OPID FALL MEETING

Pyle Center, Madison
September 23, 2005

Minutes

Present:  Terry Beck, Mo Bishof (designee for Gina Sapiro), Steve Bondeson, Linda Carpenter, Bill Cerbin, Nancy Chick, Denise Clark, Scott Emmons, Chris Evans, Jane Ewens, Rodd Freitag, Regan Gurung, Wava Haney, Doug Johnson, Nan Jordahl, Lisa Larson, Katina Lazarides, Rosemary Keefe, Dick Klawiter, John Koker, Tom LoGuidice, Amy Mangrich, Renee Meyers, Dan Riordan, Tim Sewall, Claudia Smith, Kay Taube, Lillian Tong, Greg Valde

Absent: Holly Breitkreutz, Tony Ciccone, Linda Freed, Robert Kase, Jonathan Shailor, John Stone, Antonia Schleicher

Staff: Lisa Kornetsky, Director; Donna Silver, Assistant Director

Guests: Ron Singer, Associate Vice President

OPID’s Fall Meeting convened at 10:05 a.m. with a word of welcome from Doug Johnson, OPID Chair.  Doug then had members introduce themselves. 

Lisa Kornetsky, OPID Director, updated the Council on the following issues/activities:

• Staffing Issues.  From now on emails coming from OPID will always start re: OPID—since the restructuring of PA support in Academic and Student Services means we no longer have one PA who supports our office.
   
  
• Historical Context. The Council used to meet three times a year and the fall meeting used to take place over a day and a half, which meant time for lots of networking as well as a professional development component to the meeting.  Currently we meet only in the fall, so the fall meeting is basically a business meeting.  However, we hope that those council members directly involved with professional development at their institutions will attend the Faculty Developers program (see below).
   
  
• Department Chairs.  Barbara Walvoord has agreed to conduct three regional workshops tentatively entitled “Assessing and Enhancing Student Learning in the Department or Program: Feasible, Practical and Simple Strategies,” for Department Chairs, Program Directors and Deans.  UW-River Falls and UW-Milwaukee have already agreed to serve as hosts.  Lisa asked for another campus, possibly centrally located in the state, to volunteer to host the third event.* Dates have yet to be announced.  Update:  UW-Baraboo will be the site for the third event.
   
  
• Evaluation of Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program Directors.  In order to document the effectiveness of the program, Executive Committee member, John Koker will head a committee to establish an evaluation process for the directors of these programs.  He asked for volunteers to join this committee.
   
  
• Faculty Development Allocations. These funds are currently in jeopardy.  Funding will continue for this year at a 5% cut and the plan is that next year the reduction would be 3.5%.  Lisa encouraged OPID Reps to refer to a letter to the Provosts on these allocations on which they were copied.
   
  
• Teaching Forum.  The first electronic issue should be out soon.  The deadline for next semester’s issue is October 31.  Teaching Forum’s editor, Lori Carrell, is still looking for reviewers. 
  • ACTION: Council members interested in doing this should contact her directly at carrell@vaxa.cis.uwosh.edu.
     
    
• Wisconsin Teaching Fellows/Scholars Program.  The call for nominations for these programs was distributed to Council members.  Often good candidates are not in the loop, so it is important for OPID Reps to get the word out.  Lisa requested that Administrative Reps should work with those they select for the program and honor the contract.
  • ACTION: It is the OPID Reps responsibility to recruit good faculty and academic staff for these award-winning programs.
     
    
• OPID Spring Conference.  This year OPID and the UW System Leadership Site for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning will be partnering with Carnegie to host the CASTL Colloquium.  This will place OPID in a national leadership role.  The event will take the place of our Spring Conference.  More information will be sent out to OPID Reps soon.  One hundred rooms have been set aside at state rates and registration will take place on the Leadership Site website. 
  • ACTION: Lisa asked OPID Reps to remind their faculty and staff that this is a wonderful opportunity for them to take part in a national conference.
     
    
• Lesson Study Grants.  Bill Cerbin announced that this year OPID is making funds available for lesson study training grants of up to $1,500.  More information about Lesson Study Groups can be found at: www.uwlax.edu/SoTL/lsp .
  • ACTION:  OPID Reps should contact Bill regarding any questions about these grants.  He offered to visit any campus to talk to interested faculty and staff.  Applications should be submitted to Bill Cerbin by Friday, October 21, 2005.
     
    
• CD Grants.  This is the last year that the Conference Development Grants will be a separate grant program.  Next year these grants will be subsumed by the Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Grants Program. 
  • ACTION: Lisa encouraged OPID Reps to be creative as they seek out faculty and staff on their campus to apply for these funds.
     
    
• Faculty Developers Project.  Greg Valde explained that through this initiative OPID is attempting to institutionalize a lot of what has happened informally among faculty developers in the past.  In the second year of this program he appealed to OPID Reps to:
  • ACTION:
    • update the Resource Directory for Faculty Developers
    • attend the UW System Faculty Developers Meeting, to be held on the UW-Whitewater campus on Friday, February 24 2006 (more information about this meeting will be sent out soon)
    • be on the lookout for the Faculty Developer’s website
    • inform Greg of new ideas that this initiative might pursue, such as working with department chairs to support faculty who focus on student learning.

Ron Singer, Associate Vice President of Academic and Student Services joined the Council meeting to discuss UW System budget issues and how they impact OPID.  He provided a context for the CBO-Provost Group which was charged by President Reilly to look for efficiencies in how the system operates (i.e. what can be done better at a local level and what can be done better at a system level). In the end, he stressed the importance for OPID Reps to return to their institutions and make a case for the value of system programs such as the faculty development opportunities sponsored by OPID.  Lisa also urged that OPID Reps make a case for OPID benefiting the entire UW System to their Provosts and Vice Chancellors.

We adjourned for lunch

SoLT Initiative. 

Lisa explained that a sub-committee of the Council is currently working on the next RFP, which should come out at the end of October.  The focus in 2006-07 will be to build on past SoTL projects. She encouraged institutions to take on projects that draw on the expertise of the institution and its faculty and staff who are already doing the work of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.  In creating the RFP, the committee is trying to create a specific role for the OPID Reps such as writing a letter which would state how the grant relates to the institutional initiatives.

Leadership Site.

Renee Meyers and Katina Lazarides gave Council members an overview of the Leadership Site’s new and improved website.  They also highlighted three new initiatives for this year:

• SoTL and Cultural Diversity—a survey for this project was sent out and responses are due back to the Leadership Site on October 1, 2005.
• Writing Initiative—plans for a workshop to provide help and support for writing up SoTL work and getting it published.
• Fine Arts Initiative—a November 11th meeting is planned for interested faculty/staff who would like to explore SoTL work in the fine arts.

SoTL Campus Reports from UW-Stout and UW-Green Bay.

Dan Riordan reported on UW-Stout’s scholars-mentor program, now in its third year.  He believes this is a successful program, in part due to building communities of scholars, as well as providing affirmation of the work faculty and staff have been doing.  Its impact has helped to change the campus culture to one where the focus is on learning. It has also led to the development of a Teaching and Learning Center.

Regan Gurung informed Council members that UW-Green Bay’s scholars program is now in its fifth year and thriving.  One of the challenges he identified had to do with broadening the appeal of SoTL to the Humanities and Fine Arts

Lisa reported on the national picture for SoTL and how Carnegie is hoping to partner with the UW System and OPID in creating a leadership cluster which focuses on doing this work at a System level.

Role of the OPID Reps

This discussion focused on the two-way communication function of the Reps.  In these difficult budgetary times, OPID depends on the Council Reps to serve as champions of OPID programs and OPID’s mission to provide system support for promoting the valuing of teaching and student learning.

The Council adjourned its Fall Meeting at 3:45 p.m.

--Submitted by Donna Silver

The Office of Professional and Instructional Development is a part of the Office of Academic and Student Services, University of Wisconsin System.