Academic Council Minutes, April 26, 2004

Attending:  Liz Branch, Charles Bullock, Joe Dahlstrom, Joe Ferguson, Dan Jaeckle, Mary Natividad, Chari Norgard, Dick Phillips, and Trudy Wortham.

I.  Guest 

--Liz Branch gave an update on the PeopleSoft project.  She distributed three handouts—one on PS terminology for academic programs; one on tree diagrams showing the different levels of academic programs in PS; and one giving the start of a model to show how UHV fits within the PS academic hierarchical system.  She also discussed the move of the PS project to the UH Provost’s Office and the new planning timeline that will be determined by the end of summer.

II.   Minutes

--Approved with a minor change in the commencement paragraph.

III. General 

·        Data Collection 

--Trudy Wortham indicated that summer registrations so far total 972, up 106 from this time last year.

·        Instructional Technology/Online Issues and Updates 

--Chari Norgard noted that most VISTA training for faculty has been completed and the feedback has been largely positive.

--Joe Ferguson asked the deans to send him a memo on computer needs for new faculty. 

--Chari Norgard asked that the Faculty Advisory Committee on Technology (FACT) be made more formal, with school elections.  The Council agreed that the committee should begin its new task of reviewing software requests and computer set-up requests in fall.  The committee will report to the Council, and will be asked to work out its own procedures for functioning. 

--Chari Norgard asked how long online courses should stay in the archives.  The Council agreed that even student records should stay in archives at least a year and that the FACT committee should recommend timelines for the archives. 

--Joe Ferguson presented a draft of a survey of ITV faculty users.  The Council approved it with a few wording changes. 

--The Council agreed to purchase 50 copies of the newest version of Adobe Acrobat.  The Provost will contribute $1,000 to that purchase. 

--The Council sent the issue of Pentablets to the FACT committee. 

IV.       Specific 

·        Student Appeal 

--The Council approved an appeal to accept a student’s old TOEFL scores for admission.

·        Faculty Development Requests and Reports 

--Approved early a development grant for conference presentation ($1,000) to Dr. James Holm to the Society for the Study of Narrative Literature International Conference, in Burlington, VT, in April. 

--Approved a development grant for conference presentation ($1,000) to Dr. Chun-Sheng Yu for the 8^th International Western Academy of Management Conference, in Shanghai, China, in June. 

--Accepted grant funded conference travel reports from Drs. Dan Hallock, Judy Johnson, and Marie Plemons. 

• Other

--The Council agreed to keep catalog language on student’s passing TASP before beginning their 55^th hour. 

--Dick Phillips reported that the Budget Committee had approved several scholarship initiatives to increase enrollments. 

--The Provost reported that he wrote the Faculty Senate asking for the progress on two policy changes sent to the Senate for review. 

DPJ/kw
4/26/04