NOTE: At times, issues of confidentiality may require that some items discussed in meetings be excluded from these minutes.

PRESENT: Bill Barnes, Alan Gabrielli, Steve Hamrick, Joyce Mills, Mike Murphy, Dawn Ramsey, Zvi Szafran, and Wayne Unsell.

GUESTS: Bill Gruszka, Information Technology

Item 1: Update on BoR Visit

VPAA Szafran reported that the Board of Regents meetings on campus went very well and that he had an opportunity to speak with Senior Vice Chancellor Dan Papp and Interim Chancellor Corlis Cummings about our proposed degrees in progress, Construction Engineering and Mechatronics. Both Papp and Cummings seemed positive about these directions. The Construction proposal is going forward to the Board of Regents and if approved, outside evaluators from other universities will be brought in to review the program. The Mechatronics proposal should be ready for submission to the Board of Regents in the near future.

Item 2: Collaboration Possibilities with Cameroon and Gaza

Recently, Richard Bennett, Director of International Programs, received a delegation from Cameroon, and Dr. Szafran spoke with a group (Jump Start International) who were interested in working in Gaza. Both delegations were interested in establishing collaborative educational programs with our university. The officials from Cameroon have established a private university and want to create 2 + 2 programs with us, initially in the areas of information technology and management. Their students would complete their first two years of courses at their home institution and their last two years at SPSU. Cameroon has private funding available to support such a program. Similarly, Jumpstart International is interested in possible collaborative efforts in offering associate degrees in engineering technology and construction in the Gaza Strip. Dr. Szafran asked the deans for feedback. Some issues and concerns raised included:

How many of these type programs can SPSU sustain?
How do we determine the quality of their programs?
How do we establish easy transferability of their courses to SPSU?
How do we satisfy our accreditation boards?
How do we ensure we make more than we spend on such programs?
How do we make sure library and IT resources are sufficient at collaborative institutions?

Some possible solutions suggested:

Seek approval and support from SACS and the University System.
Assure standards are being met by frequent visits to the collaborative universities.
Have involvement in their faculty recruitment, courses, and course descriptions from the very beginning.
Require the collaborative university to be responsible for all start-up costs.
Charge a per-student cost in addition to tuition and fees to ensure we make a profit.

After discussion, the Council agreed that the proposed collaboration with Cameroon warrants further investigation and consideration, with Gaza to be considered later, following whatever model is established.

Item 3: Advising

VPAA Szafran briefly discussed advising and offered some suggestions for improving recruitment and retention. Some of his suggestions included:

Mini open houses every other weekend in addition to our regular open houses
More marketing of undergraduate and graduate programs
Development of campus programs specifically for transfer students
Developing a culture of helping not hindering student success
Increase communication

It was suggested that the VPAA visit the departments and talk to the faculty about their department’s graduation requirements and standards. The first Faculty Forum to discuss graduation requirements will be on Wednesday, October 26 at noon. Advising issues will be discussed in more depth in future Deans Council meetings.

Item 4: Equipment Funds

The Council completed discussing the equipment proposals, with Bill Gruszka providing some input related to requests involving instructional technology.

The meeting adjourned at 5:00 P.M.