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English Department Meeting: Sep. 19, 2019

Grow Here

English Department Meeting Agenda

  • Meeting Date: 9/23/19
  • Meeting Location: 307 Humanities and Social Sciences Building (this will be our new meeting location going forth!)

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

  • IUP English Professor Jane Leonard (1840-1925)

Image result for jane leonard iup

Thanks

  • To Dawnette Shellhammer for handling job after job after job (keep telling her how great she is because she deserves to know!)
  • To Peggy Kane for diving right in and tackling all sorts of things for our department as well
  • To Sheila Farr who has been helping to train Peggy
  • To Nicky Wilcox, our only student worker, who has put in tons of extra hours while we looked for some additional student workers

Approval of Department Meeting Minutes

We will vote to approve Minutes from the English Department meeting held on:

  • 4/18/19

The minutes were circulated by email and will be shown at the meeting using the classroom instructor projection station. A limited set of copies will be printed, but please bring your own copy or review the minutes ahead of time so we can limit paper usage and printing costs. Thanks.

Agenda Items

1. Title IX Information

  • Guest Speaker: Elise Glenn, IUP’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer/Title IX Coordinator
    • Office: B17 Susan Snell Delaney Hall
    • Email: eglenn@iup.edu
    • Phone: 724-357-3402
  • IUP Social Equity and Title IX Office
  • IUP Title IX Information
  • Elise will be giving us some Title IX information to supplement the online training
  • This information is meant to be more directly tied into our work as academics and writing teachers
  • Center for Teaching Excellence Title IX syllabus language:

    • Indiana University of Pennsylvania and its faculty are committed to assuring a safe and productive educational environment for all students. In order to meet this commitment and to comply with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and guidance from the Office for Civil Rights, the university requires faculty members to report incidents of sexual violence shared by students to the university’s Title IX coordinator.

      The only exceptions to the faculty member’s reporting obligation are when incidents of sexual violence are communicated by a student during a classroom discussion, in a writing assignment for a class, or as part of a university-approved research project.

      Faculty members are obligated to report sexual violence or any other abuse of a student who was, or is, a child (a person under 18 years of age) when the abuse allegedly occurred to the Department of Human Services (1-800-932-0313) and University Police (724-357-2141).

2. Specialized Course Staffing Procedure

  • Developed by the English Leadership Council
  • Written up by Gian

3. Mid-term Grades Deadline: Oct. 4

  • Mid-term Grade Entry Deadline: Oct. 4 by 9:00 a.m.
  • A new policy from administration now requires that faculty enter mid-term grades for all students
  • Students who have stopped attending a class should be given an N grade and the last date the student attended should be entered

4. Office Hours

  • Dean Asamoah said he has been concerned about faculty presence and visibility on campus
  • In an era of budget cuts and declining enrollments, student retention is a primary goal for the university
  • One way to help retain students is to make sure that all faculty are regularly available through office hours
  • Dean Asamoah wanted to remind faculty that the contract states faculty “shall maintain a minimum of five (5) office hours per week on no fewer than three (3) different days” (Article 23)
  • Office hours should posted by the faculty member’s office and be turned in to Dawnette so we have a record of each faculty member’s availability if there someone calls
  • Dean Asamoah says he wants faculty to be in their offices with the doors open creating a welcoming atmosphere during office hours
  • Occasional disruptions to a faculty member’s office hours are acceptable, but efforts should be made to keep that to a minimum

English Department 2019-2020 Goals

  • Focus on Enhancing Our Team English Spirit
    • Clarifying Workload Distribution/Equity
    • Defining and Setting Department Priorities
    • Improving Department Climate

Upcoming Events

Ice Cream Social for English Majors

  • On Thur. Sep. 19 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in 306 HSS (immediately following our next department meeting)

Announcements

APSCUF Membership

It is very important for all tenure track and temporary faculty to join the union. The cost is minimal as all faculty already pay roughly 90% of the membership due. But a strong union helps protect both temporary and permanent faculty. If you are not a member, please join as soon as possible.

In addition, please consider joining APSCUF CAP which does lobbying for the union. This is the best way to influence legislators to support our concerns.

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