Academic Council Meeting Minutes-January 20, 2010

Present:

Dr. Suzanne LaBrecque

Dr. Jeffrey Di Leo

Dr. Lawrence Rossow

Dr. Kathryn Tart

Ms. Trudy Wortham

Ms. Carolyn Mallory

Ms. Chari Norgard

Dr. Denee Thomas

Mr. Joe Ferguson

Dr. Cindy Schnebly

Dr. Joe Dahlstrom

Mr. Chris Buford

Ms. Jane Mims (attending for Dr. Farhang Niroomand)

 

 

 

I.                   Review of Minutes-January 2, 2010 meeting

Minutes were approved as circulated.

 

II.                General

A.     Downward Expansion

Ms. Chari Norgard informed the group that she and some of her staff were meeting with the Registrar’s office and the Financial Aid Office, the one-stops and recruiters at Victoria College (VC) on February 1, 2010.  Another meeting with VC regarding development education classes will be scheduled that day as well.  Dr. Jeffrey Di Leo, some of his staff, and Dr. LaBrecque will be attending this meeting.

 

Dr. Suzanne LaBrecque asked what percentage of students need developmental education.  Ms.  Chari Norgard noted that according to studies that have been done, it usually between 20 and 25 percent.

 

Dr. Di Leo asked if a student needed developmental education, can UHV conditionally accept them.  He suggested one of the conditions would be that UHV have students enroll at a community college and take the classes they need before they get to UHV.

 

Dr. LaBrecque suggested a letter be sent to the student instructing them to take whatever developmental classes they need at their local community college.

 

Dr. LaBrecque noted that UHV’s goal is to have 190 students in the fall.  She also announced that she will be meeting with Pat Vandervoort later this week to plan the VC and UHV Academic Affairs Retreat.

 

Ms. Norgard noted she and Dr. Denee Thomas met with Randy Vivian, President of the Victoria Chamber of Commerce, to get him engaged in Jaguar events.  He has said that he will help with obtaining internships and professional mentors for students.

 

B.     Enrollment Management

                                                                          i.      Admissions-Trudy Wortham

As of January 19, 2010, 93 percent of the 168 students who were disenrolled have re-enrolled.  The students have until Monday, January 24th, to enroll.

 

The Admissions office has received 368 freshman applications and has approved 57 of them.  The five counties they come from are the following: Harris, Fort Bend, Hidalgo, Fair and Victoria.

 

Dr. Di Leo remarked it would be nice to see the average verbal and math SAT scores or Act scores of those freshman students.

 

Dr. LaBrecque suggested that Ms. Wortham gather data on the freshman students’ rank and class.

 

Ms. Wortham shared that UHV is now set up to receive ACT scores and they have completed the ACT data questionnaire.

 

Ms. Norgard noted they will analyze the 57 applicants who are currently approved and distribute that information.  She also stated that each of the accepted students will get a letter from Dr. Hudson.

 

Ms. Wortham informed the group since it was decided in the last Academic Council meeting that UHV will now use four letter course prefixes, she compiled a list showing the current UHV course prefixes and the corresponding four letter prefixes.

 

Dr. Rossow asked if the schools needed to make changes to the prefixes. Ms. Wortham confirmed that they did.

 

 

                                                                        ii.      Financial Aid-Carolyn Mallory

Ms. Mallory reported that 6 million of financial aid has been dispersed and that is approximately three fourths of the students.  She also noted that they have verified Pell eligibility.

 

                                                                      iii.      LEAD and Student Recruitment-Dr. Denee Thomas

Dr. Thomas thanked all of those who have helped with the book they created for recruiting purposes.  She informed the group the final dates for the Jaguar Open Houses: 

 

·         Saturday, March 27, 2010-UHV Baseball home game at 6:00pm

·         Saturday, April 17, 2010-UHV Softball home game at 2:00pm

 

                                          The event would start with tours and the Admissions and Financial Aid staff      

will be there for questions.  They would then be sure that everyone gets to the tents at the field by game time.

 

They have a good mechanism for RSVP’s, publicity, and they are working on fifty being the threshold number.

 

There was discussion on the threshold number and it was suggested the event take place no matter how many show up.

 

Dr. LaBrecque asked if they had a rain plan. Ms. Norgard stated that they would just have the event on campus.

 

Dr. Kathryn Tart suggested that they address safety, relationship changes and other pertinent issues with the parents.

 

Dr. LaBrecque commended the recruiters on a job well done.

 

C.     Information Technology-Mr. Joe Ferguson

Mr. Ferguson informed the group that they will be traveling to Sugar Land and Cinco Ranch on January 27th to distribute badges.  He also let everyone know that the doors have not been activated.  They may be activated by the middle of February, but he will let everyone on campus know a week in advance.

 

Dr. Tart inquired about the intuitive email addresses.

 

Ms. Norgard stated students will get a new email address that is much more intuitive and if they are a student/staff member, they will have two:

·         Student email:  lastnamefirstinitial@uhv.edu.  

·         Student who is also a staff member: lastname.middleinitial.firstinitial@uhv.edu

 

She also noted that an email has been sent to the students through the List Serv to make them aware of the email change. 

 

Dr. Tart asked if alumni are able to keep their old email address. Ms. Norgard affirmed that they will.  Ms. Norgard informed the group that Sherri Kroll would be the person you would contact regarding new email information.

 

Mr. Chris Buford did not have any Blackboard updates.

 

Dr. Tart shared with the group that on each of the SON Blackboard courses, they have inserted a link to the green initiative.

 

D.     Provost Office Updates

Dr. LaBrecque noted that Dr. Holly Verhasselt is working on the 5th Year Interim Report, which is due to SACS by March 15th.   Substantive change notifications for any program or program changes that will be implemented in Fall 2010 have to be submitted to SACS by March 23, 2010.  Dr. LaBrecque mentioned again that any programs that have more than fifty percent of the courses offered online require submission of substantive change prospectus and SACS approval PRIOR TO implementation.

 

            

E.     Library-Dr. Joe Dahlstrom

Mr. Dahlstrom informed the group that the new email addresses do not affect the way students access the library databases.

 

 

F.      Presidents Office Updates-Dr. Margaret Rice

No report

 

G.    Other

Dr. LaBrecque stated that it is evident from the President’s Cabinet meeting on Monday that the Provost Office will need to create an Academic Affairs Master Calendar.  There was much discussion and it will be discussed further at the next meeting.

 

III.             Specific

 

A.     Student Issues

1.      None

 

B.     Consent Calendar/Faculty Development Grant Requests and Reports

1.      Approved an FY10 conference grant in the amount of $1170.00 for Dr. Peggy Cloninger to present at the Society for Advancement of Management-SAM Conference in Arlington, VA on April 8-11, 2010.

2.      Approved an FY10 conference grant in the amount of $875.00 for Dr. Kyle Schlesinger to present at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs 2010 in Denver, CO on April 7-10, 2010.

3.      Approved an FY10 research grant in the amount of $1170.00 for Dr. Jeff Moe to administer a descriptive survey measuring Hope, Optimism, Sense of Purpose in Life & Internalized Homo-prejudice/Homo-positivity in the same sample of Lesbians, Gay Male, Bisexual & Transgendered men & women to conduct psychometric evaluation of related scales. Eventually creating a model for predicting salient mental health outcomes for members of the identified population.

 

As recorded by,

Tessa Naff