COMMITTEE:           Academic Awards Committee

 

MEETING DATE:    Nov. 1, 2001

 

PERSON PRESIDING:      Karl Wuensch, Chair

 

REGULAR MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:       Rose,Allen, Ellen Arnold, C. E. Boklage, Lou Everett, Jeffrey Phipps

 

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:    Rick Niswander, Max Poole, Mark Taggart

 

OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE:        Lori Lee

 

ACTIONS OF MEETING

 

Agenda Item: Approval of October minutes

 

Discussion:  Two corrections were made for clarification.

 

Action Taken:  The corrected minutes were approved.

 

Assigned additional duties to:

 

Agenda Item:  A draft of the document for Selection Procedures for Chancellor Award for Outstanding Teaching and Robert L. Jones Award for Outstanding Teaching was distributed to the committee by Lori Lee.

 

Discussion:  There was brief discussion of the wording of the Award title and of the limitations on numbers of nominees in item 1.

 

Action Taken: No changes were made.

 

Assigned additional duties to:  Karl Wuensch will present the document to the Faculty Senate for approval.

 

Agenda Item:  Update procedures/criteria for Research/Creative Activity Awards

 

Discussion:  The two types of awards (5-year and lifetime) and the four-year cycle was reviewed for the committee.  The history of objections to the categories for the award applications (Academic Library Services/Medical School/7 Professional Schools one year, and Health Sciences Library/Arts and Sciences/3 Professional Schools in alternate years) were reviewed; most center on the difficulties of comparing applicants across such different categories.  Several alternate groupings were discussed, including the proposal to regroup as Arts and Humanities; Social Sciences; and Natural Sciences and Math, which was previously presented to the Faculty Senate and rejected.  The committee agreed that none of the potential groupings solved the problem of comparing applicants across unrelated disciplines.  It was suggested that, in light of the fact that Tom Feldbush has agreed to fund double the number of awards, categories be dropped altogether, allowing applicants to apply more frequently.  There was general agreement among committee members that this would simplify procedures and allow the selection committee to make decisions based solely on the contributions of each applicant to their own field.

 

A letter composed by Chuck Boklage outlining suggestions for putting together application materials for a specific applicant was distributed.  There was some discussion of whether some such guidelines should become a part of the proposed  changes.  The committee agreed that such an informal document could be useful in the selection procedures, but that the choice of what to include in the portfolio should remain up to individual applicants.

 

Action Taken:  None at this time.

 

 

Assigned additional duties to:  Max Poole will confirm with Tom Feldbush that the awards will be doubled, given the most recent budget cuts.  Mark Taggart will informally float the idea of doing away with application categories with members of the Faculty Senate to get their responses.  Karl Wuensch will revise the original document as a preliminary draft and circulate among the committee members.

ACTIONS OF MEETING

 

Agenda Item:   Suggested change in the format used to report SOIS results for those seeking teaching awards

 

Action Taken:  Tabled for the next meeting

 

NEXT MEETING:   

 

ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED:       

 

Approval of November Minutes

Change in format of SOIS results for teaching award applications