College of Liberal Arts NTTF Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes
March 25, 2022

Present were:  Margaret Miller (chair), Pam Duncan, Jonathan Carlyon, Ellie Light, Kyla Masciarelli, Courtenay Biser-Suarez, Debbie Swann, James Roller, Tom Conway, Steve Shulman, Dani Castillo, and Sadie Kinney-McGrath.

1. The minutes from March 11 were approved.

2. Service discussion: Jonathan presented a PowerPoint report (file accompanies this document) as part of our ongoing discussion of the need to clarify the service requirements for NTTF.  Jonathan had examined data from Institutional Research and also reached out to the other chairs in the College to ask them:  For NTTF with a 10% service requirement, what would “Meets Expectations” look like? What would qualify as “Exceeds Expectations”? What about “Superior”?

The College has 104 CCAF with service requirements of 10% or higher. In response to Jonathan’s questions, the department chairs came up with the following measures:

  • Meets expectations: oversaw student club, attended faculty assemblies, participated in section meetings, helped students with letters of recommendation.
  • Exceeds expectations: oversaw a student club which met regularly and sponsored department-wide activities; attended faculty assemblies and represented other CCA as a voting member of the committee; worked on an additional subcommittee for 1 semester; led section meetings; helped students in many ways.
  • Superior: oversaw a student club which met regularly; sponsored department-wide activities that ended up being featured in the Collegian or Source; attended faculty assemblies and represented other CCA as a voting member of the committee and spoke persuasively in favor or against department suggestions; received a Provost’s Professional Development grant and used the funding to design department offerings; led section meetings; helped students in numerous ways.

Pam asked if these criteria apply to those with a 4/4 teaching load.  Jonathan said there is much variation among NTTF in terms of assignments, so it is very difficult to generalize.

Ellie asked those on the service subcommittee to reach out to CCAF in their departments with the following questions:  1) Is it clear what kinds of service would qualify for Meets? For Exceeds? For Superior?  2) Do you feel you have enough service opportunities to achieve your desired ranking?  3) Are there any other questions or concerns regarding service?

Hopefully the subcommittee can come up with a summary document that can be more readily shared than Jonathan’s, which includes Human Resources data.  Meanwhile, Jonathan will ask the department chairs for permission to send out his presentation.

James asked whether the purpose of the service subcommittee is to come up with uniform guidelines that can be applied across CLA.  Jonathan reminded us that department codes supersede College codes.

Tom asked about measures to protect CCAF so that “Meets” on service is sufficient for promotion.  Jonathan’s response was that Dean Withers wants to have a better idea of “Meets” that would count toward positive reviews.  The Dean’s position is that there are currently too many instances of “Exceeds” and “Superior.” Jonathan also reminded us that eligibility for merit raises is determined by overall rankings, not just those in one category.

There was a question about how professional development efforts would be counted: as service, or as teaching? Ellie said it would depend on how the professional development was applied, and what audience would benefit from it.  Courtenay pointed out that some department codes are completely silent on professional development.

Ellie stated that higher rankings should come from quality of service, not just quantity.

Pam pointed out the increasing number of student accommodations that are being requested of faculty and asked how those are counted. Jonathan said this is being recognized as a growing problem, but accommodations are currently counted as part of teaching rather than service.

3. Other business: Ellie had been asked to contact Sue James for an accountability report on the recommendations of the NTTF and CCAF Task Forces.  She reported that scheduling conflicts had not yet allowed for that, but she’s working on it.

Respectfully submitted by Pam Duncan