Annual Report for 2015-16
Academic Development/Elective Academic Programs
Telephone: 718-281-5494
Email: themrajbenny@qcc.cuny.edu
To: Joel Kuszai, Secretary, Steering Committee, Academic Senate
From: Tirandai Hemraj-Benny, Chairperson
Date: June 1st, 2016
Subject: Annual Report for the Committee on Academic Development/Elective Academic
Programs for 2015/2016
I) COMMITTEE MEMBERS (2015-2016)
- Tirandai Hemraj-Benny (Chairperson), Chemistry
- Susan McLaughlin (Secretary), Biological Sciences
- Emily Berry, Health, Physical Education and Dance
- Yusuf Gurtas, Mathematics & Computer Science
- Susan Jacobowitz*, English
- Nicole Lopez-Jantzen, History
- Neera Mohess, Library
- Ryan Moore, Social Sciences
- Vazgen Shekoyan, Physics
- Sandra Palmer, Academic Affairs, President's Liaison
*Dr. Susan Jacobowitz requested to be removed from the ADEAP Committee since she was unable to attend all meetings.
II) MEETING TIMES
1. The committee members met seven (7) times during 2015-2016: 4th Sept. 2015; 7th Oct. 2015; 11th Nov. 2015; 2nd Dec. 2015; 3rd Feb. 2016; 2nd March and 11th May 2016.
2. During Fall 2015, doodle surveys were conducted, and meeting times were decided based on maximum availability. The spring teaching schedules for all members were collected to determine a common meeting time for the spring 2016 semester. Since some members were unwilling to attend meetings on days they do not teach; a common meeting time was set for Wednesdays at 1:00 pm. The Committee on Committees were informed that in the future the ADEAP will meet on the first Wednesday of the month at 1:00 pm. This information is updated on the committee’s webpage.
III) WEBPAGE
- David Moretti posted all agendas and minutes for fall 2015-spring 2016.
- Ms. Constance Williams was contacted to obtain past annual reports of the ADEAP Committee, which was then posted on the committee’s webpage.
IV) STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES
No student representatives attended the ADEAP Committee’s meetings during the fall 2015 and spring 2016. Several emails were sent to the President of the Queensborough Student Senate about the meeting times.
V) ACTIVITIES: COLLABORATIONS
CETL
- Dr. Kathleen Landy, Director of CETL, attended several meetings to discuss offering a workshop to full-time faculty and adjuncts for faculty development.
- The ADEAP Committee members created a survey to determine which topics adjuncts and full-time faculty would be most interested in.
- The survey was transformed into Google Forms by Ms. Neera Mohess, which was then sent to all adjuncts and full-time faculty on January 27th.
- The results were tabulated by Ms. Neera Mohess. (Attachment A).
- Based on the results, the ADEAP Committee, in collaboration with CETL, decided to offer a workshop titled “Structuring Feedback to Improve Student Writing.” Due to Dr. Landy’s availability, the date of the workshop was set to be on Friday, 11th March 2016, between 2:00 pm and 3:30 pm. The ADEAP Committee sent an invitation to all faculty (Attachment B).
- Dr. Landy created an agenda for the workshop (Attachment C), and Dr. Yusuf Gurtas created an exit survey (Attachment D).
- Since only one person RSVP, other than the ADEAP Committee members, Dr. Landy canceled the workshop.
COMMITTEE ON E-LEARNING
- The chairperson of the eLearning Committee, Dr. Kevin Kolack, was contacted to establish a possible collaboration.
- I met with Barbara Saur from the eLearning Committee on 11th April 2016 to further discuss a collaborative project with their Brown Bag lunch series.
VI) COMMITTEE MEMBERS (2016-2017)
- Tirandai Hemraj-Benny, Chemistry
- Emily Berry, Health, Physical Education and Dance
- Yusuf Gurtas, Mathematics & Computer Science
- Mirna Lekic, Music
- Nicole Lopez-Jantzen, History
- Neera Mohess, Library
- Vazgen Shekoyan, Physics
- Anuradha Srivastava, Biological Sciences & Geology
- Jodi Van Der Horn-Gibson, Speech Communication & Theatre Arts
- Sandra Palmer, Academic Affairs, President's Liaison
VII) ELECTION
On 11th May 2016 at 1:30 pm elections for Chairperson and Secretary were held.
Nominations:
(a) Tirandai Hemraj-Benny was nominated by Emily Berry to continue as Chairperson. The nomination was seconded by Nicole Lopez-Jantzen.
(b) Mirna Lekic was nominated by Tirandai Hemraj-Benny to serve as Secretary. The nomination was seconded by Emily Berry.
Elections were held by secret ballot. 8 voting committee members were present.
(a) Chairperson: 8 votes for Tirandai Hemraj-Benny 0 abstentions
Note: 1 vote for Tirandai Hemraj-Benny was discarded, as it was a vote by a non-continuing committee member.
(b) Secretary: 8 votes for Mirna Lekic 0 abstentions
VIII) ACTION PLAN FOR 2016-2017
The committee members reviewed the specific charges from the Steering Committee. It was determined that many of the charges are currently assigned to other committees and offices on campus.
Thus, the committee proposes the following action plan for 2016-2017:
Since there are nine (9) committee members, and there are several Bylaws Charges and Steering Committee Charges, we will form three subcommittees. These three (3) subcommittees will specifically address:
1. Updating Documents
a) The Bylaws Charge for 2017-2018
b) The Guide for Committee on Academic Development Members
Members who volunteered: Tirandai Hemraj-Benny, Nicole Lopez-Jantzen, Anuradha Srivastava and Sandra Palmer
2. Student Evaluation of Faculty
Review, evaluate, and report recommendations to the Steering Committee and the Academic Senate.
Members who volunteered: Yusuf Gurtas, Neera Mohess, and Vazgen Shekoyan
3. Bi-weekly or Monthly Newsletter/video
Write a newsletter or create a video on upcoming events which promote faculty development. The committee members can contact the person(s) offering the event or workshop for additional description to establish and promote collaborations across disciplines. Events will be categorized according to the Academies.
Members who volunteered: Emily Berry, Mirna Lekic and Jodi Van Der Horn-Gibson.
All nine members will contribute to all three tasks.
