On Wednesday, September 28, 14 faculty gathered in the Faculty Center for further lunchtime conversation about defining features of an SSU education. Joined by President Armiñana and Provost Rogerson, we had a great conversation about SSU's academic story.

There are many versions of the "question" I'm hoping we can answer.  Here are several of them:

• (My current version) What do you wish you could tell people about what Sonoma State is about, if only it were true? (or perhaps it already is true)
• (Provost Rogerson's) What makes or should make an SSU education distinctive?
• (President Armiñana's) What is or should be the "tattoo" of an SSU graduate?

One important note is that this is an aspirational discussion:  We have a great history to build on, but we don't need to restrict ourselves in our thinking about our story to things that perfectly reflect current reality.

I believe that a brief statement that expressed something meaningful about how we do education here would have a lot of benefits:

• It could help us structure curriculum decisions
• It could inform resource decisions
• Students would know something about what they're signing on for when they come here
• PR efforts could be centered around academics
• Governmental relations efforts could feature academics

I want to expand on the third item above:  I struggle in many classes with the divide between students who seem to "get" the opportunity to learn that I'm trying to provide - and thus take full advantage of it - and those who still seem to operate under the socially-dominant "school is to be moved through with the least amount of work possible" story.  I believe we need to do everything we can to get students to do the reflective work that will help them figure out their paths in life, and how they can take advantage of their time here to best effect.  This effort needs to be much more expansive than this "academic story" conversation - for instance, we need to figure out how to get students to make sense of their GE experiences to build connections, see themes across disciplines, etc. - but some prominent statement about how we do education could be a start.

As an example, Cal Poly SLO uses "Learn By Doing" as a mantra, and it really tells students something about what they're signing on for, as well as providing a structure for curriculum and resource discussions.

As before, close faculty-student relationships comes up over and over again in these conversations.  One idea that was raised at this conversation was the idea of "collaborative learning," which seemed to many of us to capture the desired faculty-student dynamic as well as lots of other ideas that have been raised (community connection, sustainability, connection to place, etc.).

In all the lunch conversations, people have commented that we need to find out what alumni/students/community members think an SSU education means or should mean.  Luckily, our conversations are happening at the same time that the divisions of University Affairs and Development are embarking on phase I of a "branding" effort, aimed at gathering just this information.  I'm sure that our conversations can feed into their data-gathering efforts, which will lead to information that is useful to all of us.

To: SSU Faculty
From: Ben Ford, Chair
Date: 27 September 2011
Re: Fall 2011 Update #3

Note that the time for the 9/28 lunch is 1:00-2:00 p.m., still in the Faculty Center (Schulz 1125). See #1 below for more info.

I am trying to keep a blog updated with Faculty governance happenings at the Senate web site: www.sonoma.edu/senate/chair . Go there for more details on what's below, and add comments by clicking on the entry title and then scrolling to the bottom.

1. Faculty conversations about SSU's academic story. What should we be as an academic institution, beyond a collection of departments?

   A group of 13 faculty and the Provost met for lunch on September 14 and had a great conversation. To continue, I invite you to join me at lunch on the following Wednesdays (drop-in, bring your own lunch). Provost Rogerson will be joining us, and President Armiñana will join us about once a month. These will be in the new Faculty Center, 1125 Schulz.
   

   • Sep 28, 1:00-2:00 p.m. (with President Armiñana)
   • Oct 12, noon-1:00 (No Provost; with President Armiñana)
   • Oct 26, noon-1:00
   • Nov 9, noon-1:00 (with President Armiñana)
   • Nov 30, noon-1:00
   • Dec 14, noon-1:00 (with President Armiñana)


2. Important opportunities/events
   
   • Come to the Emeritus Dinner to honor our retiring colleagues! October 16, French Garden restaurant, Sebastopol, $35 prix fixe. Register ASAP at www.sonoma.edu/senate/useful/emeritusdinner.html .
   • ASP (Associated Students Present) events: Outstanding events all semester long, many of which may have tie-ins with your classes: www.sonoma.edu/as/asp/


3. Faculty Governance updates
   Here I'll list brief updates of faculty governance happenings. Just a few this time:
   
   • From the Senate Diversity Subcommittee:
     
     • April 8 update of Sexual Assault Policy and Procedures: http://www.sonoma.edu/uaffairs/policies/assaultpolicy.htm . Faculty should be familiar with this policy as it informs us of our responsibilities in various circumstances.
     • The Office of the Crisis Advocate has posted a new brochure Responding to Sexual Assault: A GUIDE FOR SSU STUDENTS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS which can be downloaded at http://www.sonoma.edu/counselingctr/responding_to_sexual_assault.pdf
     • The Student Health Center issued a flyer last spring listing Sexual Assault Resources for SSU Students and Employees which can be found at http://www.sonoma.edu/shc/sexual_assault_resources.shtml.
     • Police Services has a link on Sexual Assault at http://www.sonoma.edu/ps/police/sexualassault.html.
   
   
   • The University RTP Subcommittee has been planning its reviewing schedule for the year. Committee members have also worked on materials to assist candidates and department and school RTP committees to prepare appropriate files for review. Finally, the URTPs Chair has participated in RTP workshops with candidates and department RTP committee chairs. More info from Nathan Rank, chair, rank@sonoma.edu
     
   
   
   
   

Comments welcome! Click on the entry title, then at the bottom, leave a comment without signing in and it will wait for me to approve it to avoid spam, or use one of the sign-in methods (doesn't work with LDAP sign-in yet; you can use a google account if you have one) to post your comment immediately.

I'm still struggling to figure out how to frame this conversation that I want us to engage in this year. In my last post, I put it "What is Sonoma State University, as an academic institution, beyond a collection of departments?" But I'm realizing, as I hear reactions to that, that it's not aspirational enough - I really want us to talk about what SSU should be, beyond a collection of departments. Perhaps the way I put it at convocation is best: What do you wish you could tell family and friends about SSU (not about your department), if only it were true?

At the second open lunch (9/14/11) to continue this conversation, 13 faculty members and the Provost joined me in the new Faculty Center (1125 Schulz), in the back room - a nice collaborative classroom. There was lots of great discussion. Some pieces that came up:

• Is our mission to serve our service area, or to be a destination campus drawing from across California?


• SSU (perhaps the Academic Senate?) had an effort about 10 years ago do do a "meta-review" of program reviews and GE courses to evaluate how we're doing at meeting our mission.


• Speaking of SSU's mission, attendees seemed to feel that it was quite good, and the challenge is in figuring out what it implies for what we do here - how we do education. How do we make this mission drive our/the University's decision making?


• How do we get more junior faculty here - they'll have to live with the decisions being made now for a long time!


• We need to get student and alumni/ae voices in this conversation!


• We have fairly little cross-disciplinary curriculum. How do students learn to integrate ideas across disciplines? Do we have processes/structures that make cross-disciplinary curriculum difficult?


• Capstone courses, student portfolios (including extra-curricular learning)

For me, a summary of where discussions have been headed is:

1. What is the marker of an SSU education? (The mission tries to articulate this.)


2. How could we measure it?


3. How do we "do education" to be successful at meeting that mission?

Fruitful discussions! I hope you'll join me at others!

Laurel H posted a comment after my last entry asking for more explanation of the framing of the question, and asking what the small phrases in my bulleted lists were about. I attempt to address the framing above; the small phrases were just my condensation of what people talked about as (desired) identifying features of an SSU education.

To: SSU Faculty (emailed 9-13-11)
From: Ben Ford, Chair
Date: 13 September 2011
Re: Fall 2011 Update #2

I am trying to keep a blog updated with Faculty governance happenings at the Senate web site: www.sonoma.edu/senate/chair . Go there for more details on what's below, and add comments by clicking on the entry title and then scrolling to the bottom.

1) Faculty conversations about SSU's academic story. What are we as an academic institution, beyond a collection of departments?

A group of about 12 faculty and the Provost met for lunch on August 31 and had a great conversation. To continue, I invite you to join me at lunch on the following Wednesdays (drop-in, bring your own lunch). Provost Rogerson will be joining us, and President Armiñana will join us about once a month. These will be in the new Faculty Center, 1125 Schulz, noon to 1 p.m.

• Sep 14


• Sep 28 (with President Armiñana)


• Oct 12 (No Provost; with President Armiñana)


• Oct 26


• Nov 9 (with President Armiñana)


• Nov 30


• Dec 14 (with President Armiñana)

2) Important opportunities/events

• Come to the Emeritus Dinner to honor our retiring colleagues! October 16, French Garden restaurant, Sebastopol, $35 prix fixe. Register ASAP at www.sonoma.edu/senate/useful/emeritusdinner.html .


• Sonoma Serves/Day of Caring: Help Associated Students' JUMP program get hundreds of students involved in community service work on Saturday, September 24: www.sonoma.edu/as/jump/


• ASP (Associated Students Present) events: Outstanding events all semester long, many of which may have tie-ins with your classes: www.sonoma.edu/as/asp/


• Library open house Sep. 14 and art reception Sep. 15 (library.sonoma.edu/about/gallery.php ).

3) Faculty Governance updates
Here I'll list brief updates of faculty governance happenings. Just a few this time:

• Scholarship committee: 2011-12 scholarships awards ceremony October 7. More info from the Scholarship Office: Sara Golightly 4-2261


• The Dispute Resolution Board has been meeting with department chairs and will meet with the associated students soon with the goal of preventing disputes when possible and decreasing difficulties with navigating dispute processes. More info from Mike Visser, chair, visser@sonoma.edu


• The Senate Diversity Subcommittee will co-sponsor the Diversity and Community Engagement Mini-Conference on November 14. See the Center for Community Engagement for more info: www.sonoma.edu/aa/ap/cce/

--

Comments welcome! Click on the entry title, then at the bottom, leave a comment without signing in and it will wait for me to approve it to avoid spam, or use one of the sign-in methods (doesn't work with LDAP signin yet; you can use a google account if you have one) to post your comment immediately.

At the Fall 2011 convocation, I proposed a conversation among the faculty and the campus community at large about SSU's academic story for our second fifty years. I find that I'm thinking of this version of the question now: What is Sonoma State University, as an academic institution, beyond a collection of departments? There are outstanding programs and people all across campus, but what is our overall academic story?

I'm still working on how to engage in this discussion; so far, we've scheduled open faculty lunches (drop-in, brown-bag) with the Provost and President; and I've met with Senate committees.

Reminder: Other lunches, all in the new Faculty Center (1125 Schulz, noon to 1 p.m.) are as follows. Provost Rogerson will attend except as indicated; President Armiñana will be at about half of the lunches:

• Sep 14


• Sep 28 (with President Armiñana)


• Oct 12 (No Provost; with President Armiñana)


• Oct 26


• Nov 9 (with President Armiñana)


• Nov 30


• Dec 14 (with President Armiñana)

On Wednesday 8/31, about 12 faculty members (from 4 schools - Science and Technology, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Business and Economics) took me up on my open lunch invitation. We met in the Commons, joined by Provost Rogerson.

After intros - it's surprising to me how many of us on the faculty don't know each other across campus - we had a great discussion about our ideas about SSU's academic identity. One theme that seems to come up over and over is close faculty-student relationships. Here are some other ideas that came up as part of people's ideas of central elements of our academic story:

• Accessibility


• Preparation for jobs


• Engagement


• Learning communities


• Civic engagement


• Creating the future


• Compassion


• Sustainability


• Globalization

I'm sure I've missed some; I wasn't trying to take comprehensive notes.

I've also met with all four standing committees of the Academic Senate (Academic Planning, Educational Policies, Faculty Standards and Affairs, and Student Affairs) to talk about this "Academic Story" conversation. The idea of suggestion boxes placed around campus has come up several times, and I've gotten a lot of other good suggestions for process and offers of help.

Hope to see lots of you at various conversations!