December 11, 2009
Meeting was called to order by Dawn Frank at 9:15am
Members Present: Dawn Frank, Dana Jones, Scott Palumbo, Crystal Paulson, Andy Thompson, Verine White (members absent: Richard Red Elk and Deb Tobacco).
Wocekiya: Verine White
Syllabi scoring rubric: Dana began by describing the He
Sapa group’s criteria for scoring syllabi, which included determining whether the
desired elements were represented in minimal, adequate, or exceptional degrees.
Andy and Dawn followed by describing the Piya Wiconi criteria. For the Language
category, these included whether elements of the syllabi were translated, the
use of terms or protocol within class, and making linguistic reference material
(i.e. conversational handbook) available to students. The Culture category,
these included additional reference materials (i.e. treaties, physical
objects), customary practices (i.e. sharing food), values (i.e. disposition,
citizenship). The Community category included kinship, history, and current
issues. The Academic category was incomplete, and
Andy suggested we can ultimately develop the scoring rubric and leave the actual scoring of syllabi to individual departments or faculty members. The group discussed the organization of possible pilot studies, whether to use syllabi on file (or that will be on file) with administration or to try to get a more random sample of syllabi from a selected department. The group discussed syllabi elements and suggested additional ones, including a plagiarism statement, a disability statement, and a link to the student handbook. The committee discussed which departments might volunteer for the pilot study, and Verine discussed how departments should embody the Lakota principle of generosity. Each member then shared their individual feelings regarding the semester’s progress.
Our next meeting will be Jan. 14th (Thursday) at Piya Wiconi at 1pm in the Graduate Studies department. Arrive by noon for a potluck.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:05am.