Institutional Accreditation
Frequently Asked Questions
(as of 28 April 2000)
Q. The departmental self-study instructions in the notebooks state the deadline as May 20, 2000 but that is a Saturday!
A. Notebooks are due at the close of business on Monday, May 22, 2000.
Q. Why do the template instructions ask us to describe "Staff Involvement in Faculty Governance"? (Academic Departments Instructions - p. 14, section VI.B.1 or Standard 3 - Students Instructions - p. 7, section VI.A.1)A. This section heading should read "Staff Involvement in Governance." The intended focus is on staff involvement in staff governance.
Q. What is the difference between all these faculty tables?A. The purpose of Table 4.2 is to inform our evaluators about the qualifications of those involved in our educational programs. The purpose of Table 4.3 is to communicate to our evaluators that we evaluate faculty members in our departments regularly. Tables 4.4-4.7 are intended to be useful for department heads/deans/directors for evaluating whether a department is meeting its mission and for planning.
Q. On Table 4.2, we are asked to list all faculty who have taught since Fall 1998. However, the other tables want info from 97-98 and 98-99. How do we list faculty who taught during 97-98, but then left the university?A. Table 4.2 should list all faculty who have taught since Fall 1998 including those that have since left the university, etc. (see footnote #2). The faculty lists for Tables 4.3 through 4.7 should be only those faculty with an appointment in your department during at least one of the academic years 1997-98,1998-99, and 1999-2000. If a faculty member has had an appointment in your department anytime since fall 1997 but has not taught a course since fall 1998, they would show in Tables 4.3-4.7 but not in 4.2.
Q. The faculty tables do not represent us well. Can we change the column headings to ones that better represent us?A. Please respond to the tables as they are (you are welcome to change column widths but not headings). Include any additional information that represents your unit appropriately through additional tables of your own creation or in the narrative.
Q. If a faculty member started work in fall of '98 and has not yet turned in an activities report how do we report that?A. State that there is no report available. If you have only one report available, state that you have only one report available.
Q. How do we count the number of students that a faculty member is a committee chair for? For example he/she chaired committees for four students in '97 and five in '98 but four of the five were continuing students?A. Count the total number of distinct names of students that the faculty member was a chair for. So in the case above the total count would be five. (In other words, don't double count)
Q. How do we count years of service that someone has been working at UAF?A. Count the number of academic year contracts. Contracts starting in spring would count has 1/2 year.
Q. How do we list retired faculty on the tables?A. Indicate retired faculty by placing (R) after their names.
Q. Should we count 688, 697, 699 etc. in Table 4.4 under the column headed "Number of 488, 497, 499 sections and mentoring"?A. Include the count of graduate sections parenthetically. For example, the response for Dana Thomas might be 3(2) indicating he had offered 3 sections of lower division courses and 2 sections of graduate courses.
Q. Table 4.4 asks for "Number of undergraduate students currently advised". How do we calculate this number for each faculty member?A. The intent of this questions is to record the number of students "officially" advised, according to annual activities reports for 1997-98 and 1998-99. You are welcome to provide supplemental information, such as the number of informal advisees, by putting these numbers in parentheses next to the "official" numbers and explaining this in a footnote.
Q. Do faculty Activity Reports need to be placed in the notebooks or are they considered part of the exhibits?A. No. Completed Activity Reports should not go in the notebooks, nor will they become part of the exhibit.
Provost's Office
P.O. Box 757580
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, Alaska 99775(907) 474-7096
2nd floor Signers' Hall
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Contact Dana Thomas or Sarah Lewis
