Minutes of the Upper School Senate Meeting, January 15, 2002
All senators present except for 12 and SD, who are both out ill today. Meeting called to order by Senate President IR at
approximately 2:19 pm.
1st order of business - The proposed grant form that will allow people to receive funds from the Senate budget was handed out by MV
and TA, and senators are to look it over for the next week and report back any changes they would like to be made by the next Senate meeting on
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2002.
2nd order of business - The National Situation Committee. Interest has waned a bit lately, and nothing was organized around Martin Luther King,
Jr. Day. The idea of a ‘newsroom’ in Taylor Hall is still alive however, and discussion ensued about the possibility of having one upper school
student from each grade be involved in following through on this idea, among others, dealing with keeping students up-to-date on current events.
3rd order of business - The Student Judiciary Committee Committee. This committee met last Thursday and will meet again this Thursday, as they wrestle with
the ‘nuts and bolts’ of putting together an impartial Judiciary Committee. They have discussed the possibilities of serving on the committee
when a friend is ‘on trial,’ whether members should be appointed or elected, and other issues.
4th order of business - Teacher Reflection Criteria. A lot of discussion took place around this issue, as student reaction to a class is deemed important
to the teacher - “I liked this section because...,” or “I would have liked more of this because....” However, since the faculty has
not discussed this idea in depth yet, MD moved that we table further discussion until a future time, after the US faculty has talked about
the possibility of a Teacher Reflection Criteria. This motion failed by a vote of 5-4, and discussion continued.
Student feedback is valued, it was affirmed, but it was undecided whether it should be anonymous or not, and whether or not that would lead to more honesty
in student reaction to a course was a key point in the discussion.
Students are already on the Hiring Committee, and involved with the hiring of long-term substitute teachers while faculty are away on sabbaticals, and this
is a different point we are dealing with, as was pointed out. Written feedback is apparently what this could lead to, but verbal feedback, class
discussion, etc. are also important in gauging student reaction to a class.
Teacher evaluation as it stands now may be misunderstood and need better explanation in the future. Also, teachers all want to become better at their job
through, among other things, receiving constructive criticism from the students in their classes, it was agreed.
Finally, it is Teacher Reflection, not teacher evaluation by the students! Hot topic that this is, it took the rest of the Senate time, and we adjourned
at about 3:14 pm.
Respectfully submitted, TA