Committee on Biological Sciences
Notes from the "Workshop of the Executive Committees
of the Academic Advisory Committees"
After a brief introduction Dorothy Zinsmeister discussed several handouts including the following:
- Goals & Objectives (Priorities) of the USG Office of Academic Affairs
- FY 2000 Faculty Development Calendar
- Web pages for Faculty Development & Academic Committees
- http://deai.peachnet.edu/calendars/
- http://www.usg.edu/admin/comm/
- Electronic Submission of AAC meeting minutes
- Position statement of faculty teaching loads/workloads
We were encouraged to send our meeting dates to Dorothy so they could be posted to the web site.
Teaching & Learning Grants have been suspended for this year. Money will be spent in other ways.
Dr. Muyskens then talked and challenged the Advisory Committees to do the following:
- Expand to a cross-discipline view
- Look for ways to promote the Professional Growth & Development of the faculty in our discipline; perhaps through the grants to the AAC's
- Become a united voice for the profession
- Develop discipline-specific reactions to the current and future changes in education
- Address Workload Issues in the face of pedagogical innovations (e.g. distance learning)
- Examine Area F for the following:
- Appropriate mix of competencies
- Distance delivery of all or part
- Examine the major requirements
- Foster the Scholarship of Teaching by looking for "exemplars"; modules of activities, concepts, materials, etc. that could be made available electronically for all to use; these would not be whole courses but rather individual "concept modules"
A question was raised about development of a new funding formula since the old one was based on quarter credit hours. This is being worked on. However, first priority is a hybrid formula that does not penalize us for the enrollment drop experienced as a result of semester conversion.
A focus group of faculty that have used banner extensively is being formed to discuss issues related to that program. The group will be small (8-12 faculty) but there will be a listserve (or bulletin board) to which others can direct comments and suggestions.
The System Office is considering extending the technology fee to all institutions. The potential issue is how this will affect HOPE scholarships since they pay all mandatory fees. Some thought is being given to taking non-education related fees (e.g. athletic fees) out of HOPE-eligible status in exchange for the technology fee.
The System Office is also considering whether or not to have students pay for all credit hours taken rather than give them a free ride after 12 hours. There are pros & cons to this and they are looking for input.
Muyskens then talked about the new Gwinnett Center and how it will operate.
Rick Skinner then talked about the Georgia G.L.O.B.E.