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:

Item 1. Updates

Dr. Szafran updated the Council on the following:
Programs – three new evening engineering programs were recommended by the System Office at the August 12, 2009 Board of Regents meeting. Once approved, they will be phased in over the next four years. Tom Currin already has a detailed plan to deal with the introduction of the new programs.
Education Program – everything in on track to submit a full proposal for the education program to the System Office and the PSC. This may take up to one year. The letter of intent has already been approved. Kennesaw State University has agreed to work with us to seek outside funding.
RACSA & RACAA – Szafran recently attended this joint meeting and spoke about SPSU’s preparedness in the event of flu pandemic. Each department should be working on a plan for delivering instruction should we experience a flue outbreak or other disaster. This will be discussed further at a later ALC meeting.
Polytechnic Summit – Szafran and Jeff Ray attended the first Polytechnic summit at the University of Wisconsin – Stout recently and as a result the University of Wisconsin – Stout expressed interest in visiting SPSU as they have similar programs in engineering and engineering technology and may be interested in expanding their offerings to include non-engineering programs.
China – Szafran and Rich Bennett visited China recently where they gave talks at a conference promoting international education. Dr. Bennett announced that approximately 80 new students from our partner institutions will be on our campus in the fall. Our first students from Cameroon will also begin in the fall. Hamrick asked about plans for international programs support. Issues related to shortage of housing were discussed for the new students until the new residence facility is completed. Sandra Vasa-Sideris expressed the need for language support, tutoring, etc. for international students. We already offer three-week intensive instructor-lead seminars and peer tutoring in addition to cultural outings through ELS. Rich Bennett stating that having our own ELS program would be a huge advantage for undergraduate and graduate students, especially with visa issues. Mark Nunes should be included in all ELS planning.
Continuing Education – still waiting for proposed lease to come back from the landlord. If this happens, Continuing Education will move off campus and ELS will move into the WE Building.
Buildings/construction – Architecture Building studio expansion will be starting August 4; new housing construction begins soon; parking deck is proceeding well; Burruss is almost ready; Building E labs are almost ready.
Budget – Furloughs have been proposed but not decided. If mandated, most USG employees earning over approximately $25,000 will be required to take three furlough days in the fall before the end of this calendar year, and three furlough days in the spring. Faculty may not cancel classes to take furlough days. The Board of Regents will send details as they are available. Most capital requests went through at the end of the fiscal year with only a few exceptions.

Item 2. Fall Enrollment

Steve stated that as of today there are approximately 7,100 students eligible to register and includes students graduating and those that will be dismissed so we may end up with 5,200 – 5,500 students. Registration as of today is 4,100. This may cause some problems finding classes for these students if we end up with enrollment that high. Khalid Siddiqi stated he is in favor of holding schedules with partial payments until the end of registration. Dr. Szafran will bring this issue to Senior Staff. Szafran stated that department chairs should operate under the 5% contingency plan developed last year to include raising class enrollment limits. Burruss, H 203, and J 161 are available for larger classes. Gabrielli stated that there are workload issues with large-capacity classes that must be worked out. Szafran asked the Council to share thoughts about workload issues with their deans and that most departments have additional part-time faculty money available to add additional sections as needed. The Council was reminded that annual reports are due and to remind faculty (especially part-time and new faculty) about the engagement report grades.

Item 3. Kickoff

The draft schedule for the week of Kickoff was distributed.

Item 4. GOML Update

Dawn Ramsey talked about GOML, which is the USG portal for distance learning. The standard dates for schedules to be entered are as follows: September 30 for spring, and March 23 for summer and fall. SPSU has not been able to comply with these deadlines because of our own deadlines. Dawn proposes changing the deadlines for our 900 sections so that we can meet their deadlines. There were no objections but since Tom Ball is absent, he will be consulted. Departments will do there best to get schedules in early to meet deadlines.

Item 5. TCSG

David Caudill is working with the TCSG’s to establish articulations and to establish reliable and consistent list of transferable courses from the TCSG’s and what the courses will transfer in as. David is working with departments on campus to be sure the right courses are there and that the departments are in agreement about the transfer courses in their departments Caudill suggested that the cap on the transfer of major courses be limited to 64 hours and that no more than one-half of the core be taken outside of SPSU. Hamrick suggested that CIP codes are needed for each BAS major.

Item 6. New Business

· Grants – Christine Scherer recently received a $175,000 grant and several smaller grants are still in the works. SPSU will go after grants to support our collaboration with the TCSG’s. Szafran reminded the Council about the QEP – Learning Communities.

· AAMLI recently hosted 12 SPSU students.

· Dawn Ramsey talked about Future Cities competition coming up on January 23, 2010. Twenty-seven schools have already registered as opposed to only five schools at this time last year so she expects a large turnout. Volunteers were short last year so she expects the need for many more for this year.

· Georgia Highlands will share two full-time tutors with our students for math and English and will also share classroom space. Contact Leigh Ann Soublis for information about scheduling their classrooms.

· Convocation – Szafran asked the Council about having convocation in the fall and in the spring. The majority of the Council was in favor of convocation in the fall with a focus on first-year students. Mark Stevens, Tom Currin, and Dr. Szafran will work on this.

· Interdisciplinary endorsement – The System Office is okay with campus approval only.

· Construction concern – Sandra Vasa-Sideris is worried that there aren’t adequate safety warnings on campus and that there is potential danger to faculty, staff, and students especially at night. Jeff Ray will check into this.

· Dr. Szafran thanked everyone for their hard work this year.

Meeting adjourned at 4:10 PM.