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

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

ABSENT: Alan Gabrielli, Steve Hamrick

Item 1: Updates: Hiring, Equipment, Outcomes Assessment

Dr. Szafran has approved most of the job ads and they have been forwarded to Human Resources. He asked the deans to remind their chairs that all new hires are contingent on the budget.

The approved equipment funds have been transferred to the departments and those items reallocated for Tech Fee have been forwarded to Bill Gruszka. The normal Tech Fee proposal process will not include these already approved items. Dr. Szafran will check with Gruszka to be sure this is correct.

Outcomes Assessments are due in early December and Dr. Szafran asked the deans to remind the chairs of the timeline and to stress that these will be used to help develop the strategic plan and will have a budgetary impact. The new Mission Statement is almost finalized and ready for publication.

Item 2: Update on the Academic Leadership Council Meeting

VPAA Szafran asked the Council for comments on the Academic Leadership Council meeting on Wednesday, October 26 (expanded Deans Council meeting). It was suggested that a room other than the Rotunda be used for the next meeting because of the sound quality. The chairs expressed concern at not being involved in the job description process and the Council agreed that their concerns are valid. Not enough communication from the deans and the VPAA was another concern brought forth by the chairs and will be addressed.

Szafran asked the Council who they thought should be part of the Academic Leader Council and they decided that the ALC should include the Deans Council members and the department chairs only, due to that area directors now meeting directly with the Deans. The VPAA will solicit agenda items from the chairs for future meetings. It was also suggested that on an occasional basis the VPAA meet with the chairs without the deans present. This will be considered by the VPAA.

In the ALC meeting, the chairs also stated that they feel vulnerable because their appointments as chairs do not have a clear duration. They argued that the faculty should be educated about the roles and responsibilities of the chairs, as well as the processes they are involved in, so that the faculty will have a better understanding of what the department chairs do and hopefully will consider being a chair in the future.

Other comments/suggestions from the Council included a need for:

Training for chairs, perhaps in the way of leadership training
Better avenues for communication
Faculty and administrative handbooks
Mentoring programs for chairs, faculty, students
Workshops for chairs, both on and off campus (Dean Unsell to pursue)

The Council discussed and adopted a proposed calendar of meetings and guests for the rest of this semester and is as follows:

November 10 - Richard Bennett, International Programs

November 16 - Academic Leadership Council

November 21 - Deans Council

December 7 - Richard Bennett, Int’l Programs and Nancy Reichert – Honors

December 14 - Jeff Orr, ATTIC

Item 3: Faculty Processes

The VPAA is actively soliciting ideas to clarify and simplify our current faculty processes including reappointment of untenured faculty, pre and post-tenure review, promotion and tenure, and the annual evaluation of faculty to see if any of these could be combined and/or streamlined. The Council debated ideas presented and in that conversation the issue of receiving prior credit toward tenure was brought up. When a faculty member is awarded two years of prior credit upon employment, they are due for pre-tenure review during their first year of employment. The VPAA asked if this could be postponed until the next year to provide the faculty member more time to prepare for the review. Changing this policy would require changing the P&P and notifying the faculty. He also suggested asking faculty who have been awarded prior credit if they really want this credit because there can be a negative benefit of going up for tenure sooner.

Another issue concerns faculty members who are eligible for promotion and due for post-tenure review in the same year. The P&P No.: 803.0905 reads “A review for promotion will restart the post-tenure review clock” and needs to be changed to add the wording “successful” prior to “review” to clarify the intent of this statement. The VPAA will work with the Faculty Senate in efforts to clarify and simplify these processes and address specific issues.

Item 4: Advising and ATTIC

Jeff Orr will be invited to explain the role and responsibilities of the ATTIC. Comments from the Council regarding the ATTIC included:

They help a small number of students.
They handle international students and disability services well.
John Lindsay does a great job of advising.
Testing services are unorganized.
They are only open one night per week and for tutoring only.
Most students need tutoring at night whether they are day or night students.
Jeff Orr has done a great job during orientation for new students but is no longer doing the presentation.
Orientation courses (including SPSU 1001) should involve the ATTIC and should also include the Library.
Need organization chart for the ATTIC.
The services the ATTIC provides are unclear.
How do students and the department on campus find out about the services they provide?

It was suggested that the Council review the ATTIC website and discuss these at the next meeting.

Item 5: Other Items

Joyce Mills announced that VPN is being tested by one of their librarians and hopefully will provide access to their databases from off campus. The IT Department is making progress in several project areas. Dawn Ramsey stated that Continuing Education still needs an on-line registration system and that will be addressed soon. Joyce Mills reported that the One Card is being implemented in January and that the Library is not ready and was not included in the planning process to implement this card.

The new online calendar is up and running at http://events.spsu.edu/. To have events posted, please send email to Ken Hill. Also, all departments should send Ken the name of the person in their area that should have access for posting.

The deans were asked their opinions on the waiving of TOEFL scores for graduate students transferring in from another department where the scores have already been waived. It was decided that the new department will have the authority to waive the scores or not, and that the Dean of that department will have final approval adhering to the Regents policy.

Meeting adjourned at 4:50 P.M.