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

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

MEMBERS ABSENT: Jeff Ray

GUESTS: Tom Ball for Jeff Ray, Russ Hunt, Venu Dasigi

Dr. Szafran opened the meeting with updates:

Robbery in the Library – Richard Bennett, campus counselors, University Police, and other campus representatives met with the two Chinese exchange students who were robbed of their laptops in the Library. The students were assured that the University is doing everything possible to ensure the safety of all on campus and that the University is here to support our students. Dr. Szafran authorized Dr. Bennett to purchase laptops for the students to use for the remainder of the semester. It appears that not all of the doors in the Library have working alarm systems and this is being addressed. Dr. Szafran also reported that the call boxes located around campus no longer work because they are analog but that this is also being addressed.
Engineers Bookstore – Dr. Szafran spoke briefly about the recent issue with the Engineers Bookstore.

Item 1: Academic Planning

Alan Gabrielli reported that at the last meeting each group gave a status report. Dr. Szafran set a deadline of March 1^st to have a draft report completed.

Item 2: Additional USG Funds

Dr. Szafran reported that at the February 8, 2008, Board of Regents meeting the strategic budgeting plan was discussed and the strategic initiatives they are interested in funding were distributed for discussion. Proposals will be needed from campuses but no deadline has been set yet. Campuses should define areas of interest by February 22. Dr. Szafran talked about six initiatives and asked the council for input on which to pursue. The Council discussed the options and came up with the following to pursue:

Senior Project on Energy Conservation – Tom Currin
Regional Partnership with DTAE – Dave Caudill
Comprehensive University Research – Russ Hunt
Advising – Han Reichgelt, Zvi Szafran, and Steve Hamrick
Freshmen Experience – Jeff Orr, Alan Gabrielli, Han Reichgelt, Bob Brown, and Joyce Mills
Underrepresented Groups – Venu Dasigi, Nikki Palamiotis

Each of the above will sketch out a one-page descriptive overview of the project containing goals and budget and submit to Dr. Szafran by Wednesday, February 20. Dr. Szafran will get more details on base budget realignment and will work with the entire Council on this initiative. Dr. Szafran also stated that the funding for these projects can be on-going as long as the goals are being met.

Item 3. Voluntary System of Accountability

At the recent AASCU meeting, a major discussion point was a voluntary system of accountability. Institutions have been asked to sign up for this program by March. The idea behind this is that there is an increased demand for increased transparency and accountability for higher education in areas such as tuition costs, graduation rates, etc. Institutions must use one of the general education learning tools: CAPP, MAPP, or CLA to evaluate a sampling of incoming freshmen and then again as graduating seniors. Data from this survey would be published and would cost approximately $10,000 for our campus.

What are the benefits of doing this program?

Good for SACS – assuming we have good results.
AASCU claims this would not be used to determine funding but this may not always be the case.
Zvi is in favor as he feels it will be good for our students.
We can join but then choose not to publish results.
If we do get negative results, this data will help identify areas in need of improvement.
This may be mandatory at some point.
If we join at the beginning we have more input at the onset in developing this program.
Would show we support accountability.
The cost could be reduced by embedding this as a gradable part of a course and would thus ensure students take the exam seriously.

Dr. Szafran will send out additional data he can find and asked the Council for additional input/concerns. The Council will be surveyed again when the early participation deadline is announced.

Item 4. American Democracy Project

The American Democracy Project encourages students to be more civically involved, has no cost to the campus, and ties into Goal #6 discussed earlier today. Many ongoing projects on our campus already qualify for this. Dr. Szafran polled the Council and all were in favor of becoming a member. Membership and an annual report would be required.

Item 5. New Business

All but the academic deans were dismissed to discuss Dave Caudill’s pending retirement. Dave has expressed a desire to retire from the University and then come back on a half-time basis and continue his role as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. Russ Hunt has expressed interest in taking over Dave’s role and becoming head of Extended University while also maintaining the SPARC with the help of a half-time director. There was no objection to this proposal.

The meeting adjourned at 4:20 PM