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

GUEST: Burt Matthews, Facilities

Item 1: Building J Update

Burt Matthews gave a brief update on the progress in the J Building and explained the delays in completing Phase 1. He anticipates that Phase 1 will be complete by December 9. Facilities will be meeting with Wayne Unsell tomorrow to go over the final schedule. Matthews agreed to have someone update Wiki more often and to provide better communication to the campus regarding on-going projects.

Item 2: Distance Learning Pilot Evaluation

Dawn Ramsey talked about the work of the Distance Learning Task Force and the sub-committee chaired by Mark Stevens. Two pilot evaluations have been evaluated and selected for use Fall Semester 2005 for those distance learning faculty who would like to test them. The evaluations will be used this semester on a voluntary basis and will be refined and finalized for future use. The results will be sent to the instructors and by request of the VPAA should also be sent to department chairs.

Item 3: Distance Learning Course Development

Dawn Ramsey asked the deans to think about what distance learning courses should be developed from their areas and to give her a list before Christmas break. A correction was also made to the 11/10/05 Deans Council Minutes, Item 3: IDP – Instructional Delivery Plan. The second sentence has been corrected to read, “An IDP is needed for all courses delivered off site and on-line.”

Item 4: SPSU Research Conference

Ronnie Richardson recently attended a conference to teach faculty how to do research. Dawn Ramsey asked the Council for their input on SPSU offering a 1-day research conference for our faculty and perhaps faculty from off campus. All were in favor. This could be coordinated through the CTE and Keith Hopper and would be a professional development opportunity for our faculty. A steering committee made up of one faculty member from each school would need to be established. Alan Gabrielli suggested Keith Hopper and Bernice Nuhfer-Halten from Arts & Sciences and Wayne Unsell suggested Ronny Richardson.

Dr. Szafran mentioned that an e-Portfolio Conference is available for downloading on December 6 from 1:00-:300 PM at a cost of $350 and asked the Council about pursuing. Szafran will send out more information. Dr. Szafran also talked about a program being implemented at Georgia Tech called Tegrity. This program will allow lectures to be recorded and uploaded to Web CT. Dean Ramsey reported that we already have many of this program’s features available at no cost and while it would take some work to get the entire faculty on board using Web CT, this could be done. Dr. Szafran will bring this up to the UITAC for further consideration.

Item 5: Potential New Programs – Continuing Discussion

One additional potential new program has been proposed – Entertainment Technology, as a joint program between the CSE and Arts & Sciences schools. The VPAA asked the Council for input regarding any of the new programs under discussion. It was suggested that we look at cost, faculty needed, and potential students gained by these programs and to work with the staff at the Board of Regents to help pave the way. Szafran also asked the Council specifically about the concept of a B.A. in Engineering and whether they thought this would be a desirable direction for SPSU. This would be an engineering policy degree, could attract more women to SPSU, and would be an alternative path for engineering programs, which we don’t currently have. Comments from the Council included:

Start up of courses may be a problem
We don’t need a low enrollment program
Would this be for students who have been here in the past but didn’t complete a degree and if so, could engineering technology courses even be used in place of required courses for this degree?
Not ABET accredited – need to talk to ABET about this type program and Lafayette (the model) for input
Wait until Construction Engineering and Mechatronics are approved by the BoR and consider this degree for the future

Item 6: Advertising and On-Campus Interviews

The VPAA must be notified in advance of any expenses to be paid from Academic Affairs regarding faculty position advertising and interview expenses. Normally, interview expenses for the individual candidates are covered by Academic Affairs, but lunches/dinners for groups are covered by the departments.

Item 7: Post-tenure Review

The VPAA reported that questions went out to department chairs for the Board of Regents report. He also reported that the modified mission statement has gone to the BoR and that we are working on the Vision Statement.

Item 8: Other Items

Joyce Mills reported that VPN is still not working for the Library and asked Dr. Szafran how to proceed. Dr. Szafran will continue to work with IT to resolve this problem. Dr. Mills also reported that the Library has been included in the discussions about Blackboard. Mills also asked the Council their thoughts about the chimes and music during the holidays. It was agreed that there should be chimes/music only at noon and 6:00 P.M.

Meeting adjourned at 4:20 P.M.