Academic Council Minutes – May 7, 2008
I. Review of Minutes – April 16, 2008
-- The minutes were approved with changes made.
II. General
· Guests
o Ms. Toni Wyer, Comptroller
o Mr. Greg Fanelli, Director, Business Services
o Ms. Carolyn Mallory, Director, Financial Aid
· Enrollment Management
o Danny Ochoa – was not present
· Data Collection
1. Ms. Trudy Wortham provided data for Summer 2008 Enrollment as of May 6, 2008. She stated there are 129 applications that have been approved but the students have not enrolled.
· PeopleSoft Update
1. Ms. Trudy Wortham spoke about course credit petitions and asked if she could temporarily lower the cap on graduate courses when she receives a course credit petition for an undergraduate student who wishes to enroll in graduate courses, but can’t until their baccalaureate degree has been posted in PeopleSoft. Once the degrees are posted and the student is enrolled she would raise the cap back to the correct number. She said that the graduate courses will fill up and sometimes she receives between 20 and 30 course credit petitions. Mr. Bullock was against lowering the cap. Trudy was asked to look at all options and get something back to Academic Council.
· Information Technology
1. Mr. Joe Ferguson stated that a decision about E-Smart needed to be made fairly soon because the renewal date is approaching. Dr. Ramamoorthy said he sent out an email to faculty and only one faculty member responded that they use E-Smart. The cost of the renewal is $17,000 and it was suggested to put that money toward library resources instead of renewing the license. Ms. Chari Norgard stated that 70% of the cost comes from Student Services and the Student Senate approved using the money for E-Smart. She doesn’t think they will have a problem in using it to lower text books fees but she does want to check with them. Mr. Joe Ferguson stated that UH will be renewing E-Smart in one year and UHV may be able to be an optional inclusion on that renewal.
Academic Council voted to drop E-Smart and look into library resources.
· Fort Bend Issues and Updates
1. Dr. LaBrecque stated that commencement was Saturday, May 10, 2008 in Victoria. She also stated that the new building in Sugar Land is expected to be complete in December, 2008 with classes beginning January, 2009.
2. Dr. Jeffrey Di Leo stated they had 30 applicants for the Humanities Chair position and brought the 4 finalists to campus. He said the search committee will be giving him a rank list by Friday.
3. Dr. Linda Dune reported that both the Sugar Land and Victoria campuses have the RN to BSN program and the MSN program. The Master’s of Science in Nursing Education has been approved by Faculty Senate and courses will be offered beginning Summer, 2008. Dr. Dune will be going to the Board of Nursing Examiners in July with the 2nd degree BSN program and if the program is approved courses will be offered in Fall 2008.
4. Dr. LaBrecque gave an update on the VC presidential search and said that the 3 finalists were brought to campus this week for interviews.
· Other
1. Ms. Toni Wyer/Mr. Greg Fanelli discussed travel packet auditing and how there is no accountability as to how faculty/staff are using rental cars and the gas charge account. There is no documentation that proves that the gas receipts/rental car mileage is used for business only. They made the following two recommendations:
First recommendation is to reimburse the traveler the state mileage rate (50.5 cents per mile) for mileage driven on university business that has been approved by the cost center authority/supervisor.
OR
Second recommendation is the follow the current procedure but make some restrictions.
Dr. LaBrecque called for a vote and everyone present voted for recommendation number one. This new procedure will go into effect June 1, 2008 subject to reallocation of central travel funds; otherwise, it will go into effect September 1, 2008.
2. Ms. Carolyn Mallory followed up on the TEACH Grant Academic Plans and said they deadline is May 12, 2008. School of Business and School of Nursing don’t have any. Dr. Di Leo and Dr. Stansell said they would get theirs to Carolyn by May 12, 2008.
Ms. Mallory stated that Congress has approved a bill – unsubsidized loans for undergraduates will increase $2,000.00 so they will now be $7,000.00. Financial Aid hasn’t done any awarding for Fall due to all the changes.
3. Ms. Trudy Wortham spoke about course completions and the “6-W” rule. She said that beginning Fall 2007 a student can only have 6 W’s throughout their entire undergraduate career. After the 6th drop the student either receives and F or the grade at the time.
Ms. Wortham stated that a policy needs to be developed internally that outlines how Admissions will track and handle the cases. Ms. Wortham was asked to check out what other universities have done and see what, if any, documentation will be required for the exemptions.
III. Specific
· Student Appeals
None
· Consent Calendar/Faculty Development Grant Requests and Reports
1. The following Faculty Development request was approved:
-- Dr. Chien-Ping Chen was awarded an FY08 faculty development grant for $205.48 to present at the FBD Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators (ACME) Annual Conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Houston, TX on March 4-8, 2008.
-- Dr. James Holm was awarded an FY08 faculty development grant for $898.00 to present a paper at the International Conference on Narrative in Austin, TX on April 30-May 4, 2008.
-- Dr. Sandy Venneman was awarded an FY08 faculty development grant for $1,300.00 to present at A Picture of Self-Mediation, APS 20th Annual Convention in Chicago, IL on May 22-25, 2008.
--Dr. Yun Wan was awarded an FY 08 research grant for $1,300.00 to explore how product information on the web has greatly enriched consumers’ shopping experience. To further verify this phenomenon, the experiment will be extended to the general population instead of students only.
-- Dr. Andria Young was awarded an FY08 research grant in the amount of $200.00 for survey research to determine how adult students with disabilities at UHV and local community colleges perceive the accessibility of their online courses. The purpose is to determine what if any barriers exist to learning online. And, once potential barriers are identified through the survey, take steps to remove the barriers in online classes.
As recorded by,
Dee Dee Canion