Academic Council Minutes – April 1, 2009

 

I.                   Review of Minutes – March 4, 2009

1.      The minutes were approved as circulated.

 

II.                General

A.                Enrollment Management

1.      Ms. Chari Norgard stated that she has been meeting with Mr. Greg Fanelli, Ms. Lois Lemke, Ms. Minnie Urbano, and Ms. Carolyn Mallory to discuss student processes.  The group will meet the month before registration to discuss financial, financial aid, and enrollment issues. One issue that group will be examining is the student appeals process and streamlining the process from the student’s prospective.

2.      Ms. Wortham discussed with Academic Council the latest FERPA changes she has received.  One topic that was of particular interest was the use of contractors to outsource certain services on our behalf.  A contractor must maintain FERPA compliance.  The university will be ultimately responsible for FERPA compliance by contractors.  Ms. Wortham discussed other key changes in FERPA compliance with Academic Council.  Dr. Natividad was interested if any of these changes in FERPA included allowing independent school systems the ability to provide us with information regarding students for the purposes of recruitment.  Ms. Wortham was unsure, but would check to see if the changes included the ability for information to be exchanged from school systems.  Ms. Wortham asked for clarification from Academic Council on whether personal e-mail addresses should be considered personal or directory information.  Academic Council believes it is personal information.  Ms. Wortham also asked if student ID information is considered directory information.  Academic Council believes it is not directory information.  Finally, Ms. Wortham asked for clarification of when is someone a student for FERPA purposes. Academic Council believes it should be when a student registers, but asked Ms. Wortham to check to see when UH determines someone a student and to return to Academic Council for further discussion.

3.      Mr. Joe Ferguson mentioned that Marketing and Information Technology gave a presentation on social networking to Cabinet.  A group consisting of persons from Student Academic Services, Marketing and Information Technology are looking into social networking as a means to reach students.  Social networking will not take the place of e-mail for contacting students, but instead will provide a supplemental way to communicate with students.  Ms. Jane Mims stated that we must keep in mind that Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking pages are created for social networking and students may prefer not to receive continuous communication from the university.  Mr. Ferguson stated that the communication sent should maintain a social forum and should not be used to replace e-mail. 

 

Dr. Tart stated that she knows of someone who has experience with using social networking with students who she believes will come to visit with UHV regarding the project.  Dr. Tart will provide the name of the individual to Ms. Chari Norgard.

 

Social networking will require areas such as Student Academic Services, Marketing, Information Technology and each School to have someone who can maintain the social networking pages.

 

B.                 Information Technology

1.      Dr. LaBrecque mentioned that Dr. Holly Verhasselt and Mr. Chris Burford are representing UHV as part of a System Strategic Planning Committee.   

2.      Mr. Ferguson discussed single sign-on status with Academic Council.  It seems that LDAP/Single sign-on project is not a priority at the system level because of the transition to Blackboard VISTA.

 

C.        President’s Updates

1.   Dr. Margaret Rice reminded Academic Council that the Healthy Women’s Seminar will be on April 26th from 5:30 to 7:00 in the Multipurpose room.    UHV is sponsoring the event.

2.   Commencement is May 16th at 9:00 am in Victoria.

 

D.        Provost Updates

1.      Dr. Holly Verhasselt stated that she and Dr. Tong-Ai Zhang have reviewed assessment software as part of the recommendations from Dr. Marilee Bresciani.  UH Clear Lake has developed its own assessment database and is willing to let us evaluate the database to see if it would be useful for us.  Dr. Verhasselt and Dr. Zhang have also reviewed commercial software packages as well.  Dr. Verhasselt and Dr. Zhang asked each dean to look at the software packages and provide feedback as to what appears to be the best package.

 

Dr. Di Leo asked if some time in the future, would there be a need for a director of assessment.  Dr. Verhasselt stated that, at this time that issue has not been addressed.  When the assessment software package is purchased, each school will have to maintain the assessment data. 

 

E.         Other

1.   Dr. LaBrecque announced that due to the Board of Regents Committee meeting, the Academic Council meeting scheduled for April 15 has been cancelled.  The next meeting will be held on May 6th.

2.   Ms. Wortham asked for clarification of current catalog verbiage regarding student appeals.  

 

III.             Specific

A.    Student Appeals

1.      Student appeal denied.  Student may appeal again in Fall 2010.

2.      Nursing academic dishonesty case.  Student

 

B.     Consent Calendar/Faculty Development Grant Requests and Reports

1.      Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $1168.00 for Dr. John Kagochi to present at the Intellectbase International Consortium Academic Conference in Dallas, TX from March 19-21, 2009.

2.      Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $380.00 for Dr. Uppinder Mehan to present at the 2009 Joint Conference on Migration, Border and the Nation State in Lubbock, TX from April 8-11, 2009.

3.      Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $1100.00 for Dr. Barba Patton to present at the National Technology in Social Science conference in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 5-8, 2009.

4.      Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $1124.00 for Dr. Elizabeth Mulig to present at the Intellectbase International Consortium Academic Conference in Dallas, TX from March 19-21, 2009.

5.      Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $1300.00 for Dr. Shainy Varghese to present at the AACN Hot Issues Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, April 23-25, 2009.

6.      Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $1300.00 for Dr. Sandy Venneman to present at the Association for Psychological Science 21st Annual Convention in San Francisco, CA from May 22-25, 2009.

7.      Approved an FY09 research grant in the amount of $200 for Dr. Mary Mayorga to purchase Survey Monkey on line data services.  Survey meant to query school district personnel about the response to intervention (RTI) process in the schools.

8.      Approved an FY09 research grant in the amount of $200 for Dr. Andrea Young to purchase Survey Monkey on line data services.  Survey meant to query school district personnel about the response to intervention (RTI) process in the schools.

 

 

As recorded by,

Karen G. Boldt