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UNK Welcomes NCA

NCA/Faculty Senate Special Meeting
January 22, 2004
 
Communications Center, Room 101

The UNK Faculty Senate held a special meeting on January 22, in the Communications Center, Room 101. This facility allowed for the video taping of the meeting, providing a permanent record of the discussion of the North Central Self-Study.

Senate President Rick Miller called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m., with a majority of Senators present. Miller explained the purpose of the meeting and the process to be followed. Groups consisting of five or six senators each had been previously assigned a Self-Study chapter and were asked to comment on any and all aspects of the document. President Miller then introduced Ken Nikels, Steering Committee chair.

Nikels provided further information about the North Central accreditation process and particularly about the process the Steering Committee had followed in developing the Self-Study. It was mentioned that Working Groups had been formed and assigned one of the NCA criteria. Each Working Group was chaired by a member of the Steering Committee and included additional faculty and staff members. The chapters have been reviewed and edited by Dick Jussel (Editor) and Ken Nikels, with input from Dean Rodney Miller and Senators Martha Kruse, Roger Davis, and Daryl Kelley. Nikels also described the various stages of revision of each chapter, and the effort underway to shorten the document considerably.

Rick Miller then led the Faculty Senate through a thorough review of the Self-Study. The document had been provided to the Senate with line numbers, and thus the discussion was easily followed by all in attendance. Several more general comments were made about the Self-Study, most notably that there needed to be a single voice, a consistent format, and that outcomes were missing in several areas. Numerous specific suggestions were made regarding grammar and spelling, and about revising certain statements or sections to be more clear.

The Senate discussed all seven chapters and provided many helpful suggestions. The videotape has been sent to Dick Jussel for his review, and Steering Committee chair Nikels will revise the Self-Study based on the Senate's suggestions. The document will then be returned to the Steering Committee and Working Groups for further review, and will be posted on the UNK website as soon as possible.

Meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.