Committee on Academic Development/Elective Academic Programs

Annual Report for the Committee on Academic Development/Elective Academic Programs for 2021/2022

 

Telephone: 718-281-5274

Email: rakpinar@qcc.cuny.edu

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MEMBERS (2021-2022)

Rezan Akpinar, Health, Physical Education and Dance (2023)

Joanne Chang, Music(2022)

Rondi Davies, Department of Biological Sciences and Geology(2023)

Melisa Dennihy, English Department(2023)

Crystal Moscat, Academic Advisement(2022)

Lyubomir I. Boyadzhiev , Mathematics and Computer Sciences(2024)

Carlene Byfield, Nursing(2024)

Rex Taibu, Physics(2022)

Michael Pullin, Academic Affairs, President's Liaison

Jenifer Klein - Office of Student Conduct 

Mark Ulrich - Steering Committee Designee

There were no student representatives attending meetings.

II) MEETING TIMES

The committee members met eight (7) times during 2021-2022: September 16^h, 2021, October^th, 2021, November 24^th, 2021, February 10^th, 2022, March 10^th, 2022 April 13^th, 2022, May 12^th, 2022

III) WEBPAGE

All agenda, minutes, and year-end reports have been updated on the college website for  the academic period of 2021-2022 by the Chairperson, Dr. Rezan Akpinar.

IV) ACTIVITIES: 

 a)Student Faculty Evaluation Form changes:

Faculty Senate approved the changes proposed to Student Evaluation Form of the Faculty. Changes will go into effect Fall 2021 semester. Questions changes were made to the online Student Evaluation of the Faculty Form according to results of the faculty Survey done March 22, 2021.  Survey was presented and approved by the Faculty Sennate.

Concerns raised by the faculty senate were on use of two forms, and request was to merge two forms together by the Steering Committee was discussed but committee could not come to conclusive remedy. 

Committee concern on when and how Student Evaluation of the Faculty were administered. Committee reached out to Ms. Sangeeta.  Ms. Sangeeta email stated – Evaluation of the faculty sample is attached to our email. Evals were sent out May 2nd with the following instructions.

Committee felt that instructions were’t clear that different sections were to have been completed based on instructional modality, but the instructions were not changed in time. The Committee hopes that this can be changed for next semester.

Following suggestions were discussed by the committee;

• Perhaps IT can only send the correct form to students based on the course modality in CUNYFirst. Suggestion from Steering Committee to make it modality-agnostic, but Committee does not think this is possible.
• Targeting it may be more work for IT, but seems best to garner the most student responses.
• Having a logic form would keep number of questions limited while keeping them relevant to modality.
• Multiple instructor format could also be accounted for. This would require initial setup, but then less work to send out the form.

b) Discussion of committee charges: Following charges were evaluated by committee members. 

1. Elective programs include CUNY BA/BS Program, Honors Program, and International / Study Abroad programsQuestion on Elective programs were discussed , Dr. Pullin explained the role of the electives within the programs. 
2. Committee should compile date on number of students participating in elective programs and report back to Senate 
3. Transfer: Discussion of a spring workshop for faculty on how transfer works and on using Transfer Explorer (in collaboration with Academic Affairs)
4. Possible Spring 2022 Workshop for faculty on Honors Contracts, UR Day, and the Spring Student Symposium to increase awareness of the faculty. 

c) Committee name change and logo: 

The committee decided not to change the current name of the committee, but to officially use the abbreviation “ADC,” which is also the abbreviation that will appear on our logo. Committee members voted on approval of abbreviation "ADC" unanimously

Discussion was had and justifications offered as to why the name should remain the same and the abbreviation “ADC” should be used.

d) Evaluations of the tenured faculty 

Committee received a letter from Dr. Philip Pecorino Faculty Executive Committee,

"I request your assistance.  I need to review the actions of the Senate with regard to the approving of the form used for student evaluations of faculty.   I believe the recent approval was of the form itself and not the manner for conducting the evaluations.  I do not remember any Senate action to approve of conducting the student evaluations for each and every class regardless of the faculty member’s agreement to participate.

Please send me any information you may have on this matter.  Here is the reason why.

 Many faculty are not aware that all faculty are being evaluated in this online manner by students in their classes and the results are available to all P&B’s.  This evaluation process involves all faculty and that it is not based on faculty agreeing to participate as had been the case pre pandemic at QCC?

Sangeeta has sent(see below) that:

Student evaluations are submitted electronically and shared with you by your department at the conclusion of the semester, after all grades have been submitted to the Registrar. The Office of Human Resources will maintain student evaluations in your personal personnel file.

 Sangeeta has also claimed that these evaluations of any and all faculty is mandatory in the Fall semesters and optional in the Spring. I am now searching for the source of this requirement.  I do not recall any action of the Senate mandating such.

 We are aware that at the end of each semester many faculty not involved in the personnel review process, as they are not up for reappointment , tenure or promotion,  are not sent the results of their student evaluations and so they are unaware of them.  As this is the case then what good is it to be doing this for them?

 I was under the impression that faculty needed to agree to participate and many who are fully tenured and promoted do not do so.   Now it turns out that they are all being evaluated by students in each and every one of their classes whether they volunteer to be so evaluated or not and that their Department P&B members have access to the results and they are not “shared” with them.

 I also wish to determine if any department chair may have access to any faculty member’s personal personnel file even when they are not up for review before the College P&B.   The results are in those files.

 For now I ask for information on any actions of the Senate touching on these student evaluations of faculty.

You may review the exchange I have had on this thus far with Dean Palmer below.  We are each looking into this further.

Committee members looked over and discussed the matter in our meeting and came to a conclusions that administration of  Student Evaluation of the Faculty Forms were not within our charges. Following letter was presented back to Dr. Pecorino 

"I share your concern on faculty evaluation forms being administered without faculty consent. This was one of the concerns of the ADC committee as well but administration of the evaluation form is not within the scope of Academic Development Committee charges. Our charge is to survey the faculty on their satisfaction with the form and report our findings to the Steering committee as well as to Faculty Senate. With Covid-19 and classes moving to online platform we were asked to evaluate the Online Student evaluation form, survey faculty and recommend changes. We worked with eLearning committee to full fill the request. 

 We requested a revision of the form (addition of a Not Applicable column) Fall 2020, and then presented our Survey findings on Spring 2021 to Faculty Senate. At the October 2021 meeting of the Faculty Senate, changes to the Student Evaluation Forms of the Faculty according to survey findings was approved. At that meeting there were no discussions on administration of the Survey."

Further research by Dr. Pecorino was discussed in detail, taking into consideration the following 

• Many evaluations were not completed/opened by faculty. 2/3^rd of evaluations were completed.
• Some faculty was unaware that they were being evaluated.
• This issue was placed on the agenda of Academic Senate evaluation proposal.
• As of right now, faculty members with tenure can opt-out of being evaluated. Evaluations are not equal between departments. Some departments do not make it mandatory to provide student evaluations for their classes while others mandate it.
• Evaluations currently do not give a fair representation on what is happening in the classroom. Should create surveys and evaluations suitable for Online/Hybrid/In person classes.
• Discussed having at least one evaluation per year even if faculty is tenure.
• ADC recommended that personnel files should only be reviewed by faculty and chairperson and limited access should be given to P&B. They should not have access to all evaluations unless given permission.
• ADC discussed conducting a survey for faculty and staff to give their opinion and feedback on evaluations. We will then take the majority votes and present that to the faculty.

 ADC members unable to come up with conclusion regarding evaluations of tenured faculty. Will review student evaluations or Faculty policy sent by Philip Pecorino to vote before next meeting in March.

 

On our March meeting;  

• ADC agreed that the student evaluation of tenured faculty is not within our charges as a committee. Evaluation of the tenured faculty have been turned over to Faculty Executive Committee with an explanatory letter that was addressed to Academic Senate Steering Committee as well ADC committee members.
• Following was stated in the letter. “ADC would like to conduct a Spring 2022 survey regarding evaluations. The survey is open to all faculty and is sent out by CETL, Academic Affairs and ADC. Faculty input plays a role in the revision of the document. To prevent bias with the wording of the questions, the survey goes through multiple revisions and is administered and finalized by the Institutional Research and Assessment Office. (per email sent to Dr. Pecorino on 3/12/22)”

e) Faculty development workshops 

a) Co-sponsored, co-organized, and co-facilitated two semester-long SOTL pedagogy series (run together with CETL) in which 31 faculty participated to learn how to publish their own pedagogical projects. 

b)Academic Development Committee worked with Accessibility Committee on –SSD student panel 

Panel for SSD students to assist faculty in identifying students in need of help and extra accommodations. The students will be answering questions regarding their perspective of academic inclusion. Accessibility Committee is in the process of identifying students that are going to be on the panel. Students will be given a consent with questions that will be asked. Faculty will not be allowed to ask the panelists questions. Faculty will be allowed to observe. A survey will be given to the faculty to solicit training ideas for faculty development on inclusion of students. Certificate may be given to faculty upon completion of selected training program.

Accessibility Committee – SSD student panel – took place on May 6, 2022, 2:30 – 3:30. Went well. Students shared experiences. New faculty awareness. Want to repeat going forward.

c)ADC ico-sponsored two workshops with the eLearning Committee:

1. Workshop on 12/1 on Markdown
2. Workshop on 12/8 on eLearning modalities (asynchronous, synchronous, hybrid)

V. New Committee Members for 2022-2023

1. Rezan Akpinar, Health, Physical Education and Dance - Chairperson (2023)
2. Rondi Davies, Department of Biological Sciences and Geology (2023)
3. Melissa Dennihy, English Department - Vice-Chair (2023)
4. Lyubomir I. Boyadzhiev, Mathematics and Computer Sciences (2024)
5. Carlene Byfield, Nursing (2024)
6. Jenifer Klein - Office of Student Conduct (2024)
7. Arthur Abramov, Academy Advisement (2025)
8. Kevin Kolack, Chemistry - Secretary (2025)
9. Danny Mangra, Engineering Technology (2025)

VI. Election

Elections – Chairperson, Vice-chair, Secretary.

Rezan volunteered to continue as Chair. Melisa volunteered to continue as vice-Chair. Kevin volunteered to serve as Secretary. Slate approved by unanimous consent. Attendees of the meeting were Arthur Abramov (new member), Rezan Akpinar (Chair), Lyubomir Boyadzhiev, Rondi Davies, Melissa Dennihy (Co-Chair), Kevin Kolack (new member) 

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