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, Ameen Farooq, Ruston Hunt, Joyce Mills, Julie Newell, Nikki Palamiotis, Dawn Ramsey, Denise Stover, Tim Zeigler

GUESTS: Bob Brown, Becky Rutherfoord

Item 1: Updates

The Chemistry and Psychology degree proposals have been approved by the BoR. Education proposals are being developed.
The Accounting Degree intent was approved by the Senate and has been forwarded to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee for review at the next meeting.
Dr. Szafran will be meeting next week with Gary Schuster, Provost at Georgia Tech.
The STEM proposal has been funded initially at $210,000 – Dr. Szafran is seeking ideas for use of the funds. One suggestion is for a Help Center for math and sciences. Dr. Szafran is looking for space to house the Center and is considering Howell basement.
Tom Currin is working on a NSF for engineering instrumentation and asked the Council to think about what key pieces of equipment could be purchased if funding becomes available. Dr. Szafran encouraged all to work with Tom on this effort and with departmental advisory boards to come up with ideal equipment list.
Jeff Ray and Sheryl Duggins are working together on a NSF grant Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers (ADVANCE).
The School of ACC is pursuing Internationalization of the Curriculum - one of the Presidential Initiatives from the BoR.
Reminder of things due in November: Annual report for the 2006-2007 academic year. Please submit as soon as possible if not already submitted.
Dr. Szafran introduced Jo Galle, the new Director of Assessment. Jo spoke briefly about her role at Southern Polytechnic.
Steve Hamrick asked about the new core curriculum for the University of Georgia. The University of Georgia has received permission to redesign their core curriculum and it will be somewhat different than the other University System of Georgia institutions. This is not part of the system-wide core curriculum restructure plan. Phil Patterson is our representative on the system committee. Comments or questions regarding the system-wide core restructure plan should be addressed to Dr. Patterson. It will probably take several years to complete this process.
Registration for spring semester begins November 1.
Dr. Szafran reminded the Council that vitae are still outstanding for some faculty and should be submitted as soon as possible.

Item 2: First Year Experience Programs

Becky Rutherfoord spoke about the Leadership Team meeting yesterday regarding SACS self-study and our QEP (quality enhancement plan) which will focus on student learning. The committee has been looking at advising and the SPSU 1001 orientation course. They have zeroed in on a plan for an orientation course for first year experience that will contain advising and will be incorporated into the departments. Becky stated Bob Brown is in charge of the QEP and expressed the need for outcomes and assessment of the QEP plan. Related issues discussed included:

already offer on-line, regular, and honors SPSU 1001 Orientation courses – consider one specifically for transfer students
need to include direct learning outcomes and determine how and where to measure these
the QEP project will study whether the orientation course will actually make a difference
as we go forward we will need to coordinate with existing departmental orientation courses
in order to measure learning outcomes we will need faculty input on how students perform in their classes who have taken the orientation course versus those who have not

Alan Gabrielli asked how much data collection is enough. Jeff Ray and Becky Rutherfoord responded that accrediting bodies are all going to learning outcomes which need documentation. Collecting the data is not the problem – analyzing the data is very time consuming. Becky offered to send out a sample FCAR she has used. Web CT is supposed to have a function to link a grade book to learning outcomes. SACS expects ongoing assessments and continuous improvement.

Item 3: Consolidating our Various Evaluation Processes

Dr. Szafran talked about the evaluation processes required by SACS, specific accrediting bodies, and the comprehensive program reviews and the need to find a way to consolidate these processes efficiently, especially with regard to generating documentation for each. Since they all require basically the same thing, we need to determine how to satisfy all with a single process. Tom Ball suggested that we need consistent documentation and a standard form to be filled out. Becky talked about the old P&P for assessment. Dr. Szafran suggested that faculty collect data each semester and review outcomes on a yearly basis and include with their yearly status and activities report for their annual review. Several Council members disagreed and felt that analyses of data should be done each semester. It was also suggested to develop a standard FCAR and require of all faculty including part-time faculty to use it as a condition of employment. Dr. Szafran summarized today’s discussion on course-level assessment:

need consistent forms for measurement in each department
the best place to embed is the faculty members’ annual reports with the option of doing each semester
chairs will do annual report
make clear faculty only will be evaluated on the basis of turning in assessment reports, not on the results contained in those reports

Several Council members still objected to annual faculty reports and suggested that faculty have FCARs due each semester within two weeks of final grades being due. All agreed. The Deans Council will work with Lance Crimm regarding P&Ps and on procedural documents to share at a future general faculty meeting.

It was also brought up that departments are individually surveying alumni and employers and that this might be better accomplished in one department rather than in each academic unit. Dr. Szafran will look into this.

Item 4: Department Round Robin

Lab fees have not been distributed to date. Dr. Szafran announced that they should be released next week.

Meeting adjourned at 4:05 PM