2008 Woodie Awards
Council prepares for upcoming changes
By Jonathan Munson
Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: News
Originally published: 9/13/07 at 4:38 PM CSTLast update: 9/13/07 at 4:37 PM CST
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This college's Academic Council held its first regular meeting this Tuesday, preparing for changes to come throughout the school year, one of which did not sit well with council members.
The council, whose primary function is to review policy and procedures, voted against the addition of a revenue/cost ratio measure in Section 4:2 of the unit review manual, by which to evaluate academic departments. The decision was made late in the meeting, after plenty of discussion between council members and a visit from astronomy Professor David Wood.
Wood explained the process of comparing the minimum revenue brought in by a department to how much is spent, while paying close attention to how those numbers have changed over the past five years.
"We have several different measures on which to evaluate the different units that come forth," Wood said. "In a sense, it's another way of measuring enrollment."
Some on the council felt the process unnecessary. "If you're trying to get a sense of changes over time, enrollment can do that for you," music and humanities Chair Jessica Howard said.
President Robert Zeigler recalled that - when this sort of process had been discussed and rejected once before - the information they sought to gather proved impertinent and only raised the question, "What difference does it make?"
The departments will still provide their services.
The council members' reaction to the unit review revision wasn't any better before Wood arrived and his questioning began.
"If this works as the members of the committee want it to, what this district process will do will be, on an annual basis, gather data while the colleges work on unit review," Zeigler said.
When it came to decision time, Zeigler suggested three ways to deal with the unit review revisions: approve it as submitted, approve everything but Item 2 or approve everything and just table the revision in question.
"Can we table this entire discussion until we see the entire document so we can make a decision and vote by e-mail?" theater and speech communication Chair Jeff Hunt asked.
The council, whose primary function is to review policy and procedures, voted against the addition of a revenue/cost ratio measure in Section 4:2 of the unit review manual, by which to evaluate academic departments. The decision was made late in the meeting, after plenty of discussion between council members and a visit from astronomy Professor David Wood.
Wood explained the process of comparing the minimum revenue brought in by a department to how much is spent, while paying close attention to how those numbers have changed over the past five years.
"We have several different measures on which to evaluate the different units that come forth," Wood said. "In a sense, it's another way of measuring enrollment."
Some on the council felt the process unnecessary. "If you're trying to get a sense of changes over time, enrollment can do that for you," music and humanities Chair Jessica Howard said.
President Robert Zeigler recalled that - when this sort of process had been discussed and rejected once before - the information they sought to gather proved impertinent and only raised the question, "What difference does it make?"
The departments will still provide their services.
The council members' reaction to the unit review revision wasn't any better before Wood arrived and his questioning began.
"If this works as the members of the committee want it to, what this district process will do will be, on an annual basis, gather data while the colleges work on unit review," Zeigler said.
When it came to decision time, Zeigler suggested three ways to deal with the unit review revisions: approve it as submitted, approve everything but Item 2 or approve everything and just table the revision in question.
"Can we table this entire discussion until we see the entire document so we can make a decision and vote by e-mail?" theater and speech communication Chair Jeff Hunt asked.
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