COMMITTEE: Calendar

MEETING DATE: November 30, 2006

PERSON PRESIDING: John Crammer

ATTENDEES: Jonathan Dembo, Johna Faulconer, John Crammer, Stephen Dock, Shanan Gibson, Donna Kain

EX-OFFICIO: Austin Bunch

VISITORS: Michael Poteat, Chuck Rich

The meeting was called to order at 11:00 am in Rawl 142 by John Crammer. Johna Faulconer moved (Shanan Gibson seconded) approval of the minutes for the October 26 meeting as submitted. Motion passed.

Michael Poteat and Chuck Rich attended the meeting to discuss placing the dates for administering the Student Opinion of Instruction Survey [SOIS] in the academic calendar. The survey is done during the last full week of classes for face-to-face classes and during the last two weeks for DE classes. The recommendation that the dates be included in the calendar is based on a request from a faculty member. Gibson said this might add more clutter to the calendar. Crammer said that some faculty members do the surveys earlier than the given date. Poteat replied that some faculty members are not around during the last week of classes. He added that the SOIS will move to the web if the Chancellor approves the change. The last full week date formula for the SOIS is Faculty Senate policy and used to be in the faculty handbook. Faulconer said that as a new faculty member she did not know when the SOIS was supposed to be administered. Stephen Dock said that in Foreign Languages an administrative assistant says when to do the survey. Donna Kain said that the SOIS is not done in the summer unless requested by the faculty member. Poteat said it was not done last summer. Poteat said that the SOIS is never official in the summer (this is a Faculty Senate decision: Academic Standards does not consider it official). For the past twenty years the faculty has never been told to do the SOIS in the summer; summer is different and not all faculty teach in the summer. Gibson said that faculty members are not sure that summer is comparable. Poteat said that SOIS is supposed to be only one measure of instruction; units can develop additional measures subject to approval by the Vice Chancellor. Kain said that her unit has programs taught only on-line. Poteat said that the SOIS gets less emphasis than in the past and rightfully so. Gibson said that it is important in teaching awards. Poteat said that he would not be upset if the dates were not added to the calendar. Faulconer said she had her students evaluate the DE survey. Poteat said the DE survey has an interesting history; it was developed by the Graduate School for quality assurance purposes. Gibson asked Poteat and Rich how badly they wanted the dates in the calendar. Poteat said they have compared the DE and face-to-face surveys on question 10 and found no difference. They have done matched pairs and there was only one significant difference in six times they were compared (the largest difference was 0.2.) The significant difference occurred when the Bonferroni adjustment in significance level for multiple tests was used. This adjustment effectively raises the standard of proof provided. (A Bonferroni adjustment is a statistical correction for the multiple comparisons that are made when a researcher must make a large number of investigations simultaneously on the same data set.) Poteat said that he was pleasantly surprised by the DE survey; most of the variance is between students. Poteat pointed out that the dates are publicized by other means. Crammer pointed out that in the calendar for fall 2008, currently being considered by the committee, the last full week of classes occurs before Thanksgiving. Faulconer said that as a new faculty member, it would not have mattered if she had been told the dates in faculty orientation. Poteat noted that it takes a lot of work to prepare 3500 packages of documents for the SOIS. The consensus of the committee was to not put the dates in the calendar. Poteat and Rich left the meeting.

Austin Bunch reported on issues relating to a Memorial Day holiday and ECU’s plans to honor veterans. He said that the Executive Council met yesterday but took no action. The council wanted to wait until they hear from faculty and staff. He asked whether the committee had done faculty and student surveys concerning the proposed Memorial Day holiday. The earliest date when Memorial Day might become a holiday is 2008-2009. He said that the council is considering how to honor veterans in the meantime. Gibson asked whether the council preferred either Memorial Day or Veterans Day. Bunch replied that they are considering only Memorial Day. State holidays have rules. The plan is to go to the Staff Senate and ask their thoughts. This year the staff will be expected to work on Friday, December 29 unless they take the day as a vacation. Gibson said we can launch a survey of faculty and students in the spring. Kain said we can use a survey tool. Gibson said she could create the survey herself, dump the responses in an access database, and pull the results out. Bunch said there are childcare and transportation issues. He said that Marilyn Sheerer attended the Executive Council meeting and is aware of the issues concerning orientation and housing for the summer sessions. He will ask her about the situation; she will know the impact on orientation and housing.

The committee next discussed the dates for removal of incomplete grades. Crammer said the deadline in the calendar is for students only; the deadline for faculty is one week later. The reason the issue arose is that a faculty member was upset. Gibson and Crammer both pointed out that the Registrars Office has been flexible with deadlines in the past. Crammer said the calendar is more for informing students. Kain suggested that we may need a separate calendar for faculty. She asked whether we could create an unofficial calendar for faculty. Jonathan Dembo pointed out that if we don’t do anything, we still have a disgruntled faculty member. Crammer asked whether he should e-mail the person with our explanation and ask whether they want to talk with the committee.

The discussion turned to the calendars the committee is working on. Bunch said that the task force anticipates commencement will still be held on Saturdays. Crammer distributed a handout with commencement information for other universities in the UNC system. Bunch emphasized that it is important for students to know that they graduate from the university and not from a particular college, school, or department. The spring ceremony will be outside.

It was decided that meetings in the spring will be at 2:00 on the fourth Friday of every month.

Kain said that she had contacted Delilah Jackson in the Pitt County School system in order to coordinate calendars. Crammer briefly went over some handouts concerning exam counts (and the effect of the light exam day), administrator reaction to starting fall semester classes on a Monday, and state holiday rules and holidays for staff in higher education.

The next meeting of the committee will be on Friday, January 26 at 2:00. The committee will work on the 2008-2009 calendar.

Meeting adjourned at 11:50 am.