Professional Development Committee
Minutes
September 14, 2008

The Professional Development Committee met on Monday, September 14, at 3:15 pm in Room N-25 on the Cranford Campus. Those attending were Mandana Ahsani, Wendy Barness-Thomassen, Al Bramante, Joan McGowan, Lynn Meng, Marc Postiglione, Celeste Schaffer, and Joann Levey. New members were introduced.

The committee welcomed Wendy as a new member of PDC.

Joann Levey distributed the fall workshop flyer. This year there are 12 new topics included in the workshop. The new topics are Advising and Degree Audit, Effective Writing in the Work Place, Using Twitter in Your Classes, Do’s and Don’ts of PowerPoint, Visio, Twitter, Using Facebook in Your Classroom, Emotional Intelligence in the workplace, Microsoft Project, Introduction to New MLA, and First Generation College Students. Joanne asked the committee for suggestions and for new ideas to be implemented in the workshops.

The committee discussed the updates that need to be implemented on the PDC website. It was decided for the committee to review the website and to discuss the content in the next meeting.

The committee discussed the line up for the Teachers Talking to Teachers about Teaching Luncheons in the Spring of 2010. The committee agreed on having the luncheons in Cranford and Elizabeth campus; similar to last year. The committee also agreed to re-invite Dr. Mc Cabe as a presenter for discussion Cheating and Students. Albert mentioned that the student handbook is not very clear on the chain of command and that the faculty can benefit from another round of discussion on Cheating and creating a UCC honor code. Another topic of interest is Lecture Capturing Technology. Mandana informed the committee that she has contacted Dr. Rockland from NJIT and that he was interested to make a presentation on the technology that he uses and its impact on engaging students. Mark pointed out that there is still a lot of interest in figuring out how to incorporated Social Networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. He mentioned that he uses Blogs and that has been successful in his Sports Management class. Albert also mentioned that Professor Jeffery Navid from St. Johns can be a possible presenter on the topic of engaging millennial students.

Our next meeting will be held on Monday, October 12, 3:15.

Respectfully submitted,

Mandana Ahsani
Chair, Professional Development Committee