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, Steven Hamrick, 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, Becky Rutherfoord, Khalid Siddiqi, Sandra Stone, Denise Stover, John Sweigart, Zvi Szafran, Margaret Venable, Andy Wang, and Tim Zeigler

MEMBERS ABSENT: Sandra Stone, and Denise Stover

GUESTS: Quint Hill and Mary Ellen McGee

Item 1. Review of Faculty Hiring Process

Mary Ellen McGee and Quint Hill visited today’s meeting to review the process for hiring faculty, specifically the EEO process, and congratulated the departments on their diversity in hiring. Mary Ellen addressed a question about whether to enter ethnicity on the EEO forms if it is known but not supplied by the candidate on the Voluntary Information Form. McGee stated that only the information supplied by the candidate should be included on the EEO forms. Quint Hill talked about the different Visa documents and the process for handling each from a Human Resource standpoint and talked about the reimbursement policy for H1-B Visas and Greencard expenses. She also stated that Canadian citizens must have the necessary credentials to work in the United States. Dr. Szafran talked about his role in the hiring process as well and stated that we are going forward with the highest priority faculty hires.

Item 2. Updates

Dr. Szafran updated the Council on the following:

Budget – no raises for next year as expected; no news on furloughs for non-contract personnel although some campuses are looking at doing this. The System Office will be sending forth information for faculty contracts soon that may include furlough terminology for contracted faculty/administrators as well. Approximately $200,000 earmarked for the TSCG program was taken from our budget.
Degree Programs – Masters and Bachelors in Accounting was recently approved; IID Masters is on the BoR agenda; Political Science proposal is almost finished and is waiting for an additional letter; Szafran is working on a Letter of Intent for Education to go to the System Office soon.
Accreditation – Becky Rutherfoord spoke briefly about the accrediting bodies for our programs and the dates for reviews. She urged the Council to continue collecting data and to be sure and do an end of year summary/assessment each year and copy her. After that it is not necessary to keep all the documents collected unless it is the year before a review. Becky also recommended not collecting everything for all courses but choosing courses that represent learning outcomes and collecting supporting materials for them. Becky also stated that the new Director of Assessment will help sort things out and hopefully make things easier in the future.

Item 3. P&P 802.01

The Faculty Senate brought an issue to Dr. Szafran about the P&P on faculty searches being interpreted differently department to department, specifically as to whether the dean or department chair convenes the search committee. Dr. Szafran will inform the Faculty Senate that the ALC would like to leave this decision to the deans and chairs but if it must be changed, change the P&P to state that department chairs will convene the search committee.

Item 4. TCSG

The Governor’s plan includes talk of merging two-year colleges and the technical colleges and that the Department of Education is working with high schools and the TCSG to create Career Paths to help students plan for college at TCSG or other schools or universities and is especially focusing on the transferability of courses between them. The two-years schools are concerned about articulations between the four-year schools and the TCSG because they feel they are being bypassed. Dr. Szafran stated that he feels that if all institutions stick to their missions it will cause the least amount of problems as these changes go forward. Dave Caudill is drafting an umbrella agreement between the TCSG and SPSU and it is being reviewed at the System Office and stated that it is logical for SPSU to work with the TCSG.

Item 5. Implementing the Budget Reduction Scenarios

A summary of budget cut scenario outcomes was distributed to the department chairs which each department submitted, outlining how they would deal with 0%, 5%, and 10% cuts. Szafran stated that we are already implementing some of these by cutting new faculty hires from 16 to 13. He asked the chairs to implement their 5% scenarios for the summer and fall and put higher capacities on courses and look for larger rooms to accommodate the additional students. Hamrick stated that the space allocation program would help but has not been installed yet. Hamrick can help identify rooms and the departments should move smaller classes to smaller rooms and order additional chairs. Time slots will be enforced. A Council member asked if adding chairs to classrooms violated any fire codes. Szafran stated that next year’s budget will be similar to this year’s budget.

Hamrick announced that the Student Status Committee and the faculty approved changing full-time for students during the summer from 10 to 12 hours. If any departments have issues with the change they should discuss it with their faculty senator.

Item 6. New Business

Georgia College and State University has implemented a global perspective option (Gold Star Program) for their students. For taking four additional global-related courses, students receive a notation on their diplomas. Georgia Tech also has a similar program. Szafran is in favor of allowing students to earn extra recognition for completing additional requirements and would like a similar program here at SPSU. He stated that this is similar to a certificate program. Julie Newell stated that for some time she has been asking that concentrations be added to students’ transcripts. Steve stated that he will work with her to make this happen. All were in favor of having their students’ concentrations added to their transcripts. Szafran will also get more information on the Gold Star Program and share it with the Council.

Hamrick brought up an issue where a student recently applied for a BA and a BS in Math and asked if this should be allowed or not. He stated that our catalog says if you meet all the requirements you can get both degrees. Hamrick then explained the difference between dual degrees (two majors on one diploma) and double degrees (two separate diplomas) and the need for a policy. After much discussion it was decided that there should be a draft policy outlining all the details for the Council to review before making any decision. Szafran will come up with a draft policy and will present it to the ALC for review.

Julie Newell asked the Council to give her information about any courses in their areas that deal in sustainability as she is on the Campus Sustainability Committee and would like to include that information on the website.

Meeting adjourned at 4:07 PM.