Academic Council Minutes – January 21, 2009
I. Review of Minutes – December 3, 2008
1. The minutes were approved as circulated.
II. General
A. Enrollment Management
1. Ms. Carolyn Mallory reported that $4.1 million in financial maid funds were distributed to students this semester. Ms. Mallory must review students’ accounts for grants which were not disbursed. The main reason why most students have not received their disbursement is that students often change the number of hours enrolled or are not enrolled for the originally anticipated hours. Dr. Di Leo asked what percentage of students receiving financial aid are graduates or undergraduates. He also asked if there were any Try UHV funds remaining. Ms. Mallory did not have the statistics available at that time, but will bring that information with her to the next Academic Council meeting.
2. Ms. Chari Norgard provided the enrollment information to Academic Council. The enrollment information also contained a comparison from Fall 2008 with Spring 2009. Ms. Norgard noted that we have already exceeded Fall 2008 enrollment and the late registration period has just begun.
3. Ms. Norgard stated that Student Solutions received a large number of calls related to logging into online courses. Some were regarding passwords while others simply could not find where to log in. Students coming from other universities may not be aware of what WebCT is since they may have been using a different system. She is also working with Minnie to get information out to students which should minimize the number of calls.
4. Dr. Deneč Thomas gave a presentation regarding Hispanic Heritage month activities and provided a handout to Academic Council. Ms. Norgard and Dr. Thomas also visited with Dr. Hudson regarding the activities. Many of these activities were coordinated by LEAD staff. These events take a large amount of manpower. Some of the activities will probably be sponsored by other entities in the Victoria Community; however, UHV will focus on those events which are more closely aligned with the mission of the University. Such activities include the academic conference and the earning of funds for scholarships which were a huge success. The donations received last year established an endowment for scholarships for UHV students. Dr. LaBrecque asked if other areas participate in these events. Dr. Dahlstrom stated that the Library has displayed some Hispanic authors in the past. Dr. Di Leo stated that he may be able to assist the Library in obtaining manuscripts from Hispanic authors that could be displayed during Hispanic Heritage month.
B. Information Technology—Mr. Ferguson
1. Mr. Chris Burford requested approval from Academic Council to be able to directly e-mail faculty and adjuncts when WebCT is down. Currently, he must obtain approval from the deans and Provost before sending the e-mail. This often means that the problem has resolved itself before he is able to send the e-mail. Approval was given that Mr. Burford directly e-mail faculty and adjuncts when WebCT is down.
2. Mr. Joe Ferguson stated that the fiber in Sugar Land is in place and fully working. He did state that there were some issues migrating data flow to the new fiber. However, bandwidth has increased about 160 times.
3. Mr. Ferguson announced that the fourth ITV room has been completed. Dr. Di Leo and Dr. Tart asked about being able to hold ITV classes from Austin. Dr. Di Leo recalled a pilot last spring, but was unsure if it was actually ready to schedule for classes. Joe stated that another test should be conducted and Austin Community College (ACC) should let them know if they are having any problems on their end. Dr. Di Leo will visit ACC today and will let them know.
4. IT completed a survey of faculty regarding how to improve ITV. They received 13 responses from faculty. Many of the responses were about the rooms and were easily remedied while others were impossible to fix. Additional training is also being provided to faculty so that the equipment can be used to its fullest potential.
C. President’s Updates
None.
D. Provost Updates
1. Dr. Holly Verhasselt reminded Academic Council that Dr. Marilee Bresciani will be visiting the campus to provide training on institutional assessment. This will help the university prepare for the next SACS visit. Dr. Bresciani will visit with administrators and student services areas on Thursday, February 12th. On February 13th, Dr. Bresciani will conduct a workshop for all faculty at the El Campo Country Club. Deans were asked to remind faculty to carpool. In the e-mail sent by Dr. Verhasselt, faculty were asked to RSVP to the school.
2. Dr. Verhasselt provided an article regarding a previous discussion held by Academic Council that spoke to problems experienced by all universities in communicating to students. Dr. Tart stated that texting and instant messaging (IM) is recognized by most of the younger students over e-mail. Students and parents can sign up to be notified via text. She stated that UT is using a third party company to text students important messages. Ms. Norgard stated that she finds that very interesting, but that caution would have to be used in regards to FERPA.
3. Dr. Verhasselt thanked Ms. Norgard for getting the website links changed from WebCT to online courses.
D. Other
1. Dr. Dan Jaeckle discussed the possibility of adding +/- grades. Dr. LaBrecque stated that while some faculty may like using +/- grades; using +/- can cause problems with graduate program entry and other issues. Dr. Di Leo asked Ms. Boldt to look in past minutes to find the last discussion about this subject at Academic Council.
2. Dr. Jaeckle stated that the University Faculty Executive Council (UFEC) will be having their retreat this year. The main topic will be student successes. UFEC is accepting papers from both faculty and staff on student successes. Dr. Jaeckle will send an e-mail out to all faculty and to department heads informing them of the details. Dr. Jaeckle will also be proposing that the next UFEC retreat be held in Victoria.
3. Dr. LaBrecque stated that the Provost Office is trying to streamline procedures. In doing so, Ms. Angela Hartmann, Research Administrator, will be handling Faculty Development Grants. Ms. Hartmann will join Academic Council to review Faculty Development Requests. An e-mail will be sent to all faculty and schools notifying them of the change.
4. Dr. LaBrecque announced that at the last Cabinet Retreat, it was decided that Fridays are Jaguar attire days.
II. Specific
A. Student Appeals
1. None
B. Consent Calendar/Faculty Development Grant Requests and Reports
1. Denied an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $1300 for Dr. Sanjiv Behl. The request was received after the conference was completed. The school may provide assistance.
2. Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $461.12 for Dr. Jane Fry to present at the Association of Teacher Educators conference in Dallas, TX from February 14-16, 2009.
3. Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $530.92 for Dr. Jane Fry to present at the National Science Teacher Conference (NSTA), in New Orleans, LA from March 20-22, 2009.
4. Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $377.00 for Dr. Teresa Le Sage to present at the National Science Teacher Conference (NSTA), in New Orleans, LA from March 20-22, 2009.
5. Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $919.70 for Dr. Teresa Le Sage to present at the National Social Science Conference (NSSC) in Las Vegas, NV from April 5-7, 2009.
6. Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $920 for Dr. Uppinder Mehan to present at the 30th Annual Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Associations conference in Albuquerque, NM from February 25 to 28, 2009.
7. Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $500.00 for Dr. Elsa Leggett to present at the Texas Administrators of Continuing Education Conference in Austin, TX from January 29-30, 2009.
As recorded by,
Karen G. Boldt