Annual report for a committee of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Faculty Senate

Ellis, Jennifer T.

English

UTC Scholar

Faculty Senate Learning Support & Auxiliary Services 2016-2017 Report 1 Learning Support & Auxiliary Services Committee  2016-17 Report  Submitted by Jennifer T. Ellis, Chair  The committee met three times over the 2016-17 academic year (9/15/16, 11/29/16, 3/9/17).   We held meetings in the Library and provided Zoom participation for all committee members.  The committee reviewed the responsibilities of the Committee (as stated on the Faculty Senate bylaws website under Article 3-Section 3): Learning Support Services & Auxiliary Services Responsibilities.  The Learning Support Services committee functions as a liaison between the faculty, students, and the offices on campus which provide support for classroom and experiential learning.  It acts as an advisory body to the University administration and to such units as, e.g., the Center for Advising and Student Success, the Library, and the Office of Partnerships and Sponsored Programs, and Records, making recommendations and suggestions with respect to policies, programs, and procedures which are of concern to students and faculty.  The committee’s advisory capacity includes, but is not restricted to, the following: (a) requests for funds from the general University budget, the University of Chattanooga Foundation, and other sources, (b) allocation of funds from the state and other sources to the various departments and programs, (c) general policy and procedural aspects of support services’ operation which affect the nature and type of services available to faculty and students, and (d) provision and utilization of physical facilities ; the committee will have an especial responsibility to ensure the development of a balanced library collection which will meet current and projected teaching and resources needs within available resources. This committee will also advise contract service providers (such as the bookstore, food services, etc.) in the making of general policies and to assist in the communication of these policies to students and faculty.  Composition.  No fewer than twelve (12) faculty members; four (4) students [one {1} of whom shall be a graduate student]; Ex officio: Provost, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, Assistant Provost for Student Retention and Success, Dean of the Library, Director of the Disability Resource Center or designee, designees from each academic support service unit, and a designee of each contracted service unit. After spending each meeting reviewing the charge there was still a lot confusion as to what the deliverables were for this committee so the committee dedicated this year to get a better understanding on the role this committee could place to enhance teaching and learning at UTC. Our main question and sub question were: What deliverables is this committee expected to provide at the end of the academic year? Who will respond to those deliverables? Faculty Senate Learning Support & Auxiliary Services 2016-2017 Report 2 To help with providing more clarity the following email was sent to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee: The Learning Support & Auxiliary Services committee met earlier this semester and had major concerns with our charge (or lack there of). Last year great efforts were made by Dr. Jim Tucker, to get a better handle on what the role of this committee is and what deliverables the committee was supposed to provide to faculty senate. As you know faculty members that agree to serve on these committee are UTCs busy bees and I want to best maximize our time and not meet to meet. It was not clear to any of us after reviewing the description of the committee what exactly we were supposed to do. Are we supposed to contact all of the respective department heads/supervisors of all of the learning support and auxiliary services organizations and have them report to us? If so, since many of these entities are under contract what influence can we have on these already negotiated contracts? I've served on this committee for a few years and after the new library was built there was no clear understanding what the purpose of this committee is and what influence it can have on enhancing UTC for faculty and students.  It was also discussed during our first meeting that there are a lot of redundancy of committees on campus (between faculty senate, Provost and Chancellor committees and task forces, college and department committees, etc.) and we may need to take a step back and get a better understanding on who is doing what on campus so the same people aren't working on the same problems and only one of those respective committee has the "official" say/influence on what change is to be made on campus. I know this is a big task to conduct a committee mapping but it may be something we need to look into and maybe our committee can do that since we are put on hold.  Any guidance you can give so I can share with the committee would be greatly appreciated.  Best,  Jennifer Faculty Senate Executive Committee discussed the charge of this committee on November 7, 2016 and provided the following statement: The primary charge for the Learning Support & Auxiliary Services Committee relates to the Library. The old Learning Support Committee was formerly the Library Committee. That committee represented faculty interests and concerns with regard to books, periodicals, software, subscriptions, services, etc. that the Library purchased for faculty and student use. That is really the majority of the committee's work. We merged the Faculty Senate Learning Support & Auxiliary Services 2016-2017 Report 3 Auxiliary Services Committee into that committee a few years ago because: (1) the main contracted service the Auxiliary Service Committee dealt with was the bookstore, which the Senate believed had similar issues that faculty cared about, and (2) the Auxiliary Services Committee really did not do much so it was not much of an additional workload. The executive committee also agreed committee “mapping” should be done.  Learning Support and Auxiliary Services committee members said the tasks of conducting a university wide committee mapping was out of our scope but they were willing to provide information about related committees if requested. Subsequently, Faculty Senate Executive Committee sent the following email:  Dear Colleagues,  At the request from the Committee on Committees, the Faculty Senate has authorized the formation of an ad hoc committee.  This group will study the variety and charges of committees on campus to develop a university-wide mapping of committees (faculty, university, ad hoc, etc.). Charlene Simmons, Jamie Harvey, and Virginia Cairns have already agreed to serve for this important task, and as chair of this committee, I request four additional members of the faculty to join us. Thus far, CAS, CHEPS, and Library are represented and we hope for college-wide participation.   I anticipate the work to be completed during the Spring semester, wrapping up to report to the Faculty Senate on April 20, 2017.  Thank you for your consideration, Gretchen  In an effort to provide more clarity for the various departments and organizations that this committee supports we held a meeting on March 9, 2017. We invited all the department heads and administrators that represent all the organizations that are listed on the UTC website under Learning/Academic Support and Auxiliary Services so we can get a better understanding of which departments fit under this umbrella and how we can best support them. Included in the email invitation to all leaders were links to external review websites that many current and potential students use to learn about the UTC experience and see if there were any unresolved issues this committee could help them solve: • https://niche.com/ o https://colleges.niche.com/university-of-tennessee----chattanooga/ • https://www.cappex.com/ o https://www.cappex.com/colleges/The-University-of-Tennessee-at-Chattanooga  Faculty Senate Learning Support & Auxiliary Services 2016-2017 Report 4 Each department provided a 2-3 minute overview of their organization/department and any issues that our committee can best support with respect to enhancing classroom and experiential learning. The organizations were as follows: ▪ Library (provided an overview and on September 15, 2016 and deferred to that report) ▪ Disability Resource Center (provided an overview and on September 15, 2016 and deferred to that report) ▪ Academic Support Offices ▪ Challenger Center-Perry Storey • Looking for research collaborations on STEM and STEAM projects (e.g. Grants) • Team building (project-based learning activities) for departments on campus • Expanding experiential learning activities for students • Help highlight the Center and host events to help bring more awareness for faculty, students and staff  • Academic Affairs: Academic Support Areas • Enrollment Services-Yancy Freeman • Records • Career Center • Discussed having a four-year career model for students from start to finish (during the applications process to graduation) • Streamlining processes on internships to have a campus wide database and management process • Center for Advisement  • Discussed using this committee to serve on early adopters of new advisement software that is adapted to help serve as ambassadors. • Encourage all members to complete the faculty advisor training ▪ Research and Sponsored Programs-Meredith Perry • Help serve on the Provost Research Awards for undergraduate and graduate students to serve as reviewers. • Support with Research Dialogues which has grown from one to two days and will most likely be three days next year. ▪ Student Success- (This organization no longer exist) David Rausch ▪ Center for Academic and Innovative Technologies (This department no longer exist but Tony Parsley was present via Zoom in the event there were any questions Dr. Rausch could no address) ▪ Walker Center for Teaching and Learning-Dawn Ford • Support on-going Think Achieve and experiential learning activities • Already has an advisory board Faculty Senate Learning Support & Auxiliary Services 2016-2017 Report 5 o Auxiliary Services- Tyler Forrest & Michelle Prince ▪ MocsCard Office for ID Cards ▪ Parking Services ▪ Has a Parking Authority Committee with faculty members currently serving on this committee ▪ Transportation ▪ Real Estate Management ▪ UTC Bookstore ▪ Including textbook cost in the cost of the class (requested by the School of Education, UTK has saved $1.5 Million, UTC estimates for pilot would be $350,000) ▪ Currently looking to establish a bookstore committee (which use to be one of the functions of this committee) ▪ Aramark Food Services ▪ New contract is coming up in the Fall 2018 and this committee can help support the evaluation of new vendors ▪ UTC Graphics and Mail Services ▪ Contract extension for Ricoh is coming up and committee members can help service on this committee ▪ Campus Vending ▪ Carta Campus Shuttle ▪ Visitor Center Although many of these organizations/departments already have an established advisory board, moving forward leaders agreed to contact this committee when faculty input is needed during their decision making process. All departments/organizations were receptive to any feedback committee members provided (most of the feedback was solicited by faculty from their students). Gretchen Potts attended this meeting and was able to see and hear the vastness of the charge. She stated once the committee on committee has their committee mapping completed the executive team will review what the deliverables should be for all committees to ensure committees can have an impact on enhancing UTC. Moving forward it is recommended that the next chair get a firm understanding of the charge and deliverable for this committee. It was mentioned that this committee can help highlight what each of the represented organizations/departments are doing with respect to enhancing teaching and experiential learning to faculty at large as there appears to be a communication breakdown and many are not aware of on-going efforts. This year we made gains on determining who the committee supports and were able to identify some opportunity areas but it was not until our March meeting. It is also suggested to review and update the information with respect to Ex-officio members as many of the position titles have changed and there is some redundancy of positions that should also be explored (e.g. Provost, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs could be an either/or versus a both/and as currently stated). Faculty Senate Learning Support & Auxiliary Services 2016-2017 Report 6 Committee Members 9/15/16 11/29/16 3/9/17 Voting Members X X X Ellis, Jennifer EDUC, Chair    Bailey, Andrew HHP X X X Bell, W. Michael LIB X X X Burke-Smalley, Lisa MGT X X X Cusack, Britt NURS X   Giles, David BIOL X X X Hori, Makiko SOC  X X Jeffers, Gaye THSP X X X Lee, John CHEM X X X McAllister, Deborah, EDUC X   Myers, Betsy PHYT X   Smith, Joyce ENGL    Tobias, Robyn NURS X   Usrey, Spencer ACC X   Yang, Li CPSC      Non-Voting Members   X 4 undergraduate students    Lisa Brady-1 graduate student    Ex-officio: Provost   X Ex-Officio:  Associate Provost for Academic Affairs-Dr. Rausch X   Ex-Officio:  Assistant Provost for Student Retention and Success-Dr. Stuart Benkert  X X  Ex-Officio:  Dean of the Library    Ex-Officio:  Director of the Disability Resource Center or designee    X Ex-Officio:  Designees from each academic support service unit   X Ex-Officio:  Designee of each contracted service unit  

Learning Support and Auxiliary Services Committee report, 2016-2017

https://scholar.utc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&amp;context=faculty-senate-committee-reports

Learning Support and Auxiliary Services Committee report, 2016-2017

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

UTC Scholar