Attachment A
Faculty Senate Agenda
March 21, 2002

[Strikethrough = deletion; underscore = addition]

Amends FS 98-90/FPC, Ex. Flr. CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

MISSION 
The mission of the Center for Teaching and Learning at CSU Sacramento is to provide activities and services that help individuals, departments and programs to identify and achieve their desired level of teaching excellence. The Center seeks to achieve this mission through one-on-one consultation with faculty members, presenting workshops for both departments and the campus community on a variety of college teaching issues, referral to and partnering with other support offices for assistance outside the Center's area of service, and publications about college teaching. The Center director also consults with departmental chairs, committees and college and campus administrators on faculty development issues.

More than simply assisting instructors to solve current problems, it is the goal of the CTL to assist them to choose the issues on which some effort will achieve the greatest results, to help them to expand their repertoire of teaching approaches and practices, and to aid them in reaching a higher level of teaching competence. This includes addressing issues of student cultural and linguistic background, as well as the diversity of prior preparation and differing learning styles. Another CTL goal is to promote a climate of collegiality, which inspires, nurtures, and rewards self-directed faculty efforts toward professional development and which supports an expansion of the level, frequency, and available venues for campus conversations about teaching.

PRESUPPOSITIONS 
The mission and methods of the Center for Teaching and Learning are inspired by certain beliefs and presuppositions, including the following:

1. Skilled teaching practices promote effective student learning.

2. Teaching is a complex activity, which calls for multiple pathways to the outcome of high quality instruction.

3. There is no one right way to teach, but each individual can know when he or she has achieved teaching excellence.

4. Teaching effectiveness is enhanced when learning is planned around objectives that reflect desired student behavior that is ultimately observable and measurable.

5. Teachers are adult learners who bring insight, motivation, experience and high expectations for relevance, practicality and intellectual stimulation to the act of learning.

6. Professionals are more likely to modify their professional practice when they can anticipate with some certainty a positive consequence from doing so.

7. Professionals appreciate the ability to choose from an array of options to promote their professional development. 

8. Professional growth is more likely when an individual feels part of a community of others with similar goals.

9. Helping faculty achieve self-directed professional growth directly assists them in their pursuit of retention, tenure, and promotion.

10. Connectedness between the Center's programs and all other initiatives on the campus to serve faculty in their curriculum innovations (such as the Learning Communities, and the Office of Community Collaboration) or in their use of alternate systems of delivery of instruction, such as Distance Education, operate to the benefit of these programs and initiatives and the faculty who are involved with them.

11. There are many ways to measure the outcome of professional development activities, both from the perspective of the individual and from the perspective of the provider of those activities.

12. The effectiveness of the Center is dependent on the impression that it makes on the perceptions of the faculty and the administration. Desirable perceptions include: 

In addition, the Faculty Senate recommends that:

1. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) remain a program under the general oversight of the Faculty Policies Committee (FPC).

1. The Center for Teaching and Learning report to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate as an independent program.

2. The Center for Teaching and Learning will provide administrative assistance in the form of secretarial and record-keeping assistance as requested by the Visiting Scholars Committee and the Pedagogy Enhancement Grant Committee. The Center for Teaching and Learning will provide assistance from CTL staff resources given availability of those resources.

3. 2. A Faculty CTL Advisory Board be established with nine members serving staggered three-year terms to be appointed by the FPC on the basis of the primary qualifications that they be demonstrably interested in and willing to work toward faculty professional development. Faculty volunteering for the CTL Advisory Board on the Committee Preference Poll are required to write a statement outlining their interest in teaching, learning and faculty development which will be reviewed by the CTL Advisory Board. Assuming this qualification is satisfied, the CTL Board FPC shall make every attempt to recommend membership make such appointments with due consideration of representativeness in such categories as gender, ethnicity, discipline, faculty status, college or academic unit. Ex officio, non-voting members of the Board will include the Director of the CTL, the Chair of the Faculty Policies Committee (or designee), and the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs (or designee). The CTL Advisory Board FPC will submit to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee a list of nominees to serve on the CTL Advisory Board to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.

4. 3. The CTL Advisory Board meets as regularly as it deems necessary to fulfill its broader responsibilities (see statement of Board Responsibilities-- October 30, 1997, Faculty Senate Agenda Attachment A), which will be further refined by the board itself once it is in operation.

ATTACHMENT A, FACULTY SENATE AGENDA, OCTOBER 30, 1997
CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
CTL ADVISORY BOARD RESPONSIBILITIES
Includes FPC approved revisions (3-21-01) indicated with deletions (overstrike) and additions (underline)

MISSION AND AIMS OF CENTER RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CTL ADVISORY BOARD RELATED TO MISSION AND AIMS OF THE CENTER
MISSION:
Provide programs and services that help individuals, departments and programs identify and achieve their desired level of competence in their teaching 		Support the efforts of the Center for Teaching and Learning by offering ideas and insights, advocating for maintenance and expansion of the Center, assisting in planning and monitoring and evaluating the efforts of the Center.
AIMS:
Help faculty expand their repertoire of teaching approaches and practices. 		Provide insights to the Director about current perceived pedagogical needs of faculty.

Provide information about faculty development programs and pedagogical innovations in place at other campuses obtained through personal networks.

Suggest names of faculty and others with pedagogical expertise to offer to others.

Provide insights about CSU mandates or guidelines, or trends in the academy that carry implications for future expectations of faculty performance teaching and learning.

Contribute to the clearinghouse of information about faculty development opportunities for improving pedagogy.

Promote all faculty development opportunities available on campus and selected off-campus events accessible to all faculty.
Promote a climate of collegiality, which inspires, nurtures and rewards self-directed efforts toward professional development in the area of teaching and learning. Use opportunities of committee work and informal interaction with colleagues to advocate for the Center and to obtain information about faculty needs and available faculty development opportunities.

Advocate for partnerships between the CTL and programs across the campus relevant to innovation in the classroom that are not funded through the CTL.
ADMINISTRATION OF THE CENTER Approve the annual program and assessment plan for the activities of the CTL.

Approve the annual proposal for programs offered by the CTL for the operation of the CTL for the upcoming year and submit the proposal for programs to the Executive Committee. (Recommendation #4b, 5-16-01).

Approve the annual assessment plan for the CTL.

Receive and review the annual assessment report of the programs and services of the CTL.

Submit an annual review of the CTL program and its recommendations to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate before the beginning of the fall semester. (Recommendation #4a, 5-16-01)

Confer with the CTL Director about his/her personal professional development plan.

Approve the annual budget proposal for programs offered through by the CTL and for the operation of the CTL to be submitted to the CTL Advisory Council.

Facilitate the administration of the PEAS and Visiting Scholars Program and oversee the resources designated for these two faculty development programs. Evaluate applications for and select recipients of Pedagogy Enhancement Grants.

 

Attachment A
5/16/01 FPC Minutes

On 5/16/01, the FPC recommended changes to the document which are indicated by strikeouts and underline.

Rationale Regarding CTL/FPC Relationship and Recommendations (April 27, 2001)
Organizational placement of CTL
As the CTL continues to expand due to increased demand for services on campus, it is important that the CTL is able to 1) expand its funding commensurate with those demands, and 2) be able to react to campus needs as quickly as possible. The present organizational placement within the purview of the FPC has been appropriate during the formative stages of the CTL. The CTL acknowledges the support of the FPC during that time. However, it appears now that the two conditions stated above necessitate a new organizational placement.

Recommendation:
The CTL will report directly to the Executive Committee of the Academic Faculty Senate as an independent program.
Relationship to Visiting Scholars and Pedagogy Enhancement Grants
We want to facilitate the success of both committees' efforts. We also want the VS and PEG committees' to retain decision-making authority regarding their individual charges.

Recommendation:
The CTL will provide administrative assistance in the form of secretarial and record-keeping assistance as requested by the Visiting Scholars Committee and the Pedagogy Enhancement Grant Committee. The CTL will provide that assistance from CTL staff resources given availability of those resources.
Recruitment and selection of board members
The CTL is a unique entity on the CSUS campus. As a center for teaching and learning, those who serve on the advisory board need to be especially interested in and knowledgeable of pedagogical practices and trends. The original formation of the CTL board recognized this special need and recruited members who demonstrated a keen interest in teaching and demonstrated skills in teaching. The constitution of the board then, as always, has reflected a diverse membership representing the breadth of the faculty.

Recommendation:
The CTL board will recruit members as needed by soliciting new candidates through sitting members of the board and considering names generated by the faculty preference poll. All candidates will submit a statement outlining their interest in teaching, learning and faculty development which will be reviewed by the board. A final list of candidates will be submitted to the Executive Committee of the Senate for approval.

Faculty volunteering for the CTL Advisory Board on the Committee Preference Poll are required to write a statement outlining their interest in teaching, learning and faculty development which will be reviewed by the CTL Advisory Board. The CTL Advisory Board will then forward a list of all candidates with recommendations to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate.
Administration of the Center
The regular operations of the CTL are the responsibility of the Director of the CTL. The director has the authority to enact the general policies and programs developed in consultation with the board. The focus of the Advisory Board is to assist and support the director and the CTL staff by providing sound information, and advice needed by the director; to provide general oversight, vision and act as the responsible representative body of the CTL to Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate, and, as needed, in other forums across campus.

Recommendation:
The CTL Advisory Board will submit an annual review of the CTL program and its recommendations to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate before the beginning of the Fall semester.

Approve the annual proposal for programs offered by the CTL for the operation of the CTL for upcoming year and submit the proposal for programs to the Executive Committee.