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.

Item 1: Roles of Deans and Chairs

VPAA Szafran distributed job responsibilities for deans and department chairs and two articles related to the topic for the deans to review.

Item 2: Positions – Approval and Authorization to Advertise

VPAA Szafran distributed the current list of faculty position needs for the deans to review.

Item 3: Equipment Process

Dean Murphy distributed the form to be used for equipment proposals. The deadline for submission of proposals to the deans is September 30, 2005. The deans will prioritize the requests and forward to the VPAA.

Item 4: Graduate Programs

VPAA Szafran shared Richard Nussloch-Halstead’s plan for the Graduate Programs Committee and asked for feedback and opinions from the deans regarding

structure of the graduate programs committee
possibly hiring a graduate programs director and a supporting half-time position
how graduate programs needs are being met

Szafran elaborated on his vision of the proposed graduate program director. He sees this position as a coordinator of all the campus graduate programs with a heavy emphasis on external as well as internal marketing. The director would work closely with the community and the departmental graduate program coordinators. It was noted that our website does not have a separate page exclusively for graduate programs.

Other items discussed included:

release time for graduate program coordinators and if it would be feasible from a budgetary impact to consider increasing release time
graduate faculty status and teaching load and scholarship expectations
need for a video or DVD to represent SPSU and be used as a marketing tool

Item 5: International Programs/Exchange Programs

Questions have been raised about the strategy and direction of International Programs, the number of students attending SPSU under exchange agreements, how deans are to handle collaboration requests that come from individual faculty members, and what the university’s position is on International Programs. The VPAA shared information received from Richard Bennett, Director of International Programs. SPSU currently has two active exchange programs – one with Germany and one with China. We are sending more students to Germany than they are sending to SPSU. So far, no students from SPSU have gone to China as part of our collaboration; however, we have had several Chinese exchange students’ return to SPSU as degree-seeking students.

Our collaboration with Northeast Normal University in China will yield approximately 30-40 matriculating TCOM and computer science students hopefully beginning as early as next fall. VPAA Szafran will share data and details on these programs and feels that eventually international programs will stabilize and become a profit-making venture.

The VPAA also suggested the possibility of creating an International Programs Committee to be made up with one member from each school, one member from Extended University and Steve Hamrick.

Item 6: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Training Center

Dean Ramsey reported that she has still not received an official answer from Clayton State University as to why they withdrew their support for this program. There may be state and/or federal support for this program. After discussion, it was decided that Dean Ramsey should request a formal business plan outlining SPSU’s potential role and a time line to consider and bring before faculty in related programs before any decisions are made.

Item 6: Summer Pay

All of the deans have a budget to cover summer teaching salaries. It was agreed that the goal of summer teaching should be to provide classes for students who need them and that most faculty do not like the current prorated scale. A clear statement of the policy should accompany any decision made about next summer’s pay and be distributed to the faculty as soon as possible. VPAA Szafran also suggested forming that the ad hoc salary committee might be the best place to address a long-term solution. It was recommended that there be no change in the current Summer Pay policy for Summer 2006.

Meeting adjourned at 4:10 P.M.