August 29, 2002, 2002 Minutes


Members present: Trudy Banta, Karen Black, Victor Borden, Bob Bringle, Sharon Hamilton, Julie Hatcher, Sara Heiliger, Susan Kahn, Steve MacLaughlin (via phone)

Members absent: none

Discussion of Self-Study Drafts

Trudy noted the importance of widely disseminating drafts of the special emphases self-studies and portfolio materials to various campus groups. She would like to develop a plan to show the self-study around campus so that the NCA team knows that information has been shared and feedback solicited.

The group suggested presenting at faculty assemblies, Faculty Council, and student groups. Trudy added that she had met with Mary Fisher on Faculty Council, and that Mary had some good suggestions for campus dissemination. Vic suggested we begin getting drafts out to the campus this week. We might do this by posting Word documents to the Web.

Julie explained that the Civic Engagement portion is not yet ready to be reviewed; the area that needs most development is "next steps."

Trudy expressed concern over the lack of school level information in the Civic Engagement draft and the current central administration focus. She suggested we ask for school level information in a targeted way.

Trudy said she would share those documents that are ready with the Future Group immediately. Drafts can also be sent to Faculty Council, PRAC, JagNews, CampusScape, Student Life and Diversity, and the Sagamore. We should catalog feedback as it comes in, so that we have evidence that feedback has been incorporated.

Vic suggested that we could set up an email address, such as iport@iupui.edu, for people to send their comments to.

Susan passed out a draft of "Support and Enhance Effective Teaching." She explained that she is trying to tell IUPUI"s "story" in the self-study, while maintaining balance and trying to make sure all groups are represented.

We have been gathering lists of faculty publications on teaching and learning publications from the past 10 years, submitted in response to Trudy"s request to the deans. The responses have been varied and uneven. Susan explained that she was planning on using illustrative examples and not reproducing the whole list.

Bob asked about including grants in this list. Vic suggested asking Research and Sponsored programs to give us a list of grants related to teaching and learning.

Questions to ask the review team need to be drafted for inclusion in the special emphasis self-studies. This type of self-study provides an opportunity to ask for advice and help the campus get some real value out of the accreditation process. Sharon suggested asking the team to suggest "strategies for sustaining innovations that we currently have underway."

Susan suggested switching the order of the phrase "teaching and learning" to "learning and teaching" in the title of the self-study. She asked the group what the higher priority is: teaching or learning. She noted that IUPUI just received an award for its first-year experience programs and added that she plans to highlight the Gateway initiative as an approach to teaching and learning.

Susan is seeking additional examples to link to the Teaching and Learning self-study and is going to type up a list of items she needs for PRAC members today:

  • Examples of 1st year seminars
  • Examples of department- and school-based learning communities
  • Examples of the impact of using specific pedagogies, especially with technology
  • Programs/initiatives in several areas
  • Matrices updates
  • Suggestions for questions to ask NCA at the conclusion of the Teaching and Learning self-study
  • Examples of rewards/incentives for excellent teaching

The Civic Engagement Task Force needs to come up with a similar list of questions. Trudy asked that the Civic Engagement report be in fairly final form by Tuesday, September 3rd.

Bob passed out a matrix depicting the information generated by the Civic Engagement Inventory. Vic suggested that Bob analyze the entries by school participation, coverage of topics, and exemplars. Trudy suggested that it might be helpful for Bob to look at the planning documents and organize his analysis around the goals and objectives there. We also need to be very clear about how we"re defining Civic Engagement, since the term is generally not well-understood.
Performance Indicators

Vic passed out the list of Performance Indicators. He has been working with the representation of these on the Web and making some changes. He asked that Bob and Julie review the measures for Civic Engagement. We need to examine data and make judgments about our performance on each indicator. A PRAC subcommittee will be responsible for the Teaching and Learning performance indicators. Bob suggested that the Civic Engagement Task Force could address the Civic Engagement indicators. The Chancellor"s Diversity Cabinet will look at the diversity indicators.