To:    SSU Faculty
From:    Ben Ford, Chair
Date:    7 November  2011
Re:    Fall 2011 Update #5

I am trying to keep a blog updated with news about ongoing academic story conversations:  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.

Note the new breakfast conversations in #1 below

1)  Faculty conversations about SSU's academic story.  What should we be as an academic institution, beyond a collection of departments?  Or, what should it be that makes an SSU education distinctive?

Lunch conversations. Since I last wrote, we've had two lunch conversations in the Faculty Center (October 12 and 26) and two breakfast gatherings at North Light Books and Cafe (October 21 and November 4).  Eight to 15 faculty have attended each, along with the Provost.  President Armiñana has joined us several times, and others from the campus community are joining in as well. 

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 at most, and President  Armiñana will join us about once a month.  These will be in the new Faculty Center, 1125 Schulz.

• Nov 9, noon-1:00 (with President Armiñana)

• Nov 30, noon-1:00

• Dec 14, noon-1:00 (with President Armiñana)

Breakfast conversation!  One remaining Friday breakfast gathering this semester: On December 2 at 8:00 a.m., Provost Rogerson and I will be having breakfast at North Light Books & Cafe (in the Oliver's shopping center, 550 E. Cotati Ave.), for another discussion along the lines above. 

2) Faculty Governance updates
Here I'll list brief updates of faculty governance happenings.  Talk with your faculty governance representatives if you have interest in any of these.  You can find your representatives here: www.sonoma.edu/senate/committees/meetings.html

• The Academic Planning Committee has just been assigned a trio of related issues to work on:  An in-depth look at the new CSU Online initiative, and consideration of any possible faculty response; the possible drafting of an SSU policy on online learning; and the drafting of a new Memorandum of Understanding with the School of Extended Education.

• The Professional Development Subcommittee is working with the Provost's office to figure out what professional development opportunities can be put together for this year, how support can be found for someone to oversee them, and what the long-term structure for professional development might be.
  

• The Student Affairs Committee has a very full plate, currently working on a "Disruptive student" policy and a re-working of campus policies on fee referenda, among many others.

Conversations about SSU's academic story - the story we tell ourselves, our students, and our community about the role of SSU in the world - have been very exciting.  Ideas are more consistent and coherent than I expected, and many people seem very happy to have an opportunity to talk with colleagues about why and how we do this work.  I know I sure enjoy them.  Since I last wrote, we've had a lunch or two and a breakfast session at North Light Café and Books; 12-14 faculty members have come to each lunch, and about 8 to each breakfast so far.

I think I've written before that ideas around collaboration seem to resonate with a lot of participants as capturing much of what is true and is wished to be true about SSU:  Close faculty-student interactions; interdisciplinary efforts; coherent GE efforts; community partnerships; and more.  "Collaborative" also describes a characteristic that many of us want our graduates to have; it's one of the critical skills mentioned by Richard Thornburg in his address last week.  Another theme that some have mentioned is leadership.

I've discovered that, while "collaboration" is meaningful to me, it needs some explanation to some who haven't been in the conversations.  Here are pieces of what it captures for me: 

• Collaboration as a way to "do" education: Student-faculty collaboration; students collaborating in teams on projects; faculty collaborating across departments
• Collaboration with our community to situate our students' learning in this amazing place and community
• Collaboration as a learning objective, as a critical skill for our students in almost any career they choose

One challenge for me is seeing how these conversations lead to some kind of motto or tag line or motto, if such a thing would be useful (as I think it would).  The usefulness would depend on a balance between having some real meaning, and being broad enough to frame most or all of the ways we want SSU to be a force in the world.  The two examples I cite a lot are Cal Poly SLO, which uses the standard polytechnic "Learn By Doing" to great effect, both internally (as a way of structuring education) and externally (corporate recruiters talk about Cal Poly graduates' ability to hit the ground running); and Evergreen's "Let it all hang out," which also tells you something about how education works there, and what you might expect of a graduate.

Conversations are broadening:  Representatives from development and public relations, along with two deans, participated in the last lunch gathering, and the student government cabinet is coming to this Wednesday's lunch.  Hope to see some of you there!