AGENDA

Faculty Senate Student and Faculty Honors Committee

January 11, 2008

8:45 – 10:00 a.m.

Room 130 Hullihen Hall

 

1.                  Select day’s recorder

 

2.                  Approve minutes from December 7, 2007   

 

3.                  Update on potential CITA hire

 

4.                  Alison Award

 

a.       Linda edited the following Alison-related materials to incorporate the Committee’s revisions of 12/7/07 and make the set internally consistent

b.      Please review the following revised templates and webpages for possible errors and inconsistencies before Friday’s meeting. The invitations will be sent later this month.

 

                                                               i.      Evaluation criteria (secure site). Note. These are now incorporated into the rubric below. I have also posted them verbatim on the Alison Award page of our public website (link below). Is this OK?

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/Alisoncriteria.doc

 

                                                             ii.      Rubric (form) for evaluating nominees (on secure website).

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/Alisonrubric.pdf

 

                                                            iii.      Invitation to faculty to submit nominations (template on secure site)

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/template--AlisonLettertoFaculty.doc

 

                                                           iv.      Invitation to chairs/deans to submit nominations (template on secure site). Note: this template includes the dossier checklist as its third page.

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/template--AlisonLettertoDeans.doc

 

                                                             v.      Dossier submission checklist (on website)

   http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/awards/alison/Alisonchecklist.pdf

 

                                                           vi.      Description of Alison award and procedures (on website). Note: this page has been revised throughout and reorganized to reflect changes in other materials. Please examine it carefully.

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/awards/alison/

 

                                                          vii.      Letter to President notifying him of winner (on secure website)

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/template--AlisonLettertoPresident.doc

 

c.       Bring all questions, edits, and problems to the meeting so we can quickly resolve any remaining issues

 

5.                  Excellence Awards

 

a.       Linda edited the following Excellence-related materials for the upcoming season

b.      Please review them before Friday’s meeting. The invitation will be sent the first week in February.

 

                                                               i.      Email letter inviting students to nominate (template on secure site)

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/template--invitestudents.doc

 

                                                             ii.      Email reminder to students to nominate (template on secure site)

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/template--remindstudents.doc

 

                                                            iii.      Email thank you to students, which also notifies them of winners (template on secure site)

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/template--thankstudents.doc

 

                                                           iv.      Letter notifying recipients of Faculty Teaching awards (template on secure website)

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/template--lettertoFacultyTeachingWinners.doc

 

                                                             v.      Letter notifying recipients of Graduate Student Teaching awards (template on secure website)

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/template--lettertoTATeachingWinners.doc

 

                                                           vi.      Letter notifying recipients of Advising and Mentoring awards (template on secure website)

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/template--lettertoFacultyAdvisingWinners.doc

 

c.       Bring all questions, edits, and problems to the meeting so we can quickly resolve any remaining issues

 

6.                  Publicity for Excellence awards

 

a.       Options for email contact with students and alumni

b.      Informational email from Michael: Notices of winners should be sent to John Brennan (Public Relations), who will coordinate articles and related PR activities. He is also our point of contact for getting photos of recipients for our website. He will also assist the committee with our publicity needs to promote our work and with our call for nominations. Currently, there is no Director for Alumni Affairs, but a search is underway. In the meantime, Monica Taylor (VP for Development and Alumni Relations) and/or Beth Brand (AVP for development) will assist the committee with contacting alums and soliciting their nominations. 

c.       From Linda and Michael’s meeting this week: Form a publicity team whose contacts and activities Michael will facilitate.

d.      Report from Zach and Michael on their meeting earlier this week

e.       Brainstorm and decide an easy, replicable plan for publicizing Excellence Awards.

f.        Decide on a banner ad in FaceBook. We usually purchase 40,000 hits/day for the first week after inviting students to nominate and the last week before the deadline, March 1. See Attachment 2 of the 2/16/07 agenda for a copy of the 2007 FaceBook flyer. http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/committee/AgendasAndMinutes/Agenda2-16-07.pdf

g.       Review template of announcement published in UDaily (any notice currently in their files would be outdated)

http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/secure/content/template--UDailyPR.doc

 

7.                  Honors Day Program booklet

a.       Linda met with Michael last week and briefed him on the committee’s activities with the booklet thus far. (Briefing sheet appended here.)

b.      Any update from Michael

 

 

ATTACHMENT

 

Briefing Sheet

History of Committee’s Activities with the Honors Day Program booklet

 1/4/08

 

  1. S&F Honors Committee history with Honors Day
    1. UD-wide booklet and honors day festivities are separate issues
    2. Committee continues to oversee/recommend program and policy, but not logistics for Honors Day itself (it once did)

 

  1. Honors Day luncheon is problematic (but not our issue)

 

  1. Booklet is problematic (is our issue)
    1. Too long—accretion over the years. Gets longer or fatter every year
    2. Many minor awards, etc.

 

  1. Booklet, revised physical form (Committee’s steps in recent years with Bob Davis)
    1. Reorganized awards by level (university, college, dept)
    2. Removed race-restricted (legal advice)
    3. Revised award descriptions to exclude monetary amounts (many were tiny). Made other wording changes to make shorter and more consistent in format.
    4. Removed the politically unproblematic (recipient always listed TBA, etc.)
    5. Made the published Booklet available online

 

  1. Booklet, revised criteria for new awards (Committee’s steps in recent years with Bob Davis)
    1. Only prior criteria were GPA required of recipients (3.0) and no restrictions by race
    2. Added requirements for minimum financial commitment
    3. Restricted to awards for past achievement and excluded scholarships 
    4. Grandfathered in all prior awards
    5. Posted the criteria on Committee’s website  http://www.udel.edu/teachingawards/honorsbook/

 

  1. Aims, more politically sensitive
    1. Winnow the University-level booklet further to remove all grandfathered awards that do not meet the new criteria. They can be included in the College- or Department-level inserts, if units so desire.
    2. Have a “scholarships” luncheon in the fall to recognize scholarship recipients, which would provide an opportunity other than Honors Day to honor & gather recipients & donors. Removing them from the Honors Day Booklet would then be less problematic—and the event would be more timely.
    3. Consider raising the minimum GPA?? With grade inflation, it is now a relatively low threshold.

 

  1. Opportunity, improve connection between recipients and donors
    1. Put more info about awards online so that students can learn more about their award and the donor. Many recipients currently have no clue what their awards are for. No knowledge of or connection with the donor at all.
    2. Other