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SAGE Home > Minutes SAGE Meeting Minutes Parkes reported on the upcoming Prof. Kim Blaeser visit. If Prof. Blaeser is hired, she will be a half-hire for both the English and the INS Departments. Parkes stated that the SAGE reception for Prof. Blaeser will be Thursday afternoon (11/20) at 2:30 in 3132 Wescoe. As Prof. Blaeser is a creative writer, Parkes encouraged officers to be sure creative-writing students are aware of the recpetion. Due to her schedule, Parkes asked for a volunteer to set up for the reception; McMann agreed to do so. All are welcome to attend, Parkes emphasized. Sommers raised the issue of resignations and replacements of some officers. Floray-Balke raised the question of scheduling conflicts with SAGE officers meetings. Sommers stated that absent officers are welcome to submit reports in absentia; Floray-Balke noted that not all officers have been made aware of that. She also suggested that officers be polled to determine the best meeting time, rather than scheduling meetings at varying times. Sommers stated that such a plan would be used for scheduling next semester's meetings. As for replacing resigned officers, St. Ledger will be moving to the FSE Committee. Parkes and Sommers proposed the following people for committee openings: Jenn Humphreys and Julie Sorge for the Graduate Committee; Laura Mark for the Lecturers and Readers Committee; and Shelly Mannis for the Graduate Assembly. These were approved by acclamation. Profitt will announce remaining openings on SAGE-L; all graduate students interested should contact Parkes and Sommers. Tiffany DeJaynes gave a report in absentia through Profitt. She is actively working for the Textbook Subcommittee, seeking new English 101 texts. She will be sending out an announcement to SAGE-L asking anyone with ideas or suggestions to contact her. She further expressed concurrence with Smilie's report (21 October meeting) on the one FSE Committee meeting held this semester. Sommers reported on an e-mail he was asked to keep anonymous urging SAGE officers involved with FSE to urge that office to develop a more understanding and sympathetic way of dealing with ill GTAs. Specifically, the person expressed concern that having to deal with finding a replacement on short notice adds stress to the ill party, already worn down, and also to the replacement. Further, some lessons are very difficult to pass along to a replacement. Sommers particularly passed this information to the FSE Committee representatives present. Finally, he and Profitt noted that one of the reasons for the creation of SAGE-L is to find replacements, so all should feel free to use it for that. Sommers then turned the attention of the meeting to the silent auction. McMann read a draft of her letter to be used in soliciting donations. Profitt reported that the Chancellor's office knew of no reason SAGE should not be able to have a silent auction; further, Mary Burg in that office stated that the Chancellor's office might be able to donate basketball tickets if the auction is held before the end of the season. Parkes suggested that the auction be held, then, on 11-12 February in the Kansas Union. This was agreed to. St. Ledger reported that the Children's Miracle Network is happy to partner with SAGE in this venture and would like details as soon as possible. Once these are passed along to the CMN representative at KU Medical Center, she will write a letter of support to SAGE. Also, St. Ledger announced that SAGE may use the CMN logo. Sommers suggested that when once the letters are ready, officers will plan the canvassing so that merchants, etc., will not be visited more than once. At this point, the meeting was moved to an undisclosed location, where things were bright and breezy. Sommers asked the officers if there was any objection to selling the books left from the book sale to area bookstores. No one objected, but Bovaird-Abbo noted that graduate students should first be allowed to peruse the remnants for items they might want. These books are in the SAGE lab; Profitt will announce this on the list. Harries reported that he and Sommers had spoken with Prof. Tom Lorenz about the possibilities of creating a lounge on the first floor, an idea brought forward by the First-Year Liaisons at the 21 October meeting. The idea is to use a corner office, since they are larger. Lorenz will be working on shifting willing people around to free up suitable space. There has been no report of progress yet. Sommers noted that Prof. Mike Johnson supports the idea. Stokley Finan asked what kind of lounge this would be, since some faculty have expressed concerns about the noise level on the first floor. Harries, Parkes and Sommers explained that it would have a phone, refrigerator, etc., not be a "game room." Harries, Sommers and Profitt reported on their conversation with Prof. Johnson about issues and concerns expressed at the 21 October meeting. Johnson was very receptive and would be happy to hear more concerns, etc. Suggestions made to Johnson included: using only interested faculty for the mentoring process; allowing mentees to list a few faculty members they would like to work with; creating "master GTAs," or somehow using long-term and experienced GTAs and lecturers as mentors. As for student evaluations, the following information from the meeting was given: self-evaluations are returning this year, and are encouraged; the actual evaluating process cannot, for logistical reasons among others, be codified; student evaluations, though, are considered to be important, with much greater emphasis placed on comments than on the numbers; the evaluation an raise process and criteria, including "ratings," can be clarified, perhaps in MAT. Johnson also stated that he might hold an open forum for such issues, although past attempts have not been highly attended. Floray-Balke and Stokley Finan, on similar notes, reported on the GTAL Committee meeting. They concurred that student-evaluation comments are weighed much more heavily than the numerical averages. On the issue of grade inflation, they stated that Johnson seems much more concerned with teachers who give lots of A's than any other grade-related issue. He also stated at the meeting that grade issues can have consequences in merit reviews, but would perhaps be preceded by a warning on the merit review. Johnson made clear to the committee that he welcomes discussions of individual merit reviews. Stokley Finan noted that GTAs should use the self-evaluation to report attendance at workshops, reading groups, etc. Harries stated, in clarification, that the discussion of 803 for creative writers that took place at the 21 October meeting arose from concerns expressed by a creative writer, who asked that SAGE look into the possibilities of 803, a course "on the books" but not recently offered. Lagaron asked if there was interest in having a holiday party. Harries suggested a carry-in dinner might be good. Other officers seemed interested, so Lagaron will check on interest and a possible location. Sommers announced that anyone interested in helping with a Joyce conference ("Joyce's Ireland," to be held this coming summer) contact Prof. Katie Conrad, Harries, McMann or himself. Sommers also asked if the officers were interested in earmarking some SAGE monies to support the conference. While there was interest, it was decided to wait to see how much financial support could be given till later in the year. Profitt stated that he wished to apologize to any he offended with his attendance letters. He expressed that he had not intended them to be offensive, and tried to avoid making them so and did not want anyone to be or stay offended. Sommers asked that any graduate students interested in funding for (academic) travel contact the co-presidents. Upon hearing that no formal process for approving such requests exists, Bovaird-Abbo suggested that the Executive Committee create such a process. In absentia, Matt Candelaria submitted a report of the latest Advisory Committee meeting. It is as follows: There were three things on the agenda: 1) policy statement on college-wide instructional commitments 2) Gunn lecture fund, and 3) English Dept. Budget. We talked about things out of order, with the budget first. There were some clarification questions, such as "What is this outlay for Coal River Review," whereupon it was revealed that it was a typo. The actual name was "Coal City Review," a poetry journal run by Brian Daldorph using some departmental money and also a benefactor's money. This discussion also bled into talk about the CTE money, which I believe has been discussed in other committees. Here it was discussed whether the CTE money should be used to enrich the GTA award for this year, but it was decided largely in the negative, since doing so would make this year inordinately profitable for the GTAs. On a side note, several profs wondered why few GTAs applied for the awards. I said it was largely due to the complexity of the preparation process and the perception that there was little reward. Tom Lorenz and Amy Devitt stated that the award is like gold on the CV, and that I should encourage more people to apply, so I plan to do that. Anyway, then we went on to discuss the policy statement, which was determined to be pretty much a reaffirmation of a policy already extant. Finally, we discussed the Gunn Lecture Fund, which, according to the terms in Gunn's will was being held until the interest would be sufficient to bring a single lecturer of "the highest caliber possible, as determined by the Chairman of the Department." It was determined that the best body to decide on the Gunn lecture would be the Lecturers and Readers committee, which, apparently, is in some form of semi-hiatus this year, attempt to reassess the way it decides on and invites Lecturers and Readers. After this, the meeting adjourned. Since this was the final SAGE officers meeting this semester, the next meeting was not scheduled. That will be done later. The meeting adjourned with various people being blown away, like leaves across Wescoe Beach. Aaron D. Profitt, Secretary This site is designed to be best viewed with Internet Explorer. |