April 16

From Curriculum Advisory Committee

Curriculum Advisory Committee

Minutes from the Faculty Curriculum meeting on April 16, 2008.

Faculty/Staff attending: Jeannette Bastian, Jim Baughman, Maggie Bush, Sheila Denn, Michelle Cloonan, Jennifer Doyle, Peter Hernon, Daniel Joudrey, Em Claire Knowles, Pat Oyler, Amy Pattee, Robin Peek, Candy Schwartz, Rong Tang, Linda Watkins, Ching-Chih Chen.

Pat Oyler opened the meeting at 1:30.

Brainstorming for the new Mission Statement

This is a continuation of the project led by Amy Pattee of reviewing the goals/objective/assessments & learning outcomes for the GSLIS core courses and secondary core courses. The next step of this process is the reexamination of the mission statement, with the understanding that this will eventually lead to the formulation of new program outcomes. In order to formulate a new mission statement, a brainstorming session has taken place, in which all the faculty members have been encouraged to bring forth suggestions for the mission of GSLIS, in the context of "what should the students be able to KNOW" (e.g. values of the profession, the past and the present of libraries, etc.), "what should the students be able to DO" (e.g. evaluate information, communicate effectively, etc.), and "what should the students THINK" (e.g. global perspectives, intellectual commitment to lifelong learning, etc.). Many more suggestions have been made.

The plan is to consult the list of concepts that have been articulated in this meeting; the next step is distilling these general ideas into constructs and provide the faculty with the opportunity to rank the 3 most important.

Discussion for advising for Spring '09 semester

At the request of the new students, there is suggestion to create a special day for the students that will start in Spring 09. The students will be able to get information from their advisors and register for classes and take care of other administrative tasks well before the start of the semester. Pat Oyler has asked for the faculty members' support for this initiative (as they would have to make arrangements to meet with their advisees). No motion has been put forward, but the faculty have expressed support for this initiative; additional discussions will take place at the Faculty meeting in May.

Blended/Online Learning

This is an item brought forth by Pat Oyler, regarding the impetus towards online/blended. The College would like to see the move to the Blended/Online courses more of a concerted effort, rather than because one of the faculty are interested in teaching. For the faculty interested in teaching such courses, there will be an information session with the Sloan Foundation in May.

Pat Oyler adjourned the meeting around 3:30.

Adrian Mitescu