• Guest

--Yolanda Gonzalez was present to discuss proposed lunch meetings with community college counselors from WCJC and CBC.  WCJC would prefer to meet there, since they also have people at their Fort Bend locations.  Various options were discussed, with the preference being to combine meetings as possible and to limit any visits to the colleges to a small representation.  

• Student Appeal

--The request of a student to participate in commencement prior to completing the degree was denied. 

•  Faculty Development Conference Presentation Requests and Reports

§         The provost indicated that grant funds requested will exceed the amount budgeted for this year, and there is half a year to go.  Reserve funds can get us through this year, but those cannot be replaced.  We will need to do some trimming and to redo the guidelines for next year, once an analysis of grant activity has been completed.  Positive and negative developments contribute to the shortfall:  the number of faculty has increased, and their professional activity has increased, both of which are good.  But the endowment pay out is down, owing to stock declines, and the cost of registrations and hotel rooms are up.   

* Some of these awards are pending receipt of previous year’s reports.

--Approved the request of Dr. Li Chao, for a publication recognition fee ($300) for publication in Psychological Reports.  Also approved a request for a travel grant ($1,200) to present at the Information Resources Management Association 2003 Conference, in Philadelphia, PA, in May.

--Approved the request of Dr. Lawrence Clark, for a travel grant ($400) to present at the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Association Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, NM, in February.

--Approved the requests of Dr. Estella De Los Santos, for travel grants to present at the 81^st Annual Meeting of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in San Antonio, TX, in April  ($504) and to also present at the 2003 Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching, in Houston, TX, in July ($341). 

--Approved the request of Dr. Horace Fairlamb, for a travel grant ($800) to present at the Diversity Conference 2003, in Honolulu, HI, in February. 

--Approved the request of Dr. Roy Foley, for a travel grant ($1,200) to present at the 2003 Professional Development Schools National Conference, in Orlando, FL, in March. 

--Approved the request of Ms. Tina Herrington, for a travel grant ($900) to present at the Texas State Reading Association 31^st Annual Conference, in Austin, TX, in March. 

--Approved the request of Dr. Massoud Metghalchi, for a travel grant ($1,200) to present at the 2003 International Applied Business Research Conference, in Acapulco, Mexico, in March. 

--Approved the request of Dr. Steve Trowbridge, for a travel grant ($1,200) to present at the International Literacy Conference, in Manchester, Jamaica, in January. 

--Accepted reports on grant-funded travel from Drs. Colleen Logan, Marie Stern Plemons, and Jifu Wang. 

• Other

--The provost distributed the language of an INS ruling that limits foreign students in the U.S. to one online course per semester. 

--The Council reviewed curricular changes previously approved by the faculty.

--Responsibility for responding to software needs was discussed.  In general, budgeting of necessary funds to given units should follow responsibility for identifying the needs and executing any license agreements.  Information Technology is responsible for standard packages used by many faculty, such as SPSS, and can be budgeted for that expense.  However, unique needs cannot always be anticipated, and so a contingency fund should be budgeted, probably in the office of the provost, to address these needs.  IT remains responsible for ordering and institution-wide inventory.  To the extent that license agreements become standard annual expenses, IT could be responsible for those.  Given the increasing use and increasing cost of SPSS, IT will look into whether securing a web-based license would be more cost effective.  It was also noted that additional software packages are increasingly in use, namely Amos and Lisreal, and the institution will need to provide for those.

--Upgrading of the third ITV room on campus was discussed, since the room is functional for the present but does not meet the new standards of configuration.  Although the institutional had planned to phase out the use of ITV, continuing enrollment growth and state fiscal constraints have made that less likely.  Use of Centra, a real time addition to online delivery, could replace some ITV use.  The upgrade would cost around $35,000.  Delaying the upgrade of one of the computer labs could be one way to get that amount.  The deans indicated that they could handle the necessary scheduling if we have only two ITV rooms, but they would need to know about non-instructional demands for the rooms to develop workable schedules.

--The Council discussed prospective requests for additional funding for the coming year.  These are noted below.  They are tentative and may or may not match the requests that will be formally submitted during the budgeting process.  Everyone is aware that state fiscal constraints will seriously limit funding available for next year.

Technology:

 ITV upgrade                                                               $35,000
(offset by not upgrading one computer lab?) 

SPSS and other packages                                             ?? 

Software contingency                                                     ?? 

Centra                                                                           55,000
(initial cost; then about $5,000 per year)

Impatica                                                                          4,500

WebCT Vista                                                                22,000
(initial cost; then about $5,000 per year)                                        

Library:

Electronic data bases                                                       ??
(depending on fate of currently state-shared resources

Biology an Psychology holdings                                       ??

Web design                                                                    13,000
(.5 staff in library or to assist IT)

Student Services:

Imaging project (continued staff)                                    17,000 

PeopleSoft                                                                  167,000
(assuming Liz Branch stays in Houston) 

Arts/Sciences:

Composition instructor                                                  35,000
(plus summer, m&o, computer) 

.5 degree plan counselor                                                15,000
(assuming Tammy Neeley is partly lost to PeopleSoft) 

Replacement of marketing funds                                       5,000 

Business: 

Funding associated with proposed MBA fee                     --- 

Replacement of marketing funds                                       5,000 

Education:

Science-education faculty member                                  45,000
(plus summer, m&o, computer) 

After school program                                                       3,000 

Programs in the field                                                         1,000 

Replacement of marketing funds                                        5,000 

ISS:

New position to assist online instruction                            30,000  

Faculty Senate:                                                                              2,500
           (assistance needed for scheduling, filing, logistics, etc., 
           either through student assistant or part of secretary’s time) 

            Total:                          $460,000                                              

                                                Total less PeopleSoft:  $293,000 

Faculty requested (2):

Salaries                         $80,000
Summer and support       35,000

Staff requested (2.7):               $75,000          

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1/29/03