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Committee on Academic Development/Elective Academic Programs

Annual Report for 2016-17

Telephone: 718-281-5494
Email: themrajbenny@qcc.cuny.edu

To: John Talbird, Secretary, Steering Committee, Academic Senate
From: Tirandai Hemraj-Benny, Chairperson
Date: August 18th, 2017
Subject: Annual Report for the Committee on Academic Development/Elective Academic Programs for 2016/2017

I) 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
  • Kathleen Landy, CELT, President's Liaison
  • Christine Jurado, Student Representative

II) MEETING TIMES

The committee members met seven (7) times during 2016-2017: 7th Sept. 2016; 5th Oct. 2016; 4th Nov. 2016; 2nd Dec. 2016; 6th Feb. 2017; 29th March 2017 and 17th May 2017.

III) WEBPAGE

David Moretti posted all agendas and minutes for fall 2016-spring 2017.

IV) STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES

Christine Jurado, a student representative, attended one ADEAP Committee's meeting on March 29th, 2017.

V) ACTIVITIES:

A) Workshops

Student Development

  1. How to Succeed in your General Chemistry Class (CH 151 & CH 127). Rawlric Sumner, Nicholas Carrero, Tirandai Hemraj-Benny and Paul Sideris. Friday, Feb 10, 2017, 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm, S-412. OUTCOME: 19 attendees; Student Club Science Research Alliance co-sponsored the event.

  2. A Workshop on Paid Summer Internship Opportunities. Sharon Lall-Ramnarine and Rawlric Sumner. Friday, Feb 10, 2017, 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm, S-412. OUTCOME: 19 attendees; Student Club Science Research Alliance co-sponsored the event.

  3. General Chemistry Workshop Series. Tirandai Hemraj-Benny. Fridays, Feb 3 to April 27, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm, S-416. OUTCOME: ~12 students attend each Friday from several sections of CH 151; Student Club Science Research Alliance co-sponsors the events.

Faculty Development (Attachment A)

  1. Structuring Feedback to Improve Student Writing. Kathleen Landy. Wednesday, February 15, 2017, 12:10 to 2:00 pm, L-314. OUTCOME: Cancelled due to one RSVP.

  2. Structuring Feedback to Improve Student Writing. Kathleen Landy. Friday, February 17, 2017, from 12:10 to 2:00 pm, L-314. OUTCOME: Cancelled due to no RSVP.

  3. Detecting and Avoiding Plagiarism. Sheila Beck and Denis Bejar. Wednesday, February 22, 2017, 12:10 to 1:30 pm, L-314. OUTCOME: 8 attendees.

  4. Detecting and Avoiding Plagiarism. Sheila Beck and Denis Bejar. Friday, February 24, 2017, from 12:10 to 1:30 pm, L-314. OUTCOME: 7 attendees.

  5. Developing Your Conference Presentation Skills. Jodi Van Der Horn-Gibson, Gail Lewis, Elaine Thompson, Ashlie Klepper. Wednesday, March 15, 2017, from 12:10 to 2:00 pm. L-314. OUTCOME: Cancelled due to a snowstorm.

  6. Developing Your Conference Presentation Skills. Jodi Van Der Horn-Gibson, Gail Lewis, Elaine Thompson, Ashlie Klepper. Friday, December 2, 2016, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. L-314. OUTCOME: no additional attendees other than facilitators and committee members.

B) Student Evaluation of Faculty

As per the charge of the committee: review, evaluate and report to the Academic Senate on the system of student evaluation of faculty, the Committee on Academic Development prepared a survey of faculty regarding the student evaluation form. The survey was sent to all faculty, by email, by the Steering Committee of the Academic Senate in spring 2017.

OUTCOME: 137 Faculty responded. Preliminary analysis can be seen in Attachment B. A more detailed analysis, and a report will be conducted and presented in Fall 2017.

C) Bi-weekly or Monthly Newsletter/video

In the committee's previous action plan for 2016-2017, it was proposed by the committee to write a newsletter or create a video on upcoming events which promote faculty development. OUTCOME: This effort was canceled by the committee due to the college's weekly events calendar.

VI) COMMITTEE MEMBERS (2017-2018)

  • Rezan Akpinar, Health, Physical Education and Dance
  • Merlinda Drini, Engineering Technology
  • Tirandai Hemraj-Benny, Chemistry
  • Nicole Lopez-Jantzen, History
  • Neera Mohess, Library
  • Ilse Schrynemakers, English
  • Vazgen Shekoyan, Physics
  • Anuradha Srivastava, Biological Sciences & Geology
  • Jodi Van Der Horn-Gibson, Speech Communication & Theatre Arts
  • Kathleen Landy, Academic Affairs, President's Liaison

VII) ELECTION

On May 17th, 2017 at 12:30 pm elections for Chairperson and Secretary were held.

Nominations:

  1. Tirandai Hemraj-Benny was nominated by Vazgen Shekoyan to continue as Chairperson. The nomination was seconded by Nicole Lopez-Jantzen.
  2. Neera Mohess was nominated by Tirandai Hemraj-Benny to serve as Secretary.

Elections were held by secret ballot. 7 voting committee members were present.

  1. Chairperson: 7 votes for Tirandai Hemraj-Benny 0 abstentions
  2. Secretary:7 votes for Neera Mohess 0 abstentions

Election Results:

  • Continuing Chairperson: Tirandai Hemraj-Benny
  • Secretary: Neera Mohess

VIII) ACTION PLAN FOR 2017-2018

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 members propose the following action plan for 2017-2018:

  1. Student evaluation of faculty survey: the committee will continue to analyze the data received from the survey which was sent to all faculty during spring 2017 semester. A report will be prepared and submitted to the Steering Committee.

  2. Seminars, lectures, and workshops: the committee will continue to partner with CETL to promote their events on campus. Also, the committee will sponsor an invited speaker in the spring 2018 semester to promote faculty development. The committee will continue to offer student development workshops in collaboration with student activity clubs.

  3. Updating the Bylaws Charge for 2017-2018: the committee members will work towards updating the charge of the committee. It is believed that Charge c, d, and e do not pertain to the current Academic Development/Elective Academic Programs Committee since there are several other committees that are responsible for these tasks.

  4. Updating the Guide for Committee members. The current members will continue to update this document.

Attachments

Attachment A

Attachment B

Committee Links

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