Brownbag: Thank you to ACC librarian Red Wassenich for his demonstration of a U.S. Government Research Skills Project and his demonstration of database searches.
1. Adjuncts who will serve as voting members of the Department for the coming academic year will be : Shina Amachigh, Amber Archuleta-Lucero, Cecile Durish, Ron Fletcher, Greg Harrison, Charles Miles, Jeff Millstone, Nort Seever, and Brenda Trolin.
2. Congratulations to Vicke Hammond who was nominated by a former student to be included in Who's Who Among America's Teachers, 2005.
3. ACC's Distance Learning plan was discussed. This plan includes increasing the number of sections offered (particularly in the core areas such as GOVT), mentoring new DL faculty, establishing an oversight committee to develop, implement, and review best practices in DL, and exploring online testing to help alleviate overcrowding at Testing Centers.
4. Provisions of House Bill 3074 and 3075 relating to ACC/GOVT faculty were discussed including proposed changes to the number of credit hours required for a Bachelors degree.
5. A workshop titled, "Landmarks of American History: Remembering the Alamo" will take place July 17-23, July 24-30 in San Antonio.
6. A symposium titled, "The Art of Political Campaigning" will be held in Washington DC Jule 16-18.
7. The New Politics Forum will host "Want to Work in Politics?" for students June 10-11. See newpoliticsforum.org for details.
8. Travel Requests: If faculty wish to attend the APSA meetings in September, the Chair requests that they submit their travel request by the first Department meeting in the Fall semester.
Student Assessment Committee: Frank reported the results of our student assessment efforts in the Fall. We evaluated both general education requirements and discipline knowledge.
Faculty discussed whether to continue this method of student assessment in the coming year. Questions raised included:
o Should we continue to assess both content knowledge and writing ability?o Should we move from having faculty submit any/every type of assignment to a more uniform assignment that can be judged more consistently?
o Should the department write short essay questions and have faculty imbed them in their exams (faculty who are randomly chosen to participate in the assessment) then grade them to assess student learning?
o Should we write our own rubrics for grading written work since those from the Gen. Ed. Committee were so unhelpful?
o Should we go back to a pre/post test assessment?
o Should we use just an end of the semester assessment test?
o Should the department draft multiple choice questions and have faculty imbed them in exams (faculty who are randomly chosen to participate in the assessment)?
The faculty voted to create a committee to draft questions to be used in the Fall '05 assessment. The Committee includes Marilyn Yale, Jeff Millstone, Kris Seago, Ed Mullen, and Maria Luz ValVerde. The committee will present questions to the faculty at an upcoming summer Department meeting.
Adjunct Faculty Committee: reported having interviewed four prospective adjuncts.
Associates of Arts in Government Degree Plan: The faculty approved changes in the degree plan that allow students to complete either GOV 2633 Foreign Policy OR GOV 2633 Civil Liberties/Civil Rights OR GOVT 2304 Introduction to Political Science, rather than requiring only GOV 2633 Special Topics. In addition, each of the courses listed above will now require as prerequisites GOVT 2305 and GOVT 2306. GOV 2633 will no longer substitute for GOVT 2305 in the degree plan. The "general elective" requirement was reduced from 6 credit hours to 3. History 1302 was added to the list of accepted History courses.
Prerequisites for GOVT 2305 and GOVT 2306: Faculty discussed adding 3 hours of English (ENGL 1301) and/or 3 hours of History (either HIST 1301 or HIST 1302) with a grade of C or better as prerequisites to GOVT 2305 and GOVT 2306. The Chair was asked to investigate prereqs for US and Tx Govt at other colleges and universities. The faculty agreed to continue this discussion at the next Department meeting.
Textbooks adopted: A new online text and prepackaged online course was discussed. Prentice Hall has created an online course that can be uploaded to Blackboard and provide students with both the text online and supplemental materials, learning tools, and assignments. Faculty briefly looked at this online course and approved its use. Other texts that will be available for adoption in the Fall are listed below:
+Dye. Politics In America. Brief edition. Sixth edition. Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005.
*Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry. Government In America: People, Politics, and Policy. Brief eighth edition. Pearson/Longman, 2006.
*Fiorina, Peterson, Johnson, Voss. The New American Democracy. Alternate edition. Fourth edition. Pearson/Longman. 2005.
*Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir. We the People: An Introduction to American Politics. Shorter fifth edition. Norton, 2005.
*Greenberg & Page. The Struggle for Democracy. Seventh edition. Pearson/Longman, 2005.
Janda, Berry, Goldman, Hula. The Challenge of Democracy: Government in America. Brief edition. Fifth edition. Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
*Magleby, O'Brien, Light, Burns, Peltason, Cronin. Government by the People. Teaching and Learning Classroom Edition. Sixth edition. Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006.
*Patterson. We the People: A Concise Introduction to American Politics. Sixth edition. McGraw-Hill, 2006.
*Schmidt, Shelley, Bardes. American Government and Politics Today. 2005-2006 alternate edition. Thomson/Wadworth, 2005.
*Sidlow & Henschen. America at Odds: Alternate Edition. Fifth edition. Wadsworth Thomson Learning, 2006.
*Stephenson, Jr., Bressler, Friedrich, Karlesky, Turner. Introduction to American Government. Third edition. Northwest Publishing, 2005.
Brown, Langenegger, Garcia, Lewis. Practicing Texas Politics. Twelfth edition. Houghton-Mifflin, 2003.
+Gibson, Robison. Government and Politics in the Lone Star State. Fifth edition. Prentice Hall, 2005.
*Halter. Government & Politics of Texas: A Comparative View. Fifth edition. McGraw-Hill, 2005.
+Keith, Haag. Texas Government: Continuity and Change. Longman, 2006.
*Kraemer, Newell, Prindle. Texas Politics. Ninth edition. Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005.
*Maxwell, Crain. Texas Politics Today. Twelfth edition. Wadsworth, 2006.
+Momayezi, Stouffer. Texas Politics: Individuals Making a Difference. Second edition. Houghton-Mifflin, 2005.
+Tannahill. Texas Government: Policy and Politics. Eighth edition. Longman, 2005.
* New Edition.
+ New to List.