Huxley College Comments from Listening Session with Bruce

Where do sustainability and international studies fit within our departments/college?   Both issues need to permeate the university.  One of our challenges is that the word “sustainability” is almost a cliché now.  How can Western help turn “sustainability” from a cliché to something more? 

We face challenges with bringing in foreign students for our Masters program.  We are not able to even look at an application of a foreign student until they have all of the paperwork in place.  That practice virtually eliminates students from China.  Foreign students in the masters programs help all of our students because of the diverse experience and knowledge they add.

Professors often must use their own resources in order to work with students who strive for a more excellent experience.  What means might be available to encourage active engagement with the students?

Evaluations come in the way of student course evaluations.  Need to find some sort of structure that can provide meaningful alternative to encourage professors to continue to grow professionally, e.g.: peer assessment.

Outcomes evaluation helps us figure out if we are actually doing what we think we are doing.  Costs time and money.  There needs to be an intelligent incorporation of assessment. 

As you are getting feedback from faculty and staff, there are resource constraints that the department/college are not able to meet.  Can we make suggestions without regard to the constraints? 

The most important resource is knowledge/peoples’ time.  We need a clear and transparent budget process to make choices at the department/college level.  Culture needs to change and believes that setting an example can be the best way to change the culture. 

I hear a lot about what people want and what their budgetary needs are.  Is the money spent on renting the waterfront office the best use of resources? Is there a political reason that we have offices housed there?

The idea of expanding to the waterfront was originally an idea from a Huxley student years ago.  Waterfront planning money should also be used in the classroom.  We can often use the classroom work of students to a better degree than the plans re receive from high cost consultants. 

We need to evaluate the systems that can facilitate the transfer of money that donors want to get into specific hands.  There are roadblocks to getting the money into the correct hands.  How can we get privately funded research stipends into the hands of students without the money being considered a scholarship?  It is even more difficult to get private donated money into the hands of faculty.

General University Requirements:  Can we suspend the current requirements to see if an alternative program could work?  We can mold the requirements so our students can hit the ground running when they enter Huxley.  This could be the President’s Challenge Program. 

We have three very different Provost Candidates that are being considered.  

Has not found WWU an intuitive place for new faculty to find out about what they can and can not do.  Our web site is also not intuitive. 

Look at shared building space between the educational programs and NOAA, for example, or other groups.  Bridge the environmental district in Bellingham with the environmental studies program.

Make the summer session courses more intensive study with smaller classes and more in-depth courses. 

Huxley is unique that we take a lot of time with our students who are interested in our programs.  The students get a lot of one on one with academic advising.  Professors spend a lot of time advising students and are not compensated.  Some of the best things Huxley faculty and staff do best are not appreciated or noted.  These efforts do not count towards T&P.

Curriculum, Advising, and Program Planning (CAPP) is an excellent tool that very few students seem to know about.

Graduate multi disciplinary programs can use work.  What is the role of the graduate program at the university?

Thanked Bruce for convocation being a combined faculty/staff event. 

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