Academic Council Minutes, January 29, 2001

Faculty Development Grants

--Approved summer research grant (summer sabbatical) for Dr. Rick Harrington.

--Confirmed that summer sabbatical and regular semester sabbatical are mutually exclusive for the same year (both cannot be awarded to the same person).

--Approved a request of Dr. Barba Patton for a travel grant ($642) to present at the Southwest Educational Research Association 2001 annual meeting in New Orleans, LA, in February 2001.

--Accepted travel grants reports from Dr. Richard Gunasekera, Dr. David Satava, and Dr. Harold Smith.

Academic Policy

--Clarified interpretation/application of policy on meaning of "qualified" student for permitting a mixed petition (means in good standing).

--Clarified statement of policy on academic status in cases of grade changes resulting from "I's" or institutional errors.

--Agreed that a write-up on advisory preprofessional program for premedical or predental students should be included in the catalog (no change in courses or programs).

Fort Bend/Off-Campus

--Discussed role of academic specialist in student recruitment.

--Discussed question of how to ensure that Fort Bend faculty and staff are included in campus communications and invitations. Faculty are included in all-faculty e-mail. Staff should be included in all-staff and all-institution distributions. Mail-outs present a different problem; individual units doing mail-outs have to remember the Fort Bend members.

Other

--Agreed Kathy Walton should meet with school secretaries to decide on policies for keeping second floor hallways neat and attractive.

--Agreed Dr. Ron Sardessai should be asked to serve as the UHV representative on the newly formed UH System Research Administration Council.

--Discussed WebCT support and expanded role of Chari Norgard as liaison with UH Information Technology.

DNS/kw
1/30/01