Minutes of the
Academic Task Force Meeting
13 March 2007
Update
- Engineering: The Regents have
changed the title of our Engineering degree from BS in Engineering with a
Concentration in Systems Engineering to just Systems Engineering, which
narrows its scope.
- Job Searches: We’ve got about 20
going on now, but we’re not sure we’ll be able to afford to complete them
all. We don’t know how much the
state will give us for next year, but assume it will be about an extra
$600,000; we’re going to need an extra $1.3 million. We will save money by the fact that some
job searches will inevitably fail, and some faculty might announce sudden
retirements, but where all the money we need is going to come from is
unclear.
Increasing Class
Sizes in Some Classes: The conversation continued. Zvi is still looking for more responses to
the homework assignment from the previous session.
Areas of Agreement:
- Some
classes must remain small. Others
may be more amenable to size increases.
- Probably
the most expensive things we do are in ET and Architecture labs, created
by small class sizes, pricey equipment, and high-salaried faculty
- We
have to decide collectively—administration and faculty—what kind of
university we want to be.
- To
get more money, the Administration can get more grants. However, the trouble with grants is that
they are one-time events that are good for equipment and buildings, but
bad for paying salaries.
Concerns:
- Different
learning styles can’t be accommodated in large classes.
- We’ve
got to keep in mind what’s best for the students.
- Big
classes, as they would be less frequently offered, can make it harder for
students to make a schedule.
- Relying
too heavily on part-timers is bad.
They can be exploited and their quality can be inconsistent.
- Brilliance
and currency doesn’t guarantee good teaching.
Possible Mitigating
Factors:
- Given
appropriate support and attention, large classes can be designed to
accommodate different learning styles.
- Reassigned
time can be given to research and design effective large classes.
- Technology
can be pre-loaded.
- Teaching
several large courses in a semester might enable a professor to take the
next semester off.
- Examining
what faculty spend most of their time doing when they teach might lead us
to find areas for creating efficiency.
- Big
faculty-led lecture classes can have small break-out sessions taught by
part-timers or grad students.
- Big
lecture-small breakout classes could be better for students than medium-sized
classes.
- Post-docs
and new Ph.D.s often have currency in their fields.
Homework Assignment:
- Research
class size for a course in your respective field. What are other good universities doing
with equipment, technology, instruction, and class size in a particular,
relevant course or program?