Text book orders were due October 31.

Kelly would like plans given at Capacity Building meeting returned by November 15. Please see Sherralyn if your department was not represented at last month’s meeting and you don’t have the plans.

In your spare time take a look at the price of the books used for your students in your courses. Admin is attempting to get a more accurate estimated cost statement for students.

Our next meeting is Monday, November 15 at 3 PM in 1-423. There are a few things going on you should be aware of.  A discussion on medical program grading has also been added to the agenda.   See you then!

It has come to my attention that many faculty members have not received adequate training to advise students regarding general education credits.  Since advising is such an important component of our role as faculty, we are considering a session at an upcoming In-Service event that will assist faculty members not yet comfortable with gen ed advising.  

Rosalee Lee who represents our Center for Teaching and Learning has posed the following question: Who is not comfortable advising on general education credit?    Your feedback will allow her to gather information on potential coaching and perhaps glean a few individuals to assist in training at a future session.    So if you are not comfortable and would like to admit it to receive assistance please let me know.

Curricular changes will be explained in an email/attachment from Kelly this week. READ IT. You probably know that COML 1400 Intro to Computers will not be offered as part of the Mn Transfer Curriculum as of Summer 2011. The language reads that those students beginning programs in Spring 2011 need not take Intro to Computers but substitute it with a MNTC from the gen ed area. Many INTS- INDS- PHED- and COSO- courses will no longer be accepted as general education.  What qualifies as a MNTC course?- the list begin on page 114 of the 2010/2011 catalog.

Intro to Comp course really affects those already accepted into program. DARS reports are being reviewed to catch the change.

Capacity Building Session October 13 at 3 PM 2-104. New proposal of a program profile template with a focus on recruitment, retention and graduation.  Announcement to follow from Kelly.

MN Career & Technical Education Annual Conference is Wednesday, November 10, 2010 from 7:30-3:30 PM at Radisson Hotel & Conference Center in Plymouth, MN. Christine Pigsley has money available to pay for conference and possibly sub. See her if interested. www.cte.mnscu.edu

CTL update included the fact that MnSCU has cut funds to a center that we received educating information from. As a result a ‘community’ has been developed on campus (networking hours, lunch & shares, CTL section of resources in the library).  The group want to know what you want and need in the way of learning.  Are folks interested in Accelerate Learning that we heard so much of during inservice or do you have other ideas for development? Please let me know.

We’re gathering on Monday, September 20 at 3 PM in 1-423 to view the mandatory workplace videos.

The Interior Design folks may be joining us. The goal is view them and then for us to discuss what we would do as a department in our work areas if faced with similar situations. I will need to submit a report of our discussion to Kelly Murtaugh which will probably ultimately go to HR. See you there!

Campus Visits: Department chairs have sent an email with committment for responbsibility of campus visits. A reminder that all of us as instructors are responsible for checking email around 1:15 to 1:30 on Tuesdays to see if  someone in the department needs to meet students. Please come up with a plan in your department. If in class during that time write a note to yourself to check your email. Sherralyn is our back up if we do not respond so let her know if campus visit is a real conflict for you.

Core Student Outcomes: remember the presentation Gayle Larsen did and the grid we worked on in groups? Well Sara is the only one that did it correctly. Medical assisting checked off too many outcomes which has since been revised. Child Developoment, Dental Assistant and Practical Nursing need to turn their grids in to Gayle. Interesting to note that the outcome grid is supposed to line up with the Assessment of Student Learning Plan and assist program directors in completed the annual report. I requested that the Assessment of Student Learning Plans be posted on the intranet. Contact Gail with concerns and please turn in your grids.

Spring Schedules: will be published in the magazine format. Course details (room #’s , class times…) will be removed, some areas will be highlighted like ‘late start dates’. If anyone has an article regarding their program that they would like to include submit it to Sherralyn ASAP. The changes net huge cost savings.

Catalog: is going away; not many of our colleagues publish them. An online catalog will be published and formatted by December 1.

Degree Changes: Any curriculum changes need to get to Curriculum Committee by November 2. Due to a misinterpretation that Kelly apologized for some of our AAS  degrees need to be adjusted. Apparently general education credits from MN Transfer Curriculum only count so technical courses like Job Seeking Skills, and other intercollegiate and career exploration courses as general education credits will not count toward the degree. Introduction to Computers has already been pulled. All AAS requirements need to be corrected by May. Sherralyn will contact individual programs if affected. After the AAS needs are fixed, they’ll look at diploma programs.

Room Usage: If desiring to use a room that doesn’t look occupied schedule it and don’t assume it is available. Since many departments are utilizing same rooms be reminded that no student work should be left unattended especially if a grade is on it. Projects shouldn’t sit in the room either. Be courteous and report techie problems without assuming someone else has done it. It is really frustrating to go to a room and find the DVD player doesn’t work or the projection bulb has burned out.

Please don’t forget our ‘meeting’ to view workplace videos on September 20. Roline scheduled 1-423 for this mandatory requirement.

According to Nancy Bailey, it sounds as if all our departments notify her of student concerns in some manner. If you desire to hear more about EARS in regard to counseling,  please contact Nancy at x8492. She would be happy to spend time with you individually.

OFFICE HOURS

VP Murtaugh would like us all to have a conversation about office hours.  What are the expectations in our department.  Are there students complaining about not being able to find or access their instructors?  Contract requires office hours but is not specific.  Kelly recalled the standard for a full-time faculty being 5 hours per week.  She will look this up and send it to me so I can pass this along.  Have any of you heard complaints?

Year End Report

The year end report will have a new look but will be similar to what we have seen before.  It will now require a specific response to the assessment portion of the report as follows:

• 1 example of formative assessment
• 1 example of summative assessment
• 1 example of an assessment result that caused a change in the program (very important for HLC)

It will also require each program to attach an updated Assessment Matrix.  Contact Gale Larson if you need an electronic copy of your Matrix.

Also of Note: all voicemails and emails will be checked this summer to see if you have an appropriate summer message.  They are getting too many complaints from students/public.

Updated Contact Information:

Please check Employee Self-Serve to make sure your contact information is correct.

Mail boxes:

Please check your mail box before you leave for the summer

Periodic Program Review (3 yr cycle) – Dental and Child Development this year.

Form can be found on the intranet. Kelly is updating the form but if you have already started the process, just change the year at the top of the report.

Change in course delivery

Please note that when course delivery is changed from in-house to online or online hybrid or vice versa, many things are affected.  One of them is tuition which then is undercharged or over charged.  Please do not change delivery once it is posted in ISRS unless you discuss this with your dean!!

Thanks all!

The meeting began with my presentation of our department.  I will have to present it at inservice in the fall so I will review the presentation with all of you to “tweek” it for fall.

INVENTORY

Shaan Hamilton joined us to talk about inventory of equipment that is no longer used.  He is asking for a list of equipment that is not used so that it can be sent to MnSCU for purchase or auction.  This will include any equipment that does not have value.  This will become part of our annual inventory process in order to try to get revenue for equipment that may still have value.

ASSESSMENT MATRICES

Assessment matrices must be updated for our programs at least every three years.  This means that we all must update the matrix and submit them to Sherralyn.  They will eventually be given to Gail for the HLC self-study.

TEXTBOOK ORDERS

A reminder that textbook orders should be in before spring break.  If you have not submitted your orders please go to the dctc bookstore web site and submit them ASAP. I have to submit a checklist to Kelly so I will be asking to to individually notify me when your submissions are complete. -Sorry!

SOLICITATION

We have had an outside vendor distrubuting flyers on this campus for Essay Writing and completing homework.  This company operates out of Apple Valley and is actively recruiting students.  It is good to be aware that this service is in our back yard.

SHOWCASE

Showcase is April 7th and no classes will be held that day.  Faculty and staff are expected to put in a full work day on that date.  We will be discussing our role in the event – they want new and interesting things that have not been seen before.

The theme is Flamingo.  There will be flaminco dancing and a Plinko game for scholarships at the end of the evening.

CLUB USA CARDS

Students will be selling Club USA cards which are the new Happenings Book if you remember those.  You can go to www.clickclubusa.com to see what restaurants are in your area.  The card costs $20 and the school gets $10 of the proceeds for each card sold.

Graduation survey

To encourage better student response, a letter from faculty will be mailed to graduates for the purpose of introducing this survey. Graduates will be instructed to use Survey Monkey to respond.  This is thought to add a more personal touch in a manner that has been used in the past here at DCTC.

Graduation

• Monday, May 17th at 7:30 pm
• Roy Wilkins auditorium
• Students line up at 6 pm
• Faculty line up at 6:30 pm
• Graduation Fair in central commons on March 9 and 10
• Mailing will go out to potential graduates on 2/22
• Follow-up emails will be sent on 2/25 and 3/4
• Faculty is asked to encourage students to apply for graduation using online form – deadline 4/7
• Disability accomodations need to be submitted by 5/3
• Contact Nicole Meulemans if interested in assisting at the event.

Advisory Committees

Be sure to fulfill your program’s commitment to host one meeting a semester and utilize the committee handbook.  Advisory committee members will be randomly called during the college’s accreditation process.

Spring Inservice

Kelly stated that she ws extremely disappointed at the number of faculty that did not attend the afternoon session.  Recognizing that some had taken personal days, there were still quite a few nametags laid out on the check in table for all to see.  Ideas were given for tracking attendance.

Work Study

Funds are extreemly low for work study.  Kelly will be visiting departments where students work to determine if it is a necessity to have them through the end of spring semester.  work study attangements will remain in Student Services and Wellness Center.  Kelly is working with Scott Roelke on budgeting needs for the future.

iTeach Conference

Schedules are out and registration is open for the February 26th conference.  This is a manditory duty day.  Plan on attending the conference or communicate an alternate plan to Sherralyn. 

Showcase

This is also a mandatory event on April 7.  If not participating, you must take a personal day.

Schedules/Catalog/ Handbook

Feedback was given from departents regarding eliminating the course catalog.  There was confusion between the catalog and the schedule.  The catalog is being printed for Fall, however there is thought of eliminating it in the future.  Course Schedules will still be printed.  The Handbook will be printed this fall but there are thoughts to eliminate that too.  Some departments are upset about the loss of the catalog.  Most do not care about the handbook.  HHS department suggestions were given.

Submitted by Margaret Noirjean in my place (Thanks Margaret!)

Happy New Year to all of you.  The Department Chairs started the New Year with a very short meeting summarized below.  I want to remind you all of our Department Meeting scheduled for Monday, January 25th at 3:00 in the Nursing Conference room.  Since we are only meeting a few times this year, I encourage everyone to try to attend this meeting.

1/13 Highlights

• the next Course Schedule with Summer and Fall schedules, will highlight the 40th anniversary of DCTC.  The theme is Then and Now.   Marketing is looking for any ideas and/or stories you might have to share…..
• Cost of these publications is becoming very expensive so course descriptions will no longer be included.  Courses open to the public will be listed but students will be directed to the Web site for course descriptions.

Catalog and Student Handbook

• These documents are also very expensive and discussions are going on about their value.
• Departments are to discuss the future of these two documents: Do you see a future for the Catalog? Handbook?, Where and how is our money best spent?, Should we have an electronic catalog only?, What are the consequences of not having a catalog and/or handbook?  We will discuss these questions at our meeting on the 25th.
• Next year’s handbook will not go to print until June so that more activities can be included on the calander.  If you have activities that you want included, please let Marketing know.

Your Edge

Rosalee Lee is spearheading a series of weekend workshops designed to help DCTC students and graduates prepare for the job market.  There are 7 weekends beginning in February where volunteers are needed.  The workshops are on Friday evenings from 6-9 or Saturday mornings from 9 -noon. She is asking for volunteers for 2 weekends in particular- February 26 or 27 for Resume Skills and April 16 or 17 for interview skills.  These weekends will required the volunteers to review Resumes before the workshop and then give feedback or perform mock interviews at the workshop.  They are looking for 100 volunteers so contact Rosalee if you are interested.

They are also wanting to contact our Advisory Committee Members for volunteers.  They will be forwarding their request to each department for you to send out to your members.  They will send the requests directly to your Committee members if you would like.  We can discuss this further at our meeting on the 25th.

See you then…