PLANNING FOR GROWTH IN YEARS OF RESTRICTED RESOURCES

financial resources to support the self-study were not forthcoming from the collegeDean or from the Interum President of the institution. In spite of the lack ofadministrative support, the department did manage to see some productive discussionsresulting from this first faculty/staff retreat. Through the course of our day-longdiscussion we recognized that the department needed a document that spelled out forstudents, faculty and staff existing departmental policies. As a group, we needed to beeffective and efficient in our communication with students and each other. A “PolicyManual” was drafted in the summer of 2000 and circulated for input by faculty, staffand key adjuncts. The policy manual dealt with academic policies in a wide variety ofareas from how to secure the necessary paperwork for enrolling in an internship tocurrent policies regarding the students’ access to departmental equipment. The manualwas finalized and approved for distribution in the fall of 2000.The faculty and staff continued to gather data through the academic year 2001-2002. A follow-up retreat was held in the summer of 2001. Action items from the firstretreat were revisited to see if solutions to known problems had been implemented.The first “policy manual” had gone a long way in codifying policies so practice wasconsistent across the department, but further refinements were needed. Fromdiscussion resulting from the retreat an update was drafted and approved fordistribution in the fall of 2001. (Appendix B)A second result of the self-study process pointed to curricular changes. Throughinquiries into students’ curricular desires during the self-study, it became clear thatstudents electing the recording arts emphasis felt underserved. There was no full-timefaculty member teaching in the track. Additionally, the Music Business degree, housedin the department of Music, was also similarly without full-time faculty. The TCdepartment, with the approval of the Music department faculty, proposed combiningthe two areas to provide a more cogent experience for students who wanted to studyrecording technology and music business. As a result of much discussion and planning,a change in curriculum was put forward and was accepted. Again, mindful of thebudgetary constraints, the proposed curricular changes did not require additionaldepartmental investment. A teaching-staff line within the department will be convertedto a full-time lecture line to support the change in curriculum. Equipment and otherresources existed within the TC department’s new facility to support the curricularchange. The track now has more applied recording technology courses and some musictheory, composition and music business courses were either absorbed or required. Thisnew emphasis will be in place for the Fall 2003.A second area of curricular change also resulted from data received from students. Asa short-term measure, the department added two courses in multi-media design andproduction in 2002 in response to student interest. Further inquiry during the 2002-03 academic year showed support for an emphasis or “track” in multi-media. Thecourses and curriculum for this emphasis have been approved by the departmentalfaculty and are currently awaiting approval from the college curriculum committee.From there, pending approval, the courses will proceed to the University curriculumcommittee and with a positive recommendation from that committee we hope to havethe emphsis ready for Fall 2004. Again, with an eye on shifting existing resources, thedepartment chair and faculty anticipated multi-media production as an area of growth.An existing faculty member began a Master’s Degree in New Media Technology. WhileBEA—Educating tomorrow’s electronic media professionals 6