Teaching Facilities Committee

The Teaching Facilities Committee (TFC), which reports to the Facilities Council, has been charged to develop a program for improving the conditions of the University's teaching facilities, especially its 348 classrooms and lecture halls. Its membership consists of representatives from six colleges as well as from those organizations that support and maintain teaching facilities, including Plant Maintenance; Plant Engineering, Office of Information technology (OIT), Facilities Planning, Scheduling, and the Center for Teaching Excellence. It is chaired by Vicki Levy representating the Provost's Office, who should be contacted with questions about the Committee or its agenda.

Over the past years, the TFC has invested considerable amounts of money in the upgrading of numerous lecture halls, including the installation of high-tech audio/visual equipment in those room. More recently, the Committee has turned its attention to the support and maintenance of these installations. A proposed three-year Classroom Support Pilot Project received first-year funding for FY01 and has now been expanded and put on a continuing basis.

Problems In Classrooms

- A number of teaching facilities are supported and maintained by individual departments. If you experience problems in such a classroom, contact the responsible person in your department.

- Should you experience maintenance and operation problems in a general purpose classroom or lecture hall that is not supported by your department, or do not know who supports the room, call the Classroom Support Office (x 48522).

- Problems in rooms supported by the Classroom support project should be reported to the Classroom Support Office (x 48522) or through the Classroom Support Project website.

On August 28, 2000, Provost Geoffroy charged the TFC to:

a) Continue to assess the physical and IT-sufficiency of our classrooms, including maintenance and support issues. I would very much like to have an annual report card with each classroom graded on a small set of criteria.

b) Recommend budget allocations for upgrading the physical and IT conditions of our classrooms.

c) Establish a minimum IT standard for all classrooms and progressively work to obtain it.

d) Address classroom scheduling issues that are broader than just the routine scheduling of individual courses. These include recommending policies for improving the efficiency of classroom use, such as, for example, restricting the scheduling of classes at non-standard times; requiring that each department's classes be distributed broadly across the hours of the day; etc.

Description Updated June 8, 2005

**TFC Membership 2006-2007**
Name	Affiliation	E-Mail
Jack Baker	Plant Maintenance	jbaker2@umd.edu
Spencer Benson	Center for Teaching Excellence	sbenson@umd.edu
Ellen Borkowski	OIT	eyb@umd.edu
Sue Clabaugh	OIT	src@umd.edu
David Dalo	College of Life Sciences	ddalo@umd.edu
Vicki Levy, Chair	Academic Affairs	vlevy@umd.edu
Bill Fourney	ENGR	four@umd.edu
Mary Ann Granger	Scheduling	mgranger@umd.edu
Kristen Kostecky	Facilities Planning	kkosteck@umd.edu
Ron Lipsman	CMPS	rlipsman@umd.edu
Lori Owen	ARHU	lowen@umd.edu
Robert Schwab	BSOS	schwab@umd.edu
Leon Slaughter	AGNR	lslaugh@umd.edu
Dale Vander Wall	Academic Affairs	dvanderw@umd.edu
Laura Wildesen	Plant Engineeering	wildesen@umd.edu

Membership as of October 3, 2006

Comments or questions about this page may be sent to Vicki Levy vlevy@umd.edu
Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
University of Maryland, 1119 Main Administration Bldg., College Park, MD 20742-5031
Telephone: (301) 405-5201; Fax: (301) 405-8195.

TFC Membership 2006-2007