Academic Council Minutes of October 1, 2001
I. General Agenda
--Trudy Wortham was present and distributed an enrollment report for
fall. Online students are shown as Victoria day enrollments. There was
discussion of the need to try to separate the online in the Victoria
area from those in the Fort Bend area, given the implications for
planning and decision-making. The online enrollments could be subtracted
from the day enrollments to get the number attending on-site day and
evening.
- Instructional Support Services
--Chari Norgard is collecting information on testing/proctoring needs
from the other System institutions and how the needs are being met. Web
site information is being established with regard to online resources
for students and for faculty. A workshop on WebCT will be held for Sugar
Land faculty.
--Joe Ferguson shared a draft description of IT functions and
services. He would like to add 2.5 positions a secretarial/switchboard
assistant, a half-time technician in Sugar Land (possibly with the
center using the other half), and another help desk staff member,
reducing reliance on student workers.
--Faculty e-mail accounts in Fort Bend were noted as a problem
because of limited space allocated to them by commercial vendors.
Web-based accounts are needed. Ferguson indicated that with the addition
of new servers and planned switch to MicroSoft Outlook this problem
should be resolved. In the meantime it should be possible to give the
faculty members a university account that would shadow the commercial
one and provide more storage space. In addition to the above projects,
IT’s agenda included moving all computers to Windows 2000.
--Ferguson would like to dissolve the IRT Committee and utilize the
Academic Council, with added representation, as a steering group or
perhaps the cabinet. Longer or additional meetings might result.
--Library access was also discussed. Joe Dahlstrom said students need
to use their university user name and the password from the class when
accessing from home or work computers.
--Don Smith, Dan Jaeckle, Wayne Beran, Ed Hugetz, and Sharon Baca met
to go over construction and maintenance issues related to the new
building in Sugar Land. Space allocation and staffing issues were also
discussed. Beran will meet further with Hugetz and UH facilities staff.
Smith, Jaeckle, and Beran also toured WCJC’s new technical building in
Richmond. The labs appear suitable to support a biology program.
II. Specific Agenda
--The council approved a student request for an extension of the time
limit for completing an MAIS degree.
- Faculty Development Grant Requests/Reports
Funding of new awards are pending receipt of previous year reports.
--Approved a request of Dr. June Lu for a travel grant ($695) to
present at the Race, Gender and Class Project Third Annual Conference in
New Orleans, LA, in October.
--Approved a request of Dr. Thomas Matula for a travel grant ($709)
to present at the Space Frontier Foundation's 10th Annual Conference in
Los Angeles, CA, in October.
--Accepted reports on grant-funded conference travel from Dr. Joseph
Ben-Ur and Dr. Yong Glasure.
- Use of Development Funds for Articles
--The council discussed the use of development grants to provide
incentive or defray costs for publications, as an alternative to
conference support, if the faculty member preferred that. The provost
will bring a draft policy proposal to a later meeting.
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10/02/01
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