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: Bill Barnes, Lance Crimm, Ameen Farooq, Bob Harbort, Dawn Ramsey, Denise Stover

Item 1: Updates

Dr. Szafran updated the council on the following items:

Grants - Internationalization Grant – SPSU received a $5,000 grant for internationalizing the campus and was encouraged to reapply next year. Approximately 2.5 million dollars in University System of Georgia targeted initiative proposals were submitted by SPSU recently and should be announced soon.
Searches – Faculty searches are going well with two accepted offers in ETCMA and several others pending. Dr. Szafran encouraged all to do searches as quickly as possible.
Division of Engineering - Dr. Szafran announced the approval of the Division of Engineering and the appointment of Tom Currin as the Interim Associate Dean.
Honors open house went very well with over 60 in attendance and 7 new applications.
A University System Newsletter article today reported that statewide applications are up 4% - currently SPSU’s applications are up approximately 26%. Dr. Szafran alerted the chairs to a possible increase in enrollment for the fall and asked them to plan according.
Talks are still ongoing with Georgia Tech even with the recent resignation of Wayne Clough, President of Georgia Tech. Clough will be leaving GA Tech to assume a position with the Smithsonian Institute.
Alan Gabrielli will meet with Frank Butler and others at Kennesaw State University tomorrow regarding Education.
Permanent Schedule – Dr. Szafran sent out the permanent schedule for review.

Item 2. Summer Schedule

It appears the campus will be moving to a 4-day, 10 hour per day workweek for the summer semester. This is being done as an energy-saving initiative. Dr. Szafran asked for input from the Council as to issues that may arise from doing this. One concern is when bi-weekly paycheck would be released since the offices will be closed on Fridays. Dr. Szafran will check on this but also mentioned direct deposit as an option. Friday and weekend classes would need to move to Building J or D, which will be air-conditioned on Fridays and weekends. Summer faculty pay will be based on the same enrollment policy as last summer.

Item 3. New Expenditure Policy

Dr. Szafran explained the Campus’ new expenditure policy in light of potential budget shortfalls in the State. The USG is trying to hold back on non-critical purchases. If an expenditure is critical for the running of the department or lab, it should be sent through with a memo of justification (office supplies do not need justification). If a department decides not to purchase a non-critical item, a record of this should be kept also as institutions may be asked to show how they are trying to conserve if the System Office asks. Dr. Szafran will approve faculty travel if they are delivering a paper or chairing a session at a conference. This should be clearly stated on the request to travel. Dr. Szafran will take care of the justification for new hires. Further clarification of policies should be coming out today and Dr. Szafran will talk to Patrick McCord about rules and regulations. Lab fees distributed to the departments at the beginning of spring semester were over-estimated by approximately $2,000 and will be covered by Academic Affairs. Issues have been noted with the new 10000 and 10500 budget codes. Dr. Szafran is working with Budget to see if these can be worked out. Dr. Szafran encouraged the departments to identify capital needs and have requests ready to go if funds become available.

Item 4. Risk Management

Dr. Szafran reminded the Council about the issue of lab safety and encouraged the departments to work with their deans. Dr. Szafran is looking for policy suggestions from the Council on lab safety. Julie Newell brought up an issue of campus safety when off-campus groups are using our campus on the weekends. There was a recent issue with a tornado warning being in effect but the group on campus was not aware of it and would not have known where to go in an emergency. It was noted that SPSU needs more emergency preparedness especially with where to go in an emergency, who to call, etc. and that this should be posted in and around office and classrooms. Zvi talked about a new program that we will be getting called “Connect Ed”, which is a program for notifying faculty, staff, and students of incidents, etc. that they should be aware of and should be available soon. This will not address the issue of off-campus groups and will be looked in to. It was also noted that University Police should be aware of all groups that visit our campus. Richard Bennett brought up issues in campus housing over the last year and the need for more police presence on the campus.

Item 5. New Business

Jo Galle passed out a flyer on a Scantron demonstration scheduled for April 16^th from 3-4:00 and talked about all the possible uses for this in addition to scoring exams. See Jo for more information.

The meeting adjourned at 3:25 PM.