Academic Council Minutes, December 10, 2001
I. General Agenda
--Joe Ferguson distributed a form for faculty to use when they need
assistants to hand out or collect course materials for ITV courses. The
form and procedures were discussed and changes made.
--Don Smith distributed the results of a survey conducted by the
computer staff at the Sugar Land center on student satisfaction with ITV
courses. The results were in the main positive but with a number of
problems noted.
--Don Smith also distributed a newspaper article noting that the
Cy-Fair (290) ISD had passed a bond issue of $470.5 million to build new
schools and upgrade current facilities.
II. Specific Agenda
--The appeal of a student for an exemption from the TOEFL test on the
basis of otherwise demonstrable proficiency in English was approved.
--The appeal of a prior student to be graduated with honors was
denied (the student had not met the criteria in effect at the time she
was graduated, though her GPA would meet the current criteria).
- Faculty Development Travel/Research Grants
--Accepted reports on grant-funded conference travel from Dr. Joseph
Ben-Ur and Dr. Susan Opt.
--This bill required that institutions consider qualitative factors
in admission to graduate and professional programs and not rely
primarily on test scores. Since UHV uses an index based on grades as
well as test scores, since grades are qualitative indicators (though
they are represented quantitatively in the GPA), and since schools may
make judgments about applicants that do not meet the minimal index of
1400 but do have an index of at least 1300, it was felt that the
institution probably meets the law. Performance as a temporary graduate
student was discussed as a possible additional consideration in
admission decisions. Schools may consider that now, and the student’s
performance does affect the GPA. However, the question was whether to
establish further admission criteria on the basis of the student’s
performance as a temporary graduate student.
DNS/kw
12/14/01
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