Effective use of resources

The UNC German Studies Consortium is a formal agreement among participating UNC institutions to facilitate the sharing of resources to enhance German Studies. In this consortium, "German Studies" encompasses an array of courses in the language, literature, and culture of the German-speaking countries, which would be taught in the target language by specialists with credentials in German. The primary focus is on the sharing of upper level German classes offered each semester on the North Carolina Information Superhighway. The consortium will also explore the use of the Internet as a means for instructional delivery. The consortium can serve as an organizational structure for seeking funding for training faculty in the utilization of distance learning technologies. The consortium may also promote German language instruction in North Carolina’s secondary schools. The Consortium will encourage and strengthen the informal network of German Studies scholars and teachers throughout the state.

The Consortium is not a degree-awarding entity. Many of the member institutions offer a degree in German, and participation in the Consortium is designed to enhance their major offerings with a variety of innovative courses. Those members with no degree program in German may seek to establish a degree program in German or German Studies on their campuses on the basis of the consortium’s resources. The Consortium will encourage General Administration and the individual institutions to aggregate enrollments across all cooperating institutions for monitoring purposes.

The formalization of an interinstitutional arrangement is in accord with the following General Administration Recommendations to the President to Promote Foreign Language Access drafted last spring:

     Recommendation Three:

It is recommended that low productivity degree programs with two or fewer faculty members enter into collaborative agreements with other institutions to share offerings…

Recommendation Four:

It is recommended that a statewide agreement be developed by General Administration staff, in consultation with appropriate campus representatives, to allow institutions to share in offer upper division courses with low enrollment.

Membership

A UNC institution may join the consortium through application to the consortium by its German or foreign language department. Additionally all members of the consortium must first submit the Request to Enter into an Interinstitutional Agreement to the UNC Office of the President (see attached form). Any of the 16 UNC universities may join, however, each institution is expected to contribute courses, and thus must have faculty willing and qualified to teach courses in German. The institution must also appoint a campus coordinator to serve on the consortium council.

An institution need not formally withdraw from the consortium. If an institution does not name a campus coordinator for two consecutive years, it is automatically withdrawn from membership.

Governance

The consortium governance is designed primarily to facilitate the sharing of German classes. Thus emphasis is not on decision-making, but on coordinating the scheduling of these classes. The main body, the consortium council, consists of the campus coordinators, one from each participating institution. The manner in which these coordinators are chosen and the length of their term are determined by the individual campuses. The department head of the respective language department will communicate the name of the campus coordinator to the consortium coordinator. The consortium coordinator serves as the department head of the council and is responsible for maintaining the communication among the council members. The consortium coordinator is chosen by majority vote of the council. The council also chooses two curriculum coordinators, one from the western region and one from the eastern region. The curriculum coordinators will encourage the submission of a minimum of two course proposals for the next academic year. The curriculum coordinators may also institute a rotational system if desirable and appropriate.

The council’s major function is to coordinate the courses offered through the consortium. To that end, it may develop or change procedures and policies governing the distribution of appropriate courses. The council also addresses the inherent difficulties of coordinating institutions with different academic calendars, curricular needs, and technical systems. A secondary function of the council is to appoint committees to pursue any special projects (grants, workshops, community outreach, etc) important to the consortium.

Procedures

The procedures are subject to change by the consortium council. Currently they are based on the assumption that the consortium will offer two upper division classes each semester. The council will schedule the time for these two courses in advance, preferably for a five-year block, given the demand on the NC Information Superhighway system. The choice among available time slots will be decided by vote of the council. The curriculum coordinators will be responsible for soliciting course proposals from their region with help from the campus coordinators.  Course proposals will be made at least one full year in advance of the semester in which they are to be offered. No funds are available from the consortium for salary purposes, thus the proposed courses must have the approval of the faculty member’s department head. The council will circulate the course proposals to the member institutions (through the campus coordinator) to discover which institutions would like to receive that course. Up to three institutions can participate in any given course in addition to the instructor’s home campus. If more institutions opt to participate in a proposed course than technically possible, the council will develop a method for determining participants.

The ‘merit’ of the course (whether it will be offered by the consortium) is determined by the number of participant universities wishing to sponsor the course on their campus. Course proposals not selected by the council may be submitted at the next call for course proposals.

.  Each member institution may only participate in one course per semester, or may choose not to participate. Members should participate in at least one course per year to remain active. Member institutions should offer a course at least once every two years to be active. If an institution is ‘inactive,’ the curriculum coordinator will consult with the department head of its language department regarding continuation in the consortium. The council has the right to revoke the membership of an ‘inactive’ institution, if it is clear that the institution is no longer willing or able to continue as an active member.

Calendar

Committees

The council may appoint committees, as it deems necessary. Committees investigate an assigned area and report their recommendations to the council. Committees may be used:

§       to investigate distance-learning technologies,

§        to explore outreach to secondary schools,

§        to pursue external funding through grant proposals

§       to encourage course and curriculum development in German Studies

Faculty and staff from participating universities may serve on the committees as well as campus coordinators.

Financial Considerations

There will be no exchange of tuition funds between participating institutions. Students pay tuition at their home institution, regardless of the institution delivering the course. While the institution paying the instructor may have insufficient enrollment to justify the course at their home institution, subsequent participation in courses taught by other Consortium members will bring additional Student Credit Hours from the students enrolling on their campus. Additionally all participating institutions benefit from faculty development and experience with distance learning technologies.

A specific course fee could be charged the student by the course providing institution in accordance with that institution’s policy on extra course fees.

The workload report of the instructor should reflect the Student Credit Hours generated by all students enrolled in that class. The course should be part of the normal teaching load for that semester, even though the on-campus enrollment might fall below campus expectations.

Assessment & Record keeping

The Consortium Council will develop a course evaluation procedure to be used in all classes delivered through the system. This may include both student evaluations and peer observation. These will be used solely to improve the methodologies and courses and will not be part of the instructors’ campus files in matters of promotion and tenure considerations. The consortium will not maintain files on the individual professors and will not participate in any exchange of evaluation information with the individual institutions, unless so directed by the professor being evaluated. The Consortium will seek to provide opportunities for professional development of participating faculty.

Every two years the Consortium will conduct a review of its operations by surveying participating departments, faculty, students, and administrators. This review will result in a report available to the UNC Office of the President.

The Consortium records will be maintained by the Consortium Coordinator and will include evaluation results of the overall program (not on individual faculty), syllabi, minutes to meetings, and correspondence. The Consortium will also establish