In a future review of the Catholic Identity Statement, a revision that clarifies openness to diversity and living in a multicultural world may be warranted.

Considerations to be forwarded to the Institutional Policy and Planning Committee:

In a future review of the mission documents consider the usage of specific diversity language so that inferences to diversity become clear statements.

In a future review of the Catholic Identity Statement, a revision that clarifies openness to diversity and living in a multicultural world may be warranted.

The VPAA should discuss with department chairs the importance of communicating the college mission and institutional objectives formally in course syllabi, with the anticipation that department heads will then discuss this topic in their respective departmental meetings.

Establish a Staff Affairs and Development Committee, parallel to Faculty Affairs and Development Committee, whose role would be to surface, discuss and move forward staff issues and opportunities for growth.

Whenever a major policy affecting the entire Notre Dame community is being drafted or revised, a committee of representatives from all constituencies should be formed to review it.

The Employee Handbooks for Administrative Staff and Support Staff should be revised. They have not been revised since the College was a single-sex institution.

 

Self-Study 2007 Criterion One: Future-oriented Outcomes

Create a more comprehensive faculty evaluation plan, pilot it and assess its effectiveness.

Create a comprehensive staff evaluation plan, analyze data and refine the process.

Create and assess the effectiveness of a staff management plan that values collaboration and representation.

Periodically assess communication and make continual improvements.

Systematically review the attention given to the needs of diverse populations, especially of students and make improvements.

Twice a year, review the implementation of the recommendations made in this report.

Publish a user-friendly Values list for all constituencies.

Because of their relevance, annually review the Mission Statement and Statement of Purpose and recommend revisions

To improve communication:

  • Use General Meetings for small group discussions as an on-going strategy to keep people sharing ideas and knowing one another. The spirit of the August, 2006 meeting was happy and productive,

  • Have a faculty orientation for mid-year hires,

  • Provide a standard grid to academic departments to store their records to pass on; everyone should get an empty three-ring binder with dividers and put all basic documents in it,

  • Send minutes and other documents to the archives,

  • Trust all staff members with the information they need to do their job,

  • Hire support staff who can keep eye on communication and make it happen efficiently,

  • Have regular meetings of staff members cross-department meetings,

  • The IT staff should wear pagers and provide tech support 24/7 as we offer many courses that rely heavily on electronic communication,

  • Create a meeting place for faculty and staff to encourage conversation,

  • Create a distribution list of adjunct off-campus e-mail addresses and include them in all faculty e-mails,

  • Have an operations manual for every job in every department to insure a smooth transition of new employees. This includes chairs of academic departments and chairs of major faculty committees, and

  • Build instruments to assess the Values List of the Notre Dame College Community.

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