Calendar

December 6
·   Bookstore Holiday Open House
·   Horticulture Holiday Open House
·   Holiday Coffeehouse
December 7
·   Academic Advisement & Registration
·   UMC Women’s Association Holiday Auction
December 7-11
·   UMC Theater presents “42nd Street”
December 8
·   Campus Preview
December 11
·   Campus Preview
December 12
·   Hockey – UMC vs. Concordia College
December 12 and 13
·   Ergonomic Showroom on Campus
December 13
·   Last day of instruction
December 13, 14, 15, 18 and 19
·   Book Buy Back
December 14
·   Christmas Program
December 14, 15, 18 and 19
·   Final Exams
December 18
·   Crookston Campus Campaign Sessions
December 19
·   Residence Halls close at 4 p.m.
December 20, 2000 - January 7, 2001
·   Semester Break
December 21
·   UMC Holiday Party
December 22
·   Grades due to Registrar
December 25
·   Christmas Holiday, campus offices closed
December 26
·   Floating holiday, campus offices closed
December 29
·   Basketball - UMC vs. U of M, Morris (Women and
    Men)
December 30
·   Basketball - UMC vs. Northern State (Women and
    Men)
January 1
·   New Year’s Day Holiday, campus offices closed
January 2
·   Floating holiday, campus offices closed
·   Basketball - UMC vs. Valley City State (Women and
    Men)
January 5 and 6
·   Hockey – UMC vs. Northland College, Ashland

News Items

NCA Reports and Goals
UMC received the formal notification of the action taken by the North Central Association (NCA) Commission Trustees at its November 17, 2000, meeting.  The Record of Status and Scope as of that date for UMC includes the following new statements as a result of the focused visit and reader panel and Commission review.

Stipulations on affiliation status:  Offerings outside of the state are limited to courses offered in North Dakota.  Delivery of Bachelor's degrees to off-campus sites is limited to the Bachelors in Manufacturing a Warroad (with Northwest Technical College) and the Bachelors of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management at Marshall (with Southwest State University).

Progress reports required:  5/31/03; A report on assessment of learning.

Monitoring reports required:  9/28/01; A report on the plan to assess student learning.  If the plan is not acceptable, a focused visit will be required within six months.

Any Change in Status with the North Central Association requires their approval as per Chapter 12 of Handbook of Accreditation, Second Edition - pages 16 -18 of the Addendum to the Handbook http://www.ncacihe.org.  The Addendum can be found on the Commission's website under Information for Affiliated Institutions and Consultant Evaluations.

Well what does all this mean!  First, this is the first formal review of UMC's baccalaureate progress and also UMC's first approval for distance delivered bachelors degrees.  Many have done much.  Students, employers, legislators, NCA, and many others think UMC is on target.

Second, NCA's mission is "Serving the common good by assuring and advancing the quality of higher learning."  Thus, assessment is core to their mission, and it is becoming more and more important in each of our roles.  That's how we evaluate and, in turn, how we improve.  We need to focus on strengthening course and program quality, on improving documentation of student academic achievement, and on building computer mediated courseware for student learning on campus and off-campus including distance delivered modules, courses and programs.  

Third, we have some work to do.  Each of our individual programs of work must be adjusted to include the focus mentioned above.  We shall make some staffing adjustments to include leadership positions in assessment and in the student first-year experience in spring semester to heighten our response to this report.  Next year our individual programs of work, Campus Compact, and Budget will need to include further activities to assure that UMC's progress exceeds the NCA guidelines.

Congratulations on another milestone for UMC and my thanks to each of you as UMC continues to move forward with our goal of becoming an exemplary polytechnic college.
--Don Sargeant, Chancellor

Student Evaluations of Teaching
Here are some guidelines and procedures for administering the Student Evaluations of Teaching.  More formal guidelines and policies are being developed by the Academic Standards and Policies Committee.  I hope these procedures will guide faculty as they proceed with the evaluations for this semester.  If you have questions about which courses or sections to evaluate, please contact your center director.

If you chose to use the online version, there are a couple of things to remember. First, you need to follow the same procedures as the paper version which include

Evaluations are to be:

1. completed at the beginning of the class hour,
2. conducted without the instructor of the course present,
3. completed during the last two weeks of class.

For both the paper versions and the online versions you will need to find a colleague to come into your class and administer the evaluations without you present.  If you chose the paper version, you need to contact your center director to let them know you will need the forms, etc. For the online format, Tom Mulvaney has already provided you with the web site and the appropriate password that will need to be given to the students by the person administering the evaluation.

For both formats the following standardized directions are to be read to the students (University policy).

Your responses to this questionnaire are important because they will be used in tenure, promotion and salary decisions for your instructor.  Your thoughtful written comments are especially requested, and may help your instructor improve future course offerings. The results of the evaluation (including the evaluation forms) will not be returned to the instructor until after the final grades are submitted for this course.  For Paper format - Please use only a No. 2 pencil-not pen.  Completely blacken the circle of your choice.  If you erase, erase completely.

Faculty must use one format (online or written) for an individual class. You can chose to have one whole class do written and one do online, but you can't mix formats for a given class.

With regard to security questions you may have regarding the online version. The system is set so only one response can be sent from any individual computer. If you have other security questions or procedure questions for the online version, please contact Tom Mulvaney at the Help Desk.
--Doug Knowlton, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Comprehensive Reviews for Smith, Nelson, Lim
As a part of the standard, regularly scheduled comprehensive review of administrative positions at UMC, the following three committees have been named:

For Robert Smith, Director, Center for Business and Technology 

Ken Myers, Chair
David Hoff
Kent Bruun
Marilyn Grave
David Crawford

For Richard Nelson, Director, Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources 

Russ Kreager, Chair
Deb Zak
Jane Sims
Lyle Westrom
Sue Jacobson

For Dan Lim, Director, Instructional Technology Center 

Andrew Svec, Chair
Sharon Stewart
Cleon Melsa
Bobby Holder
Peggy Sherven

An evaluative survey instrument will be developed and distributed as a part of this process.  Please contact the chairs of the committees if you have any questions.
--Doug Knowlton, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Comprehensive Reviews for Oseth and Oliver
In accordance with the University of Minnesota policy, I have appointed a review committee to collect and evaluate information concerning Jeff Oseth and Scott Oliver, coaches within the UMC Athletic Department.  The review will cover the last three years of service at UMC.  Members of the Comprehensive Review Committee are:

            Dana Prudhomme - Student
            Steve Shirley - Faculty/Chair of Committee
            Mike Curfman - Athletics

The committee will be soliciting input from faculty, staff, students and other constituents in the near future.  Feel free to contact the committee chairperson if you have any relevant information you wish to share.  Thanks you for your help in this process.
--Lon Boike, Director of Athletics

Horticulture Department Holiday Open House
The UMC Horticulture Department and Horticulture Club invite you to a Holiday Open House on Wednesday, December 6, from 3 to 6 p.m. in the greenhouse.  Beautiful poinsettias, wreaths, and holiday arrangements will be on sale.  Come and enjoy cider and cookies with us.
--Sue Jacobson, Senior Lab Services Coordinator

UMC Holiday Celebration
The annual UMC Holiday Celebration is scheduled for Thursday, December 21, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in Bede Ballroom.  All members of the campus community are invited and are welcome to bring a guest/spouse.  Refreshments and appetizers will be served.  Each person may bring a “white elephant” gift of “garage sale quality” to exchange.  The event is sponsored by the Chancellor’s Office and the United Staff Association.

Ergonomic Showroom on Campus
The Department of Environmental Health and Safety has arranged for staff from our Twin Cities office to bring a portion of the Ergonomic Showroom to our campus on December 12 and 13.  We are grateful that Greg Casura, Occupational Health and Safety Specialist/ Ergonomist and Neil Carlson, Industrial Hygienist/Ergonimist will be on campus to perform ergonomic reviews of individual faculty and staff work stations, display some of the chairs and work stations available through University contracts, discuss special funding assistance through DEHS (up to 25% reimbursement to your department) and demonstrate the department's ergonomic web page.

I am hopeful that there will be an opportunity for them to get into at least one of our classrooms to review our student work areas and to visit with those involved with the design of the Kiehle renovation to assist with office and work station design.

If you would like to have your individual computer workstation or desk arrangement reviewed for ergonomic support, please contact me by telephone (8131) or email (tfeiro).  I am building a list of visits and need to plan for approximately 20 minutes per person.

Greg and Neil will be available for reviews on Tuesday, December 12 from 2 to 4:30 p.m. and Wednesday, December 13 from 8 to 11 a.m.  An Ergonomic Showroom will be set up in Sahlstrom Conference Center 131 during those times.  Feel free to stop in and ask questions at any time. 
--Tom Feiro, Senior Environmental Health and Safety Technician

Campaign Minnesota, Crookston
Bob Peterson with the University of Minnesota Foundation will be on campus Monday, December 18, to meet with faculty and staff regarding giving options to the Crookston Campus Campaign.

“There are many ways to give to the University of Minnesota that not only help create excellence here, but also contribute to your own financial goals.  You gain an immediate income tax deduction when you make an outright gift and with many planned giving options, you can realize immediate, as well as future, tax savings.  Several gift plans enable you to make a substantial gift and provide lifetime income for you and/or others.  Here are some of the ways you can give to the University."

• Outright gifts
• Income-producing gifts
• Estate gifts
• Other planned gifts

Bob will be available to provide financial advice and examples from 8 to 10 a.m. in Sahlstrom Conference Center 131 and again from 12 noon to 2 p.m. in Sahlstrom Conference Center, Room D.
--Wendell Johnson

ATM to Be Removed on December 28, 2000
Twin Cities Federal has discontinued its UCard agreement with the University of Minnesota, Crookston campus.  TCF account holders will continue to be eligible to use their UCard at other ATM machines according to the terms of their agreement.  For further information call TCF at 800-228-8892.  The ATM machine will be removed by TCF on 12/28/00.

Early Childhood Teaching Licensure Status
UMC has passed the final hurdle of receiving Minnesota Board of Teaching approval for the granting of the teaching license (Teachers of Early Childhood Education - Birth through Grade 3) within the Collaborative Early Childhood Education Degree and Teacher Licensure program between UMC and BSU.  Previously, each institution could award our degrees, but not this new teacher license. The new license is required to be offered by higher education institutions in MN by September 1, 2001. 

To refresh your memories:

1. UMC and BSU award B.S. degree to students registered as degree seeking at the host institution for each student major.  Each campus receives authorization from their respective system - UM or MnSCU for the degree awarded.

2. BSU has institutional authority to administer and award the teacher license for students at BSU and UMC. In essence, this controls more than 90% of the ECE courses and 100% of the Ed courses on this campus

This is the first time in the history of the Minnesota Board of Teaching that an institution without separate BOT institutional approval (UMC) will be able to provide its students access to approved teacher licensure courses.  BOT actually requires approval at three levels - institutions, programs, and faculty.  With our application to the BOT we submitted abbreviated CV's for Soo-Yin and myself, in addition to the BSU Ed faculty.  Therefore, both Soo-Yin and myself will be allowed to develop and deliver the teacher licensure courses.

It is also the first time in the history of the Minnesota Board of Teaching that they agreed to review and then grant approval to a collaborative licensure program. 

We received BOT approval for compliance with two separate statutory rules:  8710.2000 Standards of Effective Practice for Teachers and 8710.3000 Teachers of Early Childhood Education.  The application was submitted in July and the documents include assessment plans outlining how each student will demonstrate knowledge and application for each of the performance indicators required within these two rules. 

Thank you for your patience in waiting for this approval process.  The last six months have involved a highly political and strategic process with both supporters and non-supporters entering into dialogue regarding the BOT consideration of this application.  Therefore, we will now be able to publicly market and recruit for this degree and licensure program.  
--Marilyn Grave, Early Childhood Education Program Manager

Welcome to Shannon Kaufman
Shannon Kaufman has joined the UMC staff as Director of Dining Services.  Shannon most recently served as the assistant general manager/food and beverage director for the Embassy Suites Hotels in Des Moines, Iowa.  Prior to that she worked for the Doubletree Hotels in Washington State.  She has a bachelor’s degree in Hotel, Motel, and Restaurant Management from Moorhead State University.  

On a more personal note, this is a sort of homecoming for Shannon, who grew up in Crookston, and her husband Grant.  Shannon’s parents still live here in Crookston, and her husband’s parents live in Moorhead.  She says she’s happy to be back in a place where she feels comfortable raising her daughter Parker and where family members are close by. 

Employee of the Semester
Attached to this issue of the bulletin is the CS/BU Employee of the Semester, Fall Semester 2000 nomination form (Nom CSBU Sem.pdf).  Please take a few moments to consider your nominee and return the form to me by Tuesday, December 19.  The award will be given at the January 4 meeting.  If you have nominated someone in the past that you would like to re-nominate, give me a call at 281-8330 and I’ll pull that form.
--Karen Murphy

UMC Insight
UMC Insight will be aired Saturday, December 9, at 8:45 a.m. on KROX (AM 1260).  Tune in to hear about Ag Activities Day with Barb Heinze and Michelle Christopherson.  UMC student Dana Prudhomme, who is working for UMC Institutional Relations, will serve as host. 

UMC Insight files are also available via the Web at http://www.umcrookston.edu/newsevents/insight/00-01/index.htm.

UMC Bulletin
The UMC Bulletin is posted at:
http://www.umcrookston.edu/campusinfo/wkbulletin/bulletin.htm

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