Academic Council Minutes January 16, 2008

 

I.  Review of Minutes – December 5, 2007

Dr. Dennis Fouty’s name was incorrectly spelled in Section II - Information Technology Updates.   

 

II.  General

Ms. Trudy Wortham provided Spring 2008 Enrollment and SCH Information as of January 15, 2008, at 5:30 pm.  This list was printed after the zap of students.   Ms. Lois Lemke is confirming how students are zapped.

 

Ms. Chari Norgard said that the Admissions office is still receiving applications.  She provided an Applications Status Report which shows in detail the number of applications received from December 17, 2007 through January 15, 2008.

 

Ms. Norgard complimented Ms. Minnie Urbano’s staff for the great job they did with the One Stop Shop.  Students were very appreciative that they only had to speak with one person to receive the answers they needed.  Last week there were over 2300 telephone calls to Ms. Urbano’s staff. 

 

Dr. Jeffrey Di Leo asked if there was any way to get the zapped list to the schools a few days earlier than they did.  He said that his office would like a little more time to start making their phone calls.  Ms. Jane Mims stated the problem with receiving the report any earlier is that it includes a lot more names because students wait so long to pay.

 

Ms. Jane Mims stated that she used PeopleSoft to find alternative email addresses for her students and sent emails to all the email addresses she had regarding the zap.  She said the zap list had over 200 names on it and they only zapped a little over 60.  Ms. Norgard is going to check with Ms. Lemke to see if these other email addresses can be added to the zap list. 

 

Ms. Chari Norgard talked about the Uniform Recruitment and Retention Report that is required by the Coordinating Board.  The Coordinating Board is having a Webcast on February 12 from 1:00-3:00 p.m., and UHV along with all other UH campuses were invited to attend.  The Coordinating Board will explain what they need from schools, how to have an effective Uniform Recruitment and Retention Report, and how to build stronger communications.  Ms. Norgard asked the schools to provide assistance with administering the program.  Dr. LaBrecque suggested that recruiters from each school attend.  Ms. Norgard will reserve a room and notify the recruiters.  The recruiters are A&S-Tracy Fox, Business-Rosie McCusker, Education-Sandy Hybner, and Nursing-Tammy Whatley (Victoria)/Kristin Jones (Sugar Land).

 

Mr. Chris Burford was very pleased with WebCT.  He said the first class day went a lot smoother than it did in the Fall.

 

Mr. Burford provided a UHV WebCT Update that lists important dates.  He stated that the first pilot testing for WebCT 4.0 is scheduled for summer.  The larger pilot test will be in the Fall. Dr. LaBrecque urged the Deans to share these important dates with their faculty members.  Mr. Burford said he would send an electronic copy to the Deans.

 

Ms. Margaret Rice stated that the Spring commencement would be on the Victoria campus.  Commencement will take place in the morning and will be outside.  She also stated that the Fall commencement will take place at the Merrill Center in Katy and it will be held on a Sunday.  She said the Merrill Center is already booked for Saturday.

 

Dr. LaBrecque said that enrollment at Cinco Ranch is up and enrollment at Sugar Land is down.  She stated that it is not surprising since the Downtown classes are no longer being held at Sugar Land and their ITV classes have been moved to Cinco Ranch. 

 

Dr. Di Leo asked Ms. Wortham if it was possible for concentrations to be listed on student’s transcripts.  She said it was not a problem for their office.  She said only majors were required on transcripts, but they will begin putting concentrations on them.

 

Ms. Mims asked if concentrations would be listed on the diploma.  Dr. LaBrecque suggested keeping the diploma as simple as just UHV and the degree received. 

 

1.   Dr. Joe Dahlstrom said the PRAC addressed 5 issues for the library which he is looking into: 

o       Databases and Resources-only the Deans know what the real need for Databases and Resources are. 

o       System wide licensing-Dr. LaBrecque is going to bring this up at Provost Council and suggested Dr. Dahlstrom bring it up at one of his Library meetings.  Dr. LaBrecque said this is a system problem not just an individual campus problem.   Dr. Dahlstrom is going to try to find out a ballpark figure for the licensing to use other UH campus databases. 

o       Additional staff to help the faculty with research and gathering materials.  Dr. Dahlstrom said if the requests increase he may need more staff, but right now they are okay and haven’t turned anyone down.

o       Web page to assist faculty with research.  Dr. Dahlstrom said the library is working on drafting a web page and will get back to the Committee and the Deans.  Dr. Dahlstrom said they are interested in pursuing but he will not have enough information by the Budget Hearings.  He did say he would mention it in his Budget Hearings.  He will bring something back in a month.

 

2.   Ms. Norgard received an email from Dr. LaBrecque.  The Coordinating Board would like all Texas schools to list their online courses on the Texas Distance Education website.  Currently only the School of Business does this but they do a general version.  They are currently not updating it each semester.  Ms. Mims said it must be entered manually and the return is not great enough to spend that much time entering all the courses manually. A suggestion was made that Dr. LaBrecque talk to Joe Stafford with the Coordinating Board to see if they would allow classes to be uploaded.  This would be less time consuming.  Dr. LaBrecque said she would call Joe Stafford.  Dr. Di Leo and Dr. Stansell said they would talk to their WebCT techs and see if they would be the person to be in charge of this.  Ms. Mims said Rosie McCusker takes care of this for Business and Nursing currently has no online classes. 

 

3.   Dr. LaBrecque shared an email she received from Valerie Ferguson regarding hiring Faculty Development Grant Research Assistants.  Ms. Ferguson did not say you couldn’t hire Research Assistants in foreign countries, but she listed several factors that you need to make sure of before doing so.  

 

III.  Specific.

      None.

 

 

--Accepted an FY08 grant-funded conference report from Dr. Vera Adamchik.

--Accepted an FY08 grant-funded conference report from Dr. Peggy Cloninger.

--Accepted an FY08 grant-funded conference report from Dr. Jeffrey Di Leo.

--Accepted an FY08 grant-funded conference report from Dr. Yong G. Lee.

--Accepted an FY08 grant-funded conference report from Dr. Nagarajan Ramamoorthy.

--Accepted an FY08 grant-funded conference report from Dr. T.T. Selvarajan.

--Accepted an FY08 grant-funded conference report from Dr. Stephanie Solansky.

--Accepted an FY08 grant-funded conference report from Dr. Jim Walton.

--Dr. Andrew Baerg was awarded an FY08 conference grant for $750.00 for his presentation at the Communication and Sport Summit on February 28 – March 1, 2008 in Clemson, SC.

--Dr. Li Chao was awarded an FY08 conference grant for $1300.00 for his presentation at the Online Collaborative Development of Team Projects for Technology-Based Courses on March 3-7, 2008 in Vancouver, Canada.

--Dr. Jay Dune was awarded a FY08 research grant for $1300.00 to conduct research on the concept of Vitality eventually leading to the writing of an article on “Vitality: Perceptions and Projections Across the Lifespan”.

--Dr. Horace Fairlamb was awarded an FY08 conference grant for $724.00 for his presentation at the South Central 18th Century Studies Conference on February 21-23, 2008 in New Orleans, LA.

--Dr. Horace Fairlamb was awarded an FY08 conference grant for $576.00 for his presentation at the SW Am/Pop Culture Conference on February 23-16, 2008 in Albuquerque, NM.

--Dr. Kay Kohlhaas was awarded an FY08 conference grant for $1300.00 for her presentation at two conferences in New Orleans, LA.  The Southwest Education Research Association (SERA) on February 6-9, 2008 and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) on February 7-10, 2008.

--Dr. Teresa LeSage was awarded an FY08 publication grant for $150.00 for her article “Business Undergraduate Personality Temperaments, Student Electronic Activity and Selected Demographic Characteristics on Course Achievement in an Online University Learning Environment” to be published in EJSS.

--Dr. Hsin-Hui Lin was awarded an FY08 conference grant for $433.81 for her presentation at two conferences in New Orleans, LA.  The Southwest Educational Research Association (SERA) on February 6-9, 2008 and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) on February 7-10, 2008.

--Dr. Beverly Tomek has received an FY08 conference grant for $1300.00 for her presentation at the Organization of American Historians Annual Conference on March 28-31, 2008 in New York City.