College Council Meeting: September 2015

Committee Meetings
October 1, 2015

The first College Council meeting of the 2015-2016 school year met on September 18, 2015.

After approval of the minutes from April 2015, there were Committee and Task Force updates:

  • The College Calendar committee was charged with evaluating the effectiveness of the newly-formatted calendar put in place in the 2014-2015 year.  There was a call for new members, and a new survey will be going out.
  • The Sustain Champlain Committee is in its 10th year!  New goals for the year will soon be announced, and new student Eco-Reps are being hired and trained.  Subcommittees are gearing up as well.  There was a call for committee members,
  • Transportation Committee:  There was an invitation to join the (highly entertaining!) Parking Appeals Committee, as well as an update on some of Nic Anderson’s projects, including bike-sharing, an Active Transportation Plan, and applying for a Bicycle-Friendly University designation.
  • The Ad-Hoc Committee on Google recommends developing a series of opt-out email discussion lists to cut down on unwanted email.  They also recommended clearer guidelines for who can send email to all faculty or staff, as well as using the Champlain Explorer and similar outlets for more communication.  A motion to forward these recommendations to the President’s Cabinet for further discussion was passed.

Next were other Council updates:

  • The Student Government was in the midst of its First-Year Elections.
    • The Hearthstone Project in Fireside, a new SGA space for offices, clubs and activities, is also close to completion.  It’s estimated to be ready around October 1.
    • A poster campaign will run from October – May to improve communication and awareness of the SGA to the student body.
    • An SGA WordPress site will be up soon.
  • Staff Council announced its 2015-2016 board members.  This year is the 25th anniversary of the Staff Council, and there will be things happening to celebrate this milestone.
    • The new Undergraduate Admissions team was introduced to the staff community.
    • The Staff Welfare Committee introduced its Upward Feedback pilot project via Workday.
  • The Faculty Senate is exploring an official policy around hybrid, online and web-enhanced courses.  There were questions about:
    • who can teach an online course and when,
    • what kinds of professional development is needed, and
    • what the role of Academic Affairs, division deans, and the Curriculum Committee should be as these courses go forward.
    • There was a call for collaboration and discussion with eLearning, Academic Affairs, and other stakeholders in order to perfect the policy.

There was a good amount of discussion on this subject, mainly around representation of instructors and other faculty in creating this policy.  Creation of a formal task force was suggested.

  • Also from the Faculty Senate was a call from President Laackman for a revised look at faculty evaluations, with a deadline of Spring ’17.  A pilot is expected to go out within this time frame.
  • From the Deans: the Sarah Ramsey 5k run is coming soon.
    • The Shanghai campus has been a draw for new students.
    • 2 new faculty have joined and there’s a search for 2 more.
    • The Cooperrider Center is doing great with new clients coming in
    • Social entrepreneurship academy for women is in the works
    • New minors in HR and entrepreneurship developed
    •  Searching for computer scientists
    • Faculty went through strategic planning exercise
    • Many new programs in the pipeline
    • CCM has new faculty
      • Working to finish new student-produced CCM magazine, the Weathervane.
      • MS in Emergent Media launched
      • Other task forces doing great work
  • The Administration report from President Laackman announced that Champlain College was named the #1 Most Innovative College in the North by US News and World Report.
    • He also discussed his own Upward Feedback evaluation, taking it to heart and having it shape priorities for the coming  year.
      • First priority is increasing undergraduate enrollment.  Financial aid strategies seem to be successful.
      • truED enrollment is through the roof!  CPS Lakeside staff is working incredibly hard.
      • Advancement: Lots more activity in the coming  year.  Priorities are being developed, and they will be soliciting ideas.  They will also be switching to the Salesforce activity tracking system.
      • Champlain Futures Initiative collected a great amount of useful data.  They’ll use this to figure out where to go next.

Other issues:

  • Open house kick-off happening the next weekend
  • Great interest in October open-house as well
  • The first few weeks of the new academic year have been very successful so far!

The next College Council meeting will take place on October 2, 2015.