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

MEMBERS: Bill Barnes, Dave Caudill, Tom Currin, Alan Gabrielli, Steve Hamrick, Joyce Mills, Nikki Palamiotis, Jeffrey Ray, Han Reichgelt, and Zvi Szafran

MEMBERS ABSENT: Bill Barnes, Nikki Palamiotis

Item 1. Updates

Dr. Szafran updated the Council on the following items:

Georgia Highlands – It is still not clear if Georgia Highlands received funding for renovation of two of the buildings they will be using on our campus. Dr. Szafran is looking into it.

Han Reichgelt announced that IT ‘s Center for Information Security Education (CISE) applied and has been recognized as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education for academic years 2008-2013 by the NSA and DHS. Han will send out an email with the details.

Advising Committee – Steve Hamrick talked about three new software programs being purchased. Degree Works is a student advising program that was demonstrated at a recent meeting he attended. Steve thinks this program will work very well and noted that it is also compatible with the catalog software, Smart Catalog, which is in the process of being purchased. The room scheduler software, Ad Astra, is also being purchased and should be a great tool for optimizing space allocation. Hamrick also reported on the progress of the advising committee and stated that a recommendation is coming forth in the near future to have a central advising location. Steve hopes to have the center open in the fall with a director and support staff available to provide core curriculum advising. The committee is also coming forth with a plan for the departments to follow for major advising. Steve will share this with the Council as soon as it is available. Hamrick also reported that Fall enrollment numbers are now up about 20% from last year.

The Foundation voted to borrow and make available the $3.2 million needed for building projects, against future donations.

Intellectual Diversity – The BoR reviewed SPSU’s policy and requested that a sentence be added offering a non-academic alternative, which will be to see Barry Birckhead, Dean of Students.

Searches – New faculty searches are going well and several positions have been filled.

Item 2. Faculty Workload

Dr. Szafran talked to the Council about faculty workload, course reductions, and extra compensation. The Council discussed options and offered the following:

We need a consistent policy of compensating faculty who do work beyond their workload and service requirements and need to determine what is considered outside normal workload
Offer stipend equivalent to part-time teaching pay
Give faculty with higher workloads priority for summer teaching
Extra compensation versus course reduction is the preference

Both Jeff Ray and Han Reichgelt agreed to share policies they used at previous universities and will forward them to the Council. Dr. Szafran hopes to have a draft policy by the end of summer to share with the chairs and faculty with implementation in Fall 2009.

Dr. Szafran asked to Council to let him know as soon as possible about additional resources needed to support their programs next year.

The meeting adjourned at 4:00 P.M.