Present: Gerry Recktenwald, Maria Talbott, Judy Patton, Bob Everhart, Jim Strathman, Michael Flower, Kathi Ketcheson, Juliette Stoering, Niels Proctor, and Youske Eto.
Absent: Jackie Temple, Wally Pfeiffer, and Carol Morgaine.
Bob opened the meeting and reviewed the agenda.
Kathi introduced Niels Proctor, the Web designer, to the committee members. He has been working with us for the past month or socleaning up the site, redesigning, and putting up contents. He will be with us until June.
Kathi recently returned from the Urban 13 Portfolio Project meeting in Anaheim. She reported that responses for the latest version of the prototype were very positive.
Kathi reminded us that the site visit is on April 19th. She asked members of the faculty committee to meet with the visiting review team between 10:30 — 11:45am at Smith Center, Room 328. Please mark your calendar.
For the site visit, we are focusing on the theme of Community Pathways & the chapter on writing in the Teaching and Learning theme. The Community Pathways theme is fairly complete, but we need to do more work on the writing chapter. Judy has been able to locate information on writing in University Studies, but has had difficulties acquiring them in an electronic form. She will be sending them to OIRP as soon as they are ready.
Bob said that it would be helpful to review faculty committee minutes for the past year to get an idea of the process that we have undertaken. The minutes are available on the archival page of the portfolio project. The archival page will soon be a part of the prototype rather than an entrance to the prototype.
Kathi presented the current version of the Web pages. Niels has developed a new design that is more consistent and user-friendly. The design, however, will most likely change dramatically and soon. Please go to: http://www.oirp.pdx.edu/testing/demo5/index.html to check out the latest version. More information, including video clips, will be added before the site visit.
There was a discussion on the wording of the question in the first page: "How is diversity a part of PSU’s mission?" Devorah Lieberman is drafting a statement on what PSU means by diversity because currently the University does not have an official statement on its definition of diversity.
There was a question on how the Portfolio will relate to the PSU Website. Eventually, visitors will link directly from the PSU homepage.
There will be a link to a site within Academic Affairs regarding more specific and current info about what faculty members are doing.
To help users to navigate easier, Gerry suggested that help buttons be added on the left column that would guide them to a navigation page (site map, etc.). Juliette said that Niels is planning to re-do the first page (homepage) in a way that would explain how to navigate through the site. Niels will construct this page and present it to the faculty committee for feedback.
There was a question in terms of what will happen after June when the contract with Niels expires. Kathi said that there is some money available to hire a full-time person to replace Kay’s position, but she will look for someone with considerable Web development and quantitative analysis skills. This person would then be the Webmaster for the Portfolio.
Following up on the discussion from the last meeting, Bob reminded us that the Portfolio should not be comprehensive but rather focus on the uniqueness of the university. Maria suggested that more might need to be included in the Portfolio about the uniqueness and strength of PSU in terms of accessibility. Kathi agreed that it should be treated as one of the threads in the Portfolio. Judy suggested that it could be addressed as a part of PSU's urban identity.
To focus more on diversity, it was suggested that profiles of students (e.g., race, age, gender, major, etc.) in featured Capstone classes be included. Another suggestion was to add brief personal profile of featured students to give a feel of the diversity in the student body.
Gerry suggested adding "a day in the life of_(student)" to give the audience a practical idea of what university life is like for a student. It would be a story, giving clips of what goes on for a student in a course of a day. Niels agreed with this idea, saying that it would add to the portrayal of PSU's urban identity and connection to the Portland community. Several students, including a graduate student, could be featured.
Bob also suggested featuring a student as a guide for the Portfolio. This student could welcome users and help them navigate through the Portfolio. This would personalize the site.
Under the theme, Research and Scholarship, Kathi mentioned that the Portfolio could link to national sites and serve as a place for discussion in the future.
There was a discussion on featuring faculty research in the Portfolio. There are many interesting research projects happening at PSU, but political aspects of featuring one research project over another may be complicated if we openly invite any faculty member to be featured. We may be flooded with an overwhelming response. It was suggested to give the responsibility of choosing research projects to the Graduate Studies and Research Office. Kathi has made initial contact with this office, but has not received further information from them. Jim also voiced his concern that it should not be limited to faculty research, but should also feature student projects (particularly graduate student projects). A list of graduate research assistantships at PSU cold also serve as a source of content for this theme.
There was a suggestion that it would be meaningful to document reflections on the progress of Portfolio from perspectives of faculty committee members and the Portfolio development team. It would be helpful not only to our team, but also to other institutions undertaking similar projects. It would be beneficial to clarify what we are doing because this process may contribute to PSU strategic planning. We decided to take some time during the next meeting to do some reflection. We might videotape some of our reflections and feature them in the Portfolio. It would also be helpful to get input regarding the Portfolio from faculty members who are not on the Advisory Committee.
Site Visit: 4/19 Schedule attached
Next Meeting: 5/16 1:30pm Location TBA