The
School of Humanities and Graduate Studies
Faculty Meeting Minutes - Minutes for the meeting of November 15, 2005
Lincoln University
School of Humanities & Graduate Studies
Presiding: Dr. G. Willis, Dean
Attending: Professors J K Van Dover, S Chikwem, Button, Hoogeveen, Bhuiyan, Prigg, Whitesel, Flint, Kwame, Leaman, Muzorewa, Maazaoui, Charle Poza, Amos, Chapp, Sonpon, Stine, Worts, Zee & Ms. Pitt. (excused: Drs Garcia & Siddique)
Minutes of the Oct 18, 2005 meeting were approved.
- Dean’s updates:
- The Humanities tutoring program is going well. Dean Willis thanked Dr. Maazaoui and all others who have been participating in the program. Midterm and final grades of students who have come for tutoring will be reviewed to assess the effectiveness of the program. The program will be considered successful if students who were at C- or below are able to achieve a C or better as a final grade. If possible, the program will be extended to two nights a week.
- Middle States Self-Study: Dean Willis reminded faculty that the Middle States committee will be visiting the campus in 2008 and that it will take two years to prepare for this visit. Necessary information will be circulated at the end of the semester.
- Student conduct in the classroom: Dean Willis reported that she was surprised by the unruly conduct of the students when she visited a class the previous week. She advised faculty that they need to take charge of the classroom, and that disruptive students should first be given a warning and if the disruption continues, a written report should be sent to the departmental chair, Dean Willis and Dean Briggs. Faculty should include a statement in their syllabus specifying their expectations concerning classroom behavior.
- University Property: Dean Willis requested that departments develop a form for students and faculty to sign when they borrow university equipment such as cameras specifying that if equipment is damaged or lost, it must be replaced by the borrower.
- Strategic Plan: Departmental plans are in. Goals are being put together for a master plan. The tutoring program has been put in place as part of the improved retention goal. Plans for the Mass Communication Center for Excellence are being implemented. Dr. Bhuiyan, the new director, is working on the program, and plans are in place to hire one or two more professors. The new Writing Proficiency requirement is in place and this year’s class of freshmen will have to fulfill this requirement to graduate. We still need to designate courses in each major as Honors Program courses.
- Human Services FLEX Program:
Dr. Zee gave a report on a new program that is being developed to supplement the MHS program and asked for everyone’s support. These changes are necessary because of the issue of licensure or our graduates. Previously, students have been admitted to the MHS program without having a bachelor’s degree, but these students have not been able to use the MHS to get licensed or to go on to Ph.D. programs. Therefore, it has been decided to develop an accelerated two-year Bachelor of Human Services program for potential students who have been working in the human services field. There is a high demand for such programs and other schools have them, so Lincoln needs to develop a bachelor’s program to stay competitive in this field.
The proposed program would give students 60 credits for assessment of prior learning. This will include 30 credits reflecting Lincoln’s core curriculum, 18 credits of undergraduate human services curriculum, and 12 credits of supervised work experience in human services. This prior learning will be documented in a portfolio. Students will then complete 60 credits of course work in two years: 12 credits per semester for four semesters, and two summer sessions of 6 credits each. Dr. Zee appealed to faculty for help in developing courses geared to adult learners and criteria for portfolio assessment in relation to the core curriculum. It is planned that some of the courses will be offered on-line.
- Mass Communication Internship:
The Department of English and Mass Communication presented a proposal for a new course – Internship in Mass Communication and Journalism. This is a field based course designed to give students hands-on experience in writing, editing, advertising, layout, design and public relations. The proposal was approved.
- New Core Curriculum:
Dean Willis said that we have been asked to express our opinions on what students need in each discipline in the core. Each item was discussed and the school’s decisions were approved as follows:
Freshman Seminar: should be a 3 credit course focusing on study skills and computer skills; content should include history of the university; there should be two tiers – one designed for honors students.
Social Sciences: this component was approved as given.
Humanities: after some discussion possibly designing hybrid religion/philosophy and art/music courses, it was decided that the four intro courses (religion, philosophy, art, and music) should continue to be taught separately and students will choose religion or philosophy and art or music. The World Lit requirement should be one course as stated, but the English department reserves the right to modify the course and is planning to offer a choice of courses for this requirement.
Statistics: after some discussion of the need for statistics/critical reasoning, it was decided that this requirement be dropped in favor of keeping the 1 credit lifetime sports requirement.
Foreign Language/Computer Science requirement: the foreign language requirement was approved, but it was decided that clarification was needed as to what courses would fulfill the computer science requirement.
Academic Enrichment: after some discussion, it was decided to accept this section as is. (there were 3 opposing votes on this)
- Emails:
Dr. Kwame presented a proposal concerning e-mail etiquette and unnecessary attachments. Dean Willis asked faculty to respond to Dr. Kwame on this issue.
Recorded by Susan Chikwem, Department of English and Mass Communication
