Minutes Provost's Office UHV

Academic Council Minutes, February 24, 2003

 

I.  General Agenda

  • Data Collection 

--PeopleSoft:  The “business process options review” (BPOR) for PeopleSoft has been postponed.  It has been proposed that UHCL be brought up to speed before proceeding further with the other institutions on the student records system implementation. 

--Data imaging project:  1,837 records have been scanned, about one-tenth of those that are in the registrar’s office.  Some 400 have been scanned in Education. 

--A bill has been filed, HB 1026, to do away with the use of social security numbers for student identification purposes. 

  • Technology – ISS

--Chari Norgard met with UH’s Betty Roberts on WebCT Vista.  It will take about a year to develop through the project’s eight stages.  Implementation will probably be in fall 04.  Chari will attend two scheduled four-day sessions, and faculty will need to be trained to use the added potential of Vista. 

In her Distance Education role, Chari had looked into bookstore issues at the off-campus centers.  She concluded that MBS does not appear to be the problem, insofar as student complaints go.  Many students shop for the lowest priced books and may be late in ordering their texts.  

She reported that VC will start doing the quick TASP; thus, demand should decrease at the Academic Center. 

She has been working on an online graduate student orientation.  This will be ready by the time SACS comes. 

  • Fort Bend

--Policy on proctoring at the centers was discussed.  It needs to be better communicated that the centers cannot provide proctoring for courses not offered through the centers.  Also, the impact on proctoring was discussed, given consideration of whether to close the centers on Saturdays as a cost-saving measure. 

--Dick Phillips noted that people from his staff and possibly others will be meeting with Cinco Ranch staff to prepare them for the SACS visiting team.

II.  Specific Agenda 

  • Student Appeal

-- The appeal of a student to participate in commencement ceremonies before having completed the requirements for the degree was denied.

  • Faculty Development Requests and Reports

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

--Approved the request of Dr. Joseph Ben-Ur, for a publication recognition fee ($600) for a publication in Psychology and Marketing

--Approved the request of Dr. Yung-Ho Chang, for a travel grant ($640) to present at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Midwest Finance Association, in St. Louis, MO, in March. 

--Approved the requests of Dr. Yong Glasure, for travel grants to present at the Southwest Economic Association Conference, in San Antonio, TX, in April ($300) and to also present at the International Conference of the Global Business Development Institute, in Maui, HI, in May ($600). 

--Approved the request of Dr. Donald Loffredo, for a research grant ($400) to complete the third in a series of three research studies to demonstrate the reliability and validity of the Ego-State Questionnaire. 

--Approved the request of Dr. Diane Prince, for a travel grant ($890) to present at the 2003 Professional Development School National Conference, in Orlando, FL, in March. 

--Approved the request of Dr. Jifu Wang, for a research grant ($1,500) to conduct research involving both qualitative and quantitative data from 40 organizations in major cities in China. 

Note:  The Council discussed the fact that grants are now running well over budget for the year, and reserve funds cannot be replaced.  The Council may have to restrict the amount of awards for the remainder of the year and will have to revise policy for next year.

--Accepted reports on grant-funded travel from Drs. Chien-Ping Chen, Carol Klages, Donald Loffredo, Massoud Metghalchi, Mary Natividad, Steve Trowbridge, and Sandy Venneman.

  • Other Matters

--A policy, plus procedures, on posthumous degrees, as developed by Liz Branch was approved.  It will also be put on the Cabinet agenda.

--A proposal, by Dick Phillips, to increase the minimum score on the TOEFL to 550 was approved, with the condition that if the increase affected more than 10% of the test takers, the proposal would be reexamined.

--A proposed revision of the table of programs, presented by Liz Branch, and intended to simplify the reporting of degrees was approved with one change.

--The provost distributed information on a state website for educational data.

DNS/kw
2/26/03