Minutes of the University Committee
for September 24, 2002

The Committee met at 2:05 in D135 MOLN. Members present were John Buenker, Peggy James, James Kinchen, Don Kummings, Greg Mayer, and Gary Wood. Also present were Larry Duetsch, Walter Feldt, Michele Gee, Gene Goodman, Joann Goodyear, Dave Holle, and Rebecca Martin.

The Committee had invited Provost Martin and members of the Committee on Academic Planning to join them for discussion of the proposed academic program appraisal process.

The discussion that ensued dealt with the relative importance of the program evaluation criteria (see the attachment). Professor James said discussions between the Committee and CAP had favored taking a holistic approach (at least initially) to avoid designating certain criteria as being more important than others. Still, everyone present acknowledged that it will be necessary for CAP to review and approve summaries of the available evidence (after inviting input from the departments), by citing the evidence that is deemed to be most significant on a case-by-case basis. In doing this, it was agreed that CAP should give no criterion more importance than teaching, and that the relative importance of the other criteria may vary somewhat from case to case.

When asked for clarification, Provost Martin said that the appraisals would focus on departments rather than programs (despite the phraseology used in the foregoing discussion), except in cases where the focus needs to be programmatic (e.g., interdisciplinary programs). The Provost asked whether the Committee would be willing to regard the process as a "work in progress" for this first round of appraisals. Professor James agreed to this and called for a follow-up meeting with CAP and the Provost when the first round of appraisals has been concluded.

At this point, the Provost and the members of CAP left the meeting.

The Committee reviewed the items suggested for the October 1 Faculty Senate agenda. There was agreement was that the meeting should be canceled and the items deferred to the October 29 meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 3:25.