Academic Council Minutes, July 30, 2007
I. Review of minutes – June 20, 2007
--Approved as circulated
II. General
· Data Collection
1. Mrs. Trudy Wortham circulated a revised enrollment and application update. Currently 1,837 are enrolled. On July 30, 2006, 1,871 had been enrolled. UHD withdrawal from Sugar Land affects enrollment at UHSSL which is down approximately 30% compared to this time last year. Ms. Wortham provided a copy of the application acknowledgement e-mail that is sent to students who are applying for admission.
2. Dean Bullock asked about the status of issues regarding Peoplesoft queries as discussed at the last Deans meeting. He stated that the schools are having difficulty receiving contact information on students. Recruiters are trying to contact these students to assist them in registering, but the queries were unable to provide the information needed. Ms. Wortham stated that she is working with Houston to get the query to include contact information for the students. Ms. Wortham is also working with security issues for users who had RARDAT access in the ADMIN. Security has been difficult for UHS security administrators; but they are working diligently to resolve the numerous security issues.
3. Dr. LaBrecque stated that she attended a meeting with Dr. Stansell and Dr. Di Leo and the Provost, Dean of Education and Dean of Arts and Sciences from UH Downtown on July 26th. She reported that the meeting was very productive and many concerns regarding UHV’s administration of previous UHD programs were addressed. Dr. Stansell stated that he also felt the meeting was very productive and included discussion regarding course partnering as well as intermediate and secondary certification programs offerings by UHV. Dr. Stansell stated that he believed that Dr. Di Leo also reported that he had similar results with his counter part at UHD when discussing the BSIS program to be offered by UHV.
· Instructional Technology/Online Issues and Updates
1. Mr. Joe Ferguson announced that the computer, screen, and projector from UW122 has been installed in Conference room A.
2. Mr. Ferguson asked about new faculty to be hired in Fall 2007. Dr. LaBrecque asked Karen to send Mr. Ferguson a list of new faculty hires.
3. Dr. Hartshorn asked about improving bandwidth at UHSSL. Mr. Ferguson stated that he will be looking into this in the fall. Currently bandwidth at Sugar Land is slow. However with UHD pulling out of Sugar Land less bandwidth will be needed to support ITV classes. UHD will be pulling the T1 line that was installed to support their classes. However, often UHD would need for additional bandwidth would overflow to bandwidth supported by UHV. Thus with UHD pulling out of Sugar Land, users may see improved bandwidth.
4. Dr. Suzanne LaBrecque asked if the renovations of the University Center third floor were to include an ITV Meeting room to better assist facilitating meetings. The Provost will talk with Mr. Beran regarding including the seminar room in the renovation plans.
5. Ms. Wortham mentioned that Faculty will be entering grades and downloading class rosters in the fall semester. Training will be offered for Faculty in the near future. Dean Bullock encouraged Ms. Wortham to meet with the Faculty Council Executive Committee regarding the training. Ms. Wortham will also be providing step-by-step instructions to all faculty.
· Other
1. Ms. Wortham reviewed the FY07-08 academic calendar with Academic Council.
2. Copyright procedures have been added to the Institutional Compliance list for Academic Affairs. Discussion was held on what procedures are currently in place. Ms. Lori Williamson provided information regarding how copyright requests are handled by the Library.
One alternative that was offered was the use of Xanadu, a resource website. The only problem is that the website is expensive and often does not have all the resources or is charging students for resources already available at the Library.
Other steps will be implemented to ensure that Faculty are aware of copyright procedures. Dr. Dahlstrom and Ms. Norgard will send an e-mail to Faculty at the beginning of each semester reminding them of the copyright procedures. The e-mail will also provide a link to the copyright and fair use procedures that are available on the web. In addition, the instructional designers will gently remind faculty to be sure that what is put online is fair use or meets copyright laws.
3. Ms. Norgard provided an update on the Title V Faculty Academy that were held the last week of July. Twenty faculty attended the academy: 10 from UHV and 10 from Coastal Bend College (CBC). The initial evaluations were positive and the academy was well received by all who participated. Faculty who participated had two deliverables an analysis of course to be put online and an action redesign plan. This project will be ongoing throughout the year. They will be working with faculty in the Fall to help the faculty learn how to use the equipment and software that they received. The Faculty will provide a peer review of the WebCT courses. Ms. Norgard will send a copy of the materials and list of attendee to the deans.
A question was raised on how the mentoring worked. Ms. Norgard stated that our faculty interacted very well with the CBC faculty. Some of the CBC faculty had not had experience with an online course and were eager to learn from our faculty.
4. Trudy stated that Senate Bill 1231 was passed modifying tuition and fee refund procedures for dropped courses and student withdrawals. A student may drop only 6 courses while obtaining their degree. Dr. LaBrecque stated that this was also discussed at the last Texas Chief Academic Officers meeting in Austin and that the Coordinating Board is trying to have this rescinded since it will be difficult to enforce.
5. Ms. Wortham asked for approval on catalog wording:
Current Wording
Courses taken at an institution that has only national, professional or specialized accreditation will apply to the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences and Nursing degree programs only, and will not apply to other degrees. Only accreditation bodies recognized by the Council of Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) will be accepted.
Proposed Wording Agreed to by the Academic Council
Vocational or technical courses will transfer for the Bachelor of Applied
Arts and Sciences degree, provided the courses are transferred from a college or
university accredited by one of the six recognized regional accrediting
associations, the credit is of college level and the credit is shown on the
school's official transcript. Exceptions to this rule may be allowed for
specific health-related programs.
III. Specific
· Student Appeals
1. There were no student appeals
· Faculty Development Grant Requests
1. Accepted a grant-funded conference travel report from Dr. Mel Damodaran for his presentation on October 4-7, 2007.
2. Accepted a grant-funded conference travel report from Dr. Mel Damodaran for his presentation on April 11-12, 2007.
3. Accepted a grant-funded Research grant report from Dr. Xavier Garza Gomez for FY2006.
4. Accepted a grant-funded research report from Dr. Rick Harrington and Dr. Donald Loffredo.
5. Accepted a second grant-funded research report from Dr. Rick Harrington and Dr. Donald Loffredo.
6. Accepted a grant-funded research report from Dr. Nagarajan Ramamoorthy.
7. Accepted a grant-funded conference report from Dr. Don Smith.
8. Accepted a grant-funded research grant report from Dr. Hal Smith.
9. Accepted a grant-funded conference report from Dr. Sandy Venneman.
10. Accepted a grant-funded conference report from Dr. Qi Zhu.
11. Dr. Ron Sardessai was awarded $859.50 for his 2007 Academy of Management Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 6, 2007.
12. Dr. Ziad Swaidan was awarded $1,300 for an FY2008 conference grant to the International Academy of Business and Economics, Las Vegas, October 14-17, 2007.
13. Dr. Nagarajan Ramamoorthy was awarded $1300 for an FY2008 conference grant to the Dutch HRM Network Conference in Tilburg, Netherlands on November 9-10, 2007.
As recorded by,
Karen Boldt
7/30/07