As you’ve seen, Provost Sotiropoulos sent a message sharing the work of the repositioning committee. To help you as members of the community of the College of Humanities and Sciences process and navigate the information on the site, we've provided some additional information and clarifications that might be helpful.
Jump to section:
- Context
- Navigating recommendations
- Voting on recommendations
- Further discussion
- Materials from town hall
UPDATE: On May 1, 2024, Dean Ingrassia held a town hall to discuss the provost’s repositioning recommendations and the future modifications to the College of Humanities and Sciences. See the town hall presentation here.
Context
First, and most importantly, these items are only recommendations from the working groups. No actions have, or will be taken, until further discussion occurs. It is important to be very clear on that point.
Second, the provost - and the College of Humanities and Sciences - authentically want both comments and reactions to what is presented from the working groups as well as any additional, new ideas you wish to share. The repositioning website has a form for submitting ideas.
Navigating Recommendations
The website contains both the PowerPoint presentations from the working groups as well as the full reports. If your schedule permits, we encourage you to review the full reports which have more detail, nuance, and accuracy than the PowerPoints.
Each recommendation has a number in front of it.
- If it is a 1, that recommendation was endorsed by the working group.
- If it is a 2, it was identified as potentially feasible but not recommended.
- If it is a 3, it was not recommended by the working group.
Please note that no distinction is made among the different recommendations–3s appear alongside 1s without distinction but you may want to be aware of that difference.
In addition to the full reports and the PowerPoint presentations, the website also includes an index of recommendations. While we encourage you to look at the recommendations affecting the College of Humanities and Sciences (which begin on page 5), it is useful to review them all because not everything is captured in the index. Again, the numbering system (1, 2 or 3) is in place in the index and is a useful reminder.
Voting on Recommendations
In addition to being able to offer general comments and new suggestions, the interactive website also provides you with an opportunity to vote on each individual recommendation.
Here’s how to vote:
- Scroll to the bottom of the recommendations review and feedback page where there is an accordion folder that lists each group.
- Expand the folder you are interested in and click the button “Group X Recommendations and Feedback.”
- You will be prompted to log in to Smartsheets. The instructions for voting detail how to create a Smartsheet account if you don’t already have one.
- Once logged in, you will see a spreadsheet that lists all the recommendations of that group.
- Click the link in the “comment” column, which will take you to an individual feedback form for that specific recommendation.
Please note:
The feedback form uses a likert scale to vote on three questions:
- Whether the recommendation “leverages existing or creates new strengths”
- Whether the recommendation “ignites student success through curricular innovation”
- Whether the recommendation “advances a collaborative research culture”
You also have the opportunity to provide brief written commentary.
Further Discussion
To facilitate communications within our CHS community we have scheduled three opportunities for discussion of the repositioning committee recommendations before the provost’s period for comment ends on January 26:
- Two in-person town halls: Tuesday, January 23 at 9:30 a.m. in University Commons, SGA Senate Chambers; and Wednesday, January 24 at 2 p.m. in STEM-817WF, Rm. 112
- A virtual town hall on Thursday, January 25 at 9:30 a.m. on Zoom (register here)
We also have an opportunity for discussion and questions with the provost:
- CHS Faculty and Staff Meeting with Provost Sotiropoulos on Wednesday, February 21 at 9 a.m. in Richmond Salons III-IV.
You may register for one or more of these sessions in advance.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. The chance to reflect on the current structures and organization of CHS and the university as a whole, while perhaps initially daunting, might provide an opportunity to productively re-imagine some of our current practices.
Materials from Town Hall
Dean Ingrassia shared a powerpoint presentation and provided a QR code that linked to a "Consequential Repositioning Recommendations for CHS" document at the town halls. Please see the links below for those items.