Academic Council Minutes

Academic Council Minutes, March 21, 2007

I. Minutes

--Approved as circulated

II. General

· Data Collection

--Mrs. Trudy Wortham provided a copy of the Admissions Application Status Report with changes as discussed at the last Academic Council. Admissions and Records Office has begun scanning and sending all admissions documents for students and are sending the information the schools as requested.

--Mr. Bullock stated that he is concerned about the percentage of students who do not attend because of problems with completing the Texas Common Application. Complaints have been heard about the application being too lengthy as well as difficult to complete online. It was noted by Ms. Wortham that students who are having difficulty completing the application may also print the application or obtain a printed version from Admissions and Records. Ms. Norgard stated that she plans on going through the application to see what types of problems are being encountered. She will then address these with the Coordinating Board.

A question was regarding whether or not the Texas Common Application was required and if so, is it required for both undergraduates and graduates. Ms. Wortham will check to see if the application is required. Ms. Wortham stated that she believes that the Common Application is required by legislation. Ms. Wortham was asked to find out if the University could create its own application similar to the Common Application but not as lengthy. Ms. Wortham stated that if the University creates an application it will need to have the capability to load into Peoplesoft.

· Instructional Technology/Online Issues and Updates

--Eric Mims shared with the council an update on e-mail statistics. Currently Sophos, UHV’s spam filter, blocks most offensive e-mail. Only 15% of spam is actually making it to an employee’s e-mail account. Sophos identifies known and suspected spam and quarantines the e-mail. Occasionally, Eric will review the quarantined e-mail to ensure that there are no legitimate e-mails that were quarantined. There is an option to scan e-mails for offensive language so that those e-mails can be blocked.

· Peoplesoft Update

--Mrs. Wortham reported that the student side of the Peoplesoft Student Administration went live the first part of March with Financial Aid. The records portion of Peoplesoft Student Administration will be going live on UH Main campus in April for Fall registration. UHV will begin using Peoplesoft in June for Fall semester activities.

· Other

--Ms. Chari Norgard learned about One-Stop centers for students at a workshop she attended this month. The center included Financial Aid, Admissions, Counseling and Bursar’s Office. The employees within the center were cross-trained so that the student could be provided all the services they need without having to visit several offices or buildings. Chari is looking into how UHV could implement such an idea to better assist students.

--Dr. Rice has been making contact with the Greater Texas and Alcoa foundations and has learned that each foundation will be receiving requests for proposals soon. The Greater Texas Foundation is focusing on Math and Science requests while the Alcoa Foundation focuses on Access to Success requests. Dr. Hartshorn asked who will be coordinating the requests from UHV. Dr. LaBrecque thought it would be beneficial invite Mr. Richard Phillips to the next Academic Council to provide details of how the proposals will be handled.

III. Specific

· Student Appeals

· General discussion was held regarding the appeal process. It was suggested that the process be reviewed.

--Student submitted an appeal for grade replacement from an “F” in Spring 2005 to a C earned in Fall 2006. Hold appeal until a review of the grade replacement policy can be conducted.

--Student submitted an appeal to change grade from an “F” in Fall 2006 to a “W” or “I”. Hold for dean to review.

--Student submitted an appeal to be accepted for graduate study. Request was denied and Academic Council suggested student retake the GRE with prep courses.

--Student submitted an appeal to use GRE scores that were sent to another university. Request was approved.

· Faculty Development Grant Requests

--Dr. Pamela Shyang-Yun Shaio was awarded $600 for a publication grant for "Validation of Oxygen Saturation Monitoring in Neonates."

--Dr. Pamela Shyang-Yun Shaio was awarded $600 for a publication grant for "Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine."

--Dr. Nagarajan Ramamoorthy was awarded $700.00 for the Academy of Management Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA.

--Dr. Yixi Ning was awarded a research grant to study a sample of CEO successions during the period from 1980 to 2000 to investigate the changes of CEO compensation structure (i.e., total compensation, compensation risk, and pay-for-performance sensitivity) following the chief executive officer turnovers.