Academic Council Minutes, May 3, 2006

I.  Minutes

--Approved as written 

II. General Agenda 

·        Data Collection 

--Summer registrations are running 50-60 ahead of this time last year. 

·        Instructional Technology/Online Issues 

--There was discussion of when and how to involve FACT in software purchases.  Provost will provide memo shared sometime ago on the appropriate budget for different kinds of software purchases. 

--Some faculty members want SPSS training.  Dr. Du was identified as a specialist who might be able to provide help. 

--IT intends to do a survey on software usage and needs. 

--Dr. Betty Roberts, who has headed up the WebCT effort at UH, is leaving to take a position elsewhere.  Her leadership was noted as having been very important for UHV. 

·        Guest 

--Dick Phillips was present to get reactions to a proposed direction for marketing—with the institutional marketing person serving as a resource and facilitator as needed for the marketing efforts of the academic schools.  The brand label for the institution was also discussed.  “UHV” appears to be the preferred designation, but the issues were how it would be represented and how the logos would be represented.  

·        Fort Bend Issues and Updates 

--Deans Bullock and Di Leo met with UH representatives to set up a Hotel/Restaurant concentration as an option within the BAAS.  The courses would be taught by UH faculty and UH would get the credits, but the concentration should draw additional students into the program, most of which would be taught by UHV.  

III. Specific Agenda 

·        Student Appeals 

--The Council approved a student request to be accepted despite three suspensions at other institutions.  They were long ago. 

--Denied a request for admission, because GPA was below minimum. 

--Denied a request that a W be substituted for an F.   The student had dropped past the designated date, and the grade was thus the prerogative of the instructor.  The repetition was apparently owing to an institutional problem with record keeping.   

·        Faculty Development Requests and Reports 

--Approved a request of Dr. Richard Gunasekera for a research grant ($1,000), pending receipt of two FY 05 reports, to develop an assay to determine glutamine and citrulline content of blood and blood leukocytes.  

--Approved a development grant for conference presentation ($1,000) for Dr. June Lu to present at The Helsinki Mobility Roundtable 2006 Global Conference in Helsinki, Finland, in June.  

--Approved a request of Dr. Yixi Ning for a research grant ($1,000) to study the period from 1970 to 2004 to investigate the potential earnings management, measured by discretionary accruals, prior to corporate bond issues, and whether the inflated earning managed by managers has a significant impact on the issuing firm’s bond credit rating and the pricing of the new bond. 

--Approved a request of Dr. Jifu Wang for a research grant ($1,000) to study why and how multinational corporations have established overseas subsidiaries to achieve both optimization of resources allocation in the global arena and maximization of the overall profits with the help of the best utilization of the geographical advantages of host countries. 

--Accepted grant funded conference reports from Drs. Meledath Damodaran, Hsin-Hui Lin (2), Marie Stern Plemons, and Hal Smith. 

·        Other 

--The intentions were clarified with regard to Faculty Senate votes on academic policy issues that had been brought before it. 

·        Effective Fall 2006, the time limit for incomplete grades will be one year (previously one long semester).

·        The requested changes to repeat rules were not passed.  The Registrar will research whether the PeopleSoft system will be able to re-calculate gpa’s with repeat courses. 

--The provost reviewed the 120-hour law passed in the last legislative session and indicated that the institution would have to be in compliance.   

DNS/kw
5/4/06