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, Denise Stover, John Sweigart, Zvi Szafran, Andy Wang, and Tim Zeigler

MEMBERS ABSENT: David Caudill, Lance Crimm, Bob Harbort, Joyce Mills, Dawn Ramsey, Jeff Ray, Nancy Reichert, Khalid Siddiqi, Denise Stover

GUESTS: Becky Rutherfoord, SACS Liaison

Item 1: Updates

Schedule - Steve Hamrick has received requests to delay the deadline for inputting the summer schedule and asked the Council for a consensus before doing so because of room scheduling and other issues. All agreed and March 14^th will be the new date the summer schedules must be entered into the computer. The fall schedules must be entered by the end of April.

Annual Evaluations – Evaluations of deans and department chairs were due the end of January, and are therefore past due. Academic Affairs will send out the assessment forms by the end of this week.

Georgia Tech – Zvi met with Georgia Tech recently and is still working out details.

“Manipulating the Core” – Phil Patterson is our campus representative and talked about this initiative at the last faculty meeting. Patterson distributed an email with a link to information and is working with IT to set up a website for updates.

AASCU – Dr. Szafran talked about an agenda item at the last AASCU meeting regarding a voluntary system of accountability. Institutions have been asked to sign up for this program by March. The idea behind this is that there is a demand for increased transparency and accountability for higher education in areas such as tuition costs, graduation rates, etc. Institutions must use one of the general education learning tools: CAPP, MAPP, or CLA to evaluate a sampling of incoming freshmen and then again as graduating seniors. Data from this survey would be published and would cost approximately $10,000 for our campus. Dr. Szafran talked briefly about the program and stated that we will need to make a decision in the near future about becoming a member or not.

Tutoring Center – John Mills is working on creating a Tutoring Center with STEM funds.

Internationalizing the Campus Grant – still no word on whether our proposal has been selected.

Recent Robbery on Campus – Dr. Szafran talked about the recent robbery in the Library and asked the Council for questions or comments. One major concern was the slow response notifying the campus community. Chief Chasteen is aware of this as well as Public Relations and both are working on getting alerts and notices out to the campus faster. Other suggestions/concerns:

Put up cameras in key locations.
Provide training all over campus, annually at least, on what to do in an emergency situation.
Need more police visibility on campus
Need student safety feedback mechanism
Have a safety meeting with all students on campus.

Sorbonne – Sorbonne University in France is interested in an exchange program with us. There will be an informational meeting today at 4:00 in B 120.

AAMI – African American Male Initiative – Jeff Orr is working on this BoR initiative to promote underrepresented groups.

Item 2. Risk Management

Dr. Szafran distributed his draft plan to address how our campus might handle departments that reach 85% tenured faculty. The Council reviewed, made changes, and endorsed the plan. This plan will go out to the campus and then to the Faculty Senate. After reviewing calculations from the deans, there are no departments close to the maximum of 85%.

Item 3. Intellectual Diversity

Dr. Szafran discussed Intellectual Diversity, another issue that our campus has been asked to address. SPSU must have a policy in place that addresses students’ rights to political opinion without penalty. Dr. Szafran has posted the American Council on Education’s Statement on Academic Rights and Responsibilities on the Academic Affairs website. He stated that we need to review students’ rights regarding intellectual diversity and that a policy should be incorporated into the Student Handbook. Dr. Szafran asked the Council if they thought these actions sufficiently addressed the issue of Intellectual Diversity and all agreed. Szafran will find out how to incorporate this into the student handbook and will make sure it is in line with the grade appeal process.

Item 4. Laboratory Safety Issues on Campus

Dr. Szafran talked briefly about lab safety on campus and asked the Council for input on the safety measures in place in their areas and received the following comments/concerns:

ETM has begun safety audits to be sure all of their labs are safe.
BCP – They review safety policies but do not have first aid kits available in case of accidents.
Need to know first point of contact in an emergency
Are all faculty (full and part-time) trained in lab safety?
Should we require each department to train their faculty?
Should we do an audit? Who should do the audit? If an audit is done, it was suggested it be done in conjunction with representatives from Facilities.
Post emergency numbers in all classrooms.
We no longer have a safety office but probably need one.
Have University Police listed under “Police” not “University Police” as it would be easier to find them in the directory.
Begin audits of labs and develop a policy that is enforced.
Need to clarify sirens and where to go in an emergency.
Is there training for our labs regarding OSHA requirements?
How do we dispose of chemical waste?
Do we need a campus faculty safety committee?
ET is establishing a safety council.
How do we dispose of batteries? Alkaline batters should be placed in the trash. Others should be recycled. Recycle bins are located in Building J for rechargeable batteries.

Dr. Szafran charged the deans with setting up appropriate committees to review safety procedures in their schools. Dr. Szafran will assume the role of safety office.

Item 5. SACS

Becky Rutherfoord updated the Council on SACS. Some committees are close to being finished and reminded everyone to provide information if they are asked. Becky also talked about the inconsistencies in terminology used on campus and that used in the SPOL software program. This will be corrected in the future. Both Becky and Jo Galle are available to help with using SPOL but access problems should be directed to Dr. Szafran. Becky will be going on a SACS visiting team trip and will have more information to share when she returns.

Dr. Szafran reminded the chairs that he needs their faculty qualifications for teaching as soon as possible. He also reminded the Council that he will not process reappointment packets, payment requests, etc. for any faculty member who has missing credentials until they are submitted.

The meeting adjourned at 3:45 PM.