Minutes of the Academic Council Retreat, 
August 10, 2004

The Academic Council held its fall retreat on Tuesday, August 10, 2004, from 9:30-3:10 in the library.  Attending were Joe Ferguson, Mary Natividad, Chari Norgard, Trudy Wortham, Dick Phillips, Joe Dahlstrom, Charles Bullock, Ron Sardessai, and Dan Jaeckle.  In the afternoon session it was the deans, interim provost, and Senate chair.  Minutes follow—much abbreviated after the first item. 

--Five-minute oral reports on upcoming issues from each member: 

Joe F.—Windows XP migration, expanding web services, any new issues coming from an administrative change.  We also discussed the change in the IT structure in the System. 

Mary—The take-over of PB in Cinco Ranch, a new community college track in the Counseling program, NCATE, and data collection issues and external reporting. 

Chari—Faculty comfort with Vista, control of course and student loading for online courses, Breeze implementation, multi-media lab with a faculty development area, clarifying the DE director’s role. 

Trudy—PeopleSoft, student debt across the System, document-imaging, articulation agreements. 

Dick—PeopleSoft, electronic communication of student activities, enrollment management (market analysis and decision-making), funding and accountability for Regional Outreach. 

Joe D.—Technology needs (website development, security of library site, digital rights for videos, electronic reserve copyright costs), and the future of TexShare. 

Charles—Issues:  space in Sugar Land, mailboxes, proctoring, marketing, more partnerships with businesses in light of UHS Plan, academic program assessment implementation.
Opportunities:  Chinese partnerships, 290, Medical Center, certificate programs, branding campaign especially after accreditation, and BBA online at system centers.  

Dan—A&S:  nursing and M.S. in Information Systems
Provost:  Sugar Land Building, research policy.  Discussion of special items and Tuition Revenue Bond’s. 

Ron—Look forward to new president, and will try to sort Senate committees and work. 

Break # 1 

--Lunch.  During lunch we discussed three-year degrees.  Elois will talk to Clear Lake on their response, and Trudy may gather more information from the registrar’s listserve.  We then talked about the UHS Strategic Plan, its elements, its relationship to UHV’s plan, and changes we will likely make. 

Break # 2 

--After lunch, Chari stayed with Mary, Charles, Ron, and Dan to discuss proctoring.  Dan will write a grid on all guidelines at Cinco, Sugar Land, and Victoria.  It will be distributed to faculty. 

--In the last hour and a half the deans and Ron discussed the faculty retreat in El Campo on September 24—with focus on issues and organization.  We talked about the composition of the new planning committee as the provost, three deans, and six faculty—two from each school—one appointed by the school and one by the Senate.  Tong-Ai would be ex officio.  Finally we discussed Senate issues, especially timelines and tasks, and the prospect of a provost’s search. 

DPJ/kw
8/11/04