Brown Bag Seminar:

Thanks to Jonathan Buckstead for providing us with a lot of useful information regarding the library services here at ACC available for Government faculty.

Task Force Meeting:

Attending: Lynn Lehle, Marilyn Mote-Yale, Glen Hunt, Lisa Perez, Ron Fletcher, Judy Nwachie, Karry Evans, Cecile Durish, Stefan Haag, Gaye Lynn Scott, Ed Mullen, Amber Archuleta-Lucero, Hugh Moore, Jim Fowler, Paz Pena, Jonathan Buckstead, Frank J. Garrahan, Chair. (Minutes prepared by Gaye Lynn Scott.)

Committee Reports

Adjunct Faculty Committee &endash; The committee members have 12 applications presently and have interviewed nine of the applicants. Dr. Nwachie, committee chair, follows through with the Dean (who currently staffs adjunct faculty) in ensuring that the eligibility list is continually updated with qualified applicants. The current applicant pool is very impressive.

Professional Development &endash; Jim Fowler is organizing a Saturday seminar with Dr. Bruce Buchanan, Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin and a presidency scholar. We hope to invite ACC colleagues from related disciplines as well as political science colleagues from neighboring institutions. The tentative date is April 28 (May 5 is the backup date). Attendance will count for four hours of professional development. Additional details will be provided when they become available.

Faculty Evaluation Committee &endash; The committee members have completed their reviews of both adjunct and full-time portfolios. Special thanks go to Stefan Haag and Jonathan Buckstead for their many hours of thorough and conscientious attention to the task of examining approximately 65 portfolios. The memos and Evaluation Summary forms for adjunct faculty members were provided to the Dean on March 5. If you have not yet received your evaluation materials, they should be arriving soon.

Assessment of Student Learning Committee &endash; The Task Force continued with the discussion begun at the last meeting about whether to move to a short answer assessment instrument. The Task Force approved development of such an assessment instrument to be administered next Fall in 15 randomly selected sections for each course (including Open Campus sections). The questions will be finalized at the next Task Force meeting on April 27. Two short answer questions will be embedded in each selected faculty member's unit exams throughout the Fall semester, with different faculty members receiving different questions. Instructors will be notified in August if their section has been chosen and will be provided with written guidelines for this assessment process. In addition, all the assessment questions will be included in the next edition of the Government Instructor's Manual.

For both GOVT 2305 and GOVT 2306 we have developed learning outcomes and a varying number of learning objectives for each outcome. We can easily develop a test bank of questions associated with these outcomes and objectives and then select one question per outcome for the assessment test, rotating questions from year to year. Next year's Committee on Assessment of Student Learning will need to include at least ten faculty members (volunteers, anyone?) who will be trained in grading the assessment tests. Each short answer would be graded by two faculty members. We expect to grade these tests on a scale of one to six (1-2 unsatisfactory, 3-4 satisfactory, 5-6 very good/excellent).

What has yet to be determined is our standard of success as a discipline. At the next Task Force meeting, in addition to finalizing the questions, we must decide how we want to judge our effectiveness as teachers. For instance, have we succeeded if 60% of students are satisfactory or above? 70%?

Possible short answer questions for both GOVT 2305 and GOVT 2306 are attached.

If you have ideas, opinions, or suggestions on any of this, you are invited to attend the next Task Force meeting. If you cannot attend, please communicate your suggestions to Marilyn Mote-Yale, Committee Chair (223-4054 or mmyale@).

Textbook Selection

Several changes were made to our textbook list for the 2001-2002 academic year (beginning Fall 2001). Some new editions were added, some books were deleted, and some textbooks put on the list for the first time. See the attachment for a complete list of next year's approved textbooks.

Chair's Report

Current Reorganization &endash; The campus-based positions of Associate Dean have been filled for the remainder of this academic year. Associate Deans will be available to deal with student issues and will either help resolve those issues or refer the student to the appropriate Task Force Chair or Program Coordinator.

Fall schedule/staffing - The first draft of the Fall 2001 schedule is online and being refined. Once the schedule is set, staffing will begin. All faculty staffing for Fall (both adjunct and full-time faculty) will be the responsibility of the Task Force chair.

Reminders and Announcements &endash; Check your professional development hours online (a link is available from the Government Department web page). Under current rules, any faculty member who has not completed his/her required professional development hours (four hours for adjunct faculty, twelve hours for full-time faculty) will not receive a step raise next year.

The election of next year's Task Force Chair will be conducted by the Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences in late April. Our hard-working chair of the last four years, Frank J. Garrahan, has announced that he will not seek another term as Chair. The Dean will receive nominations and supervise voting for next year's chair. Make sure you thank Frank for his capable leadership and hard work. He will be a tough act to follow, whoever is elected.

The Government Department hopes to hire two new full-time faculty members for next year. Applications are being accepted and interviews will be conducted in early April.

The next Task Force meeting is scheduled for April 27 at 1:00 pm. At this meeting we will finalize student assessment for next year and complete any other unfinished business. This meeting will be preceded by a brown bag seminar at noon. Check the Government Department Webpage for the topic.

Next Meeting: Friday, April 27