Minutes from Social Sciences Task Force Meeting of October 7, 2005

 

The Social Science Task Force met Friday, October 7, 2005, from 1:00 PM to 4:00  PM at Rio Grande Campus in Room 125. The following faculty members were in attendance: Geof Andron, Karen Bell, Jake Bloom, Mary Beth Booth, David Brown, Jack Bucco, Mary Chipley,  Clint Davis, Carol Hayman, James Hill, Don Jonsson, Livingston Kumassah, Tony Lee, Gary Livingston, Lizzie Pintar, Mike Pool,  James Sondgeroth, and Donald Tompkins. Two guests were also in attendance; they were: Emmet Campos, International Programs Coordinator, and Gaye Lynn Scott, Interim Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

  1. The meeting was called to order at 1:00 pm.
     
  2. The agenda for the meeting was modified and approved.

    3. Agenda
    1. Approve the agenda.
    2. The newly appointed Interim Dean of SBS, Gaye Lynn Scott, will be introduced.
    3. Approve the minutes from the last meeting:
      http://www.austincc.edu/SOCSCI/Minutes/meet_04_08_2005.htm
    4. Discuss and vote on allowing changes to the approved textbook list for the GIS courses, and also discuss if it would be OK for instructors to order textbooks already on the approved list but packaged with slightly different teaching aids.
    5. Review proposed AA degree in Archaeology. In addition, discuss the addition of two special topics courses to the Anthropology department: a. Mesoamerican Archaeology; b. Texas Archaeology. Perhaps the task force may want to create a committee of archaeologists to develop this program and courses.
    6. Discuss and vote on whether to approve changing ANTH 2302 ITV and ANTH 2351 ITV sections into PCM, internet based sections for the spring 2006 semester. Also we need to do the same with the ANTH 2301 PRN class for the summer 2006.
    7. Approve class schedule for Summer 2006. We will start with the schedule for this last summer as the basis for our proposed schedule for next summer: Anthropology;  Geography; Economics. 
    8. Discuss and vote on whether to adopt the rules developed by the International Program committee for the initiation and running of study abroad programs.
    9. Discuss and vote on adding a course to the study abroad program in Peru for this coming summer.
    10. Adjourn.

  3. Gaye Lynn Scott, the new Interim Dean of SBS, was welcomed to the Social Science Task Force meeting. Everyone introduced themselves to her, and she graciously agreed to speak to us for around 15 minutes. She briefly outlined what she hoped to accomplish and how she saw her roll as Dean. After some discussion with Adjunct Instructors, she agreed to see about getting the computers in the Adjunct offices upgraded and connected to the Internet. She stayed until the end of the meeting.
     
  4. The minutes of the last meeting were approved after being corrected. The correction occurred in item 4. Mary Beth Booth was correctly identified as the one who wrote the summary of the Assessment Plan and the Improvement Plan for Geography connected to the SACS questions administered in the Fall of 2004.

  5. Mastering ArcGIS was added to the approved textbook list for GEOG 2470.
    In addition, the task force voted unanimously to allow instructors to order textbooks already on the approved textbook list but packaged with slightly different  teaching aids and ISBNs than the ones actually on the list without receiving task force approval for using that material. If instructors are interested in using these slightly different packages, they just need to contact the department chair to have the new ISBN added to the approved list.
     
  6. There was an extended presentation about why an Associates of Arts Degree in Archaeology was being proposed. (Note by Department Chair: This proposal came out of the Program Review for Anthropology completed in the spring of 2005. It is listed as item 2 of the "Quality Improvement Plan for Anthropology Program" which can be found at  http://www.austincc.edu/progrevw/comp_rev/qipf/anth_qip.pdf. Links to all components of the Program Review can be found at http://www.austincc.edu/progrevw/comp_rev/trkng_chrt.xls.) David Brown, an adjunct instructor and the principal of a contracting firm that performs archaeological services, presented the rationale for the program. The rationale is that the Texas Department of Transportation needs to contract with archaeologists to have archaeological surveys performed before they can build highways. TxDOT is the largest such contractor in the state. TxDOT requires that the private contractors given contracts hire people with bachelors degrees, preferably in anthropology/archaeology, to do the work. This requirement is based on federal funding requirements. Unfortunately this requirement is often met in the breach because there are not enough trained archaeologists with bachelors degrees around to met the requirement. TxDOT is therefore excited about a program, such as the one being proposed here, being developed to fill this breach. By approving this degree and program, the task force could request that a half-time Full Time Teaching Position be created to meet this community need and to get the program up and running.

    The task force decided to refer this to a committee for review and asked that the committee bring back a proposal for such a degree plan to the next task force meeting. Clint Davis was appointed chair of this committee. The following people were appointed as members of the committee: Lizzie Pintar, Karen Bell, Carol Hayman, Mary Chipley, Mike Pool, David Brown, and Jim Sondgeroth.

  7. The task force unanimously agreed to allow the instructors of ANTH 2302 ITV, ANTH 2351 ITV, and ANTH 2301 PRN to change the method of delivering their Distance Learning sections from ITV and PRN to PCM/Internet based delivery.
     
  8. The task force approved rolling over the summer 2005 schedule with minor changes for use during summer 2006. The minor changes were: 1) adding a distance learning section of ANTH 2351 in the first summer session;  2) adding a distance learning section of ANTH 2301 in the 11 week session; and 3) changing the 5.5 week ECON 2302 section offered at the San Marcos Center to the 11 week session.
     

  9. There was some discussion about setting up a committee to study the document that the International Study Abroad committee had adopted entitled "Guidelines, Policies, and Support for ACC Faculty Initiating Study Abroad Programs."  These guidelines have not been officially adopted by the college yet according to Emmet Campos who was attending our task force meeting to speak about this document. According to Mr. Campos, this document will be adopted by the college as official policy before the academic year is out. Since all the faculty that would be impacted by these guidelines had served on the committee that produced them, the task force agreed not to form a committee to study them. Instead the task force voted to adopt the guidelines as they now stand in draft form as the policies that would guide the creation of new study abroad programs for our task force. The vote was 6 For, 4 Against, and 4 Abstentions.

  10. Carol Hayman brought forth a proposal to add another course to the study abroad program in Peru. She wanted to add an ANTH 2302 course to the ANTH 2351 course she already offers in that program. Carol argued for adding the course because it would make the study abroad program in Peru more attractive to students in two ways: first-- students would be able to earn six credits in the program rather than the three they now earn in it; and second-- it would be easier for students to receive financial aid if they are taking six hours of credit rather than just three hours.

    Clint Davis spoke against approving this request because he argued that it would directly compete with his study abroad program in Mexico. He argued that both programs are struggling to make each summer already and that to offer the same courses in both programs would damage both. He said that he thought that that when the task force approved the creation of the Peruvian Program that it would focus on cultural anthropology while his program would focus on archaeology.

    It was proposed that the two programs alternate summer sessions. In other words, one program would go the first summer session and the other in the second summer session one year, and then the next year the one that had gone second would go first and the one that had gone first would go second. However doing this next summer was impossible since both programs have already been scheduled. In addition Carol said that it would be impossible for her to offer her program in the second summer session because the university she works with in Lima is closed the second half of the summer. She said she would ask that university if there was any possibility of her using their facilities in the second summer session.

    A motion was then made and seconded to allow Carol to offer the ANTH 2351 course next summer in Peru. Clint Davis then asked that the vote be by secret ballot.

    The vote was 9 against and 7 for.  The motion was defeated.
     

  11. The meeting adjourned at 4:00 pm.