Meeting & Agendas

Discussion: Vanessa Lazo presented the minutes from the October 6, 2017 meeting. Action taken: The minutes were approved with no changes.

a. Vanessa Lazo announced that three of our department’s students had received scholarships to study abroad. Luiza Daude Laurents and Theo Warner will study in Russia, and Penelope Stuart will study in Morocco. b. Vanessa Lazo thanked Richard Ezell, who is retiring after 20 years of service as an adjunct Spanish instructor. c. Vanessa Lazo welcomed our new adjunct instructor in German, Kasina Entzi. d. Vanessa Lazo reminded the department that we will be hiring two new half-time positions, one for Arabic and one for German. e. Vanessa Lazo informed the department that classes will moved from the Pinnacle campus, which will close at the end of the current semester. Most of the classes will be moved to SAC. No full-time FOLA faculty members are based at the Pinnacle. The new San Gabriel Campus will open in the fall, 2018, where we will have Spanish 1411 and 1412 classes the first semester. f. Scott Gibby presented a proposal he had submitted for Engaged and Active Learning, which was accepted. He flipped a course replacing in-class grammar explanations with online Power Point presentations with a voice thread. Students fill out guided notes as they watch the presentations, and they take a quiz at the beginning of the next class. He is able to use class time to do a greater variety of activities by taking out the in-class teaching of grammar. g. Vanessa Lazo announced plans to create a new Faculty Advisor Position, which will have release time of 2 LEH. The Faculty Advisor will work with new majors in the department. Talia Loaiza suggested that the Special Events Committee organize a reception for our graduating majors. h. Vanessa Lazo described the CARES (Campus Assessment, Response, Evaluation, and Support) service, which helps troubled students with difficulties. She pointed out that you can get help for students at cares@austincc.edu. CARES will contact the student, which documents that the student is being helped. Talia Loaiza reminded faculty that they can contact Campus Police if students are causing problems class. Vanessa Lazo described the iPhone app, SOS Alert, which sends your location and a message that you need help to all phone numbers you have input. i. Vanessa Lazo explained the process for making Dual Credit Appointments. The High School Administration will give feedback to the Dean. The Dean will make the appointment after consulting the Department Chair. Talia Loaiza and Tim Altanero expressed concern about High Schools trying to select who teaches ACC classes.

Matthew Daude Laurents suggested including class visits by peers as part of the evaluation process to help faculty share ideas and grow as instructors. He explained that we currently confuse two evaluation processes: a) summative (what we know about instructors) and b: formative (how to be better instructors). The summative process determines who meets the minimum acceptable standard. For the formative evaluation process, instructors need to be willing to reveal where they need to grow and to take risks. The process needs to allow instructors to pilot new ideas. Rosa Davila suggested that the effective learning courses at ACC also need to teach students how to be effective evaluators of their instructors. Matthew agreed and suggested creating a guide for students. Action taken: None

Mary Havens, the librarian responsible for Foreign Languages, distributed lists of materials on reserve for each language, and she pointed out that materials may remain on reserve for only one year. She asked to have one person in charge for each language to determine what items should remain on reserve, and requested that they let her know by April 14. At that time, items will be moved from reserve to general circulation. She also showed how to request new FOLA materials on the library’s web page. Action taken: None

Erasmus Eddae summarized the services offered through his office for Distance and Alternative Learning. They can assist with creating courses or full online degrees. They also provide information on compliance with SACS, federal, or state requirements. It is up to the department to verify that its courses follow the regulations. He discussed the Quality Matters workshops offered through his office, which help create courses that meet the quality standard. Two workshops are given per semester, but a department can schedule its own workshop if at least six instructors enroll. Action taken: Scott Gibby will schedule a workshop for the department.

John McMinn-Reyna discussed a proposal to allow students to count HUMA 1301 Great Questions Seminar as an option in addition to EDUC 1100 for the college preparedness course. Students who take HUMA 1301 Great Questions Seminar as their Language, Philosophy, and Culture requirement would not be required to take EDUC 1100, but they would have to take a four-hour science or restricted elective course to fulfill the sixty hour degree requirement. Action taken: It was approved to allow students who take HUMA 1301 Great Questions Seminar as their Language, Philosophy, and Culture the option to take a four-hour science or restricted elective course instead of EDUC 1100. The Language, Philosophy, and Culture course will be moved to the first semester of the degree plan, the Math requirement will be move to the second semester, and Creative Arts will be move to the fourth semester.

a. Adjunct Faculty Evaluation Evaluation summaries for all Adjunct Instructors have been completed and were turned in by the deadline to the Dean’s office. They will be sending the forms to instructors according to their schedule. The transition to digital portfolios is proceeding without major inconveniences, and we expect it to be fully completed by the next evaluation cycle. Any suggestions to improve the process are welcome. The committee wants to remind everyone that it is mandatory to administer the student surveys every semester; to include every required section in the syllabus; to complete the required number of faculty development hours; to test all skills (except for Latin); to keep multiple choice questions and translations to a minimum; and to use the textbooks adopted by the Department. b. Adjunct Faculty Interview We interviewed for an adjunct position for German, and Kasina Entzi was hired. Welcome Kasina! Applications were reviewed for Arabic and Korean, but there were no qualified candidates. There was no posting for Italian as Todd Phillips is completing hours to fill that position. The Dean received approval from Gaye Lynn Scott and Mike Midgley to split one of FOLAs full-time faculty positions into two part-time positions. We are advertising for an Arabic PT position and a German PT position. Budget approval was needed since this will incur an additional cost for the college. Vanessa Lazo will be chairing the search and has contacted potential participants for the Interview Committees. She is awaiting a response from two of our faculty members. The positions will remain open until Friday, April 20th. Interviews will be conducted at the end of the spring and/or beginning of the first summer session for a fall 2018 hire.

c. Assessment For the Fall 2017 semester’s SACS assessments, here are the percentages of students that received scores of 80% or higher on the assessment: 1411 Writing: Arabic 76.2%, Chinese 100%, French 91.7%, German 94.3%, Russian 84.2%, Spanish 94.2%; 1412 Culture: German 88.2%, Spanish 79.7%; Spanish 1412 Oral Interview (1 section; pilot assessment) 84.6%; 2311 Reading Comprehension: Arabic 77.8%, French 56.25%, Japanese 81.6%, Russian 100%, Spanish 97.1%. d. Curriculum Eva Siwak created the new German 2312 master and sample syllabi, and Michael Conner prepared the 1412 master and sample syllabi for the Netzwerk program. John McMinn-Reyna will prepare the master and sample syllabi for French 1411, which will use the new edition of Horizons in the fall. Todd Phillips will develop the curriculum guidelines and master and sample syllabi for Italian 1411. Please let John McMinn-Reyna know if the master syllabus needs to be revised in any other courses. There has been a suggestion to allow students to substitute the Humanities 1301 Great Questions Seminar for the Education 1100 Effective Learning course in the Foreign Language Degree Plans. Humanities 1301 would also count as the core requirement for Philosophy, Language and Culture. If students take Humanites 1301 instead of Education 1100, they will need to take a four-hour science course to replace the one hour from Education 1100 in degree plans.