SPIG Minutes for Friday, May 7th, 2004

10-11:10 AM

Attendants: Debbie Bordelon, Bart Everson, Michelle B. Falgoust, Susan Fredine, David Lanoue, and Todd Stanislav.

The minutes of the 4-23-04 meeting were reviewed and approved.

Update on Consultants: The group discussed having a conference call with the consultants and agreed to schedule it for Monday, May 24, sometime between 9 AM and 3 PM. Todd will contact the consultants to arrange the call.

The group would like to discuss and plan for the conference call at its Friday, May 21st meeting.

The group agreed to continue to meet each Friday this month at 10 AM.

Aspects of the Center's Infrastructure: The group focused their attention on the infrastructure that is needed to support the Center, beginning with the staff and faculty. Todd listed the faculty and staff involved in the Center. Staff (all full-time):

Faculty (all part-time):

There was discussion about having a director who is a member of the faculty and is involved in teaching. The advantages (e.g., credibility with colleagues, better understanding of teaching and learning issues, classroom application or testing of what's learned, promoted, or valued in the Center) and disadvantages (e.g., workload, time taken away from directing the Center) were also discussed. There was also discussion of the director overseeing each CAT staff and faculty member's responsibilities without an associate and that having an associate would be useful. Further discussion of the possible need for an associate director will occur once the group has a full sense of what tasks, projects, etc. can, should, or could be done or improved upon in the Center. This position would allow for continuity in the Center.

The group recognized the need for a person with experience and expertise in teaching and learning (i.e., pedagogy, teaching techniques, learning theory, learning styles).

Finally, the group considered having three faculty involved in the Center's faculty infrastructure, each with 25% release time, as opposed to having fewer faculty members with more release time. The group noted that the responsibilities, experience, and skills needed to direct the course portfolio working group, for example, may be and probably are different than those needed to direct the Communities Initiative. The group considered it important that CAT faculty have an office in the Center.

One-on-One Consulting Function: Todd noted that the Center does not play, except in cases of funded faculty projects, an active role in providing one-on-one help to faculty on teaching and learning questions, problems, etc. He noted that many centers like the CAT have this as a part of their work. The group will return to this idea when it considers the "programs" aspect of the Center's infrastructure.

— Minutes respectfully submitted by Michelle Falgoust,
Administrative Assistant in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching

See also: SPIG