AIL Committee Meeting Minutes

Minutes: AIL Committee Wed May 3rd and Friday May 5th CL 710

May 3rd

Present: Patricia Terry, Debbie Furlong, Kim Nielsen, Regan Gurung, John Mariano, Kari Jo Grant, Abby Kiefer, Jeane Smits

May 5th

Present: Debbie Furlong, Kim Nielsen, Regan Gurung, John Mariano, Marilyn Sagrillo, Kari Jo Grant, Abby Kiefer, Jeane Smits

Based upon discussions within our departments and the AIL committee we began discussing the committee's planning document for Recommendation IX of the Summer 1999 Task Force Report.

We began by defining co-curricular as any activity which

Involves intellectual development Forms a connection between typical "academic" life and "student" life areas of campus Develops leadership skills outside of the classroom Includes group or team related activities done with a purpose Involves a student organization which has a purpose and meets regularly (minimum of 2 hrs/month) and plans events according to their mission or goals

As with Recommendation VIII, we recognized that many co-curricular activities are already occurring on campus, but that structural barriers exist which inhibit opportunities. Among ideas tossed around to remove these barriers were

Coordination of student services time around faculty time to promote facilitation and enhancement of student services with student needs

More information and better dissemination of information about opportunities for existing and new campus organizations through Student Life Review and modify the campus posting space and practices for better information sharing by campus organizations

More open spaces on campus for students and faculty to meet in a relaxed, non-classroom environment

Integration into the HIFC process educating students about the opportunities offered through Student Life and the benefits of active participation

Advance announcements (in as much as it is possible) of speakers and campus performances so that faculty can integrate these activities into their class syllabi

Encouraging faculty to include one co-curricular activity per year so that students will be more assured of a number of co-curricular experiences

Motivate faculty to perform the above by celebration and reward of activities during the tenure and merit review processes

Educate faculty about this expectation during the faculty development discussed in Recommendation VIII

Facilitate more campus trips, such as the annual field trip to the Art Institute in Chicago

Provide more community links for job shadowing through career services

Facilitate the development of more interdisciplinary conferences, events, theme weeks, etc…. Perhaps one per semester campus wide with the theme as the focus of reading groups and classes

Create a program/directory of faculty advising interests for Student Life to better facilitate linking campus organizations with faculty interest

The next meeting will be Wed, May 10th at 8 am in CL710.