Academic Council Meeting Minutes, November 17, 2004

I.  Minutes

• Approved as written

II. General Agenda

• Data Collection

--Trudy Wortham reported 15 applications from the admissions open house yesterday. 

• Instructional Technology/Online Issues and Updates

--Joe Ferguson reported that in response to complaints about irrelevant email, staff distribution lists will be broken down into Victoria and Sugar Land options. 

A wireless network on campus is in progress. 

XP is being installed, along with any replacement computers, in Sugar Land. 

A distribution list for adjuncts will be created (schools will need to inform IT each semester. 

--The provost was asked to remind faculty to return the survey on hardware/software needs. 

• Fort Bend Issues and Updates

--Nita Zotter has resigned.  Whether and how a replacement position will be defined remain to be addressed. 

--The Board of Regents is meeting in the Sugar Land center on November 18.  President Hudson will provide a presentation on the center. 

--Some faculty members have requested individual cubicles, which are now available for such assignment for so long as they last. 

III. Specific Agenda 

• Student Appeals

--Approved student request to take courses at UHV for transfer back to Texas A&M University, despite suspensions from several year ago. 

--Approved a student request to be exempted from the TOEFL requirement on the basis of demonstrated proficiency in English.

--Approved a student request to be exempted from the TOEFL, pending further review by the School of Business Administration. 

--Referred to the School of Business Administration a student appeal for admission despite a score slightly under the cut off on the CBT.  

--Denied a student appeal to be admitted despite a GRE score and index well below the cut off. 

• Faculty Development and Requests and Reports

--Approved a development grant for conference presentation ($980) to Dr. Chien-Ping Chen at The Economics and International Business Research Conference, in Miami, FL, in December. 

--Approved a development grant for conference presentation ($330) to Dr. Hsin-Hui Lin at the Southern Early Childhood Association 2005 Annual Conference, in Dallas, TX, in March. 

--Approved a development grant for conference presentation ($900), pending receipt of outstanding reports, to Dr. David Satava at the 2005 Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Accounting Association in Dallas, TX, in March. 

--Accepted a grant funded conference travel report from Dr. Yong Lee. 

--Accepted grant funded research reports from Drs. Donald Loffredo and Thomas Matula. 

• Other

--Discussed joining the MSU consortium for study abroad, including advantages, implications, and other options.  A decision must be made soon since MSU would like for consortium members to attend a meeting at Midwestern on December 9-10. 

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11/22/04