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Faculty Senate reviews Commitment to Delawareans 9 p.m., Nov. 14, 2006--Taking advantage of an open Faculty Senate agenda, Monday, Nov. 6, Provost Dan Rich and Havidán Rodríguez, vice provost for academic affairs, discussed ongoing initiatives with members of the senate. Rich told the senators that a new roadmap for college preparation, the Commitment to Delawareans, will be rolled out on Wednesday, Nov. 15. Copies of the brochure will be sent to all Delaware households with middle and high school students, public and private school educators and counselors and all UD faculty and staff. Prepared by the admissions office and the provost's office in cooperation with the 19 Delaware public school districts, as well as private and religious school leaders--the roadmap will inform parents and students throughout the state about the courses and level of academic performance recommended for admission to the University of Delaware. To be confident of admission, students should complete 20 full-year academic courses between grades 9 through 12, including English, mathematics, sciences, foreign language, history and social sciences. The roadmap is described at the following web site: [www.facsen.udel.edu/sites/presentations/11-3-06-e.pdf]. The academic roadmap dovetails with the recently released Vision 2015 Delaware educational transformation plan and the newly approved state graduation requirements. “If Delaware students follow this roadmap, there will be a place for them at UD, and the University will do all it can to enable them to enroll regardless of the family's financial situation,” Rich said. The University has worked and will continue to work closely with school districts and other educators throughout the state in the development and implementation of the Commitment to Delawareans, Rich said. Rich told the senators that a campus-wide review of graduate programs at the University is now under way. “It is a form of stock-taking. The University of Delaware is now a major graduate institution,” he said, “and the review will help to determine how best to support the continued development of graduate programs. “Our focus is on graduate student success and how to continuously improve such success. In recent years, the University has made a substantial additional investment in graduate education. We have increased minimum graduate student stipends from $9,000 to $14,000 in 2007, extended graduate student health benefits and significantly increased the number of University-funded graduate student assistantships and fellowships. The University now spends $60 million a year in support of graduate students.” “The University is in the top 4 percent of U.S. universities in the number and range of doctorates awarded annually,” Rich said, adding that most of the growth has been in recent decades. He said that the graduate office has tracked the performance of all graduate students over the last 15 years and will share that information with the deans, department chairs and graduate program directors. Rich said that the University will continue to invest in the development and improvement of graduate programs. “The purpose of the campus-wide review is to further strengthen graduate education at UD,” he said. Rodríguez brought the senators up to date on a number of ongoing programs, including the task force on teaching assistants, teaching effectiveness and preparing future faculty; assessment initiatives; mentoring of junior faculty and graduate students; the recently formed Academic and Student Affairs Council; and the capstone experience for undergraduate students at UD. Rodríguez noted that the provost has established a precollegiate task force to ensure the appropriate alignment of precollege academic programs with the standards outlined in the Commitment to Delawareans. The task force will conduct a University-wide review of current UD programs, focusing on their mission, objectives, strategies and outcomes and the resource needs of each program. Twenty precollegiate programs have been identified on campus. As part of a task force on teaching assessment and preparing future faculty, Rodríguez said that the Office of Graduate Studies has sent out 450 surveys to graduate teaching assistants on campus. These will help identify the type of instructional training available at the department, college and institutional level. The goal of the task force is to focus on the development and implementation of initiatives aimed at enhancing TA training and preparing future faculty. The task force is also working with department chairs and other training programs, such as the University's TA training program and the Higher Education Teaching Certification program. “The Office of Educational Assessment has 40 faculty fellows and that group is growing,” Rodríguez said. “We have also formed an Education Assessment Council that will act as a liaison with campus units. Our goal is to promote, support, expand and enhance the culture of assessment at the University of Delaware.” Rodríguez said that the Academic and Student Affairs Council aims to “promote the growth and development of a campus culture that recognizes, encourages and expects the integration of academic initiatives with student life initiatives.” The council also will serve to provide a forum for exchange between academic and student life units and will promote the development and implementation of activities that will facilitate and enhance the integration of academic learning and student development at UD, he said. Mentoring junior faculty is important, especially for women and minorities, Rodríguez said. “We want to build a University climate that supports mentoring and hope that it will enhance recruitment of faculty.” He urged the senators to look at the Mentoring Initiative web site at [www.udel.edu/provost/mentoring.html]. “This is a joint initiative between the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission to Promote Racial and Cultural Diversity and the Office of the Provost,” he said. “Currently, all colleges have departments or programs participating in a pilot project focusing on mentoring junior faculty.” Capstone experiences are aimed at synthesizing or integrating the knowledge and skills that students have developed while at the University, Rodríguez said. “It also allows the unit to conduct a final assessment of whether the student has the necessary skills and knowledge.” Rodríguez said that the capstone experience “is an important and critical part of the students' academic and professional formation and education at the University of Delaware.” A capstone experience can occur in the context of honors theses, independent research, study abroad, senior seminar and service learning, among others. “The curriculum should allow students to develop, early, frequently and sequentially, the knowledge needed to engage in a capstone experience during the final year of their education at UD,” he said. The University's goal is for all students to have a capstone experience by 2008. Article by Cornelia Weil |
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