Fall 2006 Faculty Senate Reports

Faculty Council on Academic Standard
Submitted by Carla Rickerson

The Charge to the Faculty Council on Academic Standards (FCAS) is to "be responsible for matters of University policy relating to the academic affairs of the University, such as admissions policy, scholastic standards, university graduation requirements, and inter-institutional academic standards." Faculty Code, Sec 42-47

The Council spent most of Fall Quarter on its regular work of reviewing course proposals from Departments on the campus. Some of the course proposals underway include a new major in American Indian Studies, a new BA program in Social Work for a major in Community, Leadership, and Social Justice, revised requirements for courses in International Studies and Jewish Studies, and revised program requirements for the BS in Civil Engineering.

The Council continued discussion on the definition of an interdisciplinary minor. The Council is concerned that interdisciplinary is being used appropriately in choosing a minor. They have identified 5 characteristics of a interdisciplinary minor: 1) A maximum 10 credits may be taken in students major department 2) must have a joint coordinating/supervising committee 3)must be a department appointed for administrative oversight 4) must have a mechanism for intellectual integration 5) at least two units must be involved to make it interdisciplinary

Faculty Council on Educational Outreach
Submitted by Thom Deardorff

The main focus of of the committee this fall was discussing the activities needed for preparation of Class B legislation for the Faculty Senate that would exclude the “DL” (Distance Learning) designator from student transcripts. Justifications for this include:

1) DL designated courses may be evaluated differently by external organizations and/or universities, who may question why UW distinguishes these courses from our regular courses;

2) other universities do not make a distinction between their classroom-based and DL courses;

3) it is the responsibility for each program, department and/or school to ensure that academic quality standards are met, regardless of the form of delivery of their courses;

4) the distinction between DL courses and classroom-based courses is becoming very blurred as faculty use many different technologies and teaching strategies within their individual courses; and

5) students wish to have some indicator in the time schedule that indicates the amount of in-class versus DL activities they should expect for ANY course.

The former chair of the committee will make a presentation to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate in January 2007.

Faculty Council on Educational Technology
Submitted by Jennifer Ward

Last two years, the Faculty Council on Educational Technology (FCET) has been involved with identifying approaches that might slow the number of plagiarism cases on campus. There have been heated discussions within our group, a presentation by turnitin.com (an online tool where students submit papers, which are then scanned for plagiarized text) and many followup conversations about how to proceed.

While no consensus has been reached as to the best approach for fighting plagiarism, everyone agrees that faculty and students alike need more/better/different education on the issues surrounding this topic. I am pleased to say that the Libraries is seen as a natural partner in this effort, although exactly what that means is unclear at this point. We are working on the final draft of our report, and this report will likely be sent to the Faculty Senate and (at Michael Eisenberg's suggestion) the Academic Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC).

Another long-standing concern of the group has been the deployment of wireless across campus and its use in the classroom. There is an upcoming Spark Session (Jan. 24, 2007) which will address some of the concerns held by FCET members.

Most recently, we have been discussing the use of webcams in labs and classrooms. They are easy for faculty to install and can be a useful teaching tool. Questions arise, though, when the feeds are available openly on the Internet. What policies do we need to make sure we're in compliance with various privacy regulations?

Faculty Council on Faculty Affairs
Submitted by: Julie Cook

The council is currently working on examining and reworking the position description of the Secretary of the Faculty Senate. To this end the Council has met with the current Secretary and faculty who held this position in the past. This task is a charge from the Chair of the Senate, Gail Stygall.

Faculty Council on Instructional Quality
Submitted by John Holmes

The major initiatives and activities of the FCIQ:

•  The Office of Educational Assessment and the College of Education are moving forward on an initiative that would place an extra 27 questions on the student evaluation forms. These questions would attempt to address issues related to classroom environment, with a focus on barriers to learning, diversity, course communication, etc. Nana Lowell of the OEA is spearheading this work.

•  The Faculty Conversations Project was put together by a task force of the Council (including myself) to investigate the faculty-side of the classroom experience, pulling faculty from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. There seems to be significant interest in faculty forming a learning community around classroom climate. The plan describes a three-phased project: Phase One: in spring 2007, build a cadre of faculty that have already expressed interest in participating. Phase Two: move to large scale, utilizing those initial faculty that went through Phase One to recruit other faculty. If Phase Two is successful and they receive institutional support, they would then go to full scale for Phase Three. The goal is to engage faculty in conversations about teaching to reduce their isolation around difficult issues and to build relationships. Diversity is difficult to talk about, and this project would facilitate better conversations and communication since they are aiming to keep the groups small, 8 or so faculty.

•  A group co-sponsored by the Council and CIDR focusing on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning held its 2 nd annual Teaching/Learning Fair in April. The event allows instructors from all departments and colleges to showcase, through poster sessions and small discussion groups, promising practices in teaching and learning from the previous year. The event is held in Mary Gates Hall Commons and will be repeated again in April 2007.

Faculty Council on Multicultural Affairs
Submitted by Laura Lillard

The FCMA held only two meeting Autumn quarter. The first meeting was used to determine the course of action for the council over the next year. One if the major areas of interest is focusing on tracking minority faculty hires and retention, as the numbers on this are unreliable. Cheryl Angeletti-Harris, Assistant Vice-Provost for Equal Opportunity, was invited to the second meeting to discuss the data collected by her office. It was clear from the conversation that EOO would not be able to provide the desired data due to the fact that faculty are asked, but not required, to turn in an Affirmative Action Information Request. When race/ethnicity are not known the individual is counted as Caucasian.

We will continue to pursue this area as it is important to accurately track these individuals.

Another effort of the Council is to put forward a resolution to the Provost asking that a member of FCMA serve on Dean/Vice President and above searches. This resolution has been forwarded.

At some point we wish to bring in Ana Marie Cauce and Ratnesh Nagda to talk about measuring the culture of underrepresented faculty on campus.

Faculty Council on Research
Submitted by Nanette Welton

The Faculty Council on Research is currently chaired by Cathryn Booth-LaForce, who is a Professor of Family and Child Nursing. FCR is responsible for all matters relating to research and has oversight regarding classified, proprietary, and restricted research. FCR meets about 7-8 times during the school year and a list of members, and minutes are located at http://www.washington.edu/faculty/committees/fcr/

The minutes are quite detailed and provide a lot of information for those who want to read further. Briefly, the topics covered have been:

Human Subjects Division going through a major overhaul of its program www.washington.edu/research/hspb.html

  • Reports on state of grant writing and application changes. NIH has changed the vendor, so people will have to learn another new system
    • Improved website on new online grant system – grants.gov
  • Mary Lidstrom reported on the purchase of the SAFECO building
    • Every floor is open office space and cannot be changed. Rent is credit for that portion of your ICR given back to researchers. More details in the 14 November minutes on the website
  • Mary also provides updates on what is happening in the Office of Research
  • Interdisciplinary Research Committee has been established at recommendation of FCR. The charge is to explore and make recommendations on institutional change in support of interdisciplinary research. Faculty is also grappling with how to manage and understand interdisciplinary teaching and research.
  • Classified grant requests come before the Council for review – more details on types of grants and questions are in the detailed minutes.
    • Most recent was a discussion about Applied Physics Lab grant proposal with the Navy

Faculty Council on Tri-Campus Policy
Submitted by Cynthia Fugate

Program Reviews

FCTCP coordinated a number of proposals for new undergraduate programs across the University .

The purpose of Tri-campus review of new undergraduate programs is to share information across campuses, thus enhancing coordination and movement between campuses, and to determine if comments are adequately addressed. The Council can either send the program back, or forward it to the President/Provost, along with any comments the Council may want to include.

FCTCP decided to facilitate a meeting with curricular chairs from the three campuses, as well as new program staff and others at their discretion, to discuss the review process.

Proposal for Handbook Changes

FCTCP began to consider proposed changes to the Faculty Handbook concerning the definition of a campus and distinguishing a campus from a school or college. Faculty Senate Chair Gail Stygall and Vice Chair Dan Luchtel are supportive of the proposal. One issue will be implementation of the differentiation of types of Councils, those will single campus focus and those that focus on the three campuses. In the proposal FCUL continues to be a University-wide entity, with responsibility for all three campuses. FCTCP will have legislation for the January SEC agenda and this issue will continue to be discussed for Winter and perhaps Spring Quarters.

New Business

In Winter Quarter FCTCP will consider a proposal to recommend a change in policy regarding cross-campus minors and double majors.

Faculty Council on University Facilities and Services
Submitted by: Charles Chamberlin

FCUFS met three times during the Fall Quarter. The council welcomed the new Associate Vice President for Facilities Services, Charles Kennedy, as the President's designee to the Council.

We discussed two major projects that will impact UW:

UW TOWER FCUFS is actively considering the development of UW Tower and evaluating the ways in which future occupation of the UW Tower (aka Safeco Tower) can best enhance the academic mission of UW.

SR520 STUDY Council has been involved in a study to determine the impacts of various SR520 design options on our programs. FCUFS will place special emphasis on the Pacific Interchange plan since it involves the use of potentially productive land and the widening of several arterial streets through the campus.

We also reviewed a number of campus projects including the demolition of More Hall Annex, the Gerberding Tower Bell project, the new buildings for the Business School, and new employee ID cards. Next quarter we will be briefed on the plan for new facilities/face-lift for Intercollegiate Athletics and receive another briefing on Sound Transit's plans for campus.

Faculty Council on University Libraries
submitted by Jessica Albano

The Faculty Council on University Libraries met at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, October 13, 2006. Chair Charles Wilkinson presided over the meeting.

Dean Betsy Wilson gave an overview of the UW Libraries goals for 2006/2007 and presented the Vision 2010: Strategic Plan 2006-2010. These five approaching issues, with a focus of the FCUL in mind, were mentioned:

1. Designing and leading a process for imagining libraries of the 21 st century and to engage all levels of faculty, students and staff for ideas.

2. Engaging the UW in discussions and actions in scholarly communications

3. Conducting a market and external communications review.

4. Conducting a 2007 triennial survey in the spring

5. Building out the Sandpoint remote shelving facility

Dean Betsy Wilson went over the budget allocations for libraries for 2006-2007.

Beth Kerr (Associate Professor in Psychology) and Mel DeSart (head of the Engineering Library) reported on the Association of Research Libraries workshop on scholarly communication.

FCUL priorities for the year are scholarly communications and meeting in Tacoma or Bothell if possible.

The next FCUL meeting is Wednesday, January 24 at UW Bothell/Cascadia Community College.

Faculty Council on University Relations
Submitted by John Bolcer

October 16, 2006 (JB not yet on FCUR, not in attendance)

The FCUR met with Aaron Hoard, Deputy Director, Office of Regional Affairs and Jan Arntz-Richards, Environmental Planner, Capital Projects Office to review the potential impact of the SR 520 Replacement Project on the University. A Class C resolution was drafted for consideration by the Faculty Senate at its October 26 meeting. The resolution opposed the SR 520 plans currently under consideration, detailing a list of negative impacts to the University.

November 15, 2006 —meeting cancelled.

December 6, 2006

New members, including JB, introduced. Voting status of non-faculty members was questioned, and lacking an official answer the question was to be referred to the Secretary of the Faculty.

ASUW representative reported that ASUW is also working on a SR 520 resolution to be proposed during winter quarter.

FCUR has been given the responsibility for recommending Honorary Degrees to be granted by the UW. New procedure this year—faculty are being solicited for nominations, to be transmitted via their respective deans; the FCUR will review the nominations and pass recommendations on to the Board of Regents. Only faculty members of the FCUR will vote (since only faculty can vote on the awarding of degrees), but non-faculty members will participate in the review of nominations. Nominations are due Dec. 15.

Discussion was held regarding potential for alumni and faculty lobbying efforts in the state legislature. Norm Arkans reviewed the official Higher Education Day in Olympia involving all 6 public 4-year institutions in the state.

Faculty Council on Women in Academia
Submittet by: Pamela Yorks

The minutes to the first two meetings of the FCWA, on 11 October, 2006, and

16 November, 2006, are now posted on the website

(http://www.washington.edu/faculty/committees/fcwa/reports.html). We have been sent the minutes for the 4 December meeting, but they have not yet been voted approval. We were supposed to meet January 11, but the meeting was cancelled because not enough people could make it in to have a quorum (due to the icy conditions of the roads).

Summary of current activities and discussions underway:

First meeting, 11 Oct 2006 [I did not attend because they had not yet put my name on their mailing list so I was not informed of the meeting!]:

  • Difference in charge between FCWA (primarily to address *Faculty* issues) and President's Advisory Committee on Women (also called PACW), which is more broadly defined to include all women in the University community. [Elaine Jennerich is a member of this committee, I think?]
  • Identified possible agenda items for the year:
    • Improve the climate for women to take advantage of unique contributions rather than make it easier to fit into ambient culture.
    • Medical School "acting" positions -- a gendered designation?
    • Why women seem to gravitate to clinician/educator positions rather than physician/scientist roles.
    • How to effectively document "climate" for faculty women.
    • Mentoring of faculty women.
    • Childcare and elder care issues.

Second meeting, 16 Nov 2006

  • Introductions and particular interests as related to women in academia
  • Follow-up from last year: move status of the group from a committee to a senate council (accomplished!); status of the "Mentoring Portal" (unknown?)
  • Agenda items for the year will involve fact finding presentations and developing "benchmarks" for major issues involving women. Workgroups were formed on:

Childcare, tracking, and pipeline/leadership

  • Report on the Sloan Foundation Project by Kate Quinn. The Sloan project will include: piloting a leave option for new biological fathers and adoptive parents of both genders that will cover classroom responsibilities; expanding leadership development workshops for emerging leaders; making deans and department chairs accountable for the work-family climate of their respective colleges and departments; creating a peer support group for "new mom" faculty members; increasing the number of infant and toddler child care slots for faculty.

Third meeting, 4 December:

Update on the Leadership, Community, and Values Initiative (LCVI),

(http://www.washington.edu/president/lcvi/lcvi.html), reported by Ana Mari Cauce, now Executive Vice Provost. The new Provost is committed to improving communications and has hosted several Town Meetings and also "on-boarding sessions" with deans about policies related to "work-life" issues and resources to help.

Randi Shapiro continued with a discussion on childcare, including the call by the Provost to establish a Childcare Advisory Committee, including faculty, staff, and students, to review and make recommendations on "UW Childcare Options: October 2006". The report was distributed to Council members and we discussed the three proposals to move toward a solution to alleviate the lack of childcare and the long waitlists. FCWA will provide feedback to the Childcare Advisory Committee.