Present: Jean Blachère, Barbara Fredette, Carrie Holzworth, Tom Metzger, Susan Neuman, Evelyn Talbot, Billy Njobou, Susan L. Whitney, and guest Pat Sparto

The meeting was called to order at 12:05. There were specific questions addressed related to the request from the Provost about our response to him and CIDDE. We strongly believe that the CIDDE provide consultation and training to improve instruction to all students at all levels in the university. It was controversial as to whether it should be called a Center of Teaching or The Center for Instructional Development and Technology. Faculty development needs to be a well outlined and developed part of CIDDE. We felt that they need to improve their consultant services. We also felt strongly that there needs to be money and resources in order to fulfill the mission of developing faculty as teachers.

Many of the staff who work in CIDDE are technologists except for a few. The resources that are available need to emphasized to the rest of the community. The staffing and money are a significant problem that were identified by the Committee.

We felt strongly that an individual should be hired to provide individual consultation with individual courses and individual faculty, especially with curriculum development.

The help for the TAs provided by CIDDE is extremely productive. We felt that the handbook that was provided from the University of Massachusetts is a good example of one to use with our TAs.

The Committee did not feel competent to write a job description for the CIDDE position, but felt that our group should provide input about what kind of person is necessary for faculty development. We felt that there needed to be two people, one who might be the director and another who might be an assistant director or an associate director. We also felt that they needed secretarial support in order to make the position work.

We talked about the name of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. First CIDDE is perceived as a technology center. It was recommended that we send a letter to the Provost with recommendations that two people be hired with their primary responsibility being consultation and course development for faculty and TAs with the goal of improving teaching within the University of Pittsburgh. The motion was passed unanimously by the Committee.

The meeting ended at approximately 1:25 PM.

The next Senate Educational Policies Committee meeting will be held on February 9 th from 12:00 - 1:30.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan L. Whitney, PhD, PT, ATC