Brown Bag: Thank you to Ron Fletcher for his presentation on zoning / development in Buda.
Members Present: Ron Fletcher, Ed Mullen, Frank Garrahan, Glen Hunt, Shina Amachigh, Karry Evans, Charles Miles, David Miller, Ann Dillon, Marilyn Yale, Gaye Lynn Scott, Jack Floyd, Cecile Durish, Lynn Lehle, Amber Archuleta-Lucero, Judy Nwachie, Hope Williams, Greg Harrison.
Chairs Election: Ed Mullen, Chair of the Election Committee, announced the re-election of Gaye Lynn Scott as Government Department Chair.
1. Folks leaving: Amber Archulleto-Lucero, and Hope Williams have moved away, and E.A. Poe has retired as a full-timer (he will still be with the Department as an adjunct instructor). Our best wishes go with them.
2. The administrative rule regarding adjunct service on the Task Force has changed. Eleven adjuncts will be serving on the task force for the coming year. They are: Vic Garcia, Glen Hunt, Cecile Durish, Paul Geary, Greg Harrison, Ann Dillon, David Miller, Charles Miles, Al Belmarez, Shina Amachigh, and Jeremy Abrams. Welcome.
3. Beginning with the Spring 2004 semester, adjunct faculty will be asked to pick their textbook at the same time they use the e-staffing system to pick their classes.
Spring 2004 schedule: last spring's schedule is online. Please look at it and forward any input about it to Gaye Lynn.
As a reminder, we're submitting our grades online via https://onlinserv.austincc.edu. Please do not assign any student a "W." If a student appears on the roll and at the end of the semester and you want to assign them a W, follow the procedures for completing a retroactive withdrawal. Please do keep a copy of your grades.
International students: The International Student Office would like the faculty to be aware of the 12 hour enrollment requirement for many international students and asks that faculty not withdraw international students from our classes without speaking with them.
A 3 day forum on campaigning will be held August 1-3, 2003 in Austin. "The New Politics Forum," is sponsored by the Strauss Institute for Civic Participation. For information, contact Steve Bruno at 512.471.7214 or sbruno@mail.utexas.edu.
The upcoming NISOD meetings were announced.
An Alternate Teaching Certification Program at ACC was announced in April of 2003 where individuals who have already completed a Bachelor's degree may become certified to teach in the public schools. Students complete courses in Pedagogy and Professional Responsibility (PPR), courses in their content area, an internship in the classroom, and teach under supervision for one year. ACC will begin offering courses in PPR and Rex Peebles, Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences, is soliciting help with developing the curriculum for this. Please contact him if you would like to be involved.
Learning Communities were discussed. Faculty were encouraged to become part of this new program.
Judy Sanders, Director of ACC's Honors Program, announced a new partnership with UT wherein UT will admit ACC's honors graduates.
Judy also presented information on this program and encouraged faculty to participate by developing Honors courses for the Fall '04 and by helping to recruit Honors students into the program.
The specific requirements for students wishing to apply to the Honors program can be found at www2.austin.cc.tx.us/honors, via email at honors@austincc.edu, or via phone by calling Judy at 223.3255.
Steps to follow in creating a new honors course can be found at www2.austincc.edu/honors, via email at honors@austincc.edu, or via phone by calling Judy at 223.3255.
Adjunct Faculty Committee: The Committee has just finished interviewing several applicants and will arrange more interviews over the summer break.
Professional Development: creating brown bag seminars on teaching (that is, sharing ideas on how we teach a particular topic, such as, the presidency) was discussed. If there are specific teaching topics in either US or TX Govt that you'd like to see on the discussion list, contact Karry Evans. Also contact Karry if you have ideas for other professional development seminars/brown bags.
Faculty Evaluation: Adjunct faculty evaluations have been mailed to faculty. Full-time faculty evaluations are scheduled to be mailed to faculty any day. Faculty should contact Marilyn Mote-Yale or Gaye Lynn Scott if they have questions regarding their evaluations.
Student Evaluation: Frank Garrahan presented the results of our efforts to assess student learning. The students' scores on the essay questions were discussed as were other methods of assessing student learning. The faculty agreed to move to a new system of assessment for the Fall of 2003. The specifics of this method will be developed at a later date.