Mathematics Task Force

Minutes

November 13, 1998

HBC 411

2:00 p.m.

  1. (5) Approval of agenda
  2. (5) Approval of minutes
  3. (10) Name change for 1513
  4. (5) Core curriculum committee
  5. (20) Progress reports from the watchdog committees on course objectives (deadline Jan. 4)
  6. (10) Should all our courses be MTH, like MTH 1103, MTH 1153, etc.?
  7. (10) Report from CODE and discussion of tasks we need to do
  8. (20) DVM Curriculum
  9. (30) Adjunct faculty scheduling
  10. (5) Announcements


Members present:

Janet Bickham, Mike Dellens, Irene Doo, Leonor Eklund, Constance Elko, Mary Hannigan, Louise Hasty, Susan Hord, Mark Karl, Kimberly Kelton, Bob Leibman, Clarence McGuff, Nancy Miller, Ferne Mizell, Juan Molina, Elizabeth Murff, Mary Parker, Mary Pearce, Bob Quigley, Stephen B. Rodi, Lori Rosenthal, John Thomason, Mary Wilson, Paul Wright, Linda Guzzardo, Rosemary Kelley, Nancy Lehmann, Betty Ludlum, Valerie Marsden-Hood, Wayne Rogers, Elgin Schilhab

Others present: Phil Owens, Diane Kramer, Tobin Quereau, Catherine Watson


Approval of the Agenda: The agenda was approved as submitted.

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Approval of the Minutes: The minutes were approved as submitted.

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Name change for 1513: The committee reported a number of suggestions. After discussion, we limited it to two: Mathematical Reasoning and Topics in Mathematics. The TF recommends Topics in Mathematics.

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Core Curriculum Committee: We appointed four math faculty members to a math subcommittee of the Core Curriculum committee: Susan Hord, Steve Rodi, Betty Ludlum, Mary Pearce.

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Progress Reports from Course Watchdog Committees about the Course Objectives for THECB visit: The committees are working on these. Most of these will be presented at the December 4 meeting. We must have these approved by the early January meeting. Watchdog chairs should send an electronic version of the final committee recommendation from the committee to rwhite@austin.cc.tx.us, preferably in a Word or .rtf document attached to an email message.

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Should all of our courses be MTH, like MTH 1103, etc. Arguments were presented on both sides of this issue. A small committee was appointed to investigate how changing the course prefix would affect identification of whether TASP-mandated students are enrolling in appropriate developmental courses. Paul Wright, chair; Bob Quigley.

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Report from CODE and discussion of the tasks we need to do: Mary Parker reported that, in this morning's CODE meeting, it was agreed to delegate the tasks from their Operational Plan involving curriculum, professional development for faculty, and theories of teaching and learning or adult development (Focus areas 2, 4, and 5) to the Task Forces. In addition, for the tasks involving evaluation (Focus area 6), the Deans and TF Chairs of the developmental areas will meet to discuss how these parts of the plan should be structured. Mary said that it is very important for all of us to read these, as we are responsible for implementing them and reporting regularly (beginning in January) on our progress in implementing them. The Executive Summary has a short version although everyone should really read them in the full plan in order to see what we must do.

Also in the CODE meeting, a memo from Dr. Fonte and Dr. Friedman was presented which modifies or clarifies how the administration wants us to deal with some of these issues.

Mary will make these available to all of us on the Web and begin an email discussion on how we should deal with all of this.

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DVM Curriculum: We began to discuss the first recommendation from the committee report about starting to offer 1101, the one-hour version of Basic Math Skills. After extended discussion, we agreed that it would be better to discuss all of these recommendations after we have read the material from CODE and the administration about developmental education issues.

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Adjunct faculty scheduling: As a result of last month's meeting we sent a cover memo and main letter to the administration. Mary Parker reported that David had told her Donetta was positive about some changes being possible. However, Mary's impression is that they can't be major changes. There was quite a lot of discussion about whether it is possible to do a reasonable job of implementing "Highest Priority to Hire". Some felt that we should do this, not by course, but overall. However, others felt that it would be hard to think of and use the same criteria to compare teachers of College Algebra with teachers of Prealgebra or Differential Equations. Also, if we think of comparing all the adjunct faculty with all the others, it is hard to see which of our full-time faculty could make well-informed opinions about all 200+ adjunct faculty members. Several adjunct faculty members suggested that number of years at ACC should be one of the criteria for being placed on the "Highest Priority to Hire" list. Other faculty members said that the administration has made it clear that longevity at ACC could not be used for putting teachers on a "Highest Priority to Hire" list.

There was some discussion of changes in the scheduling process for next summer. The Assistant Deans will be able to begin much earlier and work together to offer coordinated schedules.

During the discussion, concern was expressed that there is some poor teaching going on and no one knows about it partly because there is no one to whom comments about such teaching can be directed. Mary Parker said that people should feel free to tell her or any of the Assistant Task Force Chairs (Janet Bickham, Constance Elko, Mary Wilson, Elizabeth Murff) about the kinds of problems that they would have reported to Dept Heads before. The official system says that student complaints are to be directed to the Assistant Deans. Mary says that the Asst. Deans are getting, and dealing with, some student complaints. If anyone knows of students who are not having their complaints heard and dealt with, she asks that you send those to any of the above-mentioned people. She said that the administration is clear that all full-time faculty members are responsible for participating in evaluation of adjunct faculty members. We need to develop a system that we can all trust to result in good evaluations.

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Announcements

Mike Dellens announced that the next round of the math contest is next Friday, Nov. 20. The best way for us to have a good showing is for all the teachers to encourage your good students to participate. The contest problems are at the precalculus level.

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Last updated November 21, 1998. Mary Parker