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English Department Meeting: June 4, 2020

English Department Meeting Agenda

“Go forth! Be brave! Be proud! Be true!”

  • IUP English Professor Jane Leonard (1840-1925)

Image result for jane leonard iup

Congratulations

  • To John Marsden on being elected Assistant Chair
    • John will begin serving as Assistant Chair on Aug. 21
    • I look forward to working with John
    • His years of APSCUF leadership will be especially important to us now
  • To Dana Driscoll on winning the 2020 IUP Distinguished Award for Research
  • She joins past IUP Distinguished Award Winners:
    • Mike Sell Distinguished Award for Research
    • Todd Thompson Distinguished Award for Teaching
    • Professor Emeritus Lynne Alvine
    • Professor Emeritus Janet Goebel
    • PENDING! Professor Emeritus Ben Rafoth
    • Professor Emeritus Ron Shafer
    • Professor Emeritus Dan Tannacito
    • Many English faculty have won other prestigious awards as well

Thanks

  • To Chauna Craig for her excellent service as Assistant Chair
  • To Melanie Holm for putting her name forward for the position as well
  • To Brian Carpenter for running the Assistant Chair election

Information Needed

  • Spring 2021 Preference Sheets coming soon; please return them to Dawnette Shellhammer
  • Please send your current cell number, postal address, and birthday to Dawnette
  • Please send your non-IUP English service commitments to Dawnette
  • Please send titles of any books you have published to Dawnette
  • Please send titles of any awards you have won to Dawnette

Department Meeting Minutes

Minutes Takers

We will not record minutes today. Starting for our next meeting, I will assign people to take minutes in order of their last name.

The next 4 minutes takes in order are:

  1. Resa Crane Bizzaro
  2. John Branscum
  3. Brian Carpenter
  4. Susan Comfort

If you cannot attend a meeting, you must find a substitute. The people listed below who have already taken minutes are exempt until everyone else takes a turn.

English Department Meetings Zoom Recordings Archive

No minutes were taken at the last 3 English Department meetings. Zoom recordings of those meetings are linked below.

History of Department Minutes Takers

Thanks to our volunteer minutes takers:

  • 9/19/19 Gian Pagnucci
  • 10/17/19 Chauna Craig
  • 11/21/19 Jean Nienkamp
  • 2/13/20 Lingyan Yang

If we each take one turn writing minutes, then each person only has to do it more than once every 3 years or so.

Next Meeting: August 21 Friday from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

If we need an additional meeting, I will announce it by email.

Agenda Items

1. IUP Fall 2020

The Fall 2020 Context

  • 1300 IUP students were surveyed about their preferences for Fall 2020 instruction
    • The overwhelming majority said they want to have on campus courses
    • The overwhelming majority said they do not care for online instruction
  • Financial Strain
    • IUP lost $11 million dollars with only a partial housing refund
    • IUP has gotten only about $2-$3 million in federal aid dollars
    • Predictions of enrollment losses for university’s going entirely online are as high as 50%
    • A worst case enrollment projection model has IUP spending down nearly all of its financial reserves
  • Public Pressure
    • The majority of the public wants to return to normal
    • Most parents and their children want to return to normal college attendance
    • A majority of people are no longer practicing much social distancing
    • Far fewer people are now wearing masks
    • A vaccine is closer to development, though not guaranteed
    • A 2nd wave of the virus is almost certain
    • Health safety remains a major issue
    • We need to continue to practice caution and social distancing

Retrenchment

2. This is a highly stressful time

  • I want to acknowledge that we are all under a great deal of anxiety and stress
  • I will provide all the information I can
  • We will plan as much as possible
  • We will adjust as we have to

3. IUP English Fall 2020 Plans

The Fall 2020 HawkFlex Teaching Model

  • President Driscoll and Provost Moerland have declared that IUP will use a flexible course delivery model for Fall 2020 instruction
  • This is nicknamed the HawkFlex Teaching Model
  • UPC Fall Planning Steering Committee
    • Co-Chair, Scott Moore (History) at <rsmoore@iup.edu>
    • Co-Chair, Paula Stossel (Enrollment Management) at <pstoss@iup.edu>
    • Veronica Watson, UPC Member
    • UPC Fall Planning Membership and Committees
    • Susan Comfort’s gathered list of concerns was sent to the UPC Fall Planning Steering Committee Co-Chairs by Veronica
  • The HawkFelx Teaching Model involves
    • Classrooms will be filled to 1/3 capacity to enable social distancing
    • All other students will Zoom synchronously
    • Students will rotate through a physical presence/Zoom presence
    • Most likely the HawkFlex model will run until Thanksgiving break; after Thanksgiving break, all instruction will probably be moved online
  • The question of international students being unable to get visas has been raised to the dean
  • Currently course change requests are on hold by the dean

Fall 2020 English Department Meetings

  • All meetings will be held via Zoom
  • The meetings are already schedule on the IUP English Google Calendar
  • Recordings of all meetings will be posted and are stored by Zoom for 120 days

Office Availability

  • Online Office Hours (5 synchronous hours of availability; additional time to meet with students having issues
  • Email availability for all students including both D2L email AND IUP email
  • Main English Office Available by email, phone, and/or zoom
  • English Chair and English Assistant Chair available by by email, phone, and/or zoom

Personal Health Issues

  • Human Resources will be sending out information on how to request an all online teaching assignment for health reasons
  • Faculty must submit an IWiki curriculum proposal for converting any courses to Distance Education (DE) delivery; there are 9 simple questions to answer
  • Faculty must use the original student learning outcomes; if you want to update SLO’s, then do a separate curriculum proposal which will be approved in the fall
  • Dean Asamoah must approve any changes to course deliver mode since the courses have already been scheduled for face-to-face or online delivery and contain enrolled students

4. Discussion

  • Open Discussion

5. What You Can Do

  • You can control your class: Prepare to teach great classes using the HawkFlex approach
  • Take care of yourself: Practice social distancing, enjoy the summer, eat right, exercise, and get plenty of sleep

Announcements

  • Healthy U Real Age Deadline: May 31

IUP English Google Calendar

  • Please remember to email Dawnette to get all English Department events and key meetings added to the department web calendar
  • Please check the calendar before scheduling meetings to help limit conflicts
  • TR from 2:00-4:00 p.m. is a common open time for tenure track faculty members to use for meetings

Additional Announcements

  • If anyone has an important announcement, we’ll use the last few minutes of the meeting to cover this