Fall 2013 Retreat

Faculty Council with Student Council members Fall 2013 Retreat

Executive Summary

Faculty Council held its Fall 2013 Retreat in a unique environment that included the 150th Anniversary Celebration, Alumni Weekend, Board of Trustees Meeting, Student Council Retreat and the virtual retreat of the Program Director Council. Faculty Council assessed its work over the past six months and identified five strategic priorities for the academic year: a collaborative governance work/study group to study the feasibility of Goddard College moving to a collaborative/cooperative model of governance; the development of a research, learning and professional practice institute at the College that would support the scholarly and artistic work of faculty; the standardization of IRB practices across the College; the creation of an online professional development resource for faculty that would allow for sharing of best practices and discussion of critical issues in advising students; and the development of an ombudsperson process for addressing conflicts over academics between faculty and students and faculty and program directors.

In addition to this work, FC met with the PDC to discuss issues of common interest including: academic leadership and governance; equity, plurality, cultural competence and social justice within the College; and the uneven nature of the program director and program faculty relationship across the College. We met with SC to discuss re-establishing a consistent means of communication between SC, PDC, staff and FC; the academic calendar and its impact upon programs; and the development of a College-wide social justice and anti-oppression statement. FC also attended several sessions of the Board of Trustees including make a small, impromptu statement to the Board.

 

 

 

Welcome, Congratulations and Thank You – Faculty Council Officers Elections

Faculty Council members with faculty members Otto Muller and Neema Caughran after attending the Curriculum Innovations Summit May 5, 2013 (l-r: Lan Thao, Karla, Karen, Muriel, Newcomb, Herukhuti, Otto, Tracy, and Neema)

At our Spring 2013 Retreat, Faculty Council (FC) elected: Herukhuti (UGP2-IBA) Chair, Karla Haas Moskowitz (EDU-VT) Vice-Chair and Treasurer, and H. Lan Thao Lam (MFAIA-VT) Secretary. The three officers will comprise the newly formed Executive Committee of FC, one of the many ways FC is reorganizing itself to be more responsive to the leadership needs of faculty at the College.

FC is appreciative for the leadership and service of Tracy Garrett (PSY) Immediate Past Chair, Karen Campbell (IMA/UGP IBA) Immediate Past Vice Chair and Darrah Cloud (MFAW-PT) Immediate Past Treasurer. Your work on behalf of FC, faculty and the College has been invaluable.

Congratulations and thank you to the newly elected officers whose leadership and service will continue the needed advancement of faculty leadership.

Faculty Council Representatives for the 2013-2014 Academic Year:

Katt Lissard, IMA/MAHAS/SBC Representative

Kristal Owens, PSY Representative

Newcomb Greenleaf, UGP1 Representative

Herukhuti, UGP2 Representative

Laiwan, MFAIA-PT Representative

H. Lan Thao Lam, MFAIA-VT Representative

Greggus Yahr, UGP Representative

Nicola Morris, MFA-PT Representative

Karla Hass Moskowitz, EDU Representative

Ex-officio Members:

Muriel Shockley, Faculty Union President

S. B. Sowbel, Faculty Trustee

New Faculty Council Chair and Vice Chair

As of February 2012, please welcome new Faculty Council Chair Tracy Garrett (Psychology) and new Vice Chair Karen Campbell (IMA), with thanks to outgoing Chair Laiwan (MFAIA-WA) and Vice Chair Jan Clausen (MFAW-VT). We look forward to a dynamic and constructive year!

On the occasion of Dr Barbara Vacarr’s Inauguration

Dear Colleagues,

We thought you would like to know that the Faculty Council had a strong presence at the festive May 7th inauguration of Barbara Vacarr as Goddard’s new President. Jan Clausen (FC Vice Chair) delivered the attached remarks on behalf of the Council; FC members Sowbel (the Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees), Francis Charet (GCFU President) and Newcomb Greenleaf (FC Representative from the IBA Program) were also in attendance.

With best wishes,
Laiwan
for Faculty Council

Faculty Council Remarks at Barbara Vacarr’s Inauguration

Dr. Vacarr; Members of the Board of Trustees; Dear Colleagues, Sisters, and Brothers from All Parts of the Goddard Community; and Treasured Friends-at-Large of Goddard College,

With great pleasure I join this wonderful celebration in my role as Vice Chair and official representative of the Goddard Faculty Council, the elected body charged with articulating the faculty’s perspective in all matters touching on the quality and success of Goddard’s educational mission. I bring warm greetings from our Faculty Council Chair, Laiwan, who lives too far away– in Vancouver, Canada–to join us today; and from many other members of both the Faculty Council and the faculty as a whole who join our celebration from afar. I want very briefly to share with you how the arrival of Dr. Vacarr as Goddard’s President is being experienced by a constituency that shares her  goal of moving more squarely into the center of our institutional life the scholarly and creative pursuits that dwell–sometimes too quietly–within our academic programs. It’s primarily because of this goal that the Faculty Council was vigorously involved in the presidential search, with the result that we as a Council quickly united in strong support for Dr. Vacarr, who stood out for us as the candidate with the clearest vision of what Goddard is all about and where it can go from here.

Starting from her first days as President, faced with huge responsibilities and time pressures, Dr. Vacarr–Barbara–reached out to the faculty as well as the student body. While frankly sharing her own ideas, she emphasized listening, especially with regard to Goddard’s pedagogy and the possibilities of academic innovation. As a result, one of her early accomplishments was to secure a very generous grant from the Sontag Foundation to underwrite an ongoing series of Pedagogical Dialogues bringing together faculty, administrators, and staff for a rare opportunity to talk, face to face, across programs, about our educational ideals and the nitty-gritty of academic practice. In other ways, too, Barbara has motivated an unprecedented level of faculty participation with administration, students, and staff, in collaborative efforts to move the college forward: for instance, via the Mission Statement writing process and now a Strategic Planning process that is going to enable us collectively to identify clearer priorities and resource allocation. While so much remains to be seen about the outcome, one tremendously heartening and joyful thing is clear : at a time when higher education in this country is rapidly being redefined, via market models, as an “educational product” to be offered to “consumers” (formerly the students) by the “content deliverers” formerly known as teachers, Goddard is well on its way to ensuring that the incredible creativity, intellectual passion, and social commitment indigenous to this institution are able to flourish in new forms while broadening and deepening our circles of engagement. The Faculty Council congratulates Barbara, but above all we thank her for taking on the monumentally challenging, indeed heroic, task of leading us in this transformative effort. We salute her energy, her vision, and her evident resolve to put the pedal to the metal.  We look forward to a long, fruitful partnership with her administration.

Ask FC a burning question and win a special t-shirt!

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

Happy, happy spring!

At our Faculty Council retreat in March, an important part of the discussion focused on finding better ways to communicate with the faculty at large. To help us know what questions you may be asking about “what Faculty Council is and what we do”, we invite you to send us a burning question. We will use your questions to build an FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions — about Faculty Council so that we can serve both faculty and Goddard College better.

ENTER TO WIN a one-of-a-kind special t-shirt by emailing your burning question to: <contactfc@goddard.edu> with “FAQ” in subject line.

The first five entries will receive a t-shirt. See the graphic at left designed for the prize t-shirts.

You can also access current information about Faculty Council in other sections of this website.

Thank you for joining in this fun chance to participate in community building!

Best wishes,
Laiwan
For Faculty Council

News from Faculty Council

Dear Colleagues,

It is a pleasure to update you on the Faculty Council’s spring retreat, which took place during the weekend of March 25-27 on the Plainfield Campus. Faculty representatives from the various Goddard programs gathered to envision new structures within which the faculty might collaborate with each other and our colleagues in administration to assist in moving our unique and individualized pedagogy forward into the 21st Century. Full retreat minutes are attached to this message.

In addition to the very important “face time” we spent with each other, we had an enthusiastic and positive joint session with the Program Directors’ Council, which included a discussion of ways to strengthen our collaboration in relation to priorities we identified at last year’s PDC/FC retreat, namely:

1.    anti-racism as an academic issue (project for unlearning racism)
2.    new modes of engagement (pedagogical innovation and experimentation)
3.    academic and writing support

We also brainstormed methods for implementing NEASC recommendations related to assessment/student learning outcomes and improved governance. Faculty Council greatly appreciates the efforts of both councils to meet in person to jointly envision and clarify shared challenges and aspirations.

At an informal lunch meeting we were able to introduce new Faculty Council members to the AVP, Marianne Reiff, and MFA-IA Program Director Jackie Hayes, in her new role as Interim Academic Dean. This lunch was most pleasant and we look forward to supporting both Marianne and Jackie as they work to help all of us realize our visions for academic leadership and creative pedagogy. At Marianne’s invitation, we subsequently sent her a list of recent Faculty Council activities to be included in a forthcoming report to the Board of Trustees; the list is included at the end of this message.

The Faculty Council is re-committed to advocating for academic rigor, pedagogical collaboration, sustainability, and equitable relations, empowered by good listening and positive governance. One important decision of the retreat was to try new ways of structuring the FC’s communication system so as to better serve you, the faculty, as well as the administration, staff and students. We welcome your ideas and support in building a more effective means of keeping faculty informed. Meanwhile, look out for new communicative insights from Faculty Council soon!

All in all this has been a revitalizing retreat, confirming the increasingly positive relations we are building with our colleagues in academic leadership, including Marianne Reiff, Jackie Hayes, and the Program Directors’ Council. We are enthusiastic about the sense of forward momentum we perceive in these strengthening relations and we look forward to the coming weeks and months of our work together.

In this same spirit of positive engagement, we invite and encourage all faculty to participate in the 3rd session of the Pedagogical Dialogues set for June 21-22, 2011 (See graphic in previous post and visit <http://gnet.goddard.edu/pedagogicaldiscussions>). This final Dialogues session offers the perfect opportunity to engage in face-to-face, heartening and refreshing exchange of ideas with a broad range of our colleagues who contribute to making Goddard the unique and radically transformative place it can continue to become.

Finally, we urge all faculty to complete the survey recently e-mailed to us by the Workload Study Workgroup. As a faculty, we require the broadest possible survey participation to provide data on the realities of the working conditions that inform our intellectual community and set the learning conditions for our students.

Wishing you all a wonderful semester!

Laiwan
Faculty Council Chair
For Faculty Council

Summary of Recent Faculty Council Activities

March, 2011

· The Faculty Development Fund Committee reviewed and approved 67 applications for Faculty Development Funds, including multiple applications from several faculty members for a total of 63 faculty members receiving funds to assist with scholarly and creative projects for academic year 2010-2011

· The FC has been participating in planning and facilitation for the Pedagogical Dialogues; a vital part of this is our effort to promote broad faculty participation

· An FC subcommittee has been meeting regularly with the college’s funding consultant, Anita Landa, to come up with a grant proposal for a project related to the FC’s PUR initiative (Project on Unlearning Racism)

· The FC’s PIE Committee (Pedagogical Innovation and Experimentation) has been on hiatus since the fall as we’ve attempted to funnel initial committee insights into the Pedagogical Dialogues, but discussions are progressing with Interim Academic Dean Jackie Hayes around possible structural approaches for locating formal attention to issues of pedagogical innovation within the college as a whole

· The FC has synthesized and made available a range of documents created over several years that will feed into the writing of a Faculty Handbook

· FC has devoted itself to understanding the Strategic Planning process and to figuring out how best to have input, including by encouraging broad faculty participation in the forthcoming focus groups.

· Over the weekend of March 25-27, FC held a very successful retreat on the Plainfield campus, including an afternoon of constructive and illuminating discussion with the PD Council that focused on revisiting an “academic priorities” list from our 2010 meeting (anti-racism as an academic issue, new modes of engaging students, and academic support) as well as an initial discussion of how to measure student learning outcomes; in addition, the FC was able to meet informally with Academic Vice President Marianne Reiff and Interim Academic Dean Jackie Hayes, and to spend time brainstorming ways to reconfigure the FC’s internal structure, reimagining its place within the evolving structure of the college, and coming up with new approaches to engaging the broadest possible range of faculty voices in conversations about Goddard’s future

You are invited to the next Dialogues! June 21 & 22, 2011

Do sign up now! It’s a great opportunity to meet great colleagues and share innovative thoughts on pedagogy!

Greetings from Faculty Council

Winter 2010

Dear Colleagues,

So many exciting changes, so little time, so much physical distance!

That defines our Fall work on the Faculty Council. Every two weeks we meet in the air via conference call, and on top of that we held spring and fall retreats on the Plainfield campus for an opportunity to work intensively face to face. We devoted some of our mid-October retreat this year to getting to know our new President, Barbara Vacarr; Academic Vice President, Marianne Reiff; and Associate Dean of Student Life, Susan Wilson. We were tremendously gratified by the opportunity to brainstorm with a new administration that shares our goal of situating pedagogy, scholarship, and creative pursuits more firmly at the center of institutional life.

In addition to our attendance at regular Faculty Council meetings, many of us serve on FC or college-wide committees. Reports from the FC’s Project on Unlearning Racism (PUR), Pedagogical Innovation and Experimentation Committee (PIE), the Writing Support Task Force, and the Faculty Development Fund Committee (FDF) are included in this letter. The FC also has representation on the college-wide New Initiatives Workgroup, the Board of Trustees, and various search committees. The President and Vice President of the Goddard College Faculty Union are ex officio FC members.

Who are we? Chair Laiwan, MFAIA-PT; Vice Chair Jan Clausen, MFAW-VT; Theressa Lenear, EDU; Celia Hildebrand, HAS; Darrah Cloud, MFAW-PT; Francis Charet, IBA/IMA (GCFU President); Eva Swidler, (GCFU Vice President); Ralph H. Lutts, IBA/IMA (Board of Trustees); Karen Campbell, IMA; Lise Brody, MFAIA-VT incoming; Tracy Garrett, PSYCH; Otto Muller, IBA; Ruth Wallen, MFAIA-VT outgoing; Newcomb Greenleaf, IBA; Sarah Van Hoy, HAS; Sarah Bobrow-Williams, SBC.

For the Acronym Challenged:

SBC: Sustainable Business and Communities
HAS: Health Arts and Science
GCFU: Goddard College Faculty Union
IMA: Individualized Master of Arts
IBA: Individualized Bachelor of Arts
PSYCH: Psychology
EDU: Education
MFAW: Master of Fine Arts in Writing; 2 sites, one in VT, one in Port Townsend, WA
MFAIA: Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Art, 2 sites as well

Please feel free to contact the representative for your program anytime with your ideas regarding academic issues at Goddard, and consider joining Faculty Council when the position opens up in your program or if you are interested in joining a subcommittee. Debate is always lively and the ideas truly fly.

Cross-Program Spring Retreats

Shortly before our fall FC retreat, President Vacarr announced that a generous grant from the Sontag Foundation would underwrite a series of cross-program retreats engaging academic issues. Together with AVP Marianne Reiff, she sought Faculty Council involvement in the planning process. To date, FC Chair Laiwan and Vice Chair Jan Clausen have been meeting with the AVP and Program Director Jackie Hayes (MFAIA-VT); beginning in January, other members of Faculty Council will rotate onto the planning group. The current outlook is for a series of four gatherings designed to involve faculty, program directors, administration, and staff in wide-ranging and specific reflections on current and future pedagogical practices, something most of us have too little time for in the course of the regular academic cycle. Faculty Council envisions that our longstanding concerns with anti-racist pedagogy and new approaches to teaching and learning (see reports on PUR and PIE, below) will feature prominently in these conversations. An all-faculty conference and on-line journal are envisioned as possible outgrowths of the spring retreats. Attendance will, of course, be voluntary and open to all-faculty, with subsidized transportation to campus and a stipend for attendance. Invitations will go out shortly. It will be energizing and innovative so as to feed and nurture our teaching practices and set the tone for how we enter the 21^st Century as a community.

Project on Unlearning Racism (PUR)

In response to an urgent need to move the college further in the direction of realizing its progressive ideals, over the past year, Faculty Council has prioritized work on reversing structural and individual racism, as well as attention to related diversity issues. Together with PD’s, we prioritized anti-racism as an academic issue at the last FC/PD retreat (in March, 2010); we also began coordinating Unlearning Racism caucuses (open to students, faculty and staff) in a number of programs. The FC’s PUR Committee continues to foster the creation of similar caucuses in additional programs and residencies, while providing a chance for those involved to come together across programs.

FC is in a unique position to look at anti-racist pedagogy from a cross-programmatic perspective and can facilitate the distribution of resources, including effective workshops and facilitation, throughout the college as a whole. Using as starting points the Diversity Toolkit https://goddardfacultycouncil.wordpress.com/resources/ and other resources offered by caucus participants, faculty explore developing a range of pedagogical strategies suitable for different contexts, and will engage in ongoing dialog to establish common ground and values.

Additionally, as a complement to the program-based anti-racism caucuses, the Faculty Council is supporting the research and development of workshops that can be offered to the various residencies.

Led by FC Chair Laiwan (MFAIA), and Vice Chair Jan Clausen (MFAW), PUR will become a collaborative and team-based network where point faculty and caucuses will be kept informed as to discoveries, practices and breakthroughs encountered by all those involved. Innovative IT and virtual tools will be explored and utilized to develop methods of communication that can be accessed by all, thereby strengthening the cross-program dialog about anti-racist perspectives and strategies.

Head researchers are Education faculty Sharon Cronin (EDU) and Theressa Lenear (EDU), who initiated Unlearning Racism work in their program at around the same time the Faculty Council began its related initiative. Initial program-based point faculty are Muriel Shockley (IBA), Celia Hildebrand (HAS) and Karen Campbell (IMA), who will be involved with PUR in conjunction with their work to coordinate and facilitate the anti-racist caucuses for their programs. Additional point faculty from other programs and residencies can join as this project develops and where college commitment and funding to this important pedagogical work is advanced. Port Townsend Student Life Coordinator Lori Macklin (staff) and MFAW-VT student Kermit Hooks have actively joined the committee work of PUR.

Our long-range goal is to promote broad involvement by councils, staff, administration and trustees with PUR’s processes and discoveries, while at the same time encouraging these constituencies to develop further complementary approaches to anti-racist dialog, learning, and action.

Pedagogical Innovation and Experimentation (PIE)

For several years Faculty Council has been very interested in bringing pedagogical innovation to the fore of college-wide discussion. Such discussions are particularly important now given the changing landscape of the college, the prioritizing of this issue at last spring’s FC/PDC retreat, and the upcoming cross-program retreats supported by the Sontag Foundation. Examples of experimental innovation that we are focusing on include the appropriate uses of new technologies and alternatives to the traditional five-packet model of engaging our students that are used in the Psychology program or currently being explored in the MFA-IA and IBA. Members of Faculty Council have developed a proposal for an interim Pedagogical Innovation and Experimentation (PIE) committee that will institute dialogue among faculty while simultaneously working with PDs, members of the administration, and student representatives to create a college-wide structure supportive of innovative pedagogy, interdisciplinarity, and cross-program dialogue. Additionally this interim group will be charged with developing a more permanent structure for PIE.

In our current proposal, now before the administration, we plan to begin with structured cross-programmatic faculty conversations around two topics, collaborative learning/innovations in packet structure, and Project for Unlearning Racism (PUR). We envision experimenting with a combination of scheduled conference calls and/or Webinars and an on-line discussion format, with documentation of these efforts made available to all faculty. Chaired by Ruth Wallen MFAIA-VT, the PIE Committee currently includes Faculty Council representatives (Otto Muller IBA2, Jan Clausen MFAW-VT, Theressa Lenear EDU, and Darrah Cloud MFAW-PT). In the near future, we hope to extend our membership beyond FC to include other faculty members.

The Faculty Development Fund Committee (FDF)

Funds are available to support Goddard faculty in their professional development, research, writing, creative work, etc. These funds are administered by the Faculty Council and its Faculty Development Committee based on guidelines established in collaboration with the Chief Academic Officer. During the 2010-11 academic year, these funds will be awarded to faculty for fundable activities from July 1, 2010 up to June 30, 2011.

For AY10-11, applications will be assessed using the criteria listed in the guidelines. In all cases receipts are necessary before reimbursement can occur. In some cases, since the notice of the awards may occur after the costs have been incurred, preservation of receipts is critical. Please keep receipts from activities for which you are hoping to be reimbursed.

The AY10-11 Application Deadline is December 31, 2010.

Applications for activities from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 may be submitted at any time up to the deadline. Applications after this deadline may be considered but will be subject to the limitations of the funds available. All reimbursements or grant requests must be submitted on the Faculty Development Fund special reimbursement form no later than June 15, 2011.

The New Initiatives Workgroup (INIW)

The New Initiatives Workgroup is the college-wide body that reviews proposals for new Goddard programs, which may be submitted by individuals or groups from either inside or outside the college.  Darrah Cloud MFAW-PT represents Faculty Council on this work group, with David Frisby EDU also serving as a faculty representative. As Darrah describes the process:

“Members of the INIW examine the concept proposals, give recommendations and send them back to the originators with suggestions. We either send the initiatives forward or decline to move on with them. If they move forward, the next step in the process is a full-blown proposal, addressing all of the issues involved in launching a new program at Goddard. This proposal is addressed by the INIW and at this early time in the process sent to the PDC (Program Director’s Council) and the FC (Faculty Council) for input as well.  In the last year, Faculty Council has offered substantial comments on many proposals. This information is gathered and sent back to the originators for incorporation into their Comprehensive Proposals. Final Comprehensives are then delivered back to the INIW and, if the decision is made to proceed, an implementation committee is created to make the new program happen. Historically, before the birth of the INIW, new programs like HAS have grown organically from other programs like the IBA.”

Currently in the pipeline are some exciting new programs, described in more detail in a recent letter sent out Jennifer Tripp Mead. Talks are also underway for Goddard to partner with the Audubon Bus, an historic mobile learning center.

Many other exciting new initiatives are being worked on and in various stages of development.

Writing Support Task Force (WSTF)

In response to longstanding faculty and student concerns, in academic year 2009-2010 the Academic Dean appointed a Faculty Council-led Writing Support Task Force (WSTF) to investigate options for strengthening student writing across all Goddard programs. Faculty Council Chair Laiwan, author of an earlier proposal for on-line academic support, chaired the effort, with input from Vice Chair Jan Clausen, HAS FC Representative Celia Hildebrand, and student members Jennifer Bruno and Paula Fitzhenry. The Task Force’s mandate was strengthened when the Faculty Council and Program Directors’ Council named academic support as one of three top-priority issues needing attention at their March retreat. Task Force members met through e-mail exchanges and phone conferences to examine the writing-related challenges and opportunities faced by the Goddard community. In August, the WSTF issued a detailed report whose recommendations include interim measures to designate faculty members with writing expertise as tutors available to students in all programs for academic year 2010-2011. For the long term, the report recommends that Goddard plan for a permanent writing support function by drawing on the rich history of composition studies since the 1960’s, including debates over questions of language, power, and access—questions with class, ethnic, and racial overtones that have particular resonance in progressive education. The report stresses the urgency of offering writing support to students on the basis that it is a standard function within contemporary higher education—every bit as necessary as a library or IT support. At Goddard, it becomes all the more pressing because our pedagogy is even more heavily writing-based than is typical for classroom-based college programs. After some delay, the Academic Dean has promised to arrange for interim writing support for the remainder of the academic year. President Vacarr and AVP Marianne Reiff are currently exploring the possibility of a consortium arrangement to create a virtual writing center in conjunction with the Association of Vermont Independent Colleges (AVIC).

****

As we look forward to 2011, Faculty Council priorities include ensuring that the conversations initiated at the upcoming retreats become the foundation for sustained cross-fertilization among programs. We are also mindful of the fact that faculty participation in college-wide academic initiatives requires the commitment of adequate budgetary and other supports to invite sustained (and sustainable, i.e. burnout-free) involvement. We look forward to continuing pedagogical innovation at Goddard, and to giving all faculty a more resonant voice in the life of the college.

With best wishes for a restful holiday and an energetic,
pedagogically inventive New Year,

The Goddard Faculty Council

Update from the Goddard Faculty Council

Dear Colleagues,

We write to you at a time of extraordinary change and promise for Goddard College, as the Faculty Council works hard to strengthen the faculty voice in academic affairs. Among our important endeavors, the FC representative on the recent presidential search committee worked diligently to represent our perspective and facilitated open faculty participation in candidate interviews. Everyone was impressed with the amount of time and thought invested in this process by a large number of faculty members. The Faculty Council strongly recommended the appointment of Dr. Barbara Vacarr in the final stages of the search, and we are excited about what we anticipate will be her extremely positive institutional and academic leadership.

In light of the very welcome re-inauguration of the faculty development fund ($25,000 per year under our current contract), a Faculty Council subcommittee was quickly assembled to review applications. The committee has completed its work, approving 51 requests, and will be in touch very soon with all those who applied.

In late March, we held a retreat at which we met jointly with the Program Directors’ Council in addition to meeting separately in Faculty Council-only session. The joint meeting featured a lively and wide-ranging discussion of three issues selected as matters of urgent common concern:

*anti-racism as an academic issue

*new pedagogical modes for engaging with students

*improving college-wide academic support

We recommended to the Academic Dean that these matters be the focus of academic planning in the coming year. Building on the retreat, the Faculty Council will continue to explore ways to support the pursuit of innovative pedagogy beyond the five packet model. As a first effort, members of the Psych faculty with their PD have generously set up a webinar on their unique pedagogy for PD’s and FC members that will take place next month. The FC is considering other ways to extend this discussion across the faculty as part of our effort to strengthen faculty communication and problem-solving in relation to a range of pedagogic and academic issues.

We have ongoing representation on the college-wide committee evaluating proposals for new programs and other academic ventures at Goddard, the INIW, or New Initiatives Working Group. As new proposals move through that committee, they also come to the Faculty Council for separate review and comment. A Faculty Council subcommittee is drafting language regarding faculty and community ethics for eventual inclusion in a Faculty Handbook that is being developed by another subcommittee.

As we await the arrival of Goddard’s new President, the Faculty Council will continue to build alliances between faculty and program directors, faculty and students, faculty and staff. Even as we believe that such connections are necessary for Goddard’s progress, we recognize that, by virtue of our engagement with our students, our scholarship, and our creative endeavors, faculty members generate uniquely valuable insights deserving of a higher profile in the life of the college. The Faculty Council’s central mission is to provide a channel for this to happen. We encourage you to be in touch with us via your FC representative, communicating your ideas and concerns about all academic matters.

Wishing you a happy and productive spring,

The Faculty Council
https://goddardfacultycouncil.wordpress.com/

Happy New Year of the Tiger