required Statement of Purpose. The committee is also in process of creating a TA Application and revising the Thesis assessment rubric. She also mentioned that a number of students have asked about taking an additional 5000level courses. She noted that while there is not a specific issue within our department, the graduate college might require another 7000level to complete their requirements for graduation.
Dr. Dudley noted that CLASS has changed its policy on all 5000level courses; these must now be held after 5pm. Concerns were raised about the practicality of such a policy, and Dr. Dudley noted those.
Dr. Dudley noted that he was preparing the 2012-2013 budget. Primarily, the 1st new hire (as discussed last year) will be an additional lecturer in World Literature. He will also be budgeting for 2 additional TA lines, more funds in the operating and travel budget, and reminded everyone of the new computer/office equipment rotation.
Dr. Keeley announced that the Department’s Holiday Party will likely be December 3rd at Georgia’s Bed & Breakfast. There would be a $10-a-head charge, which would allow us to invite (and cover) the graduate students. Dr. Keeley also announced the trip that a number of our students will be making to Emory’s MARBL as part of Emory’s extension of their Irish Studies holdings to GA Souhtern University’s Irish Studies Center.
The meeting adjourned at 3:30pm.
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Minutes of the Department Meeting
Tuesday, September 9, 2011, 2:30 PM
Department members present: Maria Adamos, Dustin Anderson, Beth Butterfield, Robert Costomiris, Marc Cyr, David Dudley, Bill Eaton, Olivia Edenfield, Brad Edwards, Richard Flynn, Hemchand Gossai, Julia Griffin, Nicole Karapanagiotis, Danny Layne, Tom Lloyd, Joe Pellegrino, Doug Thomson, Caren Town, and Mary Villeponteaux
Minutes submitted by: Dustin Anderson
Purpose of the Meeting: Assessment Committee Report; Guest talk by Sue Bunning
At 2:35pm, David Dudley called the meeting to order, and the previous minutes were approved.
Dr. Dudley introduced Sue Bunning (CLASS Development Officer). Bunning shared an overview of what the CDO does, and introduced the case for support for the college (listed on the document of “Six Priorities” she provided at the meeting). She informed the department of two upcoming changes: 1) the University will hire a new VP of advancement. And 2) there will be a push to create a CLASS identity to better connect with both current and former constituents. This is intended to help build gift-giving for both the college and individual departments. There is the potential to form new policies on contacting alumni (for which the CDO will generate lists of contact data). She pointed out the need to build our annual funds as well as larger single gifts for our endowments. The Foundation has provided a small amount of money to facilitate events. As long as the CDO is involved, the department can fund-raise on its own.
From the floor, the following suggestions were made:
- Flannery O’Connor tour in Milledgeville
- Student staffed phone drive
- Alumni study abroad
- Inviting Alumni to (speak at?) events
- Alumni Newsletter
- Surveying Alumni for “Return to Campus” ideas
Following Bunning’s presentation, Dr. Dudley asked Dr. Pellegrino to deliver the Assessment Committee report. Dr. Pellegrino noted that there was a change to the Graduate section, since the mistake indicated was by the registrar’s office. All of the committee’s recommendations were built into the presentation report that Dr. Pellegrino had distributed via email before the meeting. In brief, the assessment process exceeded all of the minimum requirements for the review—recommendation made: the process needs more numbers to be fully effective as a reporting tool. Dr. Cyr noted that the language in the 2131 section was confusing (specifically the sequencing issues). The wording was changed on the spot. Dr. Pellegrino explained that this process was intended to set benchmarks, and then walked through both the report and its recommendations in detail. Of note, the MA section demonstrated that students on a 2/2 load need either a reduced load or summer funding in order to complete on time. Other Programmatic changes would be recommended from the department, rather than coming from any University Assessment impetus. Dr. Pellegrino also mentioned that his term as Assessment chair was up at the end of the year, and was thanked for the monumental effort that went into generating the report.
Dr. Dudley reminded the faculty of the September 30th meeting with Dean Smith to discuss Supplemental Instruction. He also noted the issue broached by the letter sent by members of the Political Science faculty over the removal of their chair. Dr. Dudley announced that, as a department, Literature & Philosophy would not be officially involved in that situation.
The meeting adjourned at 3:35pm.
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Minutes of the Department Meeting
Tuesday, August 16, 2011, 9:30 AM
Department members present: Dustin Anderson, Beth Butterfield, Marc Cyr, David Dudley, Bill Eaton, Brad Edwards, Nicole Karapanagiotis, Howard Keeley, Gautam Kundu, Danny Layne, Tom Lloyd, Joe Pellegrino, Candy Schille, Doug Thomson, Caren Town, Mary Villeponteaux, Tomasz Warchol, and Tim Whelan
Minutes submitted by: Dustin Anderson
Purpose of the Meeting: Beginning of Term Business
At 9:40pm, David Dudley called the meeting to order, and the previous minutes (April 29) were approved.
Dr. Dudley announced that during the previous day’s CLASS Chair’s retreat Dean Smith challenged each chair to assess their goals as department administrators. Dr. Dudley’s statement of purpose for the chair centered around facilitating the department’s goals and the needs of each faculty member.”The job of the chair,” he said, “is to make your jobs easier.”
Dr. Dudley introduced and welcomed the two new junior hires: Nicole Karapanagiotis and Danny Layne. He then asked each attending member to share their research and travel news.
Rebecca Ziegler, Henderson Library Liaison, introduced herself, and explained that she would like to work with the Literature & Philosophy faculty to increase student writing based on what she’s read in Academically Adrift. She also informed the department that Henderson has just joined the Center for Research Libraries, mentioned the new databases of interest to the department, and asked the faculty to request books.
Dr. Dudley then presented the Chair’s report:
Newton Building upgrades and updates, including the new furniture in 2203 and 1108, and plans for cooling system and ceiling tile upgrades during winter break.
He asked that the faculty consider using the university space located downtown.
He also explained that based on the teaching work done this summer, Dean Smith added a 20% bonus to the summer incentive money for meeting all of our goals. Some of this operational money could be used for travel, and encouraged the faculty to pursue that avenue. The Honors Program also donated monies to the operational budget for travel based on the amount (and excellence) of work that the department does for the Honors program.
Regarding upcoming business, there are no new searches this year, as well as no tenure and promotion cases, and only one post-tenure review (for Maria Adamos).
Both the Literature Major and M.A. in Literature will be conducting their comprehensive program review this year. Dr. Dudley commended the Philosophy program on completing their review last year.
Dr. Dudley also asked that the faculty submit their travel requests as early as possible, and reminded everyone to submit their syllabi to Rebecca.
Dr. Dudley informed the faculty that there will be one additional pre-semester SOAR session, which will likely raise the enrollment in both World Lit I/II and Intro to Phil.
Joe Pellegrino reported on assessment, saying that the committee is currently drafting the report, which will need to be approved by the September faculty meeting. He also reported that the online functions (surveys and submissions) were successful. Currently, the proposal for World Lit assessment will be a common essay (to be piloted this fall by Pellegrino and Anderson). The rubrics for these essays will be undergoing a revision process this fall.
Dr. Dudley recapped the previous year’s departmental events, and asked the faculty to keep in mind that they would not be possible with contributions to our Foundation Account during A Day for Southern.
Howard Keeley asked about the state of the Newton elevator. Dr. Keeley noted that some students with disabilities were encountering problems with the elevator.
Danny Layne announced a beginning of the year party. Dr. Layne will email details to the faculty list-serve.
Caren Town reported on the Graduate Program’s upcoming projects, thanked Dr. Thomson for his years of service as the DGS, and introduced the incoming of graduate students.
The meeting adjourned at 11:05, and was followed by a luncheon with the graduate students.
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Minutes of the Department Meeting
Friday, April 29, 2011, 2:30 PM
Department members present: Dustin Anderson, Robert Costomiris, Marc Cyr, David Dudley, Bill Eaton, Olivia Edenfield, Richard Flynn, Hemchand Gossai, Gautam Kundu, Tom Lloyd, Joe Pellegrino, Candy Schille, Doug Thomson, Tomasz Warchol, and Tim Whelan
Minutes submitted by: Dustin Anderson
Purpose of the Meeting: To discuss Teaching Load Policies, Tenure & Promotion Guidelines, and vote for university committee representatives
At 2:30pm, David Dudley called the meeting to order.
Dr. Dudley thanked everyone for attending the meeting with the provost, and felt like our suggestions were taken seriously. The percentages will still be looked at, but they will not impact Tenure & Promotion reviews. Dr. Dudley thanked the organizers of both the Honors Award Ceremony and Dinner for Graduating Seniors, and thanked Drs Villeponteaux and Griffin for supervising Sigma Tau Delta again. Dr. Dudley reminded everyone of the department party on Sunday at 2pm (which is potluck), and asked for everyone to be on the lookout for the email on the new F policy.
The previous minutes were approved.
New Business:
Elect 1 representative for the Dean’s Advisory Board
Elect 2 representatives for the College Bylaw Committee
Elect 1 representative for the Curriculum Committee
Approve Revised Teaching Load policies
Approve Revised Tenure & Promotion Guidelines
The faculty voted by secret ballot. Drs Anderson and Pellegrino counted and confirmed the ballots.
Dean’s Advisory Board representative: Costomiris (alternate: Flynn)
College Bylaw Committee representatives: Flynn & Villeponteaux
Curriculum Committee representative: Schille
Dr. Dudley introduced the revisions to the Tenure & Promotion policies, and provided copies. Dr. Dudley highlighted the four crucial items necessary for approval. The discussion that followed each point is paraphrased below.
Item #1: Including the word “promotion.” This item was unanimously approved. The question of promotion before tenure was raised. The CLASS guidelines and faculty handbook disagree about this. The faculty requested clarification on the issue of promotion before tenure at the college and university levels.
Item #2: Changing the date for T&P dossiers from September 1st to August 24th. This timeline is intended to help the applicant by providing the chair more time to respond before the dossier is finalized. This item was unanimously approved.
Item #3: The formation of a smaller committee to provide a recommendation to the Committee of the Whole.
A case was made for the smaller committee that will be able to more thoroughly analyze the dossiers, and provide an detailed recommendation to the CoW, based on models used by other departments. This smaller committee would not preclude the CoW meeting, and the chair would still be required to write up the results of the sub-committee’s review.
A number of faculty present made the case for retaining the current model of a single meeting of the CoW. The current guidelines stand with the clarification of the term “chair” to “department chair.”
Item #4: Timeline for presenting materials to the Dean for candidates seeking T&P. No approval necessary, since there were no changes. The question about Digital Measures versus Print materials. Both can be provided, but Digital Measures are required.
Tenure and Promotion Guidelines
Present votes: 15 faculty members in attendance voted in favor of the revised tenure and promotion document.
Of those not present at the meeting, 5 additional faculty members voted in favor of the document. One faculty member abstained. The policy received almost unanimous approval, many more votes that the 2/3 required by new Faculty Senate policy.
Dr. Dudley introduced the revised Teaching load policy, which he revised in conjunction with Drs Edenfield, Villeponteaux, Town, & Thomson. This document must be consistent with the Tenure & Promotion guidelines. Dean Smith is satisfied with the current draft (copies provided). The CLASS policy needs some clarification. Dr. Flynn noted that the primary difference is a formula used by the college. Dr. Costomiris asked if this policy will be ready for the coming spring semester, and on what grounds could they be requested. Dr. Dudley answered that the policies will be ready for the following spring, especially for the new and incoming faculty. Dr. Whelan asked which policy (department or college) will trump the other, and is there a possibility for a 2/2 load? Dr. Dudley answered that the department policy should carry more weight, with a thorough rationale, than the college, and the Dean should support this. Dr. Pellegrino pointed out that all of the examples are for a 3/2 load, and the numbers don’t really match up (as the new requirements ask for a 100% increase over the current requirements, rather than a 50% increase). Dr. Dudley entertained new language for a 2/2 load. Dr. Pellegrino and Dr. Gossai drafted the following statement be added to the existing draft as item H: “Faculty may qualify for a 2/2 teaching load if they present evidence of a promising current research project and significantly exceed the requirements for a 3/2 teaching load.” Dr. Eaton asked if the new load is contingent on need, and if with a faculty as small as Philosophy can practically achieve this? Dr. Warchol asked about banking courses. Dr. Dudley answered that this will be effected at the college level, but it hasn’t happened yet.
The drafts of Revised Teaching Load Policies were approved, with the inclusion of item “H,” by all present.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:00pm.
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Minutes of the Requested Meeting with Provost William T. (Ted) Moore & Dean Michael Smith
Tuesday, April 26, 2011, 5:00pm
Department members present: Maria Adamos, Dustin Anderson, Robert Costomiris, Marc Cyr, David Dudley, Bill Eaton, Olivia Edenfield, Brad Edwards, Richard Flynn, Hemchand Gossai, Julia Griffin, Howard Keeley, Gautam Kundu, Candy Schille, Doug Thomson, Caren Town, Tomasz Warchol, and Tim Whelan
Others present: Ted Moore and Michael Smith
Minutes submitted by: Dustin Anderson
Purpose of the Meeting: To discuss issues raised by letter sent to President regarding RPG & DFW rates
At 5:00pm, Dr. Smith introduced Dr. Moore, Provost.
Dr. Moore explained that, as the chief academic administrator, he requested to respond to this letter on the President’s behalf. He wanted to take the initiative to join the conversation. Dr. Moore made two preliminary remarks about issues surrounding the DFW & RPG rates:
- he made clear that there was absolutely no intention to form a policy on percentages for DFW rates, however, we should recognize that the ratings can be an important diagnostic tool, which he can speak personally to from his own courses; and
- the upper administration is aware that while the percentages should reflect student learning, some things (i.e. the economy) are out of our control.
He cited the research study organized by Ohio State University on RPG rates. That $2,000,000 study returned a result of 2% improvement (which is well within the random error/variance margin). In short, retention is difficult, and some factors are indiscernible. He wanted to make clear that President does not feel that the faculty has failed in this capacity. After reading the memo, Dr. Moore felt like the points, especially the need for more thorough diagnostics, were well made.
Dr. Smith noted, on the issue of diagnostics, that at the most recent Dean’s Faculty Advisory Board meeting, Dr. Costomiris suggested creating a survey to diagnose student apathy, failure, etc… He started researching models of other institutions to build a CLASS survey, which has reached a final draft (copies provided). Some of the questions reflect the letter to President Keel, and other reflect larger studies (such as Academically Adrift). The pilot will begin in the spring. Dr. Moore noted after the pilot program the survey will go university wide.
The details of the larger discussion are outlined below (again, please forgive my paraphrasing).
Q: How the data will be aggregated, and how that data will be beneficial to the faculty?
Dean Smith (DS): The details of aggregate data have not been fully worked out yet, but will certainly be filtered in multiple ways. The benefit should be at the course level, rather than the section level.
Q: The faculty would like to see some separation between the D, F, and W percentages, and the whole number isn’t as helpful as the individual numbers should be.
DS: Based on the size of the return, possibly.
Q: Could advising administer the exam?
DS: Possibly, post-pilot stage.
Q: Is there a possibility of Supervised Ws, as Dr. Edenfield previously suggested?
DS: As one of many possibilities, yes. [*see March 25 minutes] We do want to find out why they are leaving.
Q: Could we include a question that mediates this?
Provost Moore (PM): Student government wants to help the student body at large improve. Other schools have had some success with peer intervention. SGA could do this, but we would need your help with this initiative.
Q: Apart from large-scale problems, such as fewer students in class, will these DFW rates in any way impact our evaluations? If they will, it would be tantamount to requesting us to inflate grades to insure promotion.
PM: DFW and RPG rates are a national issue, and they will affect Tenure & Promotion.
Q: We got there was a sense of urgency to reach what is ultimately an unreachable goal. The legislature isn’t providing us with what we need to combat this issue…including suggestions to solve the problem. If we could slow this process down, we would be more at ease with this.
PM: Agreed. We need to move this back to the academic sector of the university—at the system level. This has a real cost for both us and for the students. We [academic sector] need to bring these problems and solutions to the president. Currently, the President is bringing the problem to us, and that needs to be reversed.
Q: Given the amount OSU spent on such a little return, and the pressure on the President, what would, practically speaking, make the legislature relax this pressure? What is the timeline for improving RPG rates?
PM: Showing initiative will buy us some much needed time. Upper administration knows the importance that the university has always had on teaching. Students are happy here because of the their teachers and their advising network. The President is, of course, aware of this. So how much will this take? Let me provide some statistics: the decline in retention is system-wide, but it has exceptions. Every book on RPG says that it is a multi-factor problem, but one consistent factor is high retention comes from students with high level success in high school.
Q: A big concern is literacy. We have to work with the students that we receive, but we can’t pass illiterate students. Is the BoR working with other schools on this as well? How do grades given and degrees conferred correlate with skills acquired? Can we know this?
PM & DS: Some of our diagnostics are on student preparation. Books like Academically Adrift patterns this and the data says that the correlation between GPA and CLA is obvious, but the CLA doesn’t always improve.
Q: How do we compare to other schools’ RPG rates?
PM: Tech and UGA are high, but only within the state. Other 4 years are pretty heterogeneous. Comment: There seems to be a trend between high tuition and high retention.
Q: Do we have any statistics on the number of students needing remediation? The cost seems to have skyrocketed over the last 20 years. Do we know what this number is, and how can we turn aluminum into stainless steel?
PM: We don’t know this yet.
Q: What about the edicts from the BoR? If they say jump, the presidents jump. Will our upper administration be able to educate the BoR and legislature?
PM: It should be coming from the ground up. All of the presidents were caught flat-footed. When we respond to the legislature after-the-fact, it looks like all we have are excuses.
Q: When we examine a situation, it is often because of a problem. Is there a way we can change this rhetoric?
PM: That is part of the educational process.
Q: This survey will show that certain students need help—either from peer counseling or graduate student tutoring—but some students still won’t respond (based on the student culture). So, if this survey demonstrates that students need more than encouragement from their peers, will we be able to funding and support for this? What about formal mentoring programs?
PM & DS: We will talk about this with SGA. Will the “system” give us anything? Not at the experimental stage, but if we can get out in front of this, possibly. The Dean’s office is researching supplemental instruction. This will be part of the strategic plan.
Q: Could on-campus resources, like Housing, help us with this? Could we extend the Athletics model? Shouldn’t the RIGs help with this?
DS & PM: The RIGs have folded. Housing sounds like a good idea, since material on RPG say that only half the retention issue is academic, the other is social.
Q: What is the university’s commitment to changing student culture?
PM: Some programs like FYE or College 101 will help. There are some effort-based resources available.
Q: What about full-time students working full-time? Can we do anything for them?
PM: That’s an economic issue, but we are talking with Theresa Thompson about this.
Q: Most people on campus don’t realize that RPG & DFW rates are an issue, specifically units that don’t deal with gateway courses. Is there a way to offset this, or share responsibility?
PM: This is a system-wide problem.
Q: What about involving parents in these rates?
PM: There are issues of privacy.
Q: What about involving parents before students actually enroll, such as through a pre-first semester campus-wide reading program?
DS: Something to look into.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:00pm.
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Minutes of the Department Meeting
Friday, March 25, 2011, 1:00 PM
Department members present: Maria Adamos, Dustin Anderson, Beth Butterfield, Marc Cyr, David Dudley, Bill Eaton, Olivia Edenfield, Brad Edwards, Richard Flynn, Hemchand Gossai, Julia Griffin, Robert Higgerson, Gautam Kundu, Tomasz Warchol
Others present: Dean Michael Smith
Minutes submitted by: Dustin Anderson
Purpose of the Meeting: To discuss issues with Bylaws and forum on DFW rates
At 1:00pm, David Dudley called the meeting to order.
Dr. Dudley introduced the need elect two representatives to the Executive/Governance Committee charged with writing CLASS bylaws (see Motion 2, Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Comm. on Faculty Governance). Drs. Cyr and Flynn noted that the work should not be over strenuous as there are models in place elsewhere.
Dr. Dudley announced that the current Dean’s Faculty Advisory committee will stay in place through the end of the year. The Dept. is charged with nominating the new committee members. Dr, Flynn noted that this didn’t necessarily limit the Dean to maintaining more than one Advisory committee. Dr. Dudley recommends, for both committees, that the dept. accept nominations (and self-nominations) beginning March 28 through April 18, at which time the dept will vote (at the April 22 meeting). Nominations should be emailed to Dr. Dudley.
Dr. Dudley announced that the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Comm. on Faculty Governance will require a review of Promotion and Tenure guidelines (see Motion 4, Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Comm. on Faculty Governance). Dr. Flynn noted that the 2/3 vote required did not have to be done in person. Dr. Dudley agreed that the dept. will look into alternative formats for that vote. Dr. Cyr noted that these policies must be consistent with the larger bylaws. Dr. Dudley noted that the issue of T&P going into the College bylaws necessitated a 2/3 vote from the entire College had already been raised. Dr. Dudley asked that the relevant committee chairs meet with him to discuss these guidelines.
Dr. Dudley announced that certain summer courses needed to be aware of low enrollment numbers. Dr. Butterfield announced that Philosophy completed their Program Review, which was favorably received. Dr. Dudley noted that the English Major and Literature MA were up for program review next year.
There were seven events announced from the chair and floor:
- March 29—Dept. Fundraiser: “Throw My Troubles Out the Door: Bob Dylan and the Southern Musical Landscape (Holiday Inn)
- March 31—Simga Tau Delta pizza reception: Newton Common Room 6:30pm. Students will also be attending a “mixer” with Deltas from AAU as part of a tour of the O’Connor home in Savannah. (Dr. Griffin)
- April1—Tutoring workshop: Academic Resource Center 1pm. (Dr. Edenfield)
- April 6—Dept. Awards Ceremony: Russell Union 2048 1pm. (email from Major Programs forthcoming)
- April 12—Lecture on Eastern Religions (Beyond Borders) 7pm.(Dr, Gossai)
- April 27—Dinner for Graduating Seniors: El Sombrero 6pm. (email from Major Programs forthcoming)
- May 1—Dept. Picnic: Dudley residence 2pm. Potluck.
Dr. Dudley provided copies of the “Starting the Conversation about High DFW Rates” memo generated by the CLASS Dean’s office. The questions from the faculty and the dean’s responses are paraphrased and grouped together below.
In response to the dean’s initial question about anxiety over this issue, the general responses was worry that this initiative could not be accomplished without lower academic standards (since getting Ds & Fs in most of our courses are actually pretty hard to do), and dissatisfaction with the negative rhetoric surrounding the issue. Dean Smith assured the faculty that lowering standards was not an option, and conceded the point that the discussion should focus on improving student learning rather than focusing on the negative aspect of the DFW rates.
Questions from the floor:
- Should Ws even be considered, since we have no control over them (and since some students use these courses to secure their financial aid and then simply drop)? Do the numbers generated by the dean’s office reflect the new W policy? If Ds are passing grades, why do they count?
- Is it possible to change the W process to require these Ws be supervised through enrollment management?
- What if we are doing all that we can to improve learning, but students still come unprepared? How do we get students to read if they feel like it isn’t part of their culture? Are we admitting students with the wrong attitude? Are there ways in which we could change the student culture to help with this problem?
- What about the possibility of instituting academic retention centers like they use in athletics? If we were to develop our own academic support systems (such as using graduate students as tutors or mentors), is there any realistic hope for funding that kind of project?
- If we only treat the effect, rather than the cause, how will this not end up inflating grades? We want to place students in good graduate programs, and they will likely not be admitted if they come from a college with a reputation for inflation.
- Because of the demanding nature of humanities based courses (even those outside of our college), are the DFW rates in the humanities disproportionally high?
- Should we only be focused on the marginal students?
- Do we track why students not only W, but leave the university? What does the coming year’s enrollment look like?
- What can we expect from the new Provost?
The Dean’s responses:
- The research that the dean’s office conducted focused on “gateway” courses, like World Literature, that had DFW ratings of 35%. Because of the new national initiative (from Biden down to Keel), this number needs to be dropped to at least 25%, not just in CLASS but across the university. If this initiative should be discussed in terms of student learning, then courses with 40 plus percent DFW rates do not reflect efficient student learning. The inclusion of the Ws in this rate is a little misleading, since removing it doesn’t change the D&F rates. Courses with high Ws also have the highest D&F rates.
- Dean Smith promised to look into changing the W process (to allow for supervision), and to look into changing the culture that students are introduced to upon entering the university through events like SOAR. He agreed that the college should also look into advisement strategies.
- His office is interested suggestions for both paid student or graduate student services and service learning courses that might help retain students.
- He encouraged the faculty to strategize ways to combat student apathy (suggesting studies that promote more frequent testing), but conceded that this was particularly difficult in humanities based courses (as opposed to “less intensive” courses in the same Core areas). While this difficulty might be true throughout the humanities, it is not pervasive even departmentally, since students increasingly “shop around” for professors—so the rates should be lower. To illustrate this, he pointed out that he was not talking about huge numbers: to increase retention by 5%, only 35 students would need to complete their study (out of 700). Reducing the DFW rate for a single section of World Literature would mean retaining (or spending additional instruction time on) 4 students, or 12 students in a double section.
- He also mentioned that his office should follow up on Dr. Costomiris’s proposal to survey DFW students.
- The improvement of this rating is one of two initiatives from the President’s office, the other being increasing the size of graduate programs. The Provost will bring energy to these initiatives as well.
- Enrollment is flat, but the number of EIP students has increased.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:45.
* * * * * * * * * *
Minutes of the Department Meeting
Wednesday, February 23, 2011, 4:00 PM
Department members present: Dustin Anderson, Robert Costomiris, Marc Cyr, David Dudley, Olivia Edenfield, Richard Flynn, Joe Pellegrino, Doug Thomson, Tim Whelan
Minutes submitted by: Dustin Anderson
Purpose of the Meeting: To discuss the size of World Literature courses; discuss the need for standards in Teaching Evaluation
At 4:00pm, David Dudley noted that the numbers present did not constitute a Quorum, thus the meeting was conducted as an informal discussion.
Dr. Dudley announced that there would be Water Maintenance taking place the Friday before Spring Break. The HVAC system in Newton will be shut down for 5 weeks to undergo repair, hopefully, over the Holiday/Christmas break. The interior-grade ceiling tiles in the exterior areas of the building will be replaced with exterior-grade tiles. Dr. Dudley pointed out Dean Smith’s help in getting repairs made to Newton.
Dr. Dudley noted that since the department has asked for a second Lecturer, the evaluation of that position’s teaching needs to be made clearer in order to allow for promotion to Senior Lecturer. Currently, the guidelines state: “For the purposes of promotion to senior lecture and reappointment beyond six years,” that these faculty members most demonstrate “exceptional teaching ability” that focuses on “student gains in skills, knowledge, understanding, and personal growth.” The issue of faculty involvement in creating those guidelines was raised. Dr. Dudley noted that there is nothing like a rubric for evaluating teaching (as opposed to more easily evaluated areas like Service or Scholarship).
The three general concerns expressed during this discussion were: the ambiguous nature of the expectations currently in place (exceptional, exceeds expectations, fully acceptable, needs improvement, & unacceptable), the role of faculty input towards those evaluations, and the necessity of creating a committee focused on convening a committee for those evaluations (the current guidelines [CLASS Policy Dr. Dudley provided (rather than the BoR policy 8.3.8.2?)] dictating the constituency restrictions for such committees).
Dr. Costomiris made the point that much of those evaluations (regarding the Lecturer positions) exist as judgment calls on the part of the chair.
Dr. Whelan, Dr. Flynn, & Dr. Pellegrino discussed suggestions for changing the evaluative scale (from 5 ratings to 3), but Dr. Cyr pointed out that the current wording would prevent such changes.
Dr. Thompson made the point that since lectureships do not require scholarship the expectations for teaching performance should be higher, and the reviews of such positions should also rely on Peer Evaluations. Dr. Flynn noted that all tenure-track personnel evaluations contain material such as peer and student evaluations, and the suggestion was made that the process of evaluating these positions should be similar to the process for tenure-track positions.
Dr. Whelan & Dr. Flynn posed questions about the composition, responsibilities, and frequency of the evaluation/promotion. Dr. Dudley noted that the “Committee of the Whole” meets the criteria for this. Dr. Thompson suggested that the evaluation/promotion committee should, at least, compile a list of items to be included in a Teaching Portfolio to be evaluated.
Dr. Pellegrino noted that these positions should have some midterm evaluation similar to a third year review. Dr. Flynn pointed out that the University Faculty Handbook already contains requirements for preliminary or midterm evaluations for Lecturer positions, which are not acknowledged in the current guidelines. He suggested that the midterm review process in the current guidelines should be consistent with the University Handbook.
The discussion then turned to the issue of World Literature class sizes. Dr. Flynn pointed out that the current double-section number (125) is arbitrary since the charge is to prove a certain number of seats for the department. In regards to lowering the caps in World Literature alone, Dr. Cyr noted that the number (125) is college-wide, not departmental.
Dr. Whelan suggested that these courses should be incentivized or eliminated.
Dr. Edenfield & Dr. Costomiris both asked about the correlation between lowering caps in double-sections and the improvement of our DWF. Dr. Thompson added that since we are the only department teaching a core requirement in Area C, we should make a case for lowering our numbers where other departments might not be able or need to. Dr. Whelan, Dr. Pellegrino, Dr. Thompson & Dr. Costomiris all spoke to considerations in conducting research into the effect of larger classes on the DWF rating, as well as the recent changes to the withdrawal policy. It was suggested that any research reflect the gross numbers of the two types of courses so as not to skew the results or single out any specific instructor.
Dr. Cyr pointed out that some faculty members prefer to teach double-sections, so reducing the opportunity to teach those might negatively affect said faculty members.
Dr. Dudley noted that, for the fall, the double-sections cover two-thirds of the entire World Lit enrollment.
Dr. Cyr suggested that we ask the Dean to allow us to change our caps for double-sections—potentially using the DWF rating and Area C consideration as justification.
Dr. Dudley pointed out the American Literature gap in the fall, and asked the faculty to consider volunteering to cover the course.
The informal meeting dispersed at 5:10.
* * * * * * * * * *
Minutes of the Department Meeting
Friday, February 4, 2011, 2:30 PM
Department members present: Maria Adamos, Dustin Anderson, Beth Butterfield, David Dudley, Bill Eaton, Olivia Edenfield, Richard Flynn, Julia Griffin, Robert Higgerson, Gautam Kundu, Tom Lloyd, Tomasz Warchol
Minutes submitted by: Beth Butterfield
Purpose of the Meeting: To discuss the search for an Assistant Professor of Ancient Philosophy
At 2:30, David Dudley called the meeting to order.
Bill Eaton presented the report from the Search Committee. After careful consideration, as well as reading through all faculty and student comments that were submitted, the committee has unanimously decided on a rank for the candidates.
David Dudley noted that as chair, he agreed with this ranking. Discussion of each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses followed. The committee added that we would be comfortable extending a job offer to any of the three. David called for a vote: Do you approve of the committee’s first ranking? This passed with a unanimous vote. Do you approve of the committee’s second rankings, so that if something does not work out with the first candidate, we do not require an additional department meeting before extending another job offer? This passed with a majority. (10 yes, 1 no, 1 abstain) David ended the meeting at 3:10.
* * * * * * * * * *
The Department of Literature and Philosophy met on January 28, 2011. Dr. Dudley called the meeting to order at 2:35 p.m. Present were Anderson, Costomiris, Cyr, Eaton, Edenfield, Flynn, Gossai, Kundu, Lloyd, Schille, Town, Villeponteaux, and Warchol.
Dr. Dudley provided an agenda, and a procedure for discussing and deciding on the first issue: a recommendation from the General Program Committee that we no longer require writing in our 2111 and 2112 classes.
Dr. Edenfield, chair of the General Program Committee, provided the rationale for the proposal. She said that the proposal addresses the problem of grading writing, which is very burdensome in our extra-large sections of World Literature. Also, right now our assessment procedure requires that writing from World Literature classes be assessed, but that too will be very burdensome. The Assessment Office has offered to do the assessment of writing for us, but she has concerns about that.
Dr. Dudley refreshed our departmental memory about our Student Learning Outcomes for World Literature, which include that the students will construct written interpretations of texts.
Dr. Gossai said the idea of people outside the department assessing our students writing is bewildering.
Dr. Town, who is on the Core Curriculum Committee, explained that World Literature will probably be the way Area C of the Core is assessed. Her committee has been told that a multiple choice exam will not be an acceptable assessment tool. She also reminded us that how we grade our students’ work will have nothing to do with the assessment of their writing for this purpose.
Dr. Kundu asked who would be doing the assessment? Will our department be represented?
Dr. Town replied that there will be a representative from each area of the Core.
Dr. Edenfield asked whether writing had to be used as an assessment tool because of our SLO that says “Students will construct written interpretations of texts.”
Dr. Town said no, it has to do with the university’s SLO for Area C of the Core.
Dr. Cyr said that he thought we had to include writing in World Literature if we wanted it to remain a required course in the Core. He asked whether Dr. Town’s statement meant that we have no choice about writing being the assessment tool.
Dr. Dudley stated that World Literature is the required course in Area C; students take World Lit and then choose from a smorgasbord of choices.
Dr. Town said that the single SLO for Area C said something about students evaluating the products of culture-but Dr. Pellegrino has been told that, nevertheless, the assessment of Area C has to be based on an essay.
Dr. Schille said that, while she accepted that an essay would have to be assessed, she was wondering whether content or correctness (grammatical and mechanical) would be assessed.
Dr. Town said content.
Dr. Schille: Is correctness assessed for Area A?
Dr. Town: Yes.
Dr. Schille asked how non-literary people could assess a literary essay.
Dr. Town agreed that this is a concern for all of us.
Dr. Edenfield said she had been told (by Dr. Pellegrino) that we were being asked to assess a World Lit essay because writing is in our departmental SLOs for the class.
Dr. Dudley asked if the idea came from our SLO or from somewhere else.
Dr. Town said she supposed we could suggest some other means of assessment, but she was not hopeful that this would be accepted.
Dr. Warchol said that surely we have every right to adjust our departmental SLOs for the class.
Dr. Villeponteaux stated that she does not want to change the SLOs, that we should include writing in World Literature because it is the right thing to do for the sake of our students, and also she suggested that it is not as hard as it sounds to assess essays, using simple rubrics.
Dr. Costomiris asked where the World Lit SLOs came from.
Dr. Dudley replied that we developed them a couple of years ago, because of SACSCOC.
Dr. Flynn reminded us that we voted on the SLOs as a department; they were developed by the General Program Committee.
Dr. Anderson asked, What about lecturers or instructors who may teach 250 World Lit students?
Dr. Villeponteaux replied that they are not asked to do research or service, only teach.
Dr. Flynn said they are asked to do a little service. But he added that we should require writing in World Lit not only for assessment, but because writing essays is important for students. This is how they show that they understand the literature. He read us a passage from Academically Adrift about the great value of reading and writing to college students.
Dr. Dudley asked everyone to state whether they require writing in World Literature and if so, what kind of writing. As we went around the room, everyone reported demanding written assignments, whether essay exams, in-class essays, short responses, or longer out-of-class essays.
Dr. Dudley asked for a show of hands of all who are in favor of keeping writing as a requirement in World Literature. All were in favor.
Dr. Flynn stated that we need to send a message to our Dean that if this, English 2111 and 2112, is where writing is required in the Core, we need smaller sections!
Dr. Dudley asked if every World Literature student would have to be assessed.
Dr. Town said no, and that the development of assessment plans and measures is a process and is still underway.
Dr. Dudley asked if we would be required to produce a sample this spring.
Dr. Town said no-maybe next year. She said that if we wanted, we could suggest some kind of multiple choice test for assessment, but she doubted it would be approved.
Dr. Warchol asserted that if we must have essays on final exams, then we need more than 48 hours to grade them.
Dr. Dudley raised the second agenda item, an issue raised by Dean Smith. Dr. Dudley’s written statement was “A request that we begin to discuss how we evaluate faculty teaching and to develop more specific and perhaps measurable guidelines for future evaluations.” This issue is more urgent now that we have lecturer positions that allow for promotion to Senior Lecturer based on “exceptional teaching ability.” “Your chair welcomes suggestions for the process by which the department can begin to discuss how we evaluate teaching and how we will determine if lecturers might ‘consistently exceed departmental norms for competency in teaching.'”
Dr. Dudley asked us to be thinking about how to proceed with developing a way to measure teaching and define departmental norms. Should we create an ad hoc committee to develop procedures?
Dr. Flynn pointed out that this will apply not only to lecturers but to all of us.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:33 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Villeponteaux
* * * * * * * * * *
The Department of Literature and Philosophy met on September 10, 2010, at 2:00 p.m.
Present were Professors Adamos, Anderson, Butterfield, Costomiris, Cyr, Dudley, Edwards, Flynn, Gossai, Griffin, Higgerson, Kundu, Lloyd, Pellegrino, Schille, Town, Villeponteaux, and Warchol. Prof. Dudley called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m.
Candy Schille moved that we approve the minutes of the August 12 meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
Robert Costomiris made the following presentation on behalf of the Scholarship Committee:
- He moved that the deadline for the submission of applications for departmental awards (scholarships and best papers) be moved from April 1 to February 1. Marc Cyr commented that the earlier deadline would work well with our plan to recognize our prize winners at a mid-spring reception. The motion passed unanimously.
- Robert Costomiris moved that application procedures for departmental awards be changed from paper submission format to electronic submission format. Dustin Anderson showed a mock-up of the online submission process so we could see how it would look. Caren Town asked about the possibility that a recommendation form could be emailed to faculty who are writing recommendations for the students. Discussion ensued. The motion passed unanimously.
- Robert Costomiris moved that professors be able to nominate students for the best paper awards in addition to the current system of student self-nomination. Much discussion ensued. Marc Cyr wondered how this would differ from simply urging students to submit particularly good work. It was proposed that faculty might nominate a student directly to the committee, which would result in the committee’s sending the student a letter urging him or her to apply. Caren Town wondered whether it would be a violation of the student’s privacy for faculty to submit the student’s paper. Candy Schille asked what would happen if faculty submitted a student paper and then the student wished to revise it. Richard Flynn raised the question of who is eligible. Are “best paper” awards only for our majors? Also, should the student still be at Georgia Southern to win the award, even if the paper was written the previous semester or year?
In the end, Robert Costomiris moved that we table Motion #3. He and his committee will take up these questions and raise the issue again at our next meeting. The motion to table passed unanimously. In conclusion, Tomasz Warchol asked whether there is indeed money available to fund these scholarships. David Dudley said that Dean Smith put $28,000 in our department budget, money obtained from summer teaching revenues.
Robert Costomiris reported on CLASS’s Faculty Advisory Board. Dean Smith wants the College’s Mission Statement updated in light of the new University Strategic Plan put forth by President Keel. Discussion of the current Mission Statement followed. Hemchand Gossai commented that the current statement is unwieldy and wondered whether the CLASS values statement aligns with that of the university. Marc Cyr clarified that there is not a new strategic plan, but a strategic agenda; each college is supposed to set up its own strategic agenda. Candy Schille suggested that we should state that we value cultural memory, intellectual rigor, and literacy. Beth Butterfield pointed out that the CLASS statement says we value ethical behavior, yet we do not have an Ethics class in the core. Caren Town said that we should coordinate this effort with the core curriculum revision. Finally, Robert Costomiris asked us to send him our comments and suggestions about the CLASS Mission Statement within the week.
David Dudley reminded everyone to turn in their “Day for Southern” pledges. He also announced our fall departmental picnic: October 3 at the Gathering Place.
Richard Flynn announced that the World Literature search is progressing. Hemchand Gossai announced that the Religious Studies search is also progressing and that an advertisement ran in the Chronicle as well as a list specific to Religious Studies called Openings. We have already received about 12 applications after running the ad for 10 days. David Dudley said that the Philosophy search has also advertised in two places.
Mary Villeponteaux, on behalf of the Major Program Committee, announced that faculty will be asked to provide course descriptions soon for upper-division English courses, so that we can advertise our offerings to our English majors.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Mary Villeponteaux
* * * * * * * * * *
August 12, 2010
Attending: Anderson, Cyr, Dudley, Eaton, Edenfield, Edwards, Gossai, Griffin, Higgerson, Kundu, Lloyd, Pellegrino, Schille, Thomson, Town, Warchol, Whelan
Absent: Adamos, Butterfield, Costomiris, Flynn, Keeley, Villeponteaux
Guests: Mike Smith, CLASS Dean; Rebecca Ziegler, Henderson Library Liaison for CLASS
Dept. Chair Dudley called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m. He welcomed Dustin Anderson to the department and welcomed Olivia Edenfield back from her years as Associate Dean in the CLASS Dean’s office.
He introduced CLASS Dean Mike Smith.
Smith welcomed the faculty back for a new academic year. He reviewed President Keel’s 4 themes for the coming year(s): Academic Excellence, Student Success, Research and Creativity, and Capital Campaign. These will replace the 6 points on the former Strategic Plan.
Smith discussed each point separately. Under the point about Academic Excellence, he indicated the University plan to gradually increase minimal SAT scores for admission up to 1150 over the next few years. Under Research and Creativity, he mentioned plans for cluster hiring and strategic hires of senior faculty to enhance the University’s research profile. On the college level, we have received a donation to fund CURIO, our undergraduate research initiative, and there will be grants for collaborative faculty/student research as well as seed grants of up to $5000 and a course release to permit faculty to develop grant proposals.
Smith challenged the department to think of ways to grow its M.A. program even without added assistantships.
Smith mentioned that the University has hired a new “Assessment Guru,” Dr. Steven Zerwas, and that the “good news” is that we will probably have to do less in the way of assessment than we thought just last spring. Also, assessment efforts can wait until this coming spring, but we should be thinking about what we’ve already done in assessment and recording our past efforts.
Smith opened the floor to questions.
Q: Do you know anything about additional money to be made available to the Faculty Research Committee?
A: No. There will be a grant writing workshop October 8.
Q: How can the $5000 seed money for grant writing be used?
A: In many different ways, including for travel if necessary for gathering information for the grant.
Q: Will there be educational leaves again?
A: I don’t know.
Q: How is the budget looking?
A: We are hopefully and cautiously optimistic. The University has already had to return 4% of its current budget and has had to make contingency plans for 6 or 8% further reductions.
Q: Do we need to collect assessment data this fall term?
A: Sharepoint is OUT, so no, but we should continue to collect what we can. SACSCOC is more interested in changes we make to our programs based on what our data tell us than on the mere collection of numbers. Where are our students doing well in our programs, and where are they not doing well? We must be always making incremental changes to constantly improve our programs.
Q: Where are we on revision to the Core Curriculum?
A: Most learning outcomes created by the University for the Core were rejected by the BOR, except for outcomes in Areas A and B, so it’s back to the drawing board. The new Core is supposed to be in place by fall term 2011.
Q: How will online courses be marketed?
A: Remember that our new online B.G.S. will start in the spring term 2011. Graduate student growth at GSU has come mostly from adding online programs. In order to prosper, online courses should be part of a degree program or certificate program. Single courses out there on their own are not likely to be as popular.
Q: What about the Global Citizen Initiative on campus?
A: The Global Citizen course may soon replace the current IDS course.
After the Q and A session, Dean Smith departed .
Rebecca Ziegler, our Library Liaison, made her report. We will be getting new book money again. This money has come to the Library because of increased online graduate enrollment. Ziegler wants to speak with the PHIL faculty about a book approval plan. The ENGL approval plan is in place and should be all right. Since the PHIL program is up for comprehensive program review this year, the Library can assist in helping determine if its holdings are adequate to the needs of the PHIL major.
Ziegler will be holding 2 office hours in our Center for Irish Studies this term. We need a replacement computer for the desk in the Center office.
The Library has purchased new resources, including OMNI, Archive Grid, and Encyclopedia Britannica’s Gateway to the Classics. Also, the Philosophers’ Index with some articles in full text format.
Q: Do we have access to e-books housed in other libraries in the University system?
A: No.
Dr. Ziegler’s report being completed, Dr. Dudley gave his report to the department:
1. Fall semester classes: full, with some seats in world lit. still to be filled, especially in large sections; there may be a few additions to single sections as well, with 235 new students registering this weekend at SOAR X The spring 2011 schedule is finished, and I have sent you the link to it so you can see it. Summer schedule 2011 likewise finished. For spring, one undecided matter: we have 3 seminars on the books and are thinking about creating a 4th one, online. From now on, we’ll be given a target number of seats in World Lit. for each term. For next spring, 606 seats in 2111 and 834 in 2112, though the Dean’s office cares more about total number of seats than how they are divided. This means that the size of single sections will from on vary from term to term, depending on how many people want double sections, how many sections will be taught by graduate students, etc. We were expecting single sections to be at nearly 50 this semester, and we’re at 28, so that is good news. For the future, I expect numbers to be back into the 30s or higher, depending on the variables, including student numbers.
For next summer, the Dean gave us targets to meet: the total number of credit hours and the salary budgeted for us, and the target cost to the university per credit hour.
The numbers we were given are 3348 credit hours, budget of $181,000 for target cost per credit hour of $54. I’m happy to say that with the teaching assignments you’ve asked for for next summer, we can provide 3481 credit hours at $151,349 salary, for cost per credit hour of $43.47. So we are doing very well.
2. Searches for the coming year. Approvals for TT lines in Literature and Religion, Ancient Philosophy, and NTT Lecturer position in World Literature. Hemchand, Bill, and Richard are chairing the searches. The ads and recruitment plans for RELS and World Lit have been approved, and the PHIL must be approved by Monday. The World Lit. position is an internal search directed at possible candidates in our own department and in W/L. Since it is internal, search procedures are simple and brief, with the ad being posted electronically, by mail, and on bulletin boards for minimum of 5 days before screening of applications begins. We will begin screening applications of interested candidates August 27, so look for the ads to appear next week. Mike has asked for this very fast process because, as he mentioned at the CLASS meeting yesterday, we want to complete as many searches as possible and make offers before any possible budget crunches lead to canceled searches.
Screening for PHIL position is slated to start Nov. 1, and for RELS, October 1.
3. What I see for the year ahead: another busy year, but much less stressful, given that there are no big policy changes coming down from the Dean’s office, and, we hope, the budget should be okay, despite possible furlough language in our contracts. I urge you to attend one or more of the Dean’s coffees, get to know him. He is trying.
4. Also for this year: PHIL goes through comprehensive program review. ENGL major does the same next year.
5. Each of the committees has work to do.
Major Program: I’d like to see a focus on better communication with ENGL majors, recruitment into Sigma Tau Delta, information meetings set up for majors, including info about graduate school applications, career possibilities, even future courses. Also, want the committee to give really serious consideration to enhancing undergraduate research, which charge I also direct to our PHIL and RELS faculty.
General Program: I’d like to see you take up issue of writing requirements in 2111 and 2112, in light of large double sections. We have people doing all kinds of writing assignments, including pre-class responses. I propose a workshop or two in which we can share what we do, especially our successes. I’d also like to see more sharing of reading lists, esp. which non-Western texts are working well, so we have a better sense in the dept. of what’s going on in this, our bread and butter course Graduate Program: take up the matter of mentoring teaching assistants, of the thesis option and non-thesis option (the Dean thinks that any MA program worth its salt should require the thesis), but we’ve had a lot of problems with it, and will have to see how TA’s especially can teach, take courses, and write a thesis
Assessment: work with Intro to Lit Studies, the Senior Seminar, and as the situation in the university changes, give the system what it requires—which is one thing one day, another thing another day.
Publicity: cover the open houses, finish the new ENGL major brochure, and thanks for the great pop-up banners.
Philosophy: Comprehensive Program Review and the Ancient PHIL search should keep you busy!
Scholarship/Best Papers: good job from last year, always the challenge to advertise both.
Post-Colonial Conference: I’d like to see greater faculty participation—more faculty in attendance.
There were some announcements from the floor. Warchol handed out flyers for this semester’s Cinema Arts Series.
There being no more business, Dudley asked Thomson to introduce this year’s graduate students. Eight students were present. The meeting was adjourned at 2:40. A time of refreshments and fellowship followed.
Respectfully submitted,
David Dudley,
Chair
* * * * * * * * * *
Department minutes:
April 7, 2010
Present: Dean Smith, Drs. Dudley, Whelan, Costomeris, Warchol, Gossai, Villeponteaux, Adamos, Thomson, Cyr, Schille, Butterfield, and Edwards
Cyr suggested that in general there seemed to be a “top down” formulation of policy rather than the department’s formulations being sent up to the dean, and that this seemed to him flowing in the wrong direction. The dean said that the teaching load policy had been formulated in necessary haste and hoped that the department acknowledge “a lot of back and forth” on the promotion and tenure policy. He suggested that previous tenure/and promotion recommendations had been made anonymously by a “star chamber” of faculty and that the new process, involving a committee of two chairs, two associate deans and two senior faculty was preferable. He also mentioned his faculty advisory board composed of faculty elected by the departments to meet once a month.
Cyr noted that the Senate has formed a Governance Committee to investigate issues of shared governance. The Dean said that CLASS had had 20 searches approved, the highest percent of any college, that temporary and graduate assistant positions were being added to serve the twenty to twenty-one thousand student enrollment expected. He agreed that the use of graduate assistants would make them more employable. Costomiris asked about the 125 student “double sections” and further suggested that two sections per teaching assistant at the outset might be overwhelming and hamper timely completion of their degrees. The Dean said he hoped we were not putting unequipped teachers in the classroom. Dr. Thomson said there would be a week-long teaching training “module” and that most of the t.a.’s would have already apprenticed before taking on classes of their own.
Dr. Whelan suggested that promotion and tenure applications be reviewed for extraordinary merit and those applicants financially rewarded.
Warchol, Cyr, and others questioned the wisdom of requiring external review for tenure and promotion to associate. The Dean said it provided “quality control” and “it will be fine.”
Adamos asked for more assistance to the philosophy program, and Gossai noted that the Religious Studies program was essentially unsupported though minors had increased from 16 to 70 since his arrival.
The meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Candy B. K. Schille
Acting Secretary
* * * * * * * * * *
Minutes of Faculty Meeting, March 26, 2010
Minutes of the meetings of January 29 and February 19 were approved.
The department approved the following search procedures:
All faculty members are urged to meet all job candidates and attend their presentations. After all campus visits are complete, faculty will turn in written evaluations of each candidate, including rating them “acceptable” or “unacceptable” and ranking them from most preferred to least. These evaluations will be sent to the search committee, who will tally the rankings and, in a meeting, report to the department on the vote tally and the written evaluations, including the committee’s own recommendation. The department will vote to rank the candidates in order of preference, and this information, along with the faculty’s and the committee’s comments, will be forwarded to the Dean.
Post-Tenure and Promotion
The policies previously circulated were approved. Some faculty expressed a desire that the college would reward, perhaps monetarily, outstanding performance. A number of department members questioned the need for external review of scholarship, particularly for those applying for associate professor rank.
Graduate Assistants
Faculty expressed concern at the work load for graduate students taking classes, writing theses, and serving as teachers of record. It was generally agreed they should not be assigned a 2/2 load, that they should receive 12 hours of credit, and that faculty should seek to support these new teachers however possible.
Respectfully submitted,
Candy B. K. Schille
* * * * * * * * * *
Minutes for the Department Meeting
19th February 2010
Newton Building Rm 1103
Present: Dr. Dudley (Chair), Dr. Pellegrino (presenting), Dr. Butterfield, Dr. Costomiris, Dr. Cyr, Dr. Eaton, Dr. Flynn, Dr. Gossai, Dr. Griffin, Dr. Higgerson, Dr. Lloyd, Dr. Thomson, Dr. Town, Dr. Villeponteaux. Apologies from: everyone else.
The Chair called the meeting to order at 1 pm.
He then handed over the proceedings to Dr. Pellegrino, who presented the new Department Assessment Plan at which he has been heroically working for months, and then invited and considered some questions from the grateful floor. The whole thing may be summed up as The Joy of SACSCOC.
The meeting was adjourned at 2 pm, or thereabouts.
Respectfully submitted by Julia Griffin
* * * * * * * * * *
Minutes for the Department Meeting
29th January 2010
Newton Building Rm 1110
Present: Dr. Dudley (Chair), Dr. Adamos, Dr. Butterfield, Dr. Costomiris, Dr. Cyr, Dr. Eaton, Dr. Edwards, Dr. Flynn, Dr. Gossai, Dr. Griffin, Dr. Higgerson, Dr. Lloyd, Dr. Paige, Dr. Pellegrino, Dr. Schille, Dr. Town, Dr. Villeponteaux, Dr. Warchol, Dr. Whelan, Dean Smith Apologies from: Dr. Keeley, Dr. Sherrod, Dr. Thomson.
The Chair called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm.
The Dean reported information given by the new President in Deans’ Council:
The President wishes to heighten the reputation of GSU – he wishes it to become a “nationally recognized university” [NRU]; not really a “Research I school”, as this requires $150,000,000, apparently not forthcoming, and a large range of PhD programmes. To move to NRU status, there is to be an increased emphasis on research and scholarship, without any loss of “student-centeredness”; faculty hired under the old dispensation as teachers rather than researchers will not be “discounted”. There will be, for the first time, a Development Officer for CLASS. The President himself will be more “externally focused”: he will take on extensive fund-raising. It is not yet known when the search for a permanent Provost will begin, but the appointee, when s/he comes, will be more important within the university than provosts in the past. The financial situation continues dismal: tax revenues are down across the State by 17.5%; GA Southern University’s planned biology building has been excluded from the State budget. A further reduction of 5% is expected next year. In an effort to claw back some revenue, the university will increase its student body to about 25,000 over the next 4-5 years; the money from tuition “slows the bleeding”. The Dean thanked the Department for its “efforts”.
He then invited questions from the floor.
Dr. Schille: Is the new President a friend of the humanities?
Dr. Smith: Yes. He will visit CLASS before any of the other colleges.
Dr. Town: Is CLASS trying to educate the rest of the university about the work it does, so that the performances by the Music Department, etc., are given due credit?
Dr. Smith: It’s hard to make other colleges understand this sort of thing.
Dr. Butterfield: Any news about the revision of the core curriculum?
Dr. Smith: A Core Curriculum Review Committee has been announced. Dr. Phyllis Dallas will be the representative for CLASS.
Dr. Flynn: More students will mean more teaching; more research will be difficult to manage.
Dr. Smith: The Department will need to fundamentally rethink pedagogy. [Cynical murmurs as this was translated by all into the vernacular: set less written work]
Dr. Griffin: Why, at a time of unavoidable financial cuts and increased student numbers, is the research expectation going up?
Dr. Smith: “It’s a journey”. The President insists on it.
Dr. Costomiris: How about raising tuition to raise money?
Dr. Smith: We do not have the freedom to do this.
Dr. Warchol: Michigan State University has not cut faculty salaries, although the State budget is smaller.
Dr. Flynn: They have a union. [Cynical laughter all round]
Dr. Cyr: Is it true that tenure and promotion are now to be linked, so that applying for tenure also involves applying for Associate status?
Dr. Smith: Yes.
Dr. Flynn: The Handbook need to be changed: the two processes are not linked there at the moment.
Dr. Smith: The wording may not in fact have to be changed, but in general the faculty manual needs a revision.
Dr. Costomiris: Will each department have its own tenure and promotion committee?
Dr. Smith: Yes.
Dr. Costomiris: Limiting college-level committees to full professors seems unnecessarily restrictive.
Dr. Smith: This is a common practice, however.
Dr. Adamos: What about our lines? In philosophy, we have too many students already: we need not just one more permanent position but two.
Dr. Smith: I know your need, but we don’t yet know enough about the budget.
Dr. Butterfield and Dr. Adamos: We thought you had given our position priority and the decision was overturned at the Provost’s level.
Dr. Paige: We got another post we did not expect instead.
Dr. Smith: It was part of the process. The Provost looks at the larger picture.
Dr. Paige: But instead of getting something we knew we wanted, we were told we could advertise a position we had not requested. Why?
Dr. Smith: You need another literary person to cover all that World Literature.
Dr. Flynn: Why can we not have any temps? Even the ones we have now?
Dr. Smith: There is less money all round.
Dr. Villeponteaux: Is external review now required in applications for associate professor? This seems unusual.
Dr. Smith: Yes.
Dr. Warchol (still thinking about World Literature) How can all these classes be covered?
Dr. Whelan: Please will the administration hurry up with the arrangements for my NEH scholarship – the “buy-out”, funded by the NEH foundation, for my teaching next semester?
Dr. Cyr: The new President has never taught undergraduates; can you and the other deans help to explain to him what is involved?
Dr. Smith: He is very open and reasonable.
Dr. Gossai: Are there plans for the capital campaign?
Dr. Smith: We will probably need outside consultants.
Dr. Dudley: What are you expecting from the advisory council?
Dr. Smith: One of my goals in coming here was to revive this. The faculty on the advisory committee will serve for one year; they will probably meet once a month. I invite suggestions and would like to hear everyone’s concerns.
Dr. Costomiris: What has happened to the Ruffin Scholarships? How many are there now? Are they being awarded?
Dr. Smith: The endowment has shrunk, so the number is now down from 24 to 3; but they still exist.
Time was now up, so Dr. Dudley and the department thanked Dr. Smith for his visit.
The meeting was adjourned at 2 pm.
Respectfully submitted by Julia Griffin
* * * * * * * * * *
Minutes, Dept. Meeting of Nov. 3, 2009
Present: Drs. Butterfield, Flynn, Higgerson, Kundu, Lloyd, Pellegrino, Thomson, Villeponteaux, Warchol, Whelan.
Excused: Drs. Gossai and Eaton.
Absent: Drs. Adamos, Costomiris, Cyr, Griffin, Keeley, Paige, Schille, Town.
Dr. Dudley called the meeting to order at 11:05 a.m.
New Business:
Dr. Thomson moved that the department accept the proposed teaching load document and send it to Dean Smith for his consideration. Dr. Flynn seconded the motion. Dr. Whelan proposed amended language to bullet point 5 under “Standard Load for Tenure-track and Tenured Faculty” to make it read: “The Department Chair must approve any workload besides the standard load, for example, reassigned time for exceptional scholarship.”
Dr. Whelan’s proposed language was accepted by those present. The motion to accept the (amended) document and forward it to the Dean passed unanimously.
Dr. Thomson moved that the department accept the proposed cover letter accompanying the workload document and forward it to the Dean. Dr. Flynn seconded the motion. Dr. Butterfield asked if this letter was indeed what the department discussed sending forward to the Dean. It was answered no, but that the department might communicate to the Dean its concerns and objections to the increased teaching load at some other time.
The motion to accept and forward the cover letter was approved by unanimous vote.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:25 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
David Dudley
* * * * * * * * * *
Meeting of the Department of Literature and Philosophy
Friday, October 23, 2009
Present: Adamos, Butterfield, Costomiris, Cyr, Dudley, Edwards, Flynn, Higgerson, Kundu, Paige, Pellegrino, Schille, Thomson, Town, Villeponteaux, Warchol, Whelan.
Dr. Dudley called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m.
Dr. Butterfield made two announcements: the Department’s holiday party will take place Saturday, December 5, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. at Georgia’s Bed and Breakfast. Dr. Villeponteaux will give a faculty research talk on Tuesday afternoon, November 17.
Dr. Dudley thanked all the advisors and reminded everyone to urge their students to register for spring classes now.
Dr. Dudley explained that our main purpose was to consider a document proposing the faculty teaching load. This document was produced by an ad hoc committee consisting of Maria Adamos, Richard Flynn, Hemchand Gossai, Tom Lloyd, Doug Thomson, and David Dudley. Two other documents that pertain to teaching load were also distributed: the General Program Committee’s “World Literature Projections, 2010-2011” (thanks were given to Joe Pellegrino for producing this document); second, a memo from Dean Smith: “Teaching Overloads and Faculty Compensation.” Dr. Dudley said that this memo was just received and is not up for debate, but it clarifies overload policies in CLASS.
Dr. Dudley acknowledged the faculty’s anger about increased enrollment, fewer resources, the Dean’s decision to increase double sections to 1 25 students, the possible loss of our temporary faculty lines, and the furloughs. He suggested that we are becoming a new Georgia Southern, a larger school. He predicted an additional 1,000 students for next year. He expressed empathy for the anxiety many faculty are feeling.
Dr. Flynn commented that Dean Smith did not consult faculty about decisions made last summer. Dr. Dudley raised the possibility of inviting him back to revisit the issue of the double sections.
Dr. Dudley turned to the matter of the faculty teaching load document, commenting that Philosophy faculty would need to work out their teaching load with him.
Dr. Butterfield asked why. Isn’t this document for the entire department? Dr. Dudley responded that programmatic needs must come first.
Dr. Whelan asked whether Dr. Gossai, like English faculty, would be required to teach all the students who want to take Introduction to Religious Studies. He should be able to turn students away. Dr. Dudley stated that the enrollment caps for single sections of Intro to Religious Studies and introductory Philosophy courses have not changed.
Dr. Whelan proposed that we all have a 3/3 teaching load and, to handle the number of World Literature students, we all teach an overload of 4/3 and get de facto pay raises. Dr. Dudley referred him to paragraph 1 of the Dean’s memo on overloads.
Dr. Costomiris asked whether the Dean gave us a boilerplate for the faculty teaching load document. Dr. Dudley answered that ours was based on the Psychology Department’s document.
Dr. Costomiris asked whether this document before us had been voted on in the ad hoc committee. Is it a formal recommendation? Dr. Adamos replied that the committee did not formally vote. Drs. Flynn and Thomson stated that the committee reached consensus.
Dr. Dudley anticipated and answered questions about the document. On page 2, why a 2-year cycle? This is not arbitrary. We took the 6-year cycle for tenure, and our departmental standard is three articles for tenure. So on average, a faculty member would be producing one article every two years. The document calls for peer-reviewed scholarship because this is what our Dean values.
Dr. Cyr questioned the logic of giving release time only after publication. The release time is therefore a reward rather than an aid to producing scholarship. Dr. Flynn replied that this issue had been discussed in the committee. Dr. Thomson pointed out that untenured tenure-line faculty would have a 3/3 load automatically, so Dr. Cyr’s comment does not pertain to them.
Dr. Cyr commented that a 3/3 load in this new system is equivalent to a 4/4 load, so it’s no boon. Dr. Thomson said that we’re all aware of this.
Dr. Schille asked if the policy for administrative releases is written in stone. Dr. Dudley replied yes.
Dr. Costomiris asked if all the CLASS chairs had really agreed that 125 should be the cap for a double section. There are so many reasons not to do this. He wondered if there had been any discussion. Dr. Dudley replied that Dean Smith came up with this number, and that yes, the chairs had discussed the pedagogical and logistical problems that would be caused by teaching sections of 125 students.
Some discussion of the 125-student double sections ensued. Dr. Adamos asked whether this number applies in other colleges and Dr. Dudley answered that double sections are even bigger in other colleges. Dr. Cyr asked whether there are in fact rooms available in which to teach 125 students, and Dr. Warchol raised the pedagogical issues.
Dr. Dudley requested that the discussion return to the teaching load document, and asked for questions.
Dr. Paige asked how conference presentations would count, since the document seems to say that faculty would not get the “normal” 3/3 load without an article out or under review every two years. Dr. Dudley replied that conference presentations would count in our annual reviews.
Dr. Dudley, when asked if the 3/3 load has any benefit, said that decreased time in the classroom would be the only benefit. Dr. Butterfield said that she would also welcome a decrease in the number of different course preparations.
Dr. Paige asked if someone was trying to make us teach a 4/4 load. Dr. Cyr replied that it seems we are being asked to publish more and teach an even larger number of students.
Dr. Flynn remarked that we will be teaching 47% more students even with a 3/3 teaching load.
Dr. Schille moved that we accept the faculty teaching load recommendation. Dr. Cyr seconded the motion.
Dr. Cyr remarked that this is really a done deal, since the Dean has already decided. He asked if the last sentence of the first paragraph could be removed from the document. The sentence read “Confident that we can meet the needs of our students, the expectations of the University, and our own criteria for tenure and promotion, we adopt the following policies.” That sentence was stricken by acclamation.
Dr. Whelean questioned the statement, on page 2 of the document, that “a book or three articles within a two-year cycle assure their author a 3/2 load the following year and the 3/3 load for the following five years.” Does this mean that one could earn a 3/2 load only once in six years? Dr. Thomson said that was not the committee’s intention. Discussion ensued about how to make the policy clearer.
Dr. Town asked if the reduced teaching load is worth it. If classes get correspondingly larger, it will not benefit us as scholars nor will it benefit our students. She also suggested that determining everyone’s teaching load anew from year to year would be an administrative nightmare.
Dr. Schille asked about the feasibility of rating journals in terms of their value and the difficulty of publishing in them. The consensus seemed to be that people do not want to rank or rate publication venues.
Dr. Edwards pointed out that, if the temporary faculty lines are preserved, the class sizes wouldn’t have to increase. Dr. Warchol agreed and asked about the possibility of turning the temporary instructor lines into lectureships. Dr. Dudley stated that CLASS is not going in that direction.
Dr. Pellegrino commented that if we agree to a 4/3 teaching load, that would add 7 additional sections of World Lit every semester, and we could cap those classes at 41. Dr. Dudley asked if a faculty member’s typical load would be 1 upper-division course per semester, and Dr. Pellegrino said yes. Dr. Flynn wondered how this would affect our upper-division course offerings. Dr. Kundu wondered if it would be helpful for each of us to take a turn teaching all World Lit for a semester.
Dr. Costomiris responded to the suggestions that we should reject the 3/3 teaching load, saying that even if we choose to stay with a 4/3 load, enrollments in our classes will probably go up anyway.
Dr. Flynn wondered if we should simply say no to drafting a new teaching load policy, but Dr. Dudley thought that in that case the Dean would simply make the policy himself.
Dr. Thomson hoped that Dr. Dudley will actively advocate the retention of our temporary lines, and commented on the illogic of getting rid of temporary faculty now, when our enrollment is increasing. Dr. Dudley said that there are 31 or 32 temporary lines in CLASS now, and Dean Smith wants to use these to grow our tenure track lines in order to increase our prestige.
Further modifications to the document were being proposed, and Dr. Flynn stated that we shouldn’t try to workshop the document in a department meeting. He suggested that, if the document is worth fixing, it should be sent back to the committee.
Dr. Thomson suggested writing a preamble expressing our concerns and requesting that these policies be revisited in better economic times. Dr. Dudley thought that these concerns should be expressed elsewhere, not in the introduction to our teaching load policy.
Dr. Whelan asked whether there was the possibility that some faculty would teach a 4/3 load, if they weren’t publishing, and expressed concern about how this would affect those who regularly teach overloads for extra pay. How would we distinguish between 4/3 as punishment for not publishing and 4/3 as a choice to earn more money?
Dr. Paige suggested that we omit the possibility of the 4/3 load. If a 3/3 load is standard, just state that. Discussion followed, with Dr. Thomson wondering if people who aren’t doing any scholarship deserve a 3/3 load and Dr. Adamos suggesting that we leave the scholarly requirements for the 3/3 load vague. Dr. Flynn thought we could separate the scholarly expectations from the statement of a 3/3 load. Dr. Whelan wondered why we shouldn’t allow faculty to choose a 4/3 load, and Dr. Flynn responded that faculty whose responsibilities lie primarily in teaching and not in research are lecturers.
Finally, the Department decided to send the document back to committee with certain specific suggestions: Separate the 3/3 teaching load from the scholarly expectations. Get rid of the stipulation that someone who doesn’t publish enough will get a 4/3 teaching load. Also, the committee was reminded to address the issue of release time given for significant service at the college or university level, and to address the concern about the wording of the provisions for a 3/2 load and its aftermath.
Dr. Dudley reminded everyone that we would have to meet again soon to vote on the new document. Dr. Cyr moved that the meeting be adjourned and Dr. Schille seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 5:27 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Villeponteaux
* * * * * * * * * *
Minutes for the Department Meeting
25th September 2009
Newton Building Rm 1107
Present: Dr. Dudley (Chair), Dr. Adamos, Dr. Butterfield, Dr. Costomiris, Dr. Cyr, Dr. Flynn, Dr. Gossai, Dr. Griffin, Dr. Lloyd, Dr. Paige, Dr. Pellegrino, Dr. Town, Dr. Villeponteaux, Dr. Warchol, Dr. Whelan
Apologies from: Dr. Eaton, Dr. Edwards, Dr. Higgerson, Dr. Keeley, Dr. Schille, Dr. Sherrod, Dr. Thomson.
The Chair called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm.
The department voted to approve the minutes from the meeting of August 28th (posted on the department website).
The Faculty Welfare Committee then presented proposals for policies concerning educational leave. The new proposals are designed to establish departmental guidelines for evaluating candidates should more than one request leave at the same time and the department be unable to spare them all. The proposals include a post-sabbatical report, to be submitted by the returning faculty member; Dr. Costomiris suggested changing the wording for this from “written narrative of the project” to “written narrative of work”. Dr. Flynn requested clarification of the term “seniority” as a criterion for leave: should date of hire take precedence over time in rank, or the other way round? Dr. Gossai asked how he could ever take educational leave, given that he has no colleagues in Religious Studies; Dr. Dudley replied: “You can’t.” Dr. Paige asked where the money comes from for educational leave. No one knew the answer. The department voted to return the document to the Faculty Welfare Committee for revision.
The Major Programme Committee presented two pieces of business. First, Dr. Lloyd proposed a change in the requirements for Area F in the English BA, Education track: the students must take both American Literature survey courses, not just one. He explained that these students need both courses for admission to the GSU M.A.T. programme. Unfortunately, this change is likely to leave them no hours for any extra classes in Area F. Dr. Town suggested that we should check the M.A.T requirement for foreign languages is the same as it was – if it has been reduced, there will be less pressure on Area F. The Committee agreed to do this, and the proposal was passed nem. con.
Second, Dr. Lloyd introduced the vexed subject of course rotation. He handed round a document which showed the courses due to be taught for the next four years: they vary between nine and eleven per semester; and we do not have enough majors to fill all these. He asked for suggestions on changing the rotation so that some courses would be offered less often. The Committee will be working on this disagreeable assignment for the rest of the semester.
The General Programme Committee reported on their discussions of how to manage the new, greatly increased teaching loads for World Literature. The Committee put the question to the department: given this increase in student numbers, do we really want the promised reduction in course load? This provoked discussion, but no answer.
Dr. Adamos then explained to the department the dangerous situation now facing the Philosophy Department, since the recent, surprising decision by the Provost not to replace the position in Ancient Philosophy. Dr. Adamos pointed out that this decision was based simply on the number of majors graduating – fewer (just) than 15, apparently the magic number – not on the size of the programme, which is steadily growing: all the upper division classes are over-subscribed. Dr. Dudley observed that Philosophy is due for Comprehensive Programme Review next year, so this would be a good time to present the case for the position to the administration. Dr. Paige suggested that the department should write to the Dean; Dr. Butterfield explained that the Dean had given the position priority, only to be overruled by the Provost. Dr. Cyr suggested that it might help to put together statistics on the number of students in the major; Dr. Town added that the number of minors should be included too. Dr. Costomiris pointed out that this insistence on the number of graduating majors might be used against the English major too.
Finally, department members raised a few brief points of business. Dr. Kundu volunteered to host the annual Christmas party; everyone responded with great enthusiasm, for the first time all afternoon. Dr. Gossai announced that he would send out a reminder about the Elie Wiesel essay competition. Dr. Warchol reminded the department about the ETS exam, and asked for volunteers to let him come to a class to administer it. Dr. Paige urged everyone to request books for the library.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:05.
Respectfully submitted by Julia Griffin
* * * * * * * * * *
Meeting of the Department of Literature and Philosophy
Friday, August 28, 2009
Newton 1110
Present: Adamos, Butterfield, Costomiris, Cyr, Dudley, Eaton, Edwards, Higgerson, Keeley, Kundu, Paige, Pellegrino, Schille, Sherrod, Thomson, Villeponteaux, Warchol, Whelan.
The meeting was called to order at 4:05 p.m.
The Department Chair, Dr. David Dudley, introduced the new Dean of CLASS, Dr. Mike Smith. The faculty introduced themselves to Dr. Smith.
Dean Smith then made some opening remarks. After expressing himself happy to be here at Georgia Southern, he discussed the opportunities and challenges our college faces:
Challenges:
- Furloughs
- A 17% budget reduction as compared to the beginning of last year.
- The possibility of further cuts this year (the USG has been asked to prepare for a cut of 4%, 6%, or 8%).
- Increased enrollment: 19,340 students were enrolled as of the first day of class.
- Fewer faculty on campus: there are 27 vacant faculty lines in CLASS. (Dean Smith also told us that CLASS has been authorized to fill 10 positions and he hopes to have more searches authorized next week. He acknowledged the jarring nature of hiring new faculty while cutting the budget.)
Opportunities:
-
- There may be some consolation in recognizing that fiscal crises and budget cuts are everywhere in public education at the moment. Budget crises are cyclical. In 2001 we saw a tanking economy and budget cuts; then things got better. This too will pass.
- We can look forward to a new president by January and a new provost in the following year.
- Dean Smith hopes to improve the way things are done in CLASS. He has studied the way CLASS operates and found that some of our practices are not sustainable.
(Dr. Schille inquired, “Like what?”). He feels that change is needed in how we manage curriculum, and how we budget and spend. Dean Smith observed that some of these practices are holdovers from when we were a small college. He also hopes to improve how we raise money by hiring the first-ever Development Officer for CLASS. He will also work on improving our “linkages” across the ocean and throughout the world; supporting and publicizing our Irish Studies Program is one example of this. He wants us to teach better, do better research, and get more external funding. He noted the importance of external funding in our state, where the percentage of our budget that comes from state funds has declined over the past ten years.
Dean Smith concluded by asking for questions from the floor. A spirited discussion ensued:
Dr. Schille commented that the arts are not respected on this campus and that Nursing and Business have clout. She asked how Dean Smith plans to get the attention of other administrators and get them to see the value of the arts.
Dean Smith agreed that our college has gotten short shrift in resources but disagreed that lack of respect for the arts is the reason. He said that our status as “cash cow”-because we can and do teach large numbers of students effectively-is the reason.
Dr. Schille asked whether raising our profile in the Statesboro community would help.
Dean Smith said that visibility can bring political benefits and be a driving force. But he thought that stronger, more sophisticated and knowledgeable leadership in CLASS would be the most important factor to help us gain clout.
Dr. Kundu read a statement in which he welcomed Dean Smith and expressed our appreciation for his meeting with us. But Dr. Kundu explained that, in his tenure at Georgia Southern, through two presidents and four deans, the faculty have continually gotten the short end of the stick. We see shrinking paychecks and increased expectations, while decisions are made from the top down. He asked how Dean Smith will address the problem of faculty morale and the exploitation of CLASS faculty.
Dean Smith acknowledged the severe budget problems but stated that they are beyond his control. He suggested that Dr. Kundu’s frustration is partly the result of the budget. He stated that, as the budget situation improves, our challenge will be to address the inefficiencies and weaknesses in the system, but do this collaboratively.
Dr. Cyr observed that even if there were budget increases, the morale problem Dr. Kundu identified would continue to exist. In the past, budget increases have resulted in new colleges, new programs, and new buildings, not in a better situation for CLASS faculty. CLASS needs to put our status as cash cow on the table: we may not get big grants, but we produce the FTEs. We need better PR.
Dean Smith agreed and stated that better PR should start in his office. He said that we need to “brand” ourselves and announced a new way of reaching our audience: an e-letter from CLASS that he is sending out regularly.
Dr. Schille asked who is on the distribution list for the college’s e-letter.
Dean Smith said that it goes out to CLASS alumni and donors. The list stands at about 150 now but he hopes it will grow.
Dr. Costomiris commented that morale issues are not exclusively about budgets and salaries. He asked Dean Smith to address the faculty’s lack of voice in the way Georgia Southern works, and cited Dean Smith’s start-of-the-semester memo on new CLASS policies as a case in point. No faculty members were consulted about these new policies, such as the increase of what will be considered a “double section” from 70 to 125 students. Aren’t we allowing ourselves to be seen as the “cash cow” by doing this, even as we lose the classroom atmosphere that is beneficial to students?
Dean Smith asked whether the chairs he consulted were considered faculty and Dr. Costomiris answered no. Then Dean Smith said that the new teaching load policy does not require us to teach 125-student sections, but it does give us the power as a faculty to decide our own teaching loads. When he took over as dean, he immediately faced a new budget cut, 27 unfilled faculty lines, and fewer temporary faculty. He found that we had a teaching load policy out of step with that of other colleges at GSU, and when he and the chairs surveyed peer institutions, again they found that we were out of step. Our policy was indefensible given the budget cuts we were facing, hence the new policy. Dean Smith noted that the document we received largely reflects the unanimous agreement of the CLASS chairs.
Dr. Costomiris asked about the numbers: if we want to run like a business, why do we have such low tuition and why do we admit more students than we can serve?
Dean Smith agreed that we run inefficiently but said we admitted more students to save jobs.
Dr. Costomiris asked whether a decision not to go to sections of 125 would affect tenure and promotion.
Dr. Butterfield interjected that we don’t feel we really have a choice about whether or not to teach these 125-student sections, since we couldn’t serve all of our students if we didn’t schedule some double sections.
Dean Smith said that we are now in line with what the Colleges of Business and Health& Human Sciences do. He acknowledged that if we schedule fewer double sections we will have to schedule more single sections, since we have more students. We will have to meet curricular needs.
Dr. Sherrod asked why we can’t afford to do what we were doing before.
Dean Smith replied that we have fewer faculty and more students.
Dr. Warchol stated that teaching 125 students in a literature class is inconceivable, and asked how it would be possible to go to all single (i.e. 35-student) sections.
Dean Smith replied that it would not be possible to keep all World Lit sections at 35.
Dr. Warchol asked whether we even had available classrooms that hold 125 students.
Dean Smith said that we have few, and acknowledged that the infrastructure is not set up to accommodate these 125-student sections.
Dr. Warchol asked whether rooms designed to hold 70 students would now be used for sections of 35.
Dr. Smith responded that we will still have to teach the same overall number of students.
Dr. Butterfield asked whether this signals the end of sections capped at 35.
Dean Smith replied that we will have to consider the number of students we must serve, the number of faculty we have, and that we– the department– will have to decide how our classes will be capped.
Dr. Warchol asked whether Dean Smith is saying that we should all just use scantron exams and forget about quality.
Dean Smith said no, that’s not what I’m saying.
Dr. Schille disagreed that big sections must mean loss of quality.
Dr. Cyr stated that this sounds like a shell game: we’ll get a 30%-40% increase in faculty workload in terms of students, but we’re being told that we have the power because we can decide how to divvy the students up.
Dean Smith asked about Dr. Cyr’s teaching load this fall.
Dr. Cyr responded that he has, in three sections, 25, 60-odd, and 38 students respectively.
Dean Smith said, so you have 128 students in a four-course load (since the section of 60+ counts as two classes). Could you divide them up into three classes and consider them a 3-course load?
Dr. Kundu asked how we arrived at the figure of 125 students to equal a double section.
Dean Smith replied that they looked at what other colleges and peer institutions do, and found a number in the middle.
Dr. Whelan commented that, at many universities, large sections have several teaching assistants who may meet with the students in small sections.
Dean Smith noted that many of our peer institutions run large sections of courses that should be considered writing intensive. He acknowledged that this is not ideal. As far as the teaching assistants, he commented that we, and many other colleges, don’t have the resources of schools like UCLA (Dr. Whelan’s example). But he said that he is 100% committed to increasing our numbers of graduate students. To the extent that the new president gives the deans more authority over their colleges’ budgets, one thing he wants to do is increase the graduate student numbers and the assistantships.
Dr. Thomson asked how Dean Smith sees the role of graduate students and expressed concern about putting grad students in the classroom as an answer to our budget crunch.
Dean Smith said this is unlikely since we have so few doctoral students and said he would resist having master’s students as the teachers of record for classes.
Dr. Eaton raised the issue of the short time we are permitted for grading final exams: 48 hours is not enough.
Dean Smith agreed, made a note of it, and said he’d explore the issue. A brief discussion ensued about whether we could do something “creative” instead of giving a traditional final exam and also about whether or not we are required to assign a certain weight to the final exam.
Dr. Costomiris asked whether we could get rid of the directive that says we must give a final exam.
Dean Smith agreed that whether or not to give a final should be up to the professor and promised to see what he could do.
Dr. Pellegrino asked whether the expectations in one of our three areas (teaching, research, service) would be lessened given the furlough days.
Dean Smith said that the furlough is essentially just a pay cut for faculty and said that it would be hard to determine what percent of, say, one’s scholarly productivity is represented by three days’ work. He also said that there is a recognition at the highest levels of the university that faculty are being stretched to the limit. He expects that everyone will be understanding about expectations in all three areas.
Dr. Kundu asked whether a 30%-40% increase in our teaching loads would result in the lessening of other expectations? He noted that over the years the bar has been consistently raised for research and service.
Dean Smith agreed, saying that the bar is raised every year in higher ed across the country. Will Georgia Southern be different? Probably not.
Dr. Kundu stated that research expectations should be consistent with teaching load, and Dean Smith agreed.
Dr. Whelan asked about the possibility of merit raises for research and asked if Dean Smith believes in that.
Dean Smith responded that people can deserve salary increases in more than one way. We don’t have the teaching loads of a Research I university. There is room for people who want to make teaching their focus and also for those who want to make research their focus.
Dr. Whelan pointed out that there have not been merit raises for anything in the past. Raises have basically been cost-of-living increases.
Dean Smith explained that all colleges get a raise pool and may choose to divide it as they wish. But when your raise pool is only 2 or 3%, it’s hard to give one person a 5% raise and someone else only 1%.
Dr. Whelan asked about another source for raise money.
Dean Smith replied that the deans don’t control those resources now. Georgia Southern’s budget is very centralized.
Dr. Cyr asserted that, if we have increased teaching loads, it needs to be taken into account that research and service will suffer. We need policy statements, in writing, about how to evaluate faculty members given the exigencies of this budget crisis; otherwise, in tenure and promotion decisions, people are constrained to follow the written policies.
Dean Smith replied that he was not sure what such a statement would look like; it might be too general to be meaningful. What would 30% less emphasis in research-to answer a 30% increase in teaching-look like?
Dr. Kundu asked how Dean Smith might respond should our department come up with some language to express this.
Dr. Schille voiced a mistrust of putting everything in writing, since it can be misused. She also asked whether there might be any political or pedagogical advantage to our department’s merging with the Writing Department.
Discussion of this idea followed, with Dean Smith finally assuring everyone that there is no plan afoot to rejoin these two departments.
Dr. Dudley pointed out that it was after 5:30, but there were a few more questions from the floor.
Dr. Costomiris asked why we look to other colleges at GSU as models, given that what is taught differs so much from college to college. Also, he asked how we can call 35 students a single section and say that 125 students is double this.
Dean Smith agreed that it is not a good thing to teach World Literature in large sections, but pointed out that we have finite resources. He raised the possibility of differential teaching loads: less teaching for those who want to focus on and produce a high level of scholarship. He said we can create such structures if we want. We teach 1300 students in World Literature every semester and will probably need to teach 1400 this coming spring. It’s up to us how we manage it.
Dr. Dudley suggested that we allow a couple of people to teach sections of 125 in order to keep the other sections smaller. Teaching assistants could help with the grading in large sections.
Dr. Adamos pointed out that there are no graduate students in Philosophy to help with large sections, and that Philosophy teachers must assign essays.
Dr. Paige asked if Dean Smith would share these statistics he gathered about other institutions.
Dean Smith replied that Dr. Dudley has a spread sheet containing much of that information, and he can share it with us. The kinds of things we’re doing here are happening all over.
Dr. Adamos asked whether these peer institutions have the same research expectations we do.
Dean Smith answered that expectations vary from institution to institution.
Dr. Adamos stated that our increased loads will shortchange our students. She used advising as an example: if we have more students to advise, we must give each of them less time. She expressed her concern about the impact these measures will have on our students.
Dean Smith, in his closing statement, stated that he understands our position and the frustration we feel. He assured us that he will listen to us and be our advocate.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Villeponteaux
Department of Literature and Philosophy
* * * * * * * * * *
Department of Literature and Philosophy Minutes,
14th August 2009
Newton Building Rm 110
Present: Dr. Dudley (Chair), Dr. Adamos, Dr. Butterfield, Dr. Costomiris, Dr. Cyr, Dr. Eaton, Dr. Flynn, Dr. Gossai, Dr. Griffin, Dr. Higginson, Dr. Lloyd, Dr. Paige, Dr. Pellegrino, Dr. Schille, Dr. Town, Dr. Villeponteaux, Dr. Whelan, Ms Holloway (Dept Secretary), Dr. Ziegler (visiting)
Apologies from: Dr. Edwards, Dr. Keeley, Dr. Sherrod, Dr. Warchol. Dr. Thomson arrived half-way through the meeting, after a meeting of graduate advisers.
Refreshments were served from 9 am: the meeting began at 9:30.
The Chair reintroduced Dr. Ziegler, our library representative. Dr. Ziegler handed out address cards and expressed her willingness to come to classes to talk about the library to the students. She has 4 hours of office hours in the Centre for Irish Studies again this semester. Dr. Ziegler then presented the usual gloomy news about the library: although departments that depend heavily on books, such as ours, have an “approval plan” – we are allowed to nominate areas of scholarship that we want protected – the library “unit” has to implement an 8% pay-cut. This must mean collections, as they cost annually c. $60,000.
Dr. Flynn: That’s about 2 science journals.
Dr. Ziegler: Yes.
Further discussion followed: Dr. Costomiris asked about the budget for monographs; Dr. Villeponteaux suggested that we might share some more databases; Dr. Flynn excoriated EBSCO.
Dr. Dudley invited the dept to talk about activities over the past summer. Highlights: Dr. Costomiris attended a “spectacular funeral”; Dr. Eaton went to China; Dr. Town got married.
The committees made their announcements. The brochure for the Cinema Arts programme is available on the Web. The Centre for Irish Studies has two events planned: an international conference on Ulster Scots, to be held at the beginning of September; and another Guildford Music Festival [QV]. The nineteenth annual Post-Colonial Conference will be held next year from February 26th-7th. The Faculty Welfare Committee handed out a survey on research symposia: do we want them, and if so, where and when?
The Chair then made his report.
First, the new Dean, who is scheduled to attend a department meeting in 2 weeks’ time in order to discuss the interesting new policies he is introducing.
Second, enrollment: another record – 18,400! [Even this proves to be less than the resplendent number presented the following week.] Except for a couple of upper division classes, all are completely full.
Third, the long-awaited “furlough”: 3 days in the fall, 3 days in the spring, not distributed over the years. Some discussion followed this announcement; none of it enthusiastic.
Fourth, on the operating and travel budget. We have lost a lot from our telephone budget; on the other hand, our summer teaching has been used to supplement the department finances, and can be used for travel.
Fifth, the new seminar room has been cleaned and repainted. It is probably not possible to have it converted into a smart room; room 1110, however, has been so converted.
Sixth, the philosophy search. We still have hopes of obtaining a new post for the department; the position in Ancient Philosophy is our first priority.
Seventh, tenure and promotion. Dr. Keeley is now a candidate for the first, Dr. Gossai for the second.
Eighth, post-tenure review. Robert Costomiris and Marc Cyr are up for review this year, there will be tighter regulations (agreed last year by the Department) on the arrangement and presentation of materials.
Ninth, the “comprehensive programme review”, linked to assessment of the faculty. We have not done much about this since the beginning of the SACS visitation, but the College has provided us with a subscription to a survey-generating tool called “Survey Monkey”. Our graduate students are doing well, but we need to make data out of them, as we are not doing. To help with this, the new Dean has promised “standardized guidelines throughout the College”.
Tenth, H1N1, aka swine ‘flu. We must take this new illness very seriously, as it can turn into deadly pneumonia. The University wants “sanitizing stations” established: we have been sent some hand-sanitizing liquid, but it is hard to prescribe procedure. Dr. Ziegler suggested that we might fill up one of the regular soap dispensers with hand-sanitizer; Dr. Town urged that we should be notified if a student is diagnosed with swine ‘flu.
Eleventh, on safety and the conservation of resources. People suggested various measures: turning off lights, introducing digital thermostats, making the existing ones work. We will have two unannounced fire drills this semester. Dr. Dudley remarked that the first was likely to be a shambles, the second an improvement on that.
Twelfth, registering attendance verification for students and ourselves for the new “ADP” payment procedure. No one was worried about the first; everyone about the second. It will, however, save the state a lot of money.
Thirteenth, teaching observations this semester, to be done by the Chair and without warning. A couple of people expressed reservations about this. Dr. Adamos asked why it was to be done; Dr. Dudley explained that the Provost dislikes the current assessment, which is based very largely on student evaluations. This subject was left unresolved, with the possibility of modification.
Fourteenth, the web page. Dr. Pellegrino remarked that nothing was happening about it, as we have no support from the College. Dr. Schille remarked that the University home page has not yet registered that “English” now covers two departments – a change effected over 10 years ago. Dr. Pellegrino offered to upload various things that members requested, for example the course rotation and links attached to faculty members’ names.
Dr. Thomson reported on the Graduate Programme. Graduate directors now report to Dr. Amy Heaston. We have ten new students, mostly graduates of GSU.
The Chair then introduced some new business.
First he made a proposal for shortening the time in which faculty members may claim for travel reimbursement; this passed 14:1.
He then proposed that we should inform the Chair as soon as possible if we decide not to use our travel funds, so that they can be reallocated. (There was no vote on this.)
Third, he passed on two directives from the Dean:
a) The first concerned course enrollments: the administration has increased the minimum number required for a course to make, but will consider waivers in special cases. We then had some discussion of maximum enrollment, and the possibility of capping more popular classes at below the College specification for as long as possible in order to push students towards less popular ones. Dr. Dudley pointed out the problem that all classes would have to reach the College cap by the start of the semester, and that, as soon as the artificial cap is lifted, students are likely to move from less popular to more. Dr. Gossai explained to the meeting the problem he has with the Religious Studies seminar, which is always oversubscribed but cannot refuse students because it is necessary for the major. He requested that two sections might be offered per year; Dr. Dudley pointed out the problem of resources. Dr. Town said that she was constantly asked to put more students in all her classes but tried to insist on the cap in order to protect colleagues whose classes were less popular. There was some general discussion of the 25-student cap, which everyone who teaches agrees is too high.
b) The second concerned teaching loads. According to the new rules, faculty will receive one release time for five theses, as opposed to one for one. No one was pleased by this rather drastic devaluation of graduate supervision. In a seemingly paradoxical move, we are all now to move to a 3/3 load, with the possibility of still fewer classes, while there will be no a reduction of the number of students taught – indeed, a very substantial increase. Double sections of World Literature will now increase to 125. There is currently no plan to increase single sections to 60, an assurance which provoked some amusement. A new committee is to be formed to formulate proposals on how we will implement the change in teaching loads. Dr. Butterfield pointed out that huge classes are less likely to produce majors. Dr. Adamos observed that, in most research universities, the idea of a 3/3 load is to reduce the amount of teaching, not just the number of classes.
Ending the meeting, Dr. Dudley reminded the department of some unpleasant meetings held last semester. He urged the committees to discuss proposals thoroughly in advance with the hope of avoiding this. The new committee for the implementation of the new teaching loads must have a proposal ready by 15th December. He finally invited the department to contribute money to A Day for Southern.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:45.
Respectfully submitted by Julia Griffin
* * * * * * * * * *
Department of Literature and Philosophy Minutes,
October 24, 2008
The secretary regrets that she did not take attendance.
The meeting was called to order at 5:05. The October 10 minutes were approved unanimously. Announcements included the Ron E. McNair opportunity for faculty to mentor junior or senior students of color or other under-represented students for graduate study. The stipend has been $1500 for a summer program.
The next department meeting will be November 7. The CLASS undergraduate symposium, with Ryan Pickerel presenting will occur on November 6. Also announced were the Philosophy Club bonfire and progress of the Irish Studies Club.
Old Business
Robert Costomeris distributed suggestions gathered from faculty for the requirements/ format of the proposed Senior Seminar in Literature for English Majors. These included oral presentations (a critical analysis of an essay or book relevant to the seminar; a minimum number of approved secondary sources; meetings with the professor to discuss progress on the seminar paper; mastery of appropriate documentation conventions and research methods; and once a week (150 minutes class meetings). All of these will be pursued in preparing the final course proposal; the deadline for faculty feedback is October 31. It was generally agreed that students should be given as much and as timely specific instructions as possible.
New Business
Tom Lloyd distributed the pages missing from the current manual and the Manual Revision Committee’s proposed changes. Item 19, “No one will be tenured in this department without going through the entire process described under ‘Tenure Procedure'” was deferred. It was moved and seconded that Category I, “Clarifications and Corrections” be approved; and it was, unanimously, with objections, fruitless, to the requirement that candidates for tenure, promotion, or post-tenure review report via Digital Measures. Rationale was that new faculty need to know the administration’s current policy, regardless of departmental resistance.
It was moved and seconded that Category II, “More Substantive Changes,” Items 14-19 be approved. Candy Schille offered a friendly amendment on Item 15:
As it stands, the item reads, “Committee chairs will announce committee meetings and agendas to the department at least one week in advance. Faculty not on a standing
Committee who wish to attend may do so under the stipulations contained Robert’s Rules of Order 52.2:
Members of the society have a right to appear at the committee meetings, and present their views on the subject before it at such reasonable times as. Upon request, the committee may appoint. But during the deliberations of the committee no one has a right to be present, except members of the committee.
Schille’s motion would have provided that faculty may attend at any time, though present their views only in accordance with Robert’s Rules above. Discussion weighed transparency versus efficiency, etc. The proposed amendment was defeated with eight opposed, four in favor.
Richard Flynn questioned Item 16, “Eliminate percentages on the Annual Self-Evaluation description and form.” The intent was to prevent faculty from claiming only 10% accountability on teaching or scholarship. However, it was suggested that the current formulation might be required either by the university or on the Digital Measures form. Flynn withdrew his objection. Item 16 was removed from the Manual Revision Committee’s proposals until more information could be gathered.
Items 17 and 18, which would eliminate a follow-up meeting to discuss the Department Chair’s decisions about third year review and tenure, were discussed. It was generally agreed that the chair should convey by e-mail her/his decisions, but follow-up meetings were meaningless. The items were passed as written, with 11 in favor.
Lloyd said that remaining items 20-26 would be discussed at the next meeting, and invited input especially on those items concerning temporary faculty’s voting, service, and summer teaching rights and exclusions. David Dudley said that an informal survey of other CLASS departments had showed there was no uniformity in policy on these matters as regards temporary faculty.
Respectfully submitted,
Candy B. K. Schille
* * * * * * * * * *
Meeting of the Department of Literature and Philosophy
August 15, 2008, 9-noon, Newton 1113
Call to Order, 9:05 a.m.
Present: Lloyd, Flynn, Kundu, Pellegrino, Keeley, Gossai, Edwards, Sherrod, Higgerson, Eaton, Whelan, Houser, Villeponteaux, Griffin, Butterfield, Paige, Warchol, and Adamos.
Absent (and excused): Thomson, Costomiris, Cy, Schille, and Town (on academic leave).
Chair’s Welcome
How We Spent Our Summers: personal and professional
Faculty members reported on foreign travel, including Beth’s trip to Germany and Hungary to visit family, Gautam’s teaching in Paris, and Tomasz’s teaching of ENGL 2111 featuring field trips to sites around the Mediterranean Sea. Richard Flynn was congratulated for getting married to Becky Kennerly in June, and Richard Houser was congratulated on the birth of his son, Roan.
Chair’s Report
- Budget cuts and their impact on GSU, CLASS, and our department (with handout)
GSU has cut 5%, or 5 million. Cuts have come from utilities, from making the RAC pay for its own utilities, Physical Plant project delays, money saved from 60-day hiring freeze, reduced support from external initiative, such as classes in Brunswick and Dublin, eliminate vacant positions in majors with low enrollment, eliminate selected administrative positions (not currently filled).
There will be very few hires across campus; in CLASS, only 3, maybe 4, including the CLASS Dean and the Chair of Writing and Linguistics.
More cuts may well be on the way; when we get to 8 or 9%, if we do, then it’s possible that tenure track lines currently filled by temps. might be lost.
- Summer teaching and summer money back to the department
Last summer’s money purchased new furniture for meeting and conference room
Dr. Bleicken makes it sound as if we’ll be getting summer money again this year.
- Committee assignments for 2008-09 (with handout)
We have kept some committees pretty much intact; and I have tried to limit assignments for those who are committee chairs.
- If you want your syllabi printed by Gray’s, please get to us today; also, would be good idea to check your book order at the bookstore—walk over there and see; there are many anecdotal stories of book store problems, including orders sent but never filled.
- Please post office hours, and please let us know what your hours are (sheet to be distributed).
- Travel forms—and travel amounts available about the same as last year.
- Deadlines for those going up for 3rd-year review, pre-tenure review, tenure,
promotion, and post-tenure review will be made available very soon.
The chair will contact these people individually and work with them to establish their timelines and review what they need to do.
- New furniture for the conference room and faculty/student meeting room
Almost all of the new furniture has arrived. Please invite English and Philosophy majors to make use of the meeting room.
Please start using the meeting room; invite your ENGL and PHIL majors to use it.
We hope to add a new microwave, coffeemaker, perhaps refrigerator and water cooler. We will have an open house with students invited. Newton is being made wireless, so the meeting room can be a place for students to work.
- ALA Conference and visit of Andre Dubus to our campus:
The American Literature Association Symposium on American Fiction will take place in Savannah October 2-4. Our colleague Olivia Edenfield is the program coordinator this year. The keynote speaker, novelist Andre Dubus III, will speak on our campus Monday, October 6, at 7:30 in the Nessmith-Lane Assembly Hall.
- A Day for Southern
This fund campaign gives us an opportunity to contribute to contribute to our Foundation Account, or to Library Fund (we used funds to purchase DVDs for the dept. use last spring), or Center for Irish Studies, or Religious Studies—this is money for us to use, and to benefit our students. Everyone is encouraged to contribute.
- Departmental emphases for the year:
Doing the work necessary to implement changes to the English major enacted at the last meeting of Spring Term; evaluating our General Program courses.
Reports from Committees and our Center
- Graduate Program
We have a healthy number of new graduate students. Graduate student advisors have been assigned. Doug has worked on the new / revised Graduate Student Handbook.
- Major Program Committee
The committee will begin working on the paperwork necessary to present our revised English Major to the Undergraduate Committee.
- General Program Committee
The committee will continue its work on discussing learning goals, proposed reading lists, and other matters for ENGL 2111 and 2112.
- Philosophy Program
The Philosophy committee prepared questions for the exit survey of Philosophy majors. It is working on outcomes for Philosophy majors. The program has discussed articulating its “niche” in the university. It is discussing the issue of prerequisites for upper-division Philosophy courses, and is discussing creating a capstone course for Philosophy majors.
- Religious Studies
No report.
- Postcolonial Conference
The conference is scheduled for Feb. 24-25 at the Coastal Georgia Center in Savannah. The next edition of the journal of postcolonial studies will focus on religion and post-colonialism.
- Humma Cinema Arts Series
Tomasz reported on the series for this year and said brochures will soon be available. He noted that the film Persepolis will be shown as part of National French Weekend observance.
- Publicity
The committee is interested in securing new funds to produce new publicity materials. From money given the department from the journal of post-colonial studies, we “pre-purchased” pop-up banners at the end of the last fiscal year. These banners will be used for future open houses and will feature our various departmental programs.
- Library
Questions were raised about which online journals the library has decided to keep and which to eliminate.
- Scholarships and Awards
No report.
- Center for Irish Studies
Our student Megan Lyles has been accepted for graduate study this fall into the prestigious Anglo-Irish Literature program at Trinity College, Dublin. The program is deemed the best of its kind in the world.
We have begun Phase I of our research partnership with the Institute for Ulster-Scots Studies of the University of Ulster.
We fully endowed the Eddie Ivie Scholarship for study abroad in Ireland.
We internationalize 55 students annually through our nine-course study in Ireland program, based at the Waterford Institute of Technology.
We’re participating with the University Honors Program to create Honors Alternative Spring Break in Northern Ireland in March, 2009.
We organized and hosted the ACIS South Conference in 2008.
We are doing a fundraiser in Atlanta at the Irish Pub called Fado, to raise money for the Eddie Ivie Scholarship Fund.
On October 3, we are hosting Hammered Dulcimer artist Scot Williams at our 13th Annual Irish Music Showcase, at the Emma Kelly Theater, 7:00.
Greetings and Report from Dan Lanier
Dan is our department’s Computer Services Technical Support Provider. He brought the department up to date on current developments and changes in online matters and noted his availability to help us when there are problems. He and Rebecca both emphasized that when problems occur, we should contact Rebecca first and let her contact Dan.
Greetings and Information from Rebecca Ziegler
Rebecca is the Library Liaison Representative for our department. She announced that she is glad to do appointments with students individually to discuss research questions and projects. She will also work with faculty. Rebecca said that Galileo searches now search only databases funded by the state. She answered a number of questions about recent deletions of online journals, a decision made with minimal notification to faculty. She listened to concerns and promised to report back to the Library that we wish a number of online journals to be re-purchased.
Adjournment: 11:50 a.m.
After formal adjournment, graduate students, who were invited to join the faculty for lunch, were introduced.
Faculty and graduate students stayed and enjoyed lunch provided by the department.
Respectfully submitted,
David Dudley
* * * * * * * * * *
November 28, 2007 – Minutes for the Department Meeting
Present: Dr. Dudley (Chair), Dr. Adamos, Dr. Costomiris, Dr. Cyr, Dr. Edwards, Dr. Flynn, Dr. Gossai, Dr. Griffin, Dr. Kundu, Dr. Pellegrino, Dr. Sherrod, Dr. Thomson, Dr. Town, Dr. Villeponteaux, Dr. Warchol, Dr. Whelan.
Apologies from: Dr. Keeley, Dr. Paige, Dr. Schille
The meeting began at 3:30. After the minutes of the last meeting were passed, Dr. Dudley announced the forthcoming Celtic Christmas concert and Department Christmas Party,and reminded everyone to submit their self-evaluations. He then confirmed to the Department that the Dean of CLASS would be leaving in February of 2008. The Provost would be inviting nominations for the interim position. Dr. Dudley announced that a meeting with the Provost is planned for 25th January to discuss the recent Crane Report on the University.
Dr. Gossai, as Chair of the Internet Ad Hoc Committee, then took over as Chair of the meeting. The Department had already voted on 4 of the proposals made by the Ad Hoc Committee; Dr. Gossai introduced proposal 5,
The committee recommends that a faculty member teaching on-line courses from a remote location take on extra service activities before and after his or her semester away from campus. The department recognizes that a faculty member may perform valuable service through on-line work, but such contributions do not compensate for other kinds of service regularly undertaken by faculty that require presence on campus, such as committee work, national searches, advisement, and supervision of Masters’ theses.
After some rather heated debate, this was passed by a majority of 8:5.
Dr. Gossai then introduced proposal 6, with an amendment by himself (indicated in italics below):
The committee recommends that only one faculty member from the Department may teach a full load remotely per semester except in extraordinary circumstances.
This amendment was passed by a majority of 8:6. Some people felt that “extraordinary” should be defined to mean “relating to research”, but this was not put to the vote. After some more debate, and some confusion, the proposal passed, in its amended form, by a majority of 7:5.
Dr. Gossai then introduced proposal 7:
The committee recommends that a couple of questions particular to online teaching be added to the student evaluation form.
Several people brought up the likelihood that the Centre for Excellence in Teaching was about to propose its own evaluation form, making this recommendation obsolete. After some discussion, proposal 7 was amended to the following:
The committee recommends that teachers of on-line courses use the CET evaluation form.
This was passed by a majority I seem to have failed to write down; I think 3 people opposed or abstained.
Dr. Gossai then introduced proposal 8:
The committee recommends that whatever procedures agreed upon by the Department of Literature and Philosophy regarding online courses be included in the departmental handbook.
This was passed nem con, and the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted by Julia Griffin, December 19th, 2007.
* * * * * * * * * *
November 14, 2007, Newton 2209, 3:30pm – Literature and Philosophy Department Meeting
Present: Costomiris, Cyr, Dudley, Eaton, Edwards, Flynn, Gossai, Keeley, Kundu, Malott, Pellegrino, Schille, Thomson, Town, Villeponteaux, Warhol, Whelan
Flynn asked for teachers of world literature to volunteer their classes to participate in a study of the knowledge survey.
Dudley thanked Adamos, Costomiris, Cyr, Gossai, and Thomson for serving on the Ad hoc Committee on Online courses. Gossai introduced the committee’s report and recommendations and noted that online courses are also the topic of school’s and the institution’s conversations.
Several recommendations were moved, seconded, and discussed.
The first passed as amended, with the amended portion in italics: “The committee recommends that curricular decisions regarding all online/remote courses be directed to the department chair, who will consult with the appropriate curricular committees.” Discussion focused on whether this would constitute a separate set of curriculum decisions to decide which courses might be taught online and it was objected that the recommendation was ambiguous. Thomson said that these curricular decisions, referred to the general, undergraduate and graduate committees, would not include personnel matters, but rather such issues as how many online courses a major can take, how many seminars might be offered online, and so on.
The second passed unanimously: “The committee recommends that Faculty interested in teaching online/remote courses have a demonstrated competence in the necessary technology for teaching. The committee noted that CET is a resource in this regard.”
The third recommendation concerned “built-in evaluation of online offerings” which “would not evaluate teaching but serve as program review.” It was objected that there should not be a distinction between on-line and face-to-face classes, that the sort of evaluation was not specified, that regular student evaluations might serve the purpose. Language suggested by Town and others amended the recommendation, which passed: “The committee recommends that in 3-5 years the appropriate committees assess the effectiveness of on-line teaching as part of a general program review.”
The fourth passed, slightly amended: “The committee recommends that a faculty member should teach a semester load of online courses remotely only once every three years.” It was suggested that this recommendation should be at the discretion at the chair, and that the “once every three years” was arbitrary. To the latter, it was answered tenure and sabbatical timelines, for instance, are just as arbitrary, and it was the committee’s intention to avoid the possibility of a “virtual faculty member.”
The department adjourned at 4:50 p.m. to resume discussion on the rest of the recommendations later.
Respectfully submitted,
Candy B. K. Schille
* * * * * * * * * *
April 20, 2007 – Minutes of the Meeting of the Department of Literature and Philosophy
Present: Adamos, Butterfield, Costomiris, Cyr, Drake, Dudley, Eaton, Edwards, Flynn, Gossai, Griffin, Kundu, Lloyd, Paige, Robinson, Schille, Thomson, Town, Villeponteaux, Warchol.
Absent: Keeley, Sherrod, Whelan.
Dudley called the meeting to order at 3:07 p.m.
The minutes of the meeting of December 2, 2006, were approved.
Dudley made several announcements:
Ryan Drake has resigned and will be leaving us after summer term B.
We are invited to a retirement party for Suzanne Brannen and Dale Purvis
on Monday, April 30.
We are invited to a baby shower for Beth Butterfield at Caren Town’s house
on Saturday, May 5.
All faculty must enter their C.V’s on Digital Measures by August 1. Starting
next year, all faculty annual self-evaluations must be also be done on Digital
Measures.
Old Business:
None.
New Business:
The Major Program Committee brought the following proposal before the department. It was moved by Robert Costomiris and seconded by Richard Flynn:
“The department Chair will appoint from the other members of the department the department the chair of the search committee and at least three other members. After the interview process, the chair of the search committee will solicit written comments about the candidate from all faculty. The department will also meet to discuss the group of candidates (for each position) who have visited the campus. Drawing on this information and its own experience with the candidates, the committee will submit its recommendations and the written comments of the faculty to the Chair of the department.”
It was asked if one intention of the motion is to disallow the Chair of the department from chairing a search committee, the Major Program Committee members that it was.
There was discussion about the need for a meeting of the department to discuss candidates either before or after the submission of individuals’ written comments. Some members of the department felt that such a meeting would be helpful; others questioned the need for yet another meeting. It was pointed out that attendance at such a meeting would be voluntary.
The motion was passed without objection.
The Major Program Committee brought a second proposal before the department, moved by Costomiris and seconded by Griffin:
“Whenever the department is considering the admission of a new faculty member with tenure or on the tenure track, the department will meet to discuss the candidate and vote on the candidate’s application.”
Considerable discussion followed the motion. It was noted that the motion is designed to give guidance in a rare or unusual circumstance. Someone ventured that the motion is unnecessary, given that the event it envisions hardly ever happens. Another faculty member approved such a statement to express how she (and others) would like things to happen. Further discussion ensued, with friendly motions made to amend and clarify the proposed wording of the motion. After discussion, a revised version of the motion was proposed, one which mirrors procedural language already in place in the Departmental Manual:
“Whenever the department is considering the admission of a new faculty member with tenure outside the regular hiring process, the tenured faculty and Chair of the department meet to discuss the merits of the candidate. At the end of the confidential meeting, a vote will take place by closed ballots using slips of paper. Two faculty members will count and confirm the results and present the tally to the Chair and the faculty.”
This motion was put to the vote and was passed. Its language and that of the preceding motion will be added to the Departmental Manual.
The General Program Committee brought the following motion to the department, which was moved by Marc Cyr and seconded by Candy Schille:
“The General Program Committee recommends that our department run a pilot program in our World Literature classes (and perhaps some Philosophy classes to be determined) of the “Knowledge Surveyor” assessment instrument being developed by David Robinson, as per the rationales, procedures, and tentative projected timetable published to the department in the General Program Committee minutes of 3-23-07.”
In the discussion that followed, it was asked, “Why use Knowledge Surveyor” and not some other assessment tool? One member suggested we look at other assessments tools before making a decision; another member expressed a desire for the creation of an ad hoc assessment committee. As the discussion proceeded, it became clear that some members of the faculty favor trying Knowledge Surveyor, while others do not. Some prefer to look to other models before making a choice, and others see no need for such assessment tools at all.
When a vote was taken, the motion passed by a vote of 9 in favor to 3 against.
There being no further new business from the floor, the meeting was adjourned at 4:45.
Respectfully submitted,
David Dudley
* * * * * * * * * *
December 1, 2006 – Department of Literature and Philosophy Faculty Meeting
Present: Costomiris, Drake, Dudley, Eaton, Edwards, Flynn, Gossai, Lloyd, Robinson, Thomson, Town, Whelan
Absent: Adamos, Butterfield, Cyr, Griffin (on leave), Keeley, Kundu, Paige, Schille, Sherrod, Villeponteaux, Warchol
Dudley called the meeting to order at 2:00.
It was moved, seconded, and passed to accept the minutes of the October 25 meeting.
Dudley made several announcements:
Dept. Holiday Party at the Kundus’ on Friday, Dec. 8, 6:00
The university’s Centennial Celebration is officially underway
The CET will sponsor workshops spring term for those who team large
Sections
plans are afoot for a CLASS “RIG”—“residence interest group” in Eagle Village
still no budget for summer teaching, but first round of requests for summer teaching are due Jan. 5, with special need for courses in short term B
after commencement next week, CLASS is sponsoring a Commencement Celebration in the Museum rotunda for all CLASS graduates and their guests; all faculty also invited
CLASS Crew Party has been scheduled for Atlanta in the spring
we might consider a reception for our own ENGL and PHIL graduates in the spring
we missed a university open house, chair’s fault, but Publicity and Alumni Relations Committee, please note those upcoming in the spring
we have three philosophy candidates coming this next week, please attend their research and teaching demonstrations and come to meals with them
Chair’s reflections on teaching observations:
I learned a lot about many different subjects
we are remarkably consistent in our approach to teaching and in our classroom style
in our world literature classes, we face the challenge of how to reach the uninvolved student
Chair’s reflections on the Fall Term as a whole:
by and large favorable, positive, with few disgruntled students, several new majors, and a lot of working being done in the office by Rebecca and our student assistants
we have full classes for spring term, including surprising strength in Chaucer, Literary Criticism, but not so strong in ENGL 2111 and 2112 honors sections
the 1200-level courses are still a problem, with none of them making so far; Reading Poetry will be linked to an ENGL 1102 course in the fall term 2007
New Business:
Doug Thomson, speaking for the Graduate Committee, noted that we have a 20% increase in graduate applicants for next year, but no increase in the number of assistantships.
He requested that we inform our undergraduate ENGL majors about the possibility of enrolling in our M.A. program.
Tim Whelan noted it would be nice to get a couple of endowed graduate assistantships.
The question was raised about offering graduate seminars on line or as a blend of classroom and on line teaching.
It was suggested we think of developing our own summer short term schedule to better fit with the schedules of public school teachers, for whom either our current Minimester 1 or Minimester 2 sessions present conflicts with their work.
It was proposed that the department view a presentation to explain the technology of on line teaching, and it was noted that the Major Program Committee would take up the issue of offering ENGL 3121 on line at some future date.
More New Business:
The Library Committee asks that we let its members know what books or other materials we’d like them to order. We currently have about $3800 available.
The department gave its informal approval for an ENGL 3537 course, “Pre-Norman Literature,” to be offered Fall Term 2007.
It was announced that Howard Keeley and Gautam Kundu are on a CLASS task force to develop the internationalization of our college’s curriculum.
Bill Eaton invited everyone to a holiday party at his home on December 11.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
David Dudley
* * * * * * * * * *
October 4, 2006 – Departmental Meeting Minutes, Literature and Philosophy
Present: Professors Adamos, Butterfield, Costomiris, Cyr, Dudley, Eaton, Edwards, Flynn, Keeley, Kundu, Robinson, Schille, Sherrod, Town, Thomson, Villeponteaux, Warchol, Whelan.
Absent: Drake (teaching), Gossai (teaching), Lloyd, Rohrer Paige.
Chair David Dudley called the meeting to order at 3:35.
The minutes of the August 8 meeting were approved as amended.
Chair’s Report:
The semester is going well; all of our courses made, even Medieval Literature! There have been no students coming into the departmental office with complaints, for which we are grateful.
Thanks to all who participated in the Day for Southern Campaign.
Teaching schedules for Fall Semester 2007 will soon be put in faculty mailboxes, and requests for teaching preferences for Spring Semester 2008 will soon be distributed.
We have ample office help this term, with student workers Takeisha, Quee, Sarita, and Jonteau all available to help faculty with any work they might need done. Rebecca Holloway, our secretary, is doing a great job for us and our students and deserves our thanks.
We appreciate the increase in our travel and operating expenses budget, a permanent increase of $6280. The Chair was able to give some travel money to everyone who requested it: about $1000 per tenured and tenure-track faculty and about $300 for temporary faculty.
Our English and Philosophy programs are healthy, with new majors frequently coming on board. We’ve requested a new Religious Studies line and a new Philosophy line for the 2007-08 academic year.
We will be starting our program of classroom visits next week; the Chair and another faculty member will observe our teaching. If you haven’t completed your preference form for observation, please do so and turn it in.
Announcements:
Dr. Warchol reported for the John Humma Cinema Arts Film Series; the current ticket price of $2 no longer covers costs, so there’s a good chance the price will be raised to $3 (or more) in the future.
Dr. Adamos reported for the Ethics Search Committee. We are okay with the OIC, the ad has been posted, and the first application has arrived.
Dr. Robinson reported for the Shakespeare Search Committee: The search strategy needs additional work before the OIC will approve it. Applications have begun to arrive.
Dr. Cyr for the Colonial /Post-Colonial Search Committee: Marc will meet with Marcia Jones in the OIC Friday morning to continue work toward getting the committee’s search strategy approved. David Robinson said he would join him.
Dr. Dudley announced the English Majors’ Forum scheduled for Oct 11, asked faculty members to prepare descriptions of their courses, and book lists if possible. Flyers will be distributed in upper-division courses.
Dr. Dudley noted that the first Faculty Research Forum was a success. He invited volunteers for the next Forum, scheduled for October 18. Dr. Kundu volunteered. Dr. Town suggested we invite interested undergraduates and well as our graduate students. This idea was endorsed by the department.
Dr. Dudley announced the upcoming Averitt Lectures, sponsored this year by the Dept. of History, and invited everyone to attend.
Dr. Dudley announced the next Departmental Meeting, October 25, 3:30-5:00.
Dr. Keeley announced the great success of the Irish music fundraising event. The evening raised about $8000; currently, we have raised $12,000 toward our goal of at least $15,000 to sponsor the study in Ireland scholarship.
Old Business: none.
New Business:
Dr. Costomiris, Chair of the Major Program Committee, introduced the document prepared by the committee and previously distributed to all faculty members, hereafter referred to as “Revisions to Area F.”
Dr. Costomiris noted that the purpose of proposed revisions to Area F is to help us help our students know what we want them to know by the time they complete their studies as English majors. To use Dr. Town’s words, we want to make some changes in Area F so that it becomes “a kind of Core Curriculum for English majors.”
As agreed upon by the committee and the department, a time of discussion ensued before any motions were made. Much of the discussion centered on the two new proposed courses, tentatively titled “Writing About Literature” and “Critical Approaches to Literature.”
Some of the points of discussion are summarized below:
Schille: Would the two proposed new courses be taken in sequence or in either order?
Town: We must consider that point and also create course descriptions.
Flynn: What level should these courses be—1000 or 2000 level? Why not make them 2000-level?
Whelan: Five ENGL courses at the 1000 level? [secretary’s note: I’m note sure of which 5th course Whelan is speaking; there would be four such courses, ENGL 1101, 1102, and the two new ones.] Aren’t five courses like that awfully many? Couldn’t one of the two new courses replace ENGL 1102?
Cyr: Would ENGL 1101 and 1102 be prerequisites to the new courses?
Thomson: Would the Dept. of Writing and Linguistics have any problems with our naming a course “Writing About Literature”?
Also has a concern about these courses as prerequisites: would they be prerequisites for non-English majors who want to take upper-division ENGL courses as electives?
Costomiris: Non-majors could get into those courses with permission of the instructor.
Town: Students want courses such as we are proposing to be prerequisites. The courses are chaotic otherwise, with a mixture of students, some of whom have already learned the skills these courses teach, others of whom have no clue about them.
Kundu: Would these two new courses be prerequisites for the English minor?
Sherrod: Could such courses be optional? How about using AP or SAT special area test scores to exempt new majors who might already have the skills these courses are designed to teach?
Flynn: Wants to hear about proposed changes to the rest of the major, for such changes might well influence how he views the proposed changes in Area F. Flynn also expressed concerns about the “critical approaches” course, which can easily turn stale and formulaic.
Town: Only a few changes are being considered for the major, including making Shakespeare a mandatory course. There’s also been talk of requiring our course in literary criticism.
Whelan: How about putting ENGL 2131 in Area F, and in that course, emphasize writing and de-emphasize the literary approaches aspect?
Town: Majors need to understand how our discipline works and how we talk about it.
Keeley: Agrees with Town’s position; our students need a more thorough grounding in the language and tools of the discipline.
Villeponteaux: Could ENGL 1102 count as one of these courses?
Whelan: Could we have Writing and Linguistics set aside one section of 1102 for our use, to be designed especially for English majors?
Flynn: Endorses the plan.
Eaton: Would like to see critical thinking course added to the list of electives in the proposed revision to Area F.
At this point, Flynn moved “That the department endorse in principle the Area F changes proposed by the Major Program Committee.”
Town seconded the motion.
Dudley called the question. The motion passed by voice acclamation without a dissenting voice.
Dudley adjourned the meeting at 4:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
David Dudley
Chair and Recording Secretary
* * * * * * * * * *
August 8, 2006 – Minutes, Departmental Meeting
3-5 p.m., Newton 1103
Present: Drs. Butterfield, Costomiris, Cyr, Drake, Dudley, Eaton, Edwards, Gossai, Keeley, Kundu, Lloyd, Paige, Robinson, Schille, Sherrod, Thomson, Town, Villeponteaux, Warchol; Ms. Holloway.
Absent: Drs. Adamos, Flynn, Griffin (on leave), Whelan.
Dr. Dudley called the meeting to order at 3:00. He welcomed the faculty back for the new term and asked several colleagues to share news of their summer travels.
Dr. Dudley introduced new faculty members: Beth Butterfield, temporary assistant professor of Philosophy; Brad Edwards, temporary assistant professor of English; Hemchand Gossai, assistant professor of Religious Studies; and Mary Villeponteaux, temporary assistant professor of English.
On behalf of the department, Dr. Dudley congratulated Bill Eaton on his move from temporary assistant professor of Philosophy to assistant professor.
Dr. Dudley distributed a calendar of events for the semester, calling particular attention to a few items:
1. Faculty Research Forums, scheduled for Sept. 20 and Oct. 18
2. Departmental Meetings, scheduled for Sept. 29, Oct. 25, and Dec. 1.
3. English Majors’ Meetings, scheduled for Aug. 23, October 11, and
Nov. 16
4. Social events, Sept. 3 at the Dudleys’ and Dec. 2 at the Kundus’
Dr. Costomiris reported on behalf of the Major Program Committee, noting the three meetings of English Majors and plans to keep our majors up to date about departmental news.
Dr. Drake reported for the Philosophy Faculty, noting the upcoming Ethics Search and plans for the Philosophy Club and the Philosophy Honor Society.
Ms. Holloway reminded the faculty about correct procedures for filling out request to travel forms, noting especially the importance of retaining copies of all requests.
Dr. Dudley reported on new procedures for granting overrides into classes. When faculty are not available, he will at times grant overrides, but seeks guidance from individual faculty members on what policies they would like him to follow in their own cases. When faculty are present—as at the beginning of a new term—the departmental policy will be to send students seeking overrides to the faculty member in question and having her or him fill out a form granting permission for the override, then having the student return the form to the office.
Dr. Dudley announced his plan to observe everyone’s teaching this term, accompanied by another colleague. He will use his observations as part of his end-of-the-year teaching evaluations. He also explained his belief that it’s good for all of us to observe each other’s teaching so that we can have a better idea of what our colleagues are doing in the classroom.
Dr. Thomson reported on behalf of the Graduate Committee. Report attached.
Search chairs for the coming term reported briefly on the status of the searches. Dr. Cyr reported for the Colonial / Post-colonial Literature position, and Dr. Robinson for the Shakespeare position. In the absence of Dr. Adamos, Dr. Drake reported for the Ethics position.
Dr. Dudley reported on the upcoming “Day for Southern” campaign and made a plea to departmental members to contribute to the department’s various GSU Foundation accounts, including the Center for Irish Studies, the RELS account, the Lawrence Huff Library Account, and the general department account. Dudley noted the department’s general account is largely depleted from expenses incurred last year, and if everyone would contribute $100 a year to that account, we would have all the money we need to cover expenses for things such as refreshments, retirement parties, and the like.
Dr. Dudley reminded the faculty of the college’s policies on required elements in course syllabi.
Dr. Dudley reminded the faculty of changes to departmental policies on the conduct of meetings and on temporary faculty.
Dr. Warchol reported on the coming term’s plans for the John Humma Cinema Arts Film Series.
Dr. Keeley reported on the coming term’s schedule of events in the Center for Irish Studies.
Dr. Cyr reported on the plans for this year’s British Commonwealth and Post-Colonial Studies Conference.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:15.
Respectfully submitted,
David Dudley
* * * * * * * * * *
April 20, 2006 – Minutes: Department of Literature and Philosophy Meeting
Present: Dr. Dudley (chair), Dr. Costomiris, Dr. Cyr, Dr. Eaton, Dr. Flynn. Dr. Griffin, Dr. Humma, Dr. Keeley, Dr. Kundu, Dr. Lloyd, Dr. Paige, Dr. Robinson, Dr. Schille, Dr. Thomson, Dr. Town, Dr. Warchol. Dr. Whelan
The meeting was called to order by David Dudley, chair.
The minutes of the March 24th meeting were approved unanimously.
Dr. Dudley reminded the department of the retirement party for Dr. Humma. He then announced the graduate seminar in Yeats, to be taught Summer Term B by Dr. Keeley, and requested that colleagues remind graduate students and encourage them to enroll.
The first item of business was the approval of the BA Checklist, Education track, from the Major Program Committee. Town moved for its approval and Flynn seconded. Town suggested that Shakespeare be strongly recommended as the single author course for Education majors. This amendment to the main motion (Schille/ Robinson seconded) was adopted by a vote of 12-2. After discussion, the checklist was approved by a unanimous vote.
The second item of business was the approval of learning outcomes for the M.A. program in English. Dr. Thomson moved and Flynn seconded the motion that they be approved. After considerable discussion, the department passed the outcomes unanimously, directing the committee to fine-tune the language in the bracketed sections dealing with the evidence for satisfying the outcomes.
The third item of business was the General Program Committee’s recommendation that World Literature be split into 3 semester courses. Griffin moved and Flynn seconded the motion. After a protracted discussion, the department voted 7 for and 7 against. Dr. Dudley, the chair, decided to send the matter back to the committee for further study regarding its implications for the core curriculum and transferability of credit.
The next item of business was the recommendation of the Faculty Welfare Committee concerning the motion that in the hiring of temporary faculty “whenever possible, a search of some kind should be held, so that the candidate is chosen and not just appointed by the chair.” Griffin moved and Flynn seconded. After some discussion the motion passed unanimously.
The final item concerned the recommendations of the Faculty Welfare Committee concerning revisions to the rules for conducting department meetings.
Motion 1, that the Department Handbook Item 7 on page 22 be amended to read “The Department will adhere to Robert’s Rules of Order for debate” replacing the current language there. It was moved by Griffin and seconded by Town and was passed by a unanimous vote.
As time was running short, Dr. Schille moved and Robinson seconded that the time for the meeting be extended for ½ hour. By a vote of 12-2, the extension was approved.
Motion #2: That the department make the following changes (listed in boldface) to Page 22, Items#1 and#2, of the Departmental Manual:
1. Faculty should whenever possible first direct concerns, proposed motions, and suggestions for change in departmental policies and procedures to the Chair of the appropriate committee. The action that the committee takes on the proposal, whether it be positive or negative, will be reported ata future departmental meeting. For issues not part of the committee process, the item “New Business” should be added to each meeting agenda. Voting on New Business should not take place during the initial meeting at which the issue is discussed.
Eliminate entirely Item #2:
Currently, Item 2 reads as follows:“At least once early in the semester, the department will hold Discussion Forums, with a published agenda contributed to by faculty members, to discuss issues concerning faculty and the department. While no voting on motions will take place at these Forums, faculty members and/or the Chair of the department may direct issues that are raised to the appropriate departmental committees.”
Griffin moved and Town seconded. The motion was approved by a vote of 10-1.
Motion #3: We move that meetings should always be of fixed length, with the ending time stated in advance, and all speakers should remain focused on the topic and show collegiality and respect for others.
was moved by Griffin and seconded by Robinson.. There was discussion about inserting language providing for an extension of the meeting, but it was pointed out that Robert’s Rules provided for such an extension upon a 2/3 vote, so such an addition was unnecessary. Dr.Griffin expressed her displeasure that we had extended the meeting and that not everyone was present. Schille called the question, Flynn seconded. The question was called by a vote of 11-3, and the motion was approved by a vote of 9-0.
Robinson moved for adjournment, Schille seconded, and the meeting was adjourned by unanimous voice vote.
Respectfully submitted,
Richard Flynn, Acting Secretary
* * * * * * * * * *
March 24, 2006 – Minutes for the Department Meeting
Present: Dr. Dudley (Chair), Dr. Adamos, Dr. Costomiris, Dr. Cyr, Dr. Griffin, Dr. Humma, Dr. Keeley, Dr. Paige, Dr. Robinson, Dr. Schille, Dr. Thomson, Dr. Town, Dr. Warchol, Dr. Womack. Dr. Sherrod attended for the second part of the meeting.
Apologies from: Dr. Drake, Dr. Eaton, Dr. Flynn, Mrs. Hill, Dr. Kundu, Dr. Lloyd, Mr. Olsen, Dr. Whelan.
The meeting began at 3:00, with permanent members only. Dr. Dudley began by mentioning the initiative by Ms Holloway, the Department Secretary, to sell textbooks through the Internet rather than to the visiting book-buyers. This has made quite a lot of money for the department.
The first item on the agenda was a proposal from the Welfare Committee, informal and for discussion only, to revise our procedure in hiring temporary full-time faculty. The Committee proposes that whenever possible, temporary should not be appointed by the private decision of the Chair, but chosen after a search. This idea was received with general enthusiasm, though some members questioned how much power we really have to institute such a change. Dr. Cyr suggested that we should send the proposal “up” to the administration to bring our concern to their attention. Dr. Adamos proposed sending advertisements for temporary faculty to nearby institutions: this, she pointed out, would avoid heavy financial outlay while still allowing for a (limited) search. Some members mentioned the recent situation in which the department had been strongly encouraged to hired the relative of an administrator; the implications of this were debated. Dr. Costomiris and Dr. Town suggested a compromise solution for the time being: that, on appointing a temporary faculty member, the Chair should inform the Department and send round the new colleague’s CV.
The discussion moved to the treatment of temporary faculty once they are hired. Dr. Dudley suggested making a formal evaluation every year, and visiting their classes. He explained the general policy of CLASS concerning expectations of temporaries: most departments expect/invite them to come to meetings; to vote, but not to have a “deciding” vote (Dr. Robinson pointed out the illogicality of this); and to perform service if they volunteer. The advantages and delicacies of this last idea were discussed: some members thought that it was advantageous to temporaries to have “service” on their CVs; Dr. Costomiris opposed this on the grounds that it was exploitative and possibly misleading. Dr. Dudley raised the question of awarding travel funds to temporary faculty, explaining that he had kept back enough from the department’s yearly allocation to provide them each with $250. No one opposed this as a policy.
For the second part of the meeting, temporary faculty members were invited to attend.
Dr. Paige presented the recent work of the Major Programme Committee on setting up a track for English majors who plan careers in middle and high school teaching following the changes in the education curriculum.
Dr. Thomson then presented two proposals from the Graduate Committee. The first consisted of two items regarding graduate classes to be included in the Department Manual: a definition of the work expected of graduate students; and a definition of the “two key components” of a seminar. The first of these was passed nem con; the second occasioned some debate (Dr. Womack suggesting that we should not all be expected to teach in exactly the same way, and Dr. Paige that the phrasing was both awkward and confusing) but was passed in the end. The Graduate Committee’s second proposal concerned learning outcomes; this was tabled for the next meeting due to pressure of time.
The final item of business was another informal proposal from the Welfare Committee, this time concerning the procedure to be followed at Department Meetings. Some people have suggested that this should return to the pattern established in Robert’s Rules of Order, which permit the introduction of new business at the end of a meeting. The Committee proposed taking this step, but protecting ourselves from filibustering and factional government by a) setting a time-limit in advance and b) allowing new business to be introduced but not voted upon. This idea received some support, so Dr. Griffin promised to send a written version of the proposal to the department to allow discussion via the email list before the next meeting, when it could be formally introduced and perhaps put to a vote.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Julia Griffin, March 28th, 2006.
* * * * * * * * * *
January 13, 2006 – Department of Literature and Philosophy
Minutes for the department meeting
Present: David Dudley (Chair), Marc Cyr, Candy Schille, Tim Whelan, Linda Paige, Tom Lloyd, Julia Griffin, Len Olsen, Ryan Drake, Howard Keeley, William Eaton, Nancy Sherrod, Tomasz Warchol, Mark Womack, Richard Flynn, Caren Town, Doug Thomson, David Robinson.
The meeting began on schedule at 3:00 p.m. with Dudley noting this meeting would be largely informational, and accordingly he gave some information:
– None of our classes is grossly overloaded this term.
– Nevertheless, he is attempting to put a stop to our majors’ last-minute “I graduate this semester! I have to have THAT class!” behavior, which causes scheduling difficulties.
– We need to develop an ethics class for engineers.
– We have money to fix our smart room, which currently is in the latter stages of “Flowers for Algernon” syndrome; we hope to have this done over Spring Break. He is also planning for the department to continue to apply for funds to make all of our stupid rooms in Newton “smart.” He further noted that there is a movement to standardize equipment in all smart rooms across campus.
Search committees:
– Whelan noted that four Religious Studies candidates will be on-campus over the next two weeks; the visit schedules have been distributed.
– Drake noted that it’s early days yet in the Philosophy search; they were starting phone interviews.
– Town noted that the Chair search is bringing three candidates to campus; they were trying to coordinate with the Religious Studies search committee to avoid conflicts.
Dudley then moved to other matters:
– The 1000-level introductory genre courses have been approved by the College, and now go to the Senate Undergraduate Committee, where it is expected they will be approved, so we’re planning to offer them beginning this Fall. If they aren’t approved, faculty assigned to those classes will have a World Literature substituted. Further, we haven’t yet figured out how these classes can be applied by our own majors; for now, advisors can okay them for Area F of the core.
– All paperwork for catalog changes re: 2131 have gone through; it is now a pre- or co-requisite for our majors and minors for upper division classes. Non-majors/minors can get into upper division classes without 2131 if this is okayed by the professor.
– GSU was reaccredited by SACS, but was tagged in three assessment-related areas. The general impact is that departments need to project outcomes for our students and measure how well we achieve those; the immediate impact was that Dudley had to curtail his eggnog intake over the break and create a description of our majors and what we want them to know/be.
– Our summer budget request has not yet been okayed by the Provost.
– We currently have one temporary literature line; we are asking for three for next year because they are needed to cover World Literatures and the new freshman genre courses; because John Humma is retiring and retention of his permanent line was deemed unjustified by the Provost; and because if Dudley moves from interim to real Chair he won’t be doing much work (in the classroom).
– We are applying for one Religious Studies temporary line for next year.
Dudley then noted that the Provost is already requiring departmental course schedules for the coming year, up through Spring ’07. Accordingly, he passed around Spring ’07 course preference forms and swore that no one could leave the room (well, not alive) until they were filled out.
The meeting had been intelligently scheduled for a full hour; it was brilliantly adjourned after just forty minutes.
Respectfully submitted by Marc Cyr, Temporary Acting Brevet-Secretary
* * * * * * * * * *
August, 11, 2005 – Minutes: Minutes of the Departmental Meeting (draft)
Department of Literature and Philosophy
Faculty Meeting Minutes—
The meeting was brought to order by the Acting Chair, David Dudley.
New faculty members (Ryan Drake, Nancy Sherrod, Mark Womack, and Deborah Hill) were introduced.
Old Business:
Announcements and reports were given by each of the standing committees.
Caren Town discussed the upcoming Averitt Lectures and encouraged all present to attend and provide extra credit opportunities for their students. She emphasized the importance of a good attendance in insuring the continued funding of the lecture series.
John Humma announced the availability of the Cinema Arts schedule and encouraged attendance. Extra credit opportunities are available for attending students. John invited those present to discuss the possibilities with him.
Robert Costomiris reported that the General Program Committee is at work on initiating classes at the 1000 level. This has the potential to bring more students into the department. He welcomed suggestions for additional classes.
Doug Thomson reported on the number of new graduate students and the possibility of seeing graduate students in some of the classes.
Bill Eaton discussed the upcoming Open House in November. He asked for suggestions about the presentations for each of the majors.
Robert Costomiris requested that all present peruse the slips in the book (provided by Blackwell) in the office and recommend books for purchase by the library. If there is no in put, Robert will continue to select the books he deems appropriate.
Tom Lloyd reported on the Major Program Committee.
Gautam Kundu reported the progress of the Post-Colonial Conference Committee for Candy Schille. Emory, Spellman, and Furman have expressed interest in sharing the expense of the Conference. Emory and Spellman have made commitments. The conference will be held in February in Savannah.
Tomasz Warchol led a discussion on the status of the Scholarship and Awards Committee. He suggested the department find new ways of encouraging students to apply for available scholarships and awards. It was suggested that faculty submit names for consideration instead of relying on the students to apply.
There was some discussion on the “best paper” award. The award depends upon available funding. More to come on this.
Julia Griffin announced that the elimination of point three in the Vision Statement requires the rewriting of the entire document. That may be resumed in the near future, but it may be completely discarded.
Howard Keeley discussed the progress being made in preparation for A Day for Southern. He encouraged all department members to contribute. He will be making personal appeals for donations in the next few weeks. He asked that faculty members submit the names of possible donors to various programs.
New Business
Dr. David Dudley requested someone act as secretary for the faculty meetings. Deborah Hill volunteered.
The department report was made by Acting Chair, Dr. David Dudley.
The first item of new business was the discussion of the current searches: Philosophy, Religious Studies, and the Chair position. No advertisements have been called for as of yet. Ads have been created for the philosophy position and the Chair, but no ad has been written for the Religious Studies position yet. Dr. Dudley said he would search the files for the last advertisement.
Dean Hudak suggested that the Philosophy faculty be represented on the Chair search committee and recommended Ryan Drake as Maria is involved in other searches at the moment. Ryan agreed to participate on the committee.
Doug Thomson noted that the faculty handbook indicates that all advertisements for open positions be available to the faculty for review and recommendations. David asked Maria and Ryan to share the ads and said he would make the ad for the Religious Studies position available as well.
The second item of new business was the discussion of the SACS accreditation. David reported that reaccreditation is not in jeopardy, but there are three to four areas identified as needing improvement. Those areas are assessment, data compilation, the incorporation of garnered data, and the effective application of data to outcomes. David suggested that the University is about to undergo a “sea change.” Faculty will be asked to focus on learning outcomes. Faculty will be asked to reflect on why they ask students to do what they do and itemize expected outcomes. These reflections will be incorporated into new syllabi. Although teachers intuitively include these in lesson plans, they will be asked to specify, for the purpose of assessment, the specifics of each goal and outcome.
The report came back from SACS. The University was advised to eliminate repetitions—don’t change anything, just streamline the content. Dr. Dudley stated the SACS representative was confident the department is ok.
For the Department of Literature and Philosophy, changes to the syllabi will include goals, methods, and evaluation/assessment tools. David said, “What you have been doing is fine,” but he suggested faculty maximize the details.
A discussion, led by Robert Costomiris, ensued. Robert questioned the use of “jargon” in the syllabi as an effective means of measuring outcomes. The use of pre-tests and post-tests were discussed along with other means of measuring outcomes. David Robinson suggested ways of inputting and measuring data and made himself available to conduct a workshop for interested faculty.
Dr. Dudley reported that the capstone program must be recreated. The department must emphasize the freshman experience and student engagement. Student engagement correlates to retention and graduation rates.
In addition to retention, Dr. Dudley discussed the part of the department in aiding the successful completion of the Praxis test. He suggested the capstone course assessment may help prepare candidates for a positive outcome.
The third item of new business was Spring courses. David will send out the form via e-mail. The Faculty was requested to complete the form with preferences for Spring schedules, and help him insure the rotations are done correctly. The course requests must be in by September 2th.
The fourth item of new business was the staffing of the 2112 English class. David offered to do it himself in the absence of any volunteers. He and Gautam exchanged times of classes. Because he will be teaching two courses this semester, he will be exempt from teaching a course in the Spring.
The last item covered was about the way business will be conducted in the faculty meetings this year. Dr. Dudley informed the faculty that the way business is conducted may be changed, but it must be changed within the guidelines of the faculty handbook. Any changes must go through the Faculty Welfare Committee. If changes are made in the way business is conducted, it must be done according to manual guidelines.
Travel requests will be sent out in the next week. All requests for travel outside the country require the signature of President Grube.
Dr. Dudley closed the meeting by thanking the members of the faculty for their encouragement and help in making the transition to Acting Chair.
Dr. Dudley adjourned the meeting at 4:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Hill
Secretary
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March 4, 2005
Newton 2204
2:00–3:00 p.m.
Regrets: Cyr, Robinson, Schille, Whelan
The meeting minutes for 21 January 2004 were approved (by consensus).
Krajewski introduced Rebecca Holloway, the Department’s new Administrative Secretary. He also gave instruction on the new Eagle ID system. An update was provided on the Vision Statement, which will be the main topic of the department meeting in April. Krajewski reminded the department of Honor’s Day. He suggested that we remind our students that the last date for withdrawal without academic penalty is March 7.
Krajewski provided an update on the search for the dean of CLASS. He discussed summer contracts and the course offerings for the summer. Krajewski also informed the department that in Fall 2005 there will be fewer World Literature classes taught by members of the Department of Writing and Linguistics. The Department of Literature and Philosophy will be responsible for more sections. Krajewski will meet with department members regarding their Annual Evaluations after the spring break.
The Major Program Committee introduced alterations proposed by Griffin regarding two courses. The first involves changing the title of “Drama to Romanticism” (ENGL 5330) to “World Drama to Romanticism.” This proposal was approved (Griffin/Flynn). The second alteration regards “English Renaissance Poetry: Selected Subjects and Authors” (ENGL 5434). Griffin suggested that this class, which currently focuses on Donne and Milton, be expanded to cover two or more major poets or a poetic movement. This proposal will be revised and re-submitted to the faculty at a later date.
The General Program Committee introduced the idea of proposing three 1000-level literature courses—“Introduction to Fiction,” “Introduction to Poetry,” and “Introduction to Drama.” These classes will be designed for freshmen. These course proposals will be the topic of a future meeting.
Kundu gave an overview of the Postcolonial Conference. Costomiris discussed issues relating to the Library Committee. These include the possible elimination of access to some databases. He suggested that faculty members evaluate the book slips that are sent regularly to the department. Warchol reported that the Scholarship Committee has named a recipient for the Russell Scholarship and that there were no full applications for the Powell Scholarship.
After the general meeting there was a meeting for untenured members of the department.
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January 21, 2005 – Minutes of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Newton 1108
2:00–3:00 p.m.
Regrets: Adamos, Cyr, Dudley, Schille, Warchol
The meeting minutes for 19 November 2004 were approved (by consensus).
Krajewski gave an overview of the successful completion of the departmental searches for a position in Philosophy and another in Shakespeare. Krajewski provided updates on the university’s searches for a Provost and CLASS Dean, and on the department’s search for an Administrative Secretary. Krajewski informed the department that Goff will be leaving the department to take a position at Florida State.
A copy of the Memorandum of Understanding regarding the World Literature courses taught by members of the Department of Literature and Philosophy and the Department of Writing and Linguistics was circulated. Faculty members were informed that the maximum enrollment for World Literature sections will be reduced to 35. Krajewski informed the department that the interviews that are part of the annual evaluation process will take place in February, and that there will be merit pay in 2005-06.
Georgia Southern will be migrating to a new Eagle ID which will replace the university’s use of the social security number as an ID. Mandatory ‘awareness training’ will help explain the new Eagle ID to faculty and staff.
Schille will provide an update on the Post-Colonial Conference in February. Warchol has arranged a lecture by Dr. Marek Haltof, a premier European film scholar, on March 31. He will talk about Krzysztof Kieslowski and the New European Art Cinema.
The members of the Faculty Welfare Committee for Spring 2005 were announced: Griffin, Humma, Keeley, Kundu, Olsen, Schille, Town, Whelan. Krajewski explained that a Departmental Vision statement will have to be complied.
The meeting concluded with discussion led by the Graduate Committee on the official wording of the non-thesis option (approved by consensus).
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Friday, 19 November 2004 Minutes: Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
Newton 1108
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Regrets: Flynn, Goff, Parcels, Robinson (on leave), Schille, Thomson, Whelan
Krajewski explained that the Acting Dean would like to establish a Faculty Advisory Board, composed of one faculty member from each CLASS department. The faculty member needs to be elected by the department. Faculty members interested in serving should submit self-nominations by end of the day on 22 Nov. Matthew Goff will then conduct an e-mail election, based on those self-nominations. The Advisory Board will meet once this term, and regularly (every two or three weeks) in the Spring term.
The Chair reported that the Memorandum of Understanding regarding the teaching of World Literature sections is waiting to be finalized. A draft should be finalized by end of November, once the two Chairs and the Dean can meet.
Town announced changes in the College of Education’s secondary education programs. The dissolution of the BS.Ed. is underway for English. Students interested in teaching will be taking the B.A. in English, and will have the option of a fifth year of certification. American Literature surveys were required with the BS.Ed., but will not be in the new program. Dudley mentioned that he had heard that community colleges might also become involved in teacher certification.
Costomiris questioned the role of the Introduction to Literary Studies course, including the fact that seniors continue to be enrolled in what is designed to be an introduction to the rest of the major. Town explained that her experience with advising indicated that many students declare their majors late in their undergraduate careers, making it difficult to insist on ENGL 2131 as a prerequisite to the rest of the major. Several people commented on the question of whether it is desirable to forge a common syllabus for ENGL 2131, so that students have a uniform experience in the course, and also learn a set of skills agreed upon by all literature faculty. Lloyd indicated that the Major Program Committee is open to hearing more about the matter. Eaton suggested that research papers could be returned to students numerous times, until the citations, etc. were completed to the instructor’s satisfaction. Others pondered whether some kind of examination of a set of skills ought to be required of students prior to graduation as a way of ensuring that a certain skills have been achieved by ENGL majors. Keeley reported that he is working with Rebecca Ziegler in the Library on a course (for Spring ’05) that will involve the students directly with a librarian as the students work on their research skills. Keeley promised to report at end of Spring ’05 on the success of the experiment.
Dudley reported that SACS is likely to emphasize that all majors have some kind of capstone experience for students, and that in the absence of the Senior Seminar, done away with years ago, the department might need to think about the issue again. Dudley also proposed the idea of having a course for students that would address careers in English.
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Friday, 22 October 2004 Minutes: Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
Newton 1108
2:00-3:30 p.m.
Regrets: Dudley, Keeley, Parcels, Robinson (on leave)
The department approved the minutes of 17 September 2004 (Kundu/Thomson).
Opening announcements included an update on the Memorandum of Understanding, which will require another round of negotiations. The deadline for the promotion case written report was extended to Tuesday (Oct. 26). Krajewski suggested that the Philosophy and Shakespeare searches be accelerated due to the current budget climate.
Lloyd reported the Major Program Committee’s approval of a new RELS course, “Introduction to Old Testament.” This was unanimously approved by the department (Flynn/Schille).
The department discussed the language of the Non-Thesis Option proposed by the Graduate Committee. The faculty had several recommendations and queries. The proposed description of the Non-Thesis Option is to go back to the Graduate Committee for revisions. It will be submitted to the department at a later date.
Several committees gave progress reports. The Averitt Lectures Committee (Town) announced that this year’s lecturer will be Dr. Andrea Lunsford of Stanford University. Cinema Arts (Humma) reported on upcoming films. Phi Sigma Tau (Adamos) described efforts to boost undergraduate interest in Philosophy. Sigma Tau Delta (statement by Dudley, provided by Krajewski) described their regular meetings. The General Program Committee (Dudley) has not yet met. The Open House Committee (Town) described a visit to the Dare to Declare Major Fair. The Library Committee (Costomiris) discussed efforts to get an approval plan for books in Religious Studies. The Philosophy Faculty (Adamos) discussed efforts to increase the number of PHIL majors. The Post-Colonial Conference Committee (Schille) has not yet met. The Scholarships & Awards Committee (Warchol) reminded faculty to get students with top papers to submit them. The CLASS Dean’s Search Committee Representative (Adamos) requested feedback regarding questions to ask during the telephone interview stage of the search. – submitted by Matthew Goff.
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Friday, 17 September 2004 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting (draft)
Newton 1108
2 :00 to 3:30 p.m.
Regrets: Eaton, Kundu, Robinson (on leave)
The department approved the minutes of 23 April and 16 August 2004. Costomiris commented that the draft of the minutes of 12 August is incomplete, and does not include proposals that Cyr had brought to the Manual Revision Committee. Krajewski asked those who had notes from that meeting to provide them, in order to revise the draft of the minutes of 12 August for consideration at the October departmental meeting.
Motion (Schille/Cyr) that the department approve the complete version of the revised departmental Manual. Approved unanimously.
At the request of the GSU Foundation and the Dean’s Office, the department considered whether to allow the Woody Powell Scholarship and the Fielding Russell Scholarship to be used by the Foundation for recruiting freshmen. The department discussed the matter, and decided to maintain the scholarships at the junior and senior level, given, for instance, that the awards could then be given to students familiar to the faculty. Some people also noted that the scholarships might serve as an impetus for juniors and seniors to continue their studies at the graduate level. The discussion also moved to the topic of department’s efforts at recruiting new majors, and Town said that the Open House Committee would be happy to consider proposals and/or volunteers for continuing visits to local high schools.
The department discussed an effort to reaffirm an agreement made in 1997 between the Department of Literature & Philosophy and the Department of Writing and Linguistics about the teaching of World Literature. The consensus among the faculty was to invite the Dean to a future meeting, to continue the discussion, and to revivify the department’s original position at the meeting with the Dean.
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Monday, 16 August 2004 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
Newton 1108
1:00 to 2:45 p.m.
Regrets: Griffin, Olsen, Schille
1. The Chair welcomed everyone back for a new academic year, and introduced to the faculty the new Administrative Secretary, Judy Mcbride. McBride told the faculty members that she is prepared to help them in whatever ways she is able. The faculty applauded her presentation.
Announcements
1 . Krajewski reminded the faculty about the progress everyone had made on the discussion regarding the revision of the departmental Manual. The committee hopes to conclude the business of revising at the 17 September departmental meeting. Krajewski announced that the department would not be spending the year on procedural debates. Once the new Manual is approved, the idea is to spend the rest of the year observing how the revisions function.
3. The new budget is available, and is supposed to be the same as last year. Travel money has not increased. Given that, Krajewski encouraged faculty members to apply for Grants for Professional Travel that are due by 18 Sept.
4. The new photocopier is a boon, and with year-end funds down the road, the department might be able to purchase the stapler (a separate piece of equipment) for the photocopier. The Chair thanked faculty members for being frugal with their use of photocopying paper, and for finding alternative ways to give students course materials.
5. Drop/Add ends on 20 August at 3 p.m.
6. Attendance verification must be finished by noon on 24 August.
7. The department’s Open House for new majors takes place immediately after the meeting in the Conference Room, and the CLASS Convocation begins at 4 p.m. in the Russell Union Theatre.
8. Departmental Efficiency improved — FY03 (-16.50), FY04 (+18.46). The figures come from the National Study of Instruction Costs and Productivity. Those figures are provided by the University of Delaware.
9. During the coming academic year, the department will be asked to consider one promotion case, one post-tenure review, one third-year review, and one first-year review.
10. The Chair will meet with untenured faculty in October to discuss the policies and procedures, and to provide advice on achieving tenure and promotion.
11. The Administration approved two of the three searches requested by the department. The department will search for a tenure-track person in Philosophy, and for a specialist in Shakespeare. The department will continue to work on persuading the Administration to allow us to search for another tenure-track person in Philosophy.
12. The Chair showed some overheads about grades in courses offered by the department in 2003-04, including withdrawal rates. At a later date, faculty members should receive information about how each person’s grading fits into the departmental average. This is an exercise to provide information for faculty members.
13. Faculty members involved in summer teaching were encouraged to review the written comments on student evaluations, available in Ms. McBride’s office.
14. The department will hold a workshop in the near future about using the departmental server. Some faculty members were trained last year, but the hope is to bring more people on board.
15. As part of our preparation for SACS reaffirmation, the department has been asked to produce a Vision Statement. The Chair plans to give this new duty to the new committee that is likely to emerge from the revision of the departmental Manual.
16. Krajewski reminded everyone that it would be an anomalous year, given the number of new administrators (and administrators new to their jobs). He requested that people be patient, since it is improbable that the bureaucracy will move as rapidly as it did last year.
Visitors
Dr. Charlie Hardy and Dr. John Diebolt visited the department to discuss new developments in the College of Graduate Studies. Hardy and Diebolt spent about 45 minutes, including some time devoted to questions from the faculty about electronic theses, graduate assistantships, personnel changes in the College of Graduate Studies, etc.
Dr. Jane Rhoades Hudak, Acting Dean of CLASS, welcomed the faculty to a new academic year. She provided a brief overview of her plans for the coming year, including, as she said, an effort to be more accessible to faculty members
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Thursday, 12 August 2004 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting (draft)
Newton 1108
2 :00 to 3:00 p.m.
Regrets: Adamos, Goff, Kundu, Robinson
1. Krajewski welcomed the new faculty members for 2004-05, Howard Keeley and Len Olsen.
2. Krajewski turned the meeting over to Thomson, Chair of the Manual Revision Committee. The faculty members finished discussion of proposed revisions; once all revisions are made, the Manual will be presented to faculty for a vote on its acceptance.
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Friday, 23 April 2004 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
Newton 1108
3:00 to 3:40 p.m.
Regrets: Adamos (on leave), Gabriel, Paige, Town
1.The department applauded the Student Award Winners for 2004. The students accepted the acknowledgment, and then exited the meeting.
2. The minutes of the 26 March 2004 meeting were approved.
3. Krajewski reported that Dr. Charles Hardy, Acting Dean of the Graduate College, would be invited to attend a departmental meeting in the Fall, in order that he might answer some questions from the faculty about recent changes in the policies and procedures of the Graduate College (e.g. Graduate Faculty status, electronic theses).
4. Krajewski reported that Merit Pay for faculty members would be available for 2003-04, and that the amount of Merit Pay available for distribution would be approximately 2% of the salary lines for the department. Merit Pay is given on the basis of the annual evaluation.
5. The Dean’s Office has received a request for three tenure-track lines (two in Philosophy, one for a Shakespeare specialist), and the Dean has confirmed that the department will be able to keep the full-time Temporary lines it needs for the Philosophy program.
6. Thomson introduced the items that had emerged from the discussions of the Manual Revision Committee. (a) Motion (Parcels/Flynn) approved by the department that the following pages of the Manual be accepted as they stand, though some had previous minor revisions: Annual Evaluation Form; The B.A. Program in English; The M.A. Program and Information on Graduate Faculty Status; Graduate Assistants; Graduate Apprenticing; Priorities for Reassigned Time; New Courses; University Policies for Instructors; Form for Rescheduling Final Exams; Independent Study and Overrides; Travel Funds; and Copying.
(b) Motion (Flynn/Schille) approved that the departmental Manual include the pages from the CLASS Manual concerning Post-tenure Review.
(c) Motion (Parcels/Dudley) approved that the Summer Teaching Policy would be amended to say “only after courses have been approved at the Dean’s level will the Chair give out extra courses, these extra courses based on seniority of faculty.”
(d) Motion (Thomson/Costomiris) approved that the range of percentages listed for teaching, research, and service on the annual self-evaluation form be set at 10%-80% for each category. The final percentage for all three categories must come to 100% as usual.
(e) Motion (Cyr/Flynn) approved to change language in the “hiring” section of the Manual to “consistent with academic growth and development of faculty member,” and to move the language about collegiality to the introductory paragraph of the Tenure and Promotion section of the Manual.
Thomson thanked the Manual Revision Committee for its extensive labors, and indicated that a few matters still remained to be discussed in the Fall, before a final version of the Manual could be brought to the department.
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Friday, 26 March 2004 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
Newton 1108
3:00 to 3:40 p.m.
Regrets: Costomiris, Eaton, Gabrial, Griffin, Kundu, Paige, Parcels, Sanders, Warchol, Whelan
1. Krajewski reported that the Provost had attended the Dean’s Advisory Council meeting on the 25th to discuss the transition period in CLASS, as the College seeks an Acting Dean to fill in after Dean Conway-Turner steps down in June to take a Provost’s position at SUNY, Geneseo. The Provost said that he had received eight nominations for Acting Dean, six of which are names of faculty members within CLASS. The Provost indicated that he would make a decision by the end of the week of March 29th. The search for a permanent CLASS Dean will begin early in the Fall ’04 term, so that an offer might be extended to an applicant by end of December.
2. The deadline for applications for the Administrative Secretary’s position in the department is 26 March. Human Resources will screen the applicants, and then submit eligible files to Krajewski. When the field is narrowed after interviews, Krajewski will make the resumes of the finalists available for viewing in the main office.
3. Schille reported that the February Postcolonial Conference was a success, despite the absence of the keynote speaker, Rey Chow, who had difficulties with her documentation for traveling. Diana Abu-Jaber, a novelist, did a splendid job of filling in for the keynote speaker. Schille said that many of Abu-Jaber’s books were sold at the conference. Next year, at the suggestion of the American Association of Postcolonial Studies, Schille and the other members of the Postcolonial Conference Committee will be working with two other institutions in organizing the annual conference in Savannah. Emory University and Spelman College will assist with conference preparations. Attendance is expected to increase to 200-300 participants. The conference coordinators will also be working with the British Studies Museum of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Schille noted that the Committee members were hoping to bring Ursula LeGuin as the keynote speaker for next year’s conference.
4 . Town said that the Averitt Lecture Committee’s members were still accepting recommendations for the next lecture series. The Committee hopes to find a speaker who will be compelling for both the Literature & Philosophy faculty as well as the members of the Department of Writing & Linguistics. Town expressed an interest in increasing student involvement in the lecture series. Creative writers have been suggested as possible lecturers, and Town explained that such writers could easily adapt to the requirement of a scholarly presentation. Dudley reported that the editor at the University of Georgia Press has received the completed manuscripts from the two most recent Averitt Lecturers, Russ McDonald and Gerald Bruns. Those books should be on the Spring 2005 list of UGA Press books.
5. Krajewski reminded faculty members to begin arranging for colleagues to administer the student evaluations for all courses. The evaluations must be completed at least two weeks prior to the last day of classes, which is April 26.
6. The web site for indicating course preferences for the Spring 2005 semester will be available to faculty members before the end of the semester.
7. Next week, Krajewski will announce a presentation by a panel of faculty members who have had successful experiences with new technologies for the classroom. Those who have little or no experience with new technologies might be interested in hearing how others have made the transition.
8. The ongoing suggestions for curriculum changes from the Major Program Committee were not discussed, given that several key people for that discussion were absent. Schille suggested that the discussion might be conducted online, and several faculty members agreed with that suggestion. Krajewski will pass the recommendation on to the committee.
9. Thomson reported that the Manual Revision Committee has completed its work, and is now ready to receive feedback from other members of the department. In a few days, a copy of the draft of the revised Manual will be made available to all the faculty.
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Friday, 20 February 2004 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
Newton 1108
3:00 to 4:15 p.m.
Regrets: Adamos (on leave), Paige, Sanders, Schille
1. Proposed Film Minor – Department agreed to review a revised proposal for a Film Minor. Faculty from Communication Arts are willing to work on a proposal with us. Humma and Warchol will revise the document and bring it back to the department.
2. Promotion and Tenure workshop – The Dean’s Office will be holding a workshop on the topic in April. The Dean plans to discuss, among other things, streamlining the number of materials that people present for tenure and promotion.
3. Assessment Plan (SACS reaccreditation) – Krajewski distributed a draft of an assessment plan. Faculty members are encouraged to provide comments and suggestions about the draft. Part of the document includes announcement of an experimental initiative headed by Robinson. The assessment tool that Robinson is working on involves web-based “knowledge surveys.” Robinson explained the project to the faculty. He is looking for people to volunteer to participate in the project in the fall. Faculty members who are interested should contact Robinson, and he will arrange later this semester a meeting with interested parties.
4. Result of Irish Studies Search – The search has now concluded, and as soon as letters have gone out to all the applicants, the result will be posted here.
5. Retaining/recruiting majors – some faculty members have expressed anxiety about our majors leaving us for other departments. Krajewski reported that we have not had a flood of advisees changing majors. Town reported success with Open House Committee members visiting classes last fall. She is willing to speak to more classes to encourage students to choose the programs in our department. Faculty members should address requests for such visits to Town. Town will also approach the members of the Department of Writing and Linguistics to see whether they might be interested in reciprocal recruitment visits to Core classes. Eaton suggested that faculty watch out for bright students in introductory classes, and encourage those students to consider the ENGL or PHIL major. Krajewski reminded faculty that they have an opportunity to make a positive impression on students when they present the letters inviting selected students to register for Honors class for fall semester.
6. Major Program Committee item: Recommendation that “British Literature surveys be divided so that the first course ends with Milton, and the second course begins with the Restoration. Rationale: At present, Brit Lit I covers about 1,000 years of literature, and Brit Lit II covers only 220 years. Although both surveys cover a wealth of material, the present arrangement makes doing a good job in Brit Lit I almost impossible.” The department is not of one mind about the recommendation. Concerns arose about the unavailability of textbooks, were the change to take place. Town mentioned potential troubles with transfer credits, since Brit Lit I and II are fairly standard throughout the University System of Georgia. Faculty decided that the matter should be returned to the Major Program Committee, so that the Committee could hold an open meeting about the matter.
7. Second item from Major Program Committee: Recommendation that “students entering major must take the required British Literature/American Literature surveys concurrently with any upper-level electives in the major. Rationale: Students need to be exposed to the broad chronology of British/American literature early in the major program so that they will have the knowledge they need to make informed choices about the electives they take in the major.” Costomiris said that ENGL majors should take British and American literature surveys early on in the major. A prerequisite was suggested. Cyr indicated that a prerequisite would be too restrictive for students. Advisors could assist by urging majors to take survey courses early. Town and Thomson endorsed the idea of a co-requisite, not only for the surveys, but also for the Introduction to Literary Studies course. Faculty agreed that this item too would be sent back to the Major Program Committee, and would be discussed at an open meeting to be held in the coming weeks, preferably prior to Spring Break.
8. Report on upcoming Postcolonial Conference – In Schille’s absence, Kundu reminded faculty that the annual Postcolonial Conference is 27 and 28 February. He invited everyone to attend. The main speaker will be Rey Chow from Brown University. Faculty members can attend free, but the lunch will cost $7. SCAD is collaborating with the organizing committee on an open mike event during the conference.
9. Report from Scholarship Committee – Warchol encouraged faculty members to make students aware of the available scholarships as well as the essay prizes. The deadline for entries is on the horizon.
10. Parcels announced that a leading talk show host in Saudi Arabia will be giving a talk on March 3 at 4 p.m. in Russell Union, Room 2080. The talk is entitled “Contemporary Social Issues in Saudi Arabia.”
11. Report on change in administrative support – Krajewski announced that VanLandingham’s last day in the department would be 27 February, because she is taking a post in another unit that will result in her receiving a pay raise and promotion. Faculty members conveyed their congratulations about her success, and expressed regret about her departure from the department.
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Friday, 21 November 2003 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
Nessmith-Lane Building 2903
3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Regrets: Dudley, Flynn, Goff, Griffin, Lloyd, Sanders, Schille, Thomson, Town, Whelan
1. Presentation by Director of McNair Scholars Program, Mary Woods. Program materials are available in the main office.
2. Business: Philosophy Faculty Committee proposed a new course at the 4000-level, Philosophy of Emotions. Moved (Parcels/Robinson). Approved.
3. Announcements:
Faculty paychecks will be distributed on special days, due to the upcoming holidays. The November checks will be available on 26 Nov., and the December checks on the 12th.
The next Web Training Workshop is Friday, 5 December from 2:00-3:30 in Newton 2210. The workshop is open to those who could not attend the first one. Please let Ms. VanLandingham know whether you plan to attend, and bring a diskette with you to the workshop. The plan for the December 5 workshop is to have some version of one of your Spring syllabi posted on the Internet.
Faculty who agree to participate to march in December’s graduation are asked to remind themselves of the time and the location of Fall Commencement.
Please remind students about the times and dates of your final examinations. If they have more than a few final examinations on the same day, the University has a policy to deal with those situations. If students present other reasons for missing the final examination, the faculty member and the student need to fill out a form that is available in the main office. The form lists the legitimate reasons for a make-up examination.
By the end of Fall semester, the Chair will send out the information about the 2003 self-evaluations that will be due in mid-January.
The University is developing a new mission statement, quite different from the previous one. Faculty members still have an opportunity to offer comments and suggestions on the current draft. Responses should be addressed to: iroffice@georgiasouthern.edu.
The new Summer Study Abroad Salary Model has been approved.
72 – 86 student credit hours = 9% pay
57 – 71 student credit hours = 7% pay
42 – 56 student credit hours = 5% pay
27 – 41 student credit hours = 3% pay
All study abroad programs must be approved by Nancy Shumaker, Director of International Studies.
*This plan provides remuneration for one faculty member. No faculty will be paid more than 9% for study abroad trips in any given year without the permission of the Provost. Faculty offering programs generating more than 86 student credit hours may request additional compensation as deemed appropriate by Dr. Shumaker.
An induction ceremony for new members of Phi Sigma Tau, the Philosophy Honors Society, will take place Monday, 24 Nov. from 5:00-6:00 p.m. in Nessmith-Lane 2903. Faculty are encouraged to attend to show their support for students. Refreshments will be served.
In order to keep budget costs down, faculty members are asked to attend to windows and thermostats when they leave classes in the Newton classroom building. Please make sure windows are closed when you leave, and that thermostats are left somewhere near the center of the range of settings.
Tomasz Warchol encouraged faculty members to keep an eye out for outstanding essays submitted at end of Fall term, and to encourage students with such essays to submit them for the various essay prizes. Faculty members should check the web site (Scholarships) to see the criteria for the prizes.
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Friday, 24 October 2003 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
Nessmith-Lane Building 2903
3:00 to 4:30 p.m.
Regrets: Adamos, Costomiris, Griffin, Kundu, Paige, Sanders, Schille
1. Announcements:
The next in-house web workshop will be scheduled in November, after Computer Services has had a chance to upgrade some faculty members’ computers to Windows 2000.
David Dudley and Dale Purvis have served admirably for years on the Averitt Lecture Committee, and are now ready to step down and allow others to take on the task. The department will need two people as replacements on the Committee, so that the Committee will consist of two representatives of the Department of Writing & Linguistics and two from Literature & Philosophy. Faculty members who would like to volunteer to serve on the Averitt Lecture Committee should contact the Chair.
The Earle Newton Center for British-American Studies at Savannah College of Art and Design is having an art exhibition of interest to our department. The Chair will place in everyone’s mailbox the details about the exhibition.
Three faculty members will be giving presentations the week of 27 Oct. Merigala Gabriel will give a talk entitled “Ghandi’s Interpretation of Humility and Truth” on Oct. 29 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. in Newton 1113. This talk is part of the Religious Studies Forum. Matthew Goff will speak about “The Apocalyptic Tradition in Christianity and Islam” at 4 p.m. on the 29th in the Russell Union, Room 2080. Richard Flynn will deliver a lecture, “Consolation Prize: Why Children’s Poetry is Merely Funny, Therapeutic, or Utilitarian, and What We Might Do to Save It,” at 7 p.m. on 30 Oct. in the Auditorium of the Nessmith-Lane Building. A reception precedes the talk. The reception begins at 6:15.
The Chair will hold an informational session for untenured faculty about tenure and promotion procedures. The session will be scheduled sometime in November.
Reports:
Dudley reported that the recent Averitt Lecture Series with Professor Gerald Bruns was a success. Dudley thanked the faculty and office staff for their efforts, and he mentioned some of the possible changes that could take place with the Series in the coming years. Dudley has agreed to work with new Averitt Lecture Committee members in an effort to smooth the path for the new members.
Cyr reminded everyone of the 13th Annual British Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies Conference that will take place in Savannah on February 27 & 28, 2004. The Committee has received many excellent submissions, and the organizers are looking forward to an exciting conference. Professor Rey Chow of Brown University will be the featured speaker.
Business:
The Chair requested that the faculty offer some suggestions about the budget cuts that will be made to meet Georgia Southern’s anticipated 5% reduction in funding for the coming year. Parcels mentioned that simply turning off unnecessary lights might save the University a considerable sums. Parcels mentioned specifically the large banks of bright lights kept burning at night on the athletic fields by the RAC. In addition to those, about half the lights in the various parking lots could go off late at night (rather than burning all night long), without compromising security. Robinson suggested that some faculty members might not need automatic upgrades of their computers, and that the savings in year-end monies might be devoted to more pressing concerns. The Chair wanted to know what the faculty members thought the department’s position ought to be, should the department be asked to give up travel money or possibly tenure-track lines. While some faculty members indicated a willingness to sacrifice travel money should that be an option to save faculty lines, others said that travel money is crucial to faculty development, and, in the absence of regular raises, travel funds become increasingly important.
In preparation for SACS reaccreditation, a review of all Core classes is underway. Various departmental committees have been given documentation, so that those committees can review, for instance, the stated outcomes for courses that were spelled out at the time of semester conversion.
Thomson provided the department with an update of the work of the Departmental Manual Revision. The Committee is moving toward providing the department with a document that will include a complete set of suggested revisions. The department can then discuss those suggested revisions. Thomson told faculty members that he and the other members of the Committee continue to welcome suggestions from faculty. Moved (Thomson/Parcels) that the following pages be deleted from the Manual: the Faculty directory (1), Requirements for the English Major (17), Standing committees (24), Information on the Writing Program (26-27), and Independent Study (33). Motion approved.
At the request of the Dean, the department discussed the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Annual Evaluation Form. That Committee has recommended that the five categories of the evaluation be labeled as follows: Unacceptable, Needs Improvement, Fully Acceptable, Exceeds Expectations, and Exceptional. The consensus was that the new labeling is “fully acceptable.”
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Friday, 12 September 2003 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
Nessmith-Lane Building 2903
3:00 to 4:30 p.m.
Regrets: Dudley, Humma, Lloyd, Parcels, Thomson, Whelan
1. Announcement : Two in-house web workshops will be scheduled for the Fall semester. The first will be an introduction to the Drag-and-Drop Local Web Service. At the end of that first workshop, participants will have a customized page that can be accessed via the local server. The second workshop will deal with creating HTML documents using easy tools such as Word, WordPerfect, and Netscape Composer. In the Spring term, one workshop will deal with enriching classes with the Internet, and will include short presentations by those who have used WebCT, and non-WebCT software. The second Spring term workshop would address a topic suggested by the participants in the earlier workshops.
2. The guest for the meeting was Dr. Ed Baynes from Judicial Affairs, who made a presentation about the policies related to academic dishonesty. He also responded to numerous questions from the faculty on the topic. He encouraged faculty members to contact him, if people would like to see alterations in the policies currently followed by the Judicial Board.
3 . Caren Town reported on an Open House Committee project. The members of the Committee would like to visit Core classes in both ENGL and PHIL in order to build interest in the ENGL and PHIL majors.
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Monday, 18 August 2003 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
Nessmith-Lane Building 2903
10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Regrets: Cyr, Schille, Whelan
Announcements
1. The Chair welcomed the faculty back to another academic year.
2. Introduction – Bill Eaton, new Full-time Temporary Faculty member in Philosophy.
3. Hiring – The department will be advertising for an Assistant/Associate Professor of Irish Studies, who will also function as Director of Center for Irish Studies. The Chair reported that very few searches were approved in the College. If budgets remain stable, the department should be able to begin searching for a Shakespeare specialist as well as for two tenure-track philosophy positions in Fall 2004.
Shakespeare
4. Departmental budget – the departmental budget has decreased slightly, though with help from the Dean’s Office, the travel budget has been reduced only slightly. Those who need money for guest speakers or other events should be aware that a special form exists for requesting money from Dean’s Office. It can be accessed at https://cah.georgiasouthern.edu/literature/fund.pdf.
5. The Chair reiterated that, unless the number of ENGL majors increases dramatically int he coming years, the department can anticipate a constriction of literature faculty, given that we have several faculty members with expertise in modern British and American literature. In response, faculty members suggested that the Chair seek to clarify with the administration that individual faculty members have multiple specialties that cannot easily be filled by other members of the department.
6. The Chair conveyed the data from the latest Efficiency Report (FY ’03).
7. New semester—office hours, syllabi and course descriptions (SACS), travel authorization forms. Faculty members are to turn in their planned travel requests by month’s end.
8. Ms. VanLandingham has created a web page that contains forms and helpful information for faculty. The page can be accessed from the front page of the web site.
9. The Chair reminded faculty about student attendance verification, including students with thesis hours.
10. Date for withdrawal from courses without academic penalty – October 14
11. The department has been working with IT Services in connection with workshops about web pages. The department will sponsor a few workshops in the coming months to make things as easy as possible for faculty members to post information on the Internet. The first workshop will be held by the end of September.
12. Georgia Southern’s domain name change takes place gradually over the course of the coming academic year. The new domain name will be GeorgiaSouthern.edu. Faculty members should begin informing others outside of Georgia Southern about the change.
13. Spring ’04 course preferences due by end of week. The Summer ’04 preferences page will be available shortly after everyone has turned in Spring ’04 preferences.
14. Enrollment strategy successful for Fall ’03, with only one course cancelled due to low enrollment.
15. Evidence of reassigned time for research in Spring ’03 due 1 October
16. Task Force on Student Retention – the Chair copied for the faculty some of the recommendations from the Task Force.
17. The Chair reported the date and times for the departmental Open House for new majors, and the CLASS Convocation, at which David Dudley is scheduled to be the main speaker.
18. Event Announcements: Dudley reported that things are moving according to schedule for the Averitt Lectures, and provided some information about this year’s lecturer, Prof. Gerald Bruns from Notre Dame. Gautam Kundu informed the faculty that the annual Postcolonial Conference will again be held in Savannah in February, and that the conference organizers are pleased to have Rey Chow of Brown University as the featured speaker. John Humma announced some of the films upcoming in the Cinema Arts schedule, and told faculty members that extra copies of the schedule would be available in the mailroom. The Chair reminded everyone about the Fries Lecturer for this year, Mark Mathabane. The Chair conveyed the sketchy information available about a possible new elevator for Newton. As part of the University’s efforts to become compliant with the American Disabilities Act, the plan is to build a new elevator for Newton, and to have automatic doors installed on the first floor of the classroom side of Newton as well as the office side of the building. Gautam Kundu told the faculty members about Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, Associate Professor of Religion at Emory University, who will give a talk on Oct. 14 from 4-5 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Nessmith-Lane Continuing Education Building. The talk is sponsored by CLEC, the Department of Literature & Philosophy, and the History Department. Richard Flynn encouraged faculty to support “An Afternoon of the Arts,” a CLASS-sponsored fundraiser on 19 October. John Parcels reminded faculty about the Day for Southern Campaign. Parcels is the representative for the department for that event, and told faculty to leave their envelopes in his mailbox, even if people did not wish to make a contribution. He needs the envelopes for recordkeeping. Fred Sanders reported that the Center for Irish Studies would be sponsoring two events, one a poetry reading in mid-October by Kerry Hardy, and the other a musical performance on 1 Oct. by Laura Risk and Paddy League.
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4 April 2003 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
3:00-4:15 in Newton 1108
Regrets: Adamos, Cyr, Dudley, Gabriel, Goff, Olsen, Parcels, Robinson.
Announcements:
From the Chair–Student evaluations need to be completed by 14 April. Commencement is 3 May, and all faculty members are expected to attend (except, of course, those who have medical reasons for being absent). Please remind students of the date of final examinations for each course.
Business:
Fred Sanders reported on a recommendation from the Major Program Committee that the catalog number for Women and Literature (ENGL/WGST 2335) be changed to a 3000 number. The motion (Sanders/Town) was approved.
Sanders also announced that a general meeting will be held at 3:00 p.m. on 11 April to discuss a proposal about altering the division of the British Literature surveys, so that the Restoration-Eighteenth Century literature section of British Literature I (ENGL 3121) would move to British Literature II (ENGL 3122). Sanders will inform the department about the particulars of the upcoming meeting on this topic.
Doug Thomson presented a new version of the Guidelines for the MA. Thesis. Motion (Thomson/Kundu) to approve the Guidelines passed unanimously.
GUIDELINES: THE MASTER’S THESIS
1. Students who choose the thesis option are encouraged to begin thinking about and researching possible topics during the first year of study. (A student who does not have a strong idea for a thesis topic by the end of the first year of study should begin seriously to consider the non-thesis option.) Before the beginning of the second year of study (or at some point after the completion of 18 credit hours), the student who chooses the thesis option asks a professor to direct the thesis. The subject matter of the thesis should be within the professor’s field(s) of expertise. The professor and the student should discuss the significance and originality of the thesis topic, and at the beginning of the second year of full-time study (or after the completion of 18 credit hours) the student submits a prospectus to the thesis committee for approval. The prospectus will then be forwarded to the Department Chair for approval. A copy will also go to the Graduate Office (for information and not screening). In consideration of the tight schedule outlined below (see #4), students are urged to complete at least 3 thesis hours before the semester in which they plan to finish and defend the thesis. During the first term of taking 3 thesis hours the student will make substantial progress on the thesis in order to be able to complete the thesis in time to submit it by the deadline of the term when the student plans to graduate.
2. With an eye on the deadlines, the student and director devise a time-table for completion of the thesis.
3. The student should seek feedback and criticism from the director as the thesis progresses. A good idea would be for the student to submit each chapter as it becomes completed, and the professor should meet within a week to discuss the marked draft with the student. The director and student will work around occasional delays necessitated by other commitments of the director.
4. The student should consult and follow this timetable for the thesis process. The dates are geared to the deadline for the “Final Review of Thesis and Dissertation by College of Graduate Studies”* specified each term in the Graduate Catalog. The specific dates for each semester will be posted on the Department’s graduate web page at https://cah.georgiasouthern.edu/literature /graduate.htm.
8 weeks before the “Final Review”: last possible date to submit completed draft of thesis to the director. When the draft thesis has been completed and the director has found it generally satisfactory (the student and director may meet several times before this happens), then and only then is it ready to be sent on to the other committee members (readers). By this point the draft must be free of all surface and grammatical errors.
6 weeks before the “Final Review”: last possible date for the director to submit the thesis to the main office, which distributes it to the readers. The readers must be allowed at least two weeks to critique and return the thesis to the major professor, who will then sit down with the student to discuss the called-for changes, or suggestions for revision. These may be substantive or minor. The student will make the revisions. When these are completed, the director and student will meet again to discuss whether they have been satisfactorily implemented.
3 weeks before “Final Review”: The director submits the thesis to the main office of the Literature and Philosophy Department. The main office distributes copies of the thesis to the other readers and schedules a date for the defense (orals) that is agreeable to all parties.
1 week before “Final Review”: final date for the defense of the thesis. The committee may find it necessary for the student to make further but probably non-substantive changes.
6. Having followed carefully the guidelines in the “Master’s Thesis Guidelines” manual, the student submits the approved and defended thesis to the College of Graduate Studies, with title page and signatures of the thesis committee.
7. Once the thesis has been approved by The Graduate College, the thesis will be bound and delivered to the Graduate School, library, and major professor.
*The “Final Review of Thesis and Dissertation by College of Graduate Studies” should not be confused with the “Deadline to submit final Thesis and Dissertation copies for binding to College of Graduate Studies,” which generally occurs ten days later.
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21 February 2003 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
3:00-4:00 in Newton 1108
Regrets: Dudley, Gabriel, Kundu (on leave), Lloyd, Olsen, Parcels, Schille, Thomson.
Announcements:
From the Chair–Leaves of absence, paid or unpaid, are no longer as easy to obtain, given budgetary reductions. The College may not have the funds to pay Full-Time Temporary or Part-Time Faculty to fill in for faculty members who want to go on leave. Faculty members should be aware that requests for an unpaid leave of absence must be approved by the Administration, and the inability to provide a replacement will likely be a factor in such requests.
Summer and Fall ’03 schedules are now posted on the departmental web site. Some minor changes are still being made. Book orders for Summer ’03 classes are due 1 March, and 15 March for Fall ’03 classes. The Bookstore has a new procedure for online ordering that includes faculty registration.
Annual evaluations will likely begin before Spring Break. Beginning the week of 3 March, faculty members can begin arranging half-hour appointments with the Chair. The Chair will do his best to provide to each faculty member a copy of the evaluation prior to the appointment.
Faculty members with graduate assistants are asked to consult again the policies governing the work that graduate students are authorized to do, such as grading tests and essays. The departmental goal is to ensure that all graduate assistants are doing work that conforms to those policies.
Robert Sullivan, a lawyer from Statesboro, will be on campus 26 February to tell students about the value of English and Philosophy courses to success in law school.
David Sullivan, a philosophy professor from Colorado, will be on campus 6 March to present a talk about Walter Benjamin.
Marc Cyr reported that preparations are set for the annual Postcolonial Conference that takes place 28 February and 1 March at the Coastal Georgia Center in Savannah. The guest speaker will be Romesh Gunesekera.
Maria Adamos reported on the work of a faculty group that has established a Pre-Law Advisement Center. The details about the Center will be reported in the next CLASS Newsletter. Adamos said that she would investigate the possibility of including Literature faculty in the group that works with the Center.,
Matthew Goff announced a talk by Merigala Gabriel on 3 March at noon. The topic will be “Is Mukti (liberation) the Ultimate Human Destiny?: A Hindu Perspective with Special Reference to Swami Vivekananda.”
Business:
The department discussed the revisions to the M.A. Thesis Guidelines. John Humma will convey to Doug Thomson the faculty’s suggestions, and Thomson will bring the Guidelines back to the department at the next meeting.
Discussion:
The department discussed the merits of a streamlined version of the ENGL curriculum. Tim Whelan explained that a number of other English Departments in the University System had moved to a plan of fewer courses with more general, comprehensive course titles. Faculty members expressed interest in the idea, but suggested that wholesale changes might be ill-advised prior to SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) accreditation. Faculty members would like to hear more about the experience of departments elsewhere in the state that have adopted sweeping course titles.
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31 January 2003 Minutes of the Departmental Meeting
3:00-4:10 in Newton 1108
Regrets: Cyr, Flynn, Kundu (on leave), Schille
Krajewski told the faculty members about budget cuts. Reductions to funding in higher education are taking place nationally. Georgia Southern’s budgetary problems are not entirely local. Besides the possible reductions to travel budgets, summer scheduling will also be affected. The Summer ’03 schedule has not received the Dean’s final approval. As of 31 January, the summer schedule is in round two, a version that includes reductions resulting from instructions from the Dean’s Office, so that each person who requested summer teaching has but one course. If possible, Krajewski will work to obtain two courses for those who requested them, especially those nearing retirement.
Reports
Averitt Lectures
David Dudley reported that Gerald Bruns from the University of Notre Dame will be the guest speaker this year. The lectures will return to their usual October date.
Cinema Arts
John Humma said that the first film was a success, and that flyers about upcoming films are available.
General Program Committee
Julia Griffin reported that the Committee plans to meet soon.
Graduate Committee
Doug Thomson said that the Committee had been discussing the new written requirement on the GRE. He also indicated that the Committee would bring back the Thesis Guidelines, so that the department could vote at the next meeting. He also plans to introduce the possibility of a Special Topics course at the graduate level.
Open House Committee
Caren Town reported that the Committee is prepared for the next Open House later this month. She encouraged faculty members to submit any items that they wish to be displayed at the Open House.
Library Committee
Tim Whelan said that faculty members need to finish up their book requests. Shortly he must submit the list of proposed books to the Library. Faculty members can still make their book selections from the forms in the box in the main office.
Major Program Committee
Fred Sanders said that the Committee will consider two proposals at its next meeting, one about changing the level of the Women and Literature course, the other about altering the historical range of the British Literature survey classes.
Philosophy Faculty
John Parcels reported that the Philosophy Faculty will be meeting soon, partly to discuss the guest speaker, David Sullivan, who will be coming in March.
Scholarships and Awards Committee
The Committee has opted to extend until 28 February the deadline for the various Best Essay contests. Faculty members are encouraged to bring this news to students. New flyers will go up shortly advertising the extension.
Discussion
The department discussed the positive and negative aspects of double sections of Core classes. The consensus is that the department wishes to continue to allow faculty members the option of teaching double sections.
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10 January 2003 Minutes of Departmental Meeting
3:00-4:30 in Newton 1108
Regrets: Dudley, Kundu (on leave), Lloyd, Parcels, Robinson, Warchol.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Krajewski welcomed the faculty back from its holiday break. Faculty members are asked to turn in their office hours to the main office, as well as to post those hours on their office doors, so that students could know when the faculty members will be available.
For those who were on trips (over the break) that are to be subsidized with departmental travel funds, the reimbursement forms should be turned in along with the boarding passes for plane travel.
With the demise of the second photocopier, the department has only the Konica photocopier, which will not be replaced, should it decline into a state beyond repair. At present, a new photocopier is a dream for better budget years. In light of that context, Krajewski encouraged faculty members to make use of WebCT for the posting of syllabi, course descriptions, readings, etc.
Annual self-evaluations are due on 17 January.
Course preferences for Fall ’03 are also due on 17 January.
Student attendance verification must be completed by 5 p.m., Tuesday, 14 January.
On January 27 (12:00-1:30 in the Dean’s conference room), the Dean and Nancy Shumaker will be having an open meeting about a new semester abroad program in Mexico. Interested faculty members should attend and present their ideas and suggestions.
The two third-year review cases will take place at the departmental level during February.
The Dean has announced that compensation for IDS 2210 will be changing, starting this summer. Krajewski will forward details about the new compensation plan, once those are available.
BUSINESS
Graduate Committee: Thomson presented a motion (Moved:Thomson/Seconded:Town) to truncate the Catalogue copy for the M.A. Program. Under the section of “Electives” in that copy, the new version will indicate that students may take up to two classes outside of the department. If the student opts to take two graduate courses outside the department, the two cannot be from the same department. Approved.
Thomson also presented a set of new guidelines for the Master’s Thesis process. The department discussed the draft, and a revised version will be considered at a future departmental meeting.
Major Program Committee: Sanders provided background information on a motion (Moved:Sanders/Seconded: Cyr) to reconfigure the British Drama course to make the design and scope of the course more manageable. The department approved the following description:
ENGL 5xxx: Studies in English Drama. Topics to be announced. Dramatic literature will be selected from the beginnings of English drama through Shaw, excluding Shakespeare. Courses may focus on particular periods, themes, genres, or authors. Course can be repeated.
The faculty members interested in teaching the English Drama course will submit their names to the Chair, so that regular meetings can be arranged to plan schedules, and to assure that the department has necessary coverage in this field.
As part of the Major Program Committee’s recent deliberations, Whelan has suggested that the department consider a new method of organizing the literature curriculum, a method that is in use at several other universities in the University System of Georgia. The department engaged in a preliminary discussion of the option. A departmental meeting later in the term will be devoted to this topic.
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15 November 2002 Minutes of Departmental Meeting
3:00-4:30 in Newton 1108
Regrets: Adamos, Costomiris, Cyr, Flynn, Griffin, Kundu, Lloyd, Paige, Sanders, Schille, Smith.
The faculty met to discuss ideas about improving teaching within the department, and people presented a number of valuable suggestions and ideas. These have been incorporated into a web page (“Teaching Page”). The faculty members decided that the department should take up, at a future meeting, the topic of double sections. Some faculty members like teaching those sections, and others feel that the department needs to rethink the value of having sections with so many students.
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25 October 2002 Minutes of Departmental Meeting
3:00-4:30 in Newton 1108
Regrets: Dudley, Goff, Olsen.
Denise Battles and Barry Joyner were guests of the department, and made a presentation about the work of the Task Force on Faculty Roles and Rewards. Faculty members asked questions after the presentation. The Task Force will be making recommendations about models for faculty assignments, and they hope that the recommendations might be worked into the Strategic Plan. The final results of the work of the Task Force are over a year away, according to Battles and Joyner. Battles encouraged faculty members to contact Jane Rhoades Hudak with suggestions and comments about the Task Force. Jane Rhoades Hudak is the CLASS Representative for the Task Force.
Business: Lloyd presented a motion (Moved: Whelan/Seconded: Robinson) to adopt the departmental version of the External Review Policy. Some minor changes in wording were suggested, and the document was approved unanimously.
EXTERNAL PEER REVIEW OF SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY
General policy:
External reviews of published scholarly work will be required for promotion to the rank of professor. The department chair will add these reviews to the dossier of materials prepared and submitted by the applicant.
Procedures:
1. The process of external review will be initiated by the faculty member, who will compile a list of four potential reviewers and meet with the department chair on or before March 1 of the academic year prior to the promotion review to discuss this list. At or prior to this meeting he or she should provide a letter of intent to stand for promotion to professor and the addresses of the proposed reviewers. The proposed external reviewers should be specialists in one or more of the candidate’s fields of publication, which the candidate will verify in the form of publication lists or vitae. The Chair may reject one or more names on the list if referees do not meet minimum standards for expertise in the relevant field(s); it will be the candidate’s responsibility to provide substitutes.
2. The Chair will choose two reviewers from the candidate’s list and contact them by letter or email on or before April 1 of the academic year prior to consideration for promotion.
3. If a reviewer declines to evaluate the faculty member’s scholarship, the Chair will contact other people on the list, if necessary scheduling another meeting with the candidate to add additional names. The Chair will keep the faculty member informed about progress in procuring two reviewers.
4. The letter to potential reviewers will include the following:
– The name of the candidate, his or her discipline, and area(s) of scholarly activity, and the rank being sought.
– Brief general information about the nature and mission of Georgia Southern University; mention should be made of the typical teaching load including the ratio of core to major and graduate courses.
– A request that the reviewer comment on the candidate’s scholarly accomplishments in the context of his field and evaluate his or her potential for future development. Included will be the department’s statement about promotion criteria for scholarship: “Academic achievement in the form of significant publication, such as a book or articles in refereed journals, is increasingly the major criterion in the
promotion of candidates to the ranks of Associate and Full Professor. For promotion to . . . Full, substantial and continuing scholarship.”
– The letter should not solicit comments about teaching or service or a recommendation for or against promotion to professor.
– A deadline of September 1 to submit the completed evaluation to the chair.
– A statement that the evaluation will be shared with the candidate, who will have the option of responding to it with the promotion application.
– A request to accept or decline a review of the candidate’s scholarship within two weeks of receipt of the communication.
5. The candidate will prepare packets of publications, which the chair will send to the reviewers. The department will provide the costs of procuring or copying those publications.
6. The candidate will have access to the reviewers’ letters on or after September 15 and will have 14 days to respond to one or both in writing. The reviewers’ names will be removed from the copies of the letter before the candidate has access to them. The candidate may place any written responses to the reviewers’ letters in his or her application along with the reviews.
7. If a reviewer fails to submit a candidate review by the September 1 deadline the Chair will write or email the reviewer to request an immediate submission. A reviewer’s complete failure to submit an agreed upon review will not prejudice nor delay the candidate’s application for promotion. The Chair will place a letter in the candidate’s promotion file explaining the absence of the review.
8. After the review is completed the chair should send a letter of thanks to each reviewer.
Krajewski concluded the meeting with the suggestion that the department consider hosting an event in the Fall of 2003 that could serve as a way to honor successful students in our classes, as well as provide them with further information about the department’s faculty members, about the curriculum, and about job opportunities for both English and Philosophy majors and minors.
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20 September 2002 Minutes of Departmental Meeting (Approval pending)
3:00-4:30 in Newton 1108
Regrets: Dudley, Kundu, Paige, Thomson.
Announcement: Krajewski reminded faculty members that the standard categories for evaluation in tenure and/or promotion cases (teaching, scholarship/creative activity, and service) must all be judged as good by the various bodies that review the cases. Outstanding performance in one category does not compensate for a lack in some other category.
Business: The faculty members discussed the draft of the Annual Faculty Evaluation Guidelines. The draft had been distributed by the Dean’s Office on 30 August 2002. In response to faculty concerns about a five-category system for annual evaluations, three categories have been suggested. The Dean has asked each department in CLASS to discuss the possible merits of a three-category annual evaluation form, as well as to discuss the wording that attempts to define the criteria for each category.
The department’s view is that the five-category form accomplishes what faculty members want. The majority of faculty members do not wish to move to a three-category form for evaluation. However, if the consensus in the College is that we all move to a three-category form, the department has numerous specific suggestions for improving the wording of the draft. Furthermore, should the College opt to continue with the present annual evaluation form, the faculty members hope that the criteria for that form, currently in the CLASS Policy Manual, might be refined in the near future. The faculty members have asked the Chair to convey the particulars of the meeting to the Dean, and to report back to the department when information is available about a College-wide view of the proposed change in the annual evaluation form.
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15 August 2002 Minutes of Departmental Meeting (Approval pending)
3:00-4:30 in Newton 1108
Regrets: Smith, Whelan.
Introduction of new faculty members, Dr. Merigala Gabriel (Philosophy), and Len Olsen (Philosophy).
Dr. Martha Abell, Director of the University Honors Program and the Bell Honors Program, visited to explain the contract forms that some Honors students might bring to Literature & Philosophy faculty members. She also provided information about UHP’s desire for particular Honors courses within the department. Dr. Abell reported on changes with the UHP staff, and on the move of the main UHP office to another cottage on the west side of campus.
Krajewski told the faculty that he might be less available than usual this academic year, due to several factors. To assist the Philosophy faculty, he will be teaching a PHIL class in the fall. He has been asked by the Dean to chair the Search Committee for the head of the Communication Arts Department. The standard fourth-year review of chairs will take place in Literature and Philosophy this year, and that review is more thorough than the annual review, and will involve the Dean soliciting information from the faculty.
The “smart” classroom, Newton 2206, is now ready for use. Through the same Technology Fee Proposal, the department received a portable laptop computer and portable computer projector, so that faculty members can use similar equipment in non-“smart” classrooms. A workshop to train people to use the “smart” classroom has been scheduled for 19 August at 2 p.m.
The departmental budget has, once again, not seen any increase. The travel budget has been cut, but Krajewski indicated that cut should not result in a hardship for the department. The increase in postage over the summer will have an impact on the budget. Krajewski asked faculty members to do what they could to help keep operating expenses to a minimum, including exploring alternatives to photocopying class materials.
Travel authorization forms were distributed. Faculty members should turn those in by month’s end, in order for the chair to determine how much money will be available for travel. At the moment, faculty members can anticipate the availability of approximately $700 per person in travel money from the department.
In the coming weeks, faculty members will be asked to submit their teaching preferences for Spring and Summer ’03. These preferences will be submitted via web pages for that purpose.
Krajewski reminded faculty members of the changes in financial aid that require faculty members to complete student attendance verification in WINGS. Instructions about this procedure have been placed on the “Events” page of the web site, and faculty members will receive further information via campus mail and via e-mail from the Registrar. With 70% of students on financial aid, the verification is an important task. The verification is completed through WINGS, and new faculty members who do not have a WINGS password will need to sign up for a training session. At the training session, the passwords will be distributed.
The department is investigating how students manage to obtain RAN numbers (the codes they need to register for classes on WINGS) without seeing their advisors.
Our department needs to formulate a draft of an External Review Policy. Krajewski has formed an Ad Hoc Committee for the purpose. Dr. Lloyd will chair the committee, and its members will include Drs. Kundu and Smith. The Committee plans to have an open meeting to hear faculty members’ views on the subject. The plan is to have a document approved by the department by the end of Fall semester.
Krajewski shared with the faculty a report about student ratings of instruction. He asked that faculty members concentrate on two items connected to teaching. He asked faculty members to remind students that we are available to them, and to take advantage of every opportunity to be encouraging to students in our classes.
Another report labeled “Departmental Efficiency FY02” is available in the main office. It is in Section 6 of a binder on the bookshelf. The binder is labeled “Deans, Directors, and Dept. Chairs Workshop–Fall 2002.” The report places the department on a national scale with other Comprehensive I institutions.
Dr. Town asked that faculty members be made aware of an article about online teaching. Krajewski said that he would make available a web page on teaching. That web page would include a link to the article, so that faculty members could read it. That would save the cost of photocopying the article for everyone.
The College is considering a new annual evaluation form that will include three categories rather than five. the three categories are “below expectation,” “meets expectation,” and “exceeds expectation.” A draft of the criteria will be made available soon, and each department has been asked to discuss the criteria. A general meeting about the criteria will be held before the end of September.
Faculty members received a list of freshmen who have chosen English or Philosophy as a major.
* * * * * * * * * *
August 16, 2001 Minutes of Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
2:00 to 4:00 p.m. in Room 2070 of the Union.
Regrets: Griffin, Parcels, Rawson,Whelan
Introductions: Dr. Maria Adamos, Dr. Allen Davidson, Dr. Nancy Sherrod, Dr. Shawn Smith
Flower Fund & Office hours:
Please contribute to the Flower Fund. If you did not contribute last term, think about doubling up your contribution this time. Post your office hours on your door, and fill out the sheet that Mrs. VanLandingham has given you for office hours. The average in CLASS is 5-6 per week. If you have fewer than 5-6 hours currently listed, please increase them to 5-6 per week.
Student Appeals:
We’ve had a dramatic increase in this category. Please do your best to return a significant, graded assignment prior to the date for withdrawing without academic penalty. Spell out everything important in writing at the beginning. Ad hoc rules and changes, even if well intentioned, lead to problems.
Writing Minor:
The restriction is that ENGL majors cannot minor in WRIT. If people want to retain this prohibition, I will refer this issue to the Major Program Committee for consideration.
Items for Applause:
Outstanding new faculty
Publication and service record of senior faculty
All courses taught by full-time faculty
Departmental autonomy
Claiming of HUMN class
Honors societies
Seminar room
Goals for 2001-02:
Increase majors for both ENGL & PHIL
Improve student evaluations in Core
Stand on the shoulders of Averitt Lectures to draw attention to department
Make pitch to increase staff salaries and salaries of faculty in upper-ranks
Raise enrollment in spring courses
Doing fewer things to the best of our ability rather than numerous things adequately
Tenure & Promotion:
Dr. Ricker will provide a report of some changes in policies, and then answer questions.
Tenure or Promotion Application:
Hand your application materials to the chair in person, not through the secretary. I need you to confirm that you want to be considered for tenure or promotion.
Deans, Directors, Chairs Meeting:
This morning from 9-12, we had a meeting run by the Provost. A binder full of information was used for the meeting, and a copy of that information can be found in a binder on the bookshelf in our main office.
“Efficiency” Report:
It’s the set of folded sheets in your packet attached to the back of the salary information.
FIG Courses
We have two of these for fall , one in RELS and one in PHIL. The instructors for those courses will report back about the success of these special sections, and based on those reports, we’ll decide whether we wish to continue our participation in the program.
Ruffin Cup:
Let’s start thinking about nominating one of our own for next year’s Ruffin Cup. The purpose of the award is to honor a teacher-scholar who exemplifies the goals of CLASS, who has distinguished service to GSU for at least a decade, who excels in (1)teaching & service to students, (2) scholarship, & (3) contributions to spirit of liberal arts.
Program Review:
For both PHIL and ENGL the designation is “maintain,” meaning that we will not be “enhanced.” Not being enhanced means that, for the next few years, we will not receive new faculty lines, nor a significant increase in the departmental budget. When we increase the number of majors, we can begin to make a case for more lines.
Shakespeare Festival:
During the week of 8 April, 2002, we will have a series of events linked to the Averitt Lecture Series. This year’s speaker is a Shakespearean scholar, Dr. Russ McDonald.
Changes with Searches:
The new Provost has made even more changes to the search procedures for the university. GSU will now have one large advertisement in the Chronicle that will run in Sept. and Oct. with a general application deadline of 1 November. One consequence of the new timeline is that job advertisement copy is best formulated in the spring.
Religious Studies Search:
We turned in our ad copy before the deadline set by the Provost.
Wings Training:
Jill Ewing from the Registrar’s office has kindly agreed to provide us with a special training sessions for Wings. Friday (Aug. 17) from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. in Newton 2214. Wings will allow you to put your final grades online, and to access your class roll as well as a variety of other student information.
Library & GSINFO:
We have $3,000 for library books. If you know of books that you want the library to purchase, provide the information to the Library Committee. Try Ingenta (http://www.ingenta.com/), a new journal service through the Library. GSINFO is a listserv for campus information. If you’d like access to those messages, please sign on to the group.
Computers:
Viruses, worms, and the like have been hitting the campus, so if you have not downloaded Norton Anti-Virus CE, do so. CS reports that a faculty member recently lost 5 years worth of work, because her hard drive crashed. The key to preventing such trauma is to back up your files regularly. Do not save everything on your hard drive (C:).
GSU WebMail:
You can access your email when you’re out of town or out of the country by going to: www.georgiasouthern.edu/WebMail/gsumail/ index.cgi
Students:
All the committees that discuss curriculum include a student representative. The name of your student representative will be sent to the committee chair, and the chair should inform the student of the meetings, along with faculty members of the committee. Please think about whether you would like to revive the year-end student conference.
Committee Chairs:
All Committee Chairs need to announce committee meetings to the LitPhil listserv, so that people, other than committee members, have a chance to attend. Do your best to give adequate notice.
Ad hoc committee:
With the changes in summer school financing, I had to make some staffing decisions that turned out unhappily for some. Those involved decided that we should have a committee to determine policies for summer teaching.
Brochure & Pencils:
The brochure for the B.A. in ENGL will be ready soon. The department kicked in to pay the permission fee for the cover image. We have a set of #2 pencils that have our departmental name and web address on them. We’ll use these at Open Houses, and for student evaluations–those students who are interested can keep the pencils.
Travel Money:
The amount of travel money for each faculty member for the 2001-02 academic year is $700. Since the travel budget is so tight, you need to be making a presentation at a conference in order to obtain travel money. Authorization forms for travel are in your packets. Please fill them out before you leave here today.
New students:
SAT scores have improved. For the first time the incoming class has a higher percentage of males than females. Grad student registrations are off. We must do everything possible to ensure that graduate students complete early registration along with undergraduate students.
Independent Study:
The department no longer does independent study for students, either graduates or undergraduates. The university does not compensate faculty members for the work it takes to arrange for and to complete an independent study.
Old Policy:
The department used to have the following policy: “A student who must repeat the same upper-division Philosophy [or ENGL] course more than twice to receive a ‘C’ or better will no longer be considered a Philosophy [or English] major.” What happened to th
is policy? Do we want to revive it?
Minors:
The Dean has requested that all departments make an effort to have students declare their minors prior to graduation clearance. In the packets faculty have received, you will find Change of Major forms. Please distribute these the first day of classes, explaining to students that they should fill out the top portion of the form, with particular attention to specifying the minor. Collect them and return to Ms. VanLandingham.
Graduate Faculty:
If you are considering becoming a member of the graduate faculty, please obtain the necessary forms from the Graduate College, and complete them by the deadline. You cannot, for instance, supervise theses, if you are not a full graduate faculty member.
Graduate School:
In the spring, let’s plan to have a Graduate School application workshop, during which we explain to students (undergrads planning on an M.A., grads planning on moving on to the Ph.D.) the necessary steps for entering graduate programs.
Catalog Changes:
One 2001-02 Catalog will be set aside in the main office. Its sole function will be to serve as the repository of corrections. When you make a correction in that catalog, please make your correction legible, and place your initials next to it, so that, if questions arise, we can seek you out.
Workshop:
Teaching non-Western literature will be the subject of a daylong workshop in February, prior to the beginning of the annual Postcolonial conference.
* * * * * * * * * *
30 January 2001
Minutes of Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Technology Building 2115 – 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.
Regrets: Adamos, Costomiris, Cyr, Daigre, Deeley, Griffin, Kundu, Parcels, Sherrod, Town, Warchol
Announcements
Report on the upcoming Post-Colonial Conference in Savannah (Feb. 22-24) at the DeSoto Hilton. Everything is in order, with a new featured speaker.
Several faculty members are helping to produce drafts of Program Review documents for the departments three degree programs. The Chair of Writing and Linguistics has been invited to contribute to the report for the ENGL B.A.
Faculty schedules for Summer 2001 and Fall 2001 courses have been prepared and will be distributed.
As part of the proposed offerings for Fall 2001 is an Internet course for World Lit II. Town will prepare a description for the department to consider.
The Chair will submit to the Dean a report about the department’s 5-year projection of needs for space in the Newton Building. This report could become the basis for the allocation of space, once the Department of Sociology & Anthropology moves our of Newton in Spring 2001.
The Dean now has a proposal from the department for keeping within CLASS faculty lines from our department. The proposal also includes increasing the salaries of temporary, full-time appointments.
Once the new CLASS Dean arrives in the summer, the Chair intends to present to her a detailed proposal for addressing salary inequities at ranks above the assistant professor level. The plan will encourage the University administration to reassess remuneration in CLASS by juxtaposing salaries in CLASS to those in other colleges at the University and to comparable institutions in North America.
Individual annual evaluation meetings will likely be delayed until after the department’s Program Review documents have been completed.
Krajewski invited the untenured faculty members to a meeting on 31 January. The meeting would be a chance to discuss the changing environment at Georgia Southern regarding tenure and promotion criteria.
As part of the centennial celebration of the American Philosophical Society, Adamos and Krajewski have planned to bring in as a visiting speaker Dr. Donald Marshall from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He will speak about reading’s relationship to both literature and philosophy. Details about the talk to follow.
Business
The Major Program Committee had several motions for the department to consider.
1. Move Eng 5232 (Sem. In African-American Lit) to the 6000 level (alternately possibly under either Eng 7635 or 7637), leaving the Eng 3231 as the sole undergrad African-American course. Moved (Robinson/Dudley). Approved.
2. Combine Eng 5438 (Modern Poetry to 1945) and 5430 (Contemporary Poetry) into one course, i.e. “Twentieth Century Poetry,” including American and British poets, which would correspond with the current Eng 7638–Seminar in Twentieth Century Poetry. Moved (Sanders/Thomson). Not approved.
3. Combine Eng 5332 (Brit. Drama since 1660) and Eng 5331 (Brit. Drama to 1642) into one undergraduate course, ie. “British Drama to 1900, excluding Shakespeare,” and create a grad course in British Drama that would rotate under the various Seminars in British Literature. Moved (Dudley/Whelan). Approved.
4. Combine Eng 4435 and 4436 into one course , ie. “Shakespeare–the Major Plays,” offered each year, alternating with the graduate course in Shakespeare. Moved (Dudley/Schille). Approved.
5. Eliminate Eng 5537 (Contemporary World Fiction) and 5237 (Modern British Fiction) and create a new course entitled “20th Century Fiction,” which would include American, British, and World authors, but would be exclusive of any commonwealth literature so as not to duplicate Eng 5536. Moved (Dudley/Paige). Approved.
6. Eliminate Eng 2221–Introduction to Readings in Literature (formerly Eng 290). Moved (Schille/Sanders). Approved.
* * * * * * * * * *
Monday, 22 January 2001
Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Russell Union, Room 2070 – 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
The meeting was held, so that the department could engage in dialogue with the new Provost, Dr. Vaughn Vandegrift. He wished to learn more about the faculty members and about the department.
* * * * * * * * * *
Tuesday, 12 December, 2000 Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Newton Building 2204 – 3:00 to 4:15 p.m.
Approval of Agenda
Announcements:
Krajewski informed faculty about the final examination period and the policies governing examinations.
The Chair also reminded the faculty that he would like them to turn in their annual self-evaluations by the end of December.
Business:
1. The departments discussed the wording of its Mission Statement. The statement was requested by the Dean. The faculty discussed a version that read:
“The Department of Literature and Philosophy at Georgia Southern University strives to achieve and maintain excellence in all its programs by offering curricula that are both rich and varied. Our work involves developing and teaching courses at both the basic and advanced levels that explore the diverse ways in which people think about communication, cultures, and values through courses in philosophy, literature, religion, film, and writing. For all our students, we aim to help them
–develop maturity in written and oral expression
–read, write, and think critically
–synthesize, arrange, and express ideas logically, ethically, and gracefully
–recognize the ability of language to influence people not only intellectually but also emotionally and imaginatively
–develop an understanding and appreciation of the interrelations among literature, philosophy, and other disciplines
–learn the basic research tools and techniques of our disciplines
–understand the contributions of literature and philosophy to transcultural experiences
–comprehend the larger contexts of literature and philosophy (social, religious, economic, political, historical, ethical)
–appreciate that intellectual work is intrinsically valuable.”
2. The department also discussed a curriculum consolidation plan from the Major Program Committee. Whelan answered questions about a document that had been distributed to the faculty prior to the meeting.
* * * * * * * * * *
Wednesday, 19 October, 2000
Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Technology Building 2117 – 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.
Regrets: Adamos, Daigre, Davidson, Kundu, Robinson, Sherrod
I. Agenda amended and approved.
II. Announcements
1. Calendar Committee. Krajewski reminded faculty members to report their views about the University’s calendar, so that the Calendar Committee could incorporate those suggestions into the draft model.
2. Program Review. Dean issued a memorandum indicating that over 90% of degree programs would fall into “maintain” category. Information will be provided by institutional research office, and then that information can be plugged into a template for the program review report.
3. Halloween film. Krajewski invited everyone to a screening of Rebecca.
4. Liaison Committee. Dudley reported that he had staffed the open house for prospective first-year students. He gave an update on the status of the brochure for the ENGL B.A. Dudley also said the committee members were thinking of ideas for a campus-wide activity to highlight the department. One suggestion so far was a “celebration of reading.”
5. Philosophy Faculty. Weiss announced a talk on the philosopher Jürgen Habermas by Jack Simmons, a philosopher from Savannah. He reported that that a CLEC proposal had been submitted for a speaker on environmental ethics, and that several students had turned out to participate in the Philo Café at the Barnes and Noble in Savannah. With the help of folks at Henderson Library, a poster display about Philosophy had been arranged.
6. Library Committee. Warchol announced that the committee was in the midst of a review of books and journals. Warchol informed faculty that he would be asking for their help in the selection of books and journals for the library.
7. Krajewski reminded people that Dr. Kundu has organized a workshop on the “Scholarship of Teaching” scheduled for early November.
III. Business
1. Department approved a revised set of guidelines for Graduate Assistants.
2. Motion (Humma/Dudley) that the department end the creative writing thesis option for M.A. students as of Fall 2001. Students already in the M.A. program will still have the option available to them. The thesis option will not be available to those applying to enter the M.A. Program as of Fall 2001. Approved.
3. Discussion of removal of prerequisites from all PHIL courses.
IV. Adjournment
* * * * * * * * * *
Wednesday, 13 September, 2000
Uncorrected Minutes
Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Technology Building 1130 – 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.
Regrets: Costomiris, Cyr, Daigre, Deeley, Flynn, Humma, Kundu, Sanders, Town, Warchol, Whelan
I. Preamble
Krajewski encouraged faculty members to follow the “Great Chain of Being,” i.e. the courtesy of proceeding from one level of the bureaucracy to the next when attempting to address a concern. For instance, when students come to the chair about a problem with a particular class, the chair’s responsibility, even before listening to the full details of the problem, is to find out whether the student has first discussed the problem with the instructor. If that hasn’t happened, the instructor and the student need to meet and have a chat. Happy resolutions are most likely to happen at the local level. In short, the parties who have issues with one another ought to be discussing those issues, prior to involving others at any other level. Krajewski hoped that faculty members will use direct discourse whenever possible, and not speak on behalf of others, nor invoke the names of others who are not present in order to accomplish a particular goal.
II. Announcements
1. The membership of the Search Committee for the CLASS Dean was announced. Two members of the department are on the committee, John Parcels, and Tiffany Womack, a graduate student in the M.A. program. Those with questions about or suggestions for the search should contact Parcels and Womack.
2. At the suggestion of Dudley, a gathering to meet new faculty members in the department was arranged for Sunday, 17 September at Georgia’s Bed and Breakfast.
3. Faculty members who had yet to make a contribution to the Flower Fund were reminded that they could do so by taking money to Ms. VanLandingham.
4. The Dean has reminded chairs in CLASS that they ought not to overlook two-year colleges when trying to recruit majors.
5. The department’s Vision Statement and Mission Statement still require work. Faculty suggested that Krajewski look at the current Mission Statement as the basis for a new version.
6. Krajewski explained more about the state of Program Review, including the timetable for establishing categories, and the list of the four categories to which programs will be assigned.
7. The next departmental meeting will be of the open variety, meaning that the meeting has no agenda, other than the one established by the faculty members who initiate discussion at the meeting.
III. Library Committee
The Henderson Library sponsored a presentation by an organization working to counter monopolistic practices of some distributors of journals (e.g. Reed Elsevier). That organization is called SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). More information about their activities on behalf of scholars can be found at http://www.arl.org/sparc. Their efforts are aimed mainly at outrageously priced scientific journals, but they claim that the success they might have in bringing down those costs would benefit scholars in the humanities, since libraries would have more financial resources to broaden their acquisitions in humanities.
IV. Technology Committee
Robinson requested that those present move to a computer lab in the Technology Building. In the computer lab, Robinson explained the increase in the number of “hits” to the web site, and showed people the new areas of the departmental web site. He made a case for how the web site might be used by faculty members for teaching, and for recruiting majors. In effect, the department could advertise for itself. He used his own course as an example of the ways in which a threaded discussion can serve as a catalyst for student discussion of texts that the students read in class. Robinson also fielded questions about the Strategic Plan for technology that had been distributed to the faculty prior to the meeting.
* * * * * * * * * *
Thursday, 17 August 2000
Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Russell Union 2042 – 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
I. Welcome
II. Krajewski introduced new faculty members, Dr. Julia Griffin, Dr. Maria Adamos, Dr. Nancy Sherrod, Ms. Libby Deeley.
III. New Equipment — from year-long efforts at establishing our “critical needs,” the department received a Konica photocopier, and new replacement computers for those with PC’s.
IV. Departmental Goals — Krajewski solicited suggestions from faculty for goals for this academic year. Krajewski put forward one goal, an increase in departmental harmony.
V. Committees — faculty had received a memorandum listing new committees for 2000_2001. While rotation of chairs once every three years had been followed in most instances, an oversight took place with the General Program Committee. Krajewski said the correction would be made next year, once the department has completed the documentation for Program Review.
VI. Announcements
1. Syllabi and Course Descriptions — Krajewski encouraged faculty to be as specific as possible with course descriptions, since it is the document of record when problems arise with students later in the term. Some faculty members wanted to know whether they could, in their course descriptions, prohibit certain kinds of dress, for instance. Krajewski said that he would consult with the University lawyer about such policies, and report back.
2. Program Review — preliminary criteria for the review will be available in the main office for commentary directed to the appropriate university-wide committee.
3. Liaison Committee — the committee will have a larger role this year, including recruiting, scholarships, publicity.
4. Spring 2001 Schedule — a preliminary schedule will appear in faculty member’s boxes. Krajewski asked faculty to double-check that material when it appears, and to recognize that scheduling is now the responsibility of the chair, a new development that might lead to some changes.
5. Revisions to CLASS Policy Manual — copies of suggested revisions have been distributed for faculty members to consider.
6. Collegiality Document — Krajewski made for everyone copies of a paper on the legalities of “collegiality” as a criterion for tenure and promotion. The Dean, who had attended a conference in Atlanta where the issue had been discussed, had provided the paper to chairs in CLASS.
7. Vision Statement — department needs to formulate a Mission Statement and a Vision Statement by end of the first term, since both must be included in the documentation for Program Review.
8. Improvements to Newton Building — thanks to the efforts of Dr. Costomiris, Ms. VanLandingham, Ms. Lee (who used to work for Interior Design), and members of the Department of Writing and Linguistics, at least half of the Newton classroom building has been painted, and many of the classrooms equipped with new tables and chairs.
9. Security Issues, Fire Marshall Regulation — in light of some recent thefts from faculty offices, everyone is warned not to leave offices unattended with the office door open. The Fire Marshall requires us to keep all computer power bars off the floor.
10. Loaning Equipment and Wish List — The PC’s that have been replaced will be available for loan, though paperwork needs to be filled out with the help of Ms. VanLandingham. Ms. VanLandingham will also maintain a list of equipment items that faculty members wish were available. We can then use that list as the basis of a request in the next round of funding for “critical needs.”
11. New Areas of Web Site — Dr. Robinson alerted the faculty to new areas of the department’s web site, including the archival pages, where minutes of committee meetings can be stored. Also, the site can be used for threaded discussions for classes.
12. Flower Fund — the department will maintain this account. Everyone is asked to give something to the account, since any gifts purchased from the account will be presented on behalf of everyone in the department. Contributions should be turned over to Ms. VanLandingham.
13. How items arrive on the agenda of a departmental meeting — a short description outlining this procedure was attached to the agenda. The Chair also attached two items to the agenda. The first was a draft of an attempt to flesh out the criteria at the College level for tenure and promotion. The second was a copy of a talk that Dean Buller had heard at a conference at the University of Georgia on “Higher Education and the Law.” The presentation titled “Collegiality as a Factor in Tenure and Promotion Decisions” was written by Mary Ann Connell, University Attorney at the University of Mississippi.
14. Faculty members acknowledged some recent achievements of their colleagues.
VII. Adjournment
* * * * * * * * * *
20 March, 2000 Minutes of Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Technology Bldg. 2115 – 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.
Regrets: Anderson, Cyr, Flynn, Humma, Nichols, Parcels, Thomson, Warchol, Weiss, Yoo
1. Agenda approved (Schille/Dudley).
2. Minutes of previous meeting approved (Dudley/Schille).
3. Dr. Richter explained about some changes that would be taking place with the University Honors Program. His hope is that an existing course at the upper-level might be designated as an Honors course. He also clarified the arrangements that can be made at present for students to make a contract to do Honors-level work in a non-Honors course.
4. Krajewski discussed with the faculty members that our Critical Needs request would include a new photocopier, and new computers for faculty members. Seminar rooms, and an increase in the number of graduate assistantships for the M.A. Program were also mentioned.
5. The proposed Cinema Studies minor was put on hold by the Dean. The Communication Arts Department had brought forward a competing proposal.
6. Faculty members were asked to gather narratives about successful graduates, both for assessment purposes, and for publicity documents from the department.
7. Dudley announced the winner of the Russell Fielding Scholarship (Laura Davis), the award winner for Outstanding Student in Philosophy (Joshua Chambers), and the award winner for Outstanding Student in English (Jennifer Murphy).
8. At the request of the Dean and the Provost, the department considered the possibility of certain faculty members from Writing and Linguistics moving to Literature and Philosophy. The consensus was that a wholesale shift of lines from one department to any other would not be a good idea. Several secondary plans were discussed in an attempt to help the faculty members wishing to move. No decisions.
9. Adjournment
* * * * * * * * * *
25 January, 2000
Meeting of Department of Literature & Philosophy
Tech 2115 – 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.
Open meeting about the curriculum document that had been circulated by Krajewski. Faculty discussed course rotations, qualifications for teaching new courses, the department as a single entity called Literature and Philosophy, course cancellations. Dr. Ricker attended the meeting.
* * * * * * * * * *
Tuesday, 30 November, 1999
Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Technology Bldg. 2117 – 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Regrets: Anderson, Daigre, Lloyd, Nichols, Rawson, Yoo
I. Approval of Agenda (Robinson/Flynn).
II. Minutes of 19 Oct., 1999 meeting approved.
III. Graduate Committee
1. Motion for a new M.A. option which would allow candidates to take three additional courses at the 6000_7000 level in lieu of writing a thesis (Humma/Warchol). Friendly amendment to include an oral examination of at least one seminar paper as part of the non_thesis requirement. Approved with friendly amendment.
2. Motion to create an “adjunct or associate faculty” designation (Humma/Sanders). Designation would be for faculty outside Literature and Philosophy who wish to direct an English M.A. thesis. Faculty seeking such a designation would apply to the Graduate Committee of the Department. “Adjunct or Associate faculty” would be limited to the direction of one new thesis per year. Approved with provision that Graduate College is consulted about the appropriate title for faculty members from outside the department.
3. Motion to alter catalog to indicate that graduate students may take up to six hours from the course offerings of the Department of Writing and Linguistics (Humma/Flynn). Approved.
IV. Liaison Committee
1. Report on recruiting at Homecoming
2. Update on status of brochures. Suggestions from faculty members welcome.
3. Committee wishes to gather names of high-ability students
V. Library Committee
1. Flynn is looking into placing forms about new books that the library might purchase into containers at a central location where faculty members could make selections.
2. Flynn expressed concern about library’s coverage of pre-19th century materials.
VI. Major Program Committee
1. Motion to move Introduction to Literary Studies to the 2000-level, and to include it in Area F of the Core Curriculum (Lloyd/Sanders). Approved.
VII. Adjournment
* * * * * * * * * *
Tuesday, 16 November, 1999
Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Russell Union 2044 – 8:30 to 10 a.m.
I. Presentation by Dr. Jeff McLellan about Sexual Harassment
II. Discussion of Dean’s draft of “Memorandum of Understanding.” Faculty agreed on the content of the response.
III. Adjournment
* * * * * * * * * *
19 October 1999
Minutes of Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Russell Union 2042 – 8:30 to 10:00 a.m.
Regrets: Daigre, Nichols, Rawson. Eric Nelson (Writing and Linguistics) was present as a guest during discussion of the items from the Graduate Committee, and Ronnie Sheppard (Chair, Middle Grades and Secondary Education) was present during the discussion of the item from the Major Program Committee.
I. Nelson (Writing and Linguistics) was invited to provide commentary on 3 motions from the Graduate Committee. The Graduate committee voted to bring to the department these recommendations:
First, a proposal for a new M. A. option which would allow the candidate to take three additional courses at the 6000_7000 level in lieu of writing a thesis.
Second, the creation of an “adjunct faculty” designation. This designation would be for faculty outside Literature and Philosophy who wish to direct an English M. A. thesis. Faculty seeking such a designation would apply to the Graduate Committee of the Department. Adjunct graduate faculty would be limited to the direction of one thesis per year.
Third, a catalog change that would indicate that graduate students may take six hours from the course offerings of the Department of Writing and Linguistics.
Nelson expressed his appreciation at being invited to the meeting, and then indicated his disapproval of the Graduate Committee’s recommendations, especially the second item.
II. Richter made a presentation about the GSU Leadership courses, and answered questions about those courses. He encouraged faculty to consider teaching the Leadership course.
III. Whelan discussed the proposal for a new course entitled “Literature for Middle Grade and High School Students.” It will be “a course on classroom approaches to literature for Middle Grades and High School teachers”. Sheppard and Whelan responded to questions and concerns about the course.
IV. The Department began its preliminary discussion of the Dean’s draft of a “Memorandum of Understanding” that would affect the number and assignment of Composition courses and sophomore literature courses.
IV. Adjournment
* * * * * * * * * *
18 August 1999
Minutes of Meeting of Department of Literature and Philosophy
Russell Union 2041 – 9:00 to 10:15 a.m.
No roll of those attending was taken. Dean Buller was present as a guest.
I. The Chair introduced the new faculty members in the department, Anderson, Davidson, and Rawson.
II. Announcements
a. Krajewski requested that faculty members post office hours, provide a copy of syllabi to Ms. VanLandingham, and to send students to the Chair for override signatures.
b. Krajewski explained the structure and functioning of some of the new committees within the department, and a few of the Chairs of those committees commented on the functioning of the new committees up to that point.
c. Krajewski announced that the department would be having a Student Worker Appreciation Day, and that Rachel Pigg, an M.A. student, had volunteered to help the department sponsor a version of Oprah’s Book Club at GSU.
d. Humma made a brief presentation about the schedule for the Fall 1999 Cinema Arts Program.
e. Weiss informed the faculty about upcoming deadlines and procedures regarding development grants for instruction.
f. Kundu and Cyr reported on the upcoming conference in Savannah on Post Colonial Studies, and on the status of the Journal of Commonwealth and Post Colonial Studies.
III. Adjournment
* * * * * * * * * *
Last updated: 4/3/2022
