Academic Council Minutes – December 3, 2008

I.                   Review of Minutes – November 19, 2008

1.      The minutes were approved as circulated.

II.        General

A.        Enrollment Management

1.      Ms. Trudy Wortham provided the enrollment numbers for Spring 2008 as of December 3rd.  Ms. Wortham will continue to provide updates electronically as well as at Academic Council.

2.       Ms. Chari Norgard stated that she is working with Mr. Shawn Brett to have enrollment information available on the website.  Eventually, the site will become interactive so that anyone visiting the database will be able to select from certain criteria to obtain enrollment information.

3.      Ms. Norgard providing a brief update on the Uniform Recruitment and Retention report due to the Coordinating Board.  The Coordinating Board granted an extension on the report.  The report is now due December 12^th.  Ms. Norgard stated that the report was relatively done with the exception of some additional data that she and Tong-Ai are working on.  Ms. Norgard will be forwarding the executive summary and report to the Provost and President for review.

4.      Ms. Norgard stated that the Federal Government passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act this last year that will have quite an impact on the University.  There is an online seminar being hosted by Magna Publications on January 13, 2009 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. that will help sort out many of the issues that will affect higher education.  Ms. Norgard will forward the information to academic areas for consideration.  Karen Boldt will work with Nancy Penry for coordination.  This training will be helpful for many areas of the university.

B.        Information Technology—Mr. Ferguson

1.      Mr. Chris Burford announced that WebCT was unsuccessful updating their database on November 21st.  What this means is that there will be issues with WebCT including slower performance.  They will attempt updating their database again on December 29^th.

2.      Mr. Joe Ferguson believes he has convinced UH System to allow students to use the same log in account for Peoplesoft as they do for WebCT.  He hopes this will come to fruition by summer.

3.      Ms. Norgard stated that she has been working with Admissions, Financial Aid, Bursar, and Student Solutions support personnel to change the PeopleSoft link name to My UHV. 

C.        President’s Updates

1.      Dr. Margaret Rice stated that over 30 faculty have responded that they would be attending commencement.  In addition five regents and the chancellor will be in attendance. 

2.      UHV is working on putting together information for the Coordinating Board that will help them write an analysis of downward expansion for UHV.  This analysis will be forwarded to the Legislature in January.

D.        Provost Updates

1.      Dr. Holly Verhasselt stated that she is also working on various reports to the Coordinating Board due in December.  

2.      Dr. Verhasselt, Ms. Na Wu, Ms. Beverly Hoerig visited two universities, the University of Texas and Texas State, to examine their multimedia services facilities and structure.  Dr. Verhasselt hopes that UHV’s multimedia services will be able to provide similar services to faculty.

3.      Dr. Verhasselt stated that the progress report card was submitted for review by Presidents this week.  She has been working with Dr. Dan Gardner and Mr. Ed Hugetz as well as the other campuses to develop the progress report card.  The report card will provide to the regents a brief summary of enrollment, recruitment, retention rates, as well as other pertinent information.

4.      Dr. LaBrecque stated that UHV is still in the process of a dean search for the School of Business Administration.  Two additional candidates will be brought in for interview in December.

5.      Dr. LaBrecque also mentioned that UH is conducting a search for the Senior Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

D.        Other

1.      Mr. Joe Harper gave a presentation on the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to Academic Council.  Mr. Harper explained SBDC’s composition, mission, funding and services to businesses and the community.

He further stated that SBDC is moving toward being more engaged with the university.  Mr. Harper also solicited the assistance of areas to assist SBDC when dealing with some clientele.  Areas such as research and sciences would particularly be beneficial to SBDC counselors. 

II.                   Specific

A.     Student Appeals

1.      None

B.     Consent Calendar/Faculty Development Grant Requests and Reports

1.       Approved an FY09 research grant in the amount of $1300 for Dr. Siva Somasundaram research epigenetic mechanisms in breast cancer cells through the enhancement of chemotherapy by dietary bioactive compounds.

2.      Approved an FY09 research grant in the amount of $200 for Dr. Jeff Moe to research the relationship between counselors’ perceptions of the similarities between systems-level consultation and advocacy and counselor professional identity variables

3.       Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $1300 to Dr. Siva Somasundaram to present at the American Association for Cancer Research in Denver, Colorado from April 18 to April 22, 2009.

4.       Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $1300 to Dr. Kay Kohlhaas to present at the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE) International Conference in Hartford Connecticut form January 8-10, 2009. 

5.       Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $204.92 to Dr. Carol Klages to present at the Association of Teachers Educator's Conference in Dallas, TX from February 15-18, 2009.

6.       Approved an FY09 conference grant in the amount of $1300 to Dr. Jifu Wang to present at the Academy of Business Administration (ABA) - Global Trends Conference in Cancun Mexico from December 18 - 23, 2008.

As recorded by,

Karen G. Boldt