NOTE: At times, issues of confidentiality may require that some items discussed in meetings be excluded from these minutes.

ALC MEMBERS: Charles Bachman, Tom Ball, Bill Barnes, Richard Bennett, David Caudill, Lance Crimm, Tom Currin, Venu Dasigi, Ameen Farooq, Alan Gabrielli, Jo Galle, Steven Hamrick, Bob Harbort, Ruston Hunt, Andrew McMorran, Joyce Mills, Julie Newell, Mark Nunes, Jeff Orr, Nikki Palamiotis, Phil Patterson, Dawn Ramsey, Jeffrey Ray, Nancy Reichert, Han Reichgelt, Ronny Richardson, Khalid Siddiqi, Sandra Stone, Denise Stover, John Sweigart, Zvi Szafran, Margaret Venable, Andy Wang, and Tim Zeigler

Guests: Vanessa Buck, Margaret Venable

Item 1. Updates

Julie Newell announced the upcoming Soup Cook-off on October 29. This is in addition to the annual chili cook-off and reminded everyone about the Holiday luncheon also.

Mark Nunes and committee have been working on the First Year Studies Program. This will be tied into the Interface Lecture Series. Dr. Szafran introduced Margaret Venable who will be helping Mark. Margaret is an ACE Fellow on Education who is visiting our campus.

Engineering – The Chancellor asked about our Evening Engineering Program at a recent meeting and mentioned January as a possible start date if all goes well. This looks very positive for approval of the program.

Budget – No new news on the state of the budget – raises are still uncertain. Dr. Szafran stated that we need to be thinking about how to deal with budget cuts (and the addition of approximately 1,000 additional students since 2005). The Chancellor suggested that we may have to cap enrollment if our budget cut is 10%.

New Programs – no news yet on BoR approval of our letters of intent for the B.S. in Political Science and M.S. in Industrial Design.

Enrollment – Hamrick reported our enrollment is 4,841 as of today indicating a 7.8% increase that could reach 8% for the semester. He also predicts that enrollment should break 5,000 by next fall if we continue as we have been and we need to be prepared to handle the additional students. Hybrid classes and early/late/weekend classes are possible options. Dr. Szafran stated that we are working on existing spaces on campus to create larger spaces for lectures and labs and that the Manget property looks good for Continuing Educations which will also free up space.

New Software – Smart Catalog has been purchased and is being activated. Steve Hamrick will be sending out the link to department chairs so that they can begin making updates. Julie Newell suggested that there needs to be a level of review for the catalog program. Ad Astra is online and Steve is working with the company to get it up and running – this is the room scheduling software. Degree Works has been purchased but has not yet arrived.

Gaming Lab – Dean Reichgelt announced that the opening of the Gaming Lab will be Monday, September 8^th at 4:30. He is also interested in proposing an undergraduate degree in Gaming Design.

Tutoring Center – Dean Gabrielli reported that most of the furniture has been installed and the multi media equipment will be here soon.

Item 2. New Purchasing/Travel Procedures

Dr. Szafran introduced Vanessa Buck from the Business Office to discuss changes in the way travel requests/expense statements and procurement requests will be submitted in the near future. Vanessa explained the new procedures and stated that training will be at the end of September with implementation on October 8. One of the main issues to be resolved is whether individual faculty will be submitting travel requests or whether a designee of the department will submit all requests for the department. The Council discussed the options and will submit their preferences to Dr. Szafran.

Item 3. Academic Plan

Dr. Szafran brought the draft Academic Plan to the ALC for review and discussion. After a final plan is approved it will be presented to the Faculty Senate for review and then to the general faculty. The Academic Plan is not an implementation plan and that we will begin in the spring deciding what action steps to implement. Nikki Palamiotis is developing a draft a Graduate Program Academic Plan which will go to the Graduate Programs Committee before coming before the Academic Leadership Committee. Szafran asked for comments on the Academic Plan:

The statement about academic programs falling into four categories but listing three was questioned and determined to be an error.
Grant writing support needed for faculty.
Strategy for community needs does not include K-12 and should.
International Programs – a commitment to make International Programs work – support for the directorship, student scholarship, or administrative support for the program needs to be included.
Advising section seems contradictory in that we propose professional advisors yet faculty are supposed to be advising. Dr. Szafran explained that the professional advisors will be responsible for core advising and that faculty will be responsible for major advising.
There was a brief discussion about whether there is enough emphasis on “comprehensive university” in the vision statement.
The implementation plan will further define the Academic Plan.
As we add higher level programs, note that the Library will need additional resources.

Dr. Szafran asked that any other suggestions be submitted to him and that with the changes asked if the plan ready to move forward? All agreed that the next step is to present the Academic Plan to the general faculty.

Item 4. SACS

Zvi spoke to Jo Galle recently and most requirements for SACS are in. Zvi reminded the Council to submit faculty qualifications statement to him ASAP. Becky Rutherfoord reiterated the urgency of getting things in. She also reported a good visit with our SACS Liaison and that he will be using our QEP as a template and that we must get our QEP known all over campus. SACS representatives will stop people on campus and ask so everyone should know what it is. The SACS timeline is as follows:

Wednesday, September 10 – Self Study goes out
November – report back on campus from SACS
March 22-25 – campus visit – everyone should be on campus during that time.

Item 5. Summer Schedule

Steve Hamrick presented a chart outlining all the possible parts-of-term with registrations periods for the summer semester for discussion. Currently there is one registration for summer in early – this plan would add additional registration periods for sessions later in the summer. The Council reviewed the pros and cons and made comments:

Add the 5-week option back to session C
Not a good fit for all courses
Argued against two-week option based on credit hours
May be hard for students to schedule classes in different sessions
Hard to schedule classrooms
Keep assessment evaluation going for these variations to see what learning outcomes actually are
Students complain already that summer classes are not as good as in the fall and spring
Probably don’t need so many options
Need to review student workload and faculty workload
Pairing core class and SPSU 1001 before first regular freshman semester in the fall would help student success
Five week consecutive not overlapping
Room usage issues possible
Need to know which departments would take advantage of these schedules – would help when making decisions.
Have to get the word out early to the students because faculty won’t commit to second 5-week sessions because too many classes get cancelled because of low enrollment.
May challenge students by offering too many options/sessions
Other alternatives were suggested but won’t fit BoR rules
Would restrict financial aid students to register at first registration only to receive certain financial aid
How to control workload for summer session for students if we use this model

Zvi asked: Do we like multiple registration periods? If plan is a good idea, which formats would departments use and for what purpose? Monitor success/workload for students and faculty and revisit.

Item 6. Other new business

ETC groundbreaking is scheduled for September 25. The Governor is scheduled to be on campus for the event.
Building I – final conceptual should be available
Parking deck is scheduled to begin on 10/15 with completion in the spring
SPSU is looking at possible additional student housing adjacent to the campus. Housing on campus is full at present with a waiting list.
The annual Constitution Day lecture will be on September 15 – all are encouraged to attend.
PSLSAMP scholarships are available for minority students.
Joyce Mills needs newsletters, dissertations, and other materials for the Author’s Fair.

Meeting adjourned at 4:20 p.m.