Academic Council Meeting Minutes, August 16, 2004

The Academic Council met on Monday, August 16, 2004, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in Conference Room A.  Attending were Joe Ferguson, Joe Dahlstrom, Mary Natividad, Dick Phillips, Trudy Wortham, Charles Bullock, Chari Norgard, and Dan Jaeckle.  Minutes follow. 

I.  Minutes 

--The minutes of the meetings of August 2 and August 10 were approved. 

II.  General 

• Data Collection

--Trudy noted that as of the day of the meeting fall enrollment stood at 2241, up 78 from the same time last year.  SCH’s were at 17,145, down 559 from the past year's final total.  She added that at System request she submitted a report on UHV enrollments at Sugar Land.  Mary asked if she could forward the report to Council members.

• Instructional Technology/Online Issues and Updates

--Chari reported that Vista will be down from 5 pm on the 17^th to 5 pm on the 20^th for upgrading to 3.0.  XP released Service Package 2, but System is delaying installation to ensure the smooth functioning of Vista.  ISS will send faculty a list of 3.0 Vista changes and will give faculty the opportunity to see Vista 3.0 beginning on the 18^th.  Names of partnered students have been forwarded to UH.

--Joe Ferguson added that XP takes longer to load than had been anticipated. 

• Fort Bend Issues and Updates

--Chari reported that at the AAS meeting of August 13 UHCL and UHD noted they may have some delays in partnering courses because of internal factors.  Mary Cook is now the contact person for issues of the Sugar Land bookstore.  Proctoring was discussed at the AAS meeting, and the Council also discussed it.  The Provost will revise the draft document on proctoring to be sent to faculty.  Chari mentioned System membership in WCET and distributed a document about it.

• Other

--Articulation agreements.  The interim president has asked that all articulation agreements go through Trudy to the Council before they are forwarded to the president for signature.

--Career Services Survey.  The Council will ask Rachel Trevino-Garcia to attend the next Council meeting to review the survey and discuss school needs.

III.  Specific 

• Student Appeals

--The Council approved a student appeal for admission with three suspensions conditional on completion of an associate’s degree by the 12^th class day in the fall semester.  The Council considered two appeals for an extension of a psychology internship beyond the 12-hour limit.  The appeal was referred back to the School of Arts and Sciences for action.  The Council also advised the Dean of Arts and Sciences on an appeal for a student to take a fifth graduate course prior to graduate admission. 

• Faculty Development Requests and Reports

--Acknowledged early approval of a FY 2005 development grant for conference presentation ($775) to Dr. Cam Caldwell to The Eleventh Annual International Business Ethics Conference, in Chicago, IL, in October.

--Approved a FY 2005 research grant ($1,000) to Professor Yun Wang for a longitudinal field research on the availability of product information and interface design of comparison shopping agent as two critical aspects influencing the efficiency and effectiveness in assisting consumers on online decision-making.

--Accepted grant funded conference travel reports from Drs. Jeffrey Di Leo, Massoud Metghalchi, and Chun-Sheng Yu.

--Accepted a grant funded research report from Dr. Judy Johnson. 

• Other

--Approved new guidelines for the Instructional Technology grants.

DPJ/kw
8/17/04