September 3, 2021

Anthropology, Economics and Geography Department meeting

September 3, 2021

Attendees:

Felicitas Adu-Acheampong, Luke Armstrong, Iris Diamond, Ricki Dolan, Stuart Greenfield, Steven Howard, Lei Ji, Don Jonsson, Livingston Kumassah, Anthony Lee, Paul Lehman, Mohammed Partapurwala, Carleen Sanchez, Alec Slivinske, James Sondgeroth, Daniel Waktola, and Dean Stewart.

Meeting Begins at 12:00pm

Agenda

1. Welcome to Fall 2021

2. Approve agenda

3. Approve minutes from the AEG meeting held on May 7.

4. Welcome to Dr. Felitictas Adu-Acheampong and Brianna Teague

5. Words from the Dean

6. Faculty Mentoring Program

7. Spring 2021 DAC results

8. Spring 2022 DAC Assessment update

9. Covid/Delta variant questions & concerns

10. Fall enrollment report

11. Anthropology IPR update

12. Announcements; Mandatory trainings, syllabi, spring and summer fif’s and FIGs

13. Question and Answer

14. Adjourn

1. Welcome to Fall 2021

2. Agenda approved.

3. Minutes from departmental meeting on May 7, 2021 approved.

4. Welcome to Dr. Felicitas Adu-Acheampong, our new Associate Professor in economics, and Brianna Teague, adjunct faculty in anthropology. All meeting attendees gave a brief introduction and information on what they had accomplished during the pandemic.

5. Dean Stewart spoke regarding challenges and concerns faculty may have when returning to face to face instruction. The Dean thanked faculty for their contributions, patience and hard work during this time and advised that an email would be coming out soon with more directions on returning back to campus. The Dean stated that room capacities had been reduced to ⅔ capacity for this semester, as well as for the spring 2022 semester.

6. Faculty Mentoring Program- Presenter Jessamine Dana was not present, so this item was tabled.

7. Spring 2021 DAC results- Carleen Sanchez explained that we were required to present the results of our last DAC assessments and then to work collaboratively on them. Departments broke out into workout sessions per discipline to discuss DAC results in their discipline.

8. Spring 2022 DAC Assessment update- Carleen explained that each department will designate a DAC program coordinator and will work to assess the results of their DAC and to provide feedback on how to best assess the PSLO -Written communication and Critical Thinking in the spring classes.

9. Covid/Delta variant questions & concerns- item presented by Lei Ji.

Lei Ji stated that each person should reach out to their representative to ask questions and or voice concern over Covid/Delta variant issues related to our return to campus. Several faculty had questions/concerns regarding teaching at high schools with no current mask mandate, and how to handle absences should a dependent family member get sick with Covid. Full time faculty can email Samantha Croft (scroft@austincc.edu) and adjunct faculty can email Don Morris (dmorris@austincc.edu).

10. Fall enrollment report- Carleen stated that as of 8/23/2021, fall enrollment at the college is down 16 percent, with economics down 16.4%, geography down 22.9% and anthropology down 6.6%.

Carleen will be keeping an eye on enrollment for spring.

11. Anthropology IPR update- Anthropology is due for a program review this academic year.

https://www.austincc.edu/offices/planning-accreditation/program-review

12. Announcements; Mandatory trainings, syllabi, spring and summer fif’s and FIGs

Mandatory training: ALL mandatory training for new and current employees is suspended starting Monday, August 9, 2021 through November 1, 2021. Employees will be able to resume training on Workday to fulfill compliance requirements after November 1, 2021.

Syllabi: Email copies of each course syllabus to Rachel asap (just on per course, not every section).

Faculty Input Forms (FIF) for Spring and Summer 2021. Faculty need to submit FIFs for any evaluation form with the following:

Evaluation scores < 5

Any rubric score < 5

for the above, be sure to address any narrative comments that are critical or negative in nature. Be sure to thoroughly address each comment.

Deadline is September 9th

FIGs (Faculty Interest Groups): These are great for getting to know faculty and staff from other parts of the college as well as accrue professional development hours. Deadline September 13th https://tled.austincc.edu/teaching-excellence/collaborate/faculty-interest-groups/o Religious Literacy: Hinduismo Centering Marginalized Histories: An African American and Latinx History of the United States Reading Groupo Distance Learning FIGo Teaching Between Worlds: Interdisciplinary Studies and You FIGo The Great Questions Faculty Intellectual Feasts: Totalitarianism