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Deans Council Meeting
B-120
November 16, 2011
Note: At times, issues of confidentiality may require that some items discussed in
these meetings be excluded from these minutes.
Members: Bill Barnes, Dave Caudill, Tom Currin, Steve Hamrick, Ruston Hunt, Joyce Mills,
Thomas Nelson, Jeff Orr, Nikki Palamiotis, Jeffrey Ray, Han Reichgelt, Zvi Szafran
Members Absent: Steve Hamrick, Jeff Ray
Guests: David Stone, John Sweigart for Jeff Ray
Item 1. Updates
Dr. Szafran updated the Council on the following:
- With a new Governor and a new Chancellor come new staff and some new policy changes.
One is the process for new degree program reviews. The System Office has gone back
to a modified 2-step process. The proposal must show that Facilities can handle the
new program and there must be an analysis showing demand for the program. Additionally,
no new proposals will be reviewed until January 2012. We will try to get an expedited
approval process established for new programs that are similar to those already approved.
- New Building Projects – The BoR must be included in the initial planning phase of
any new building project. The BoR is pushing for renovation rather than new construction.
- College Completion Georgia – organization with a mission to increase the number of
Georgians with post-secondary credentials from 45% to 60% by 2020. This increase,
if achieved, would add an additional 248,000 students to the University System. Comments
from the Council included:
- Need to increase high school graduation rates – currently at 59%
- Need better high school teachers – STEM, especially Math
- Need better articulations with the TCSGs
- Need Prior Learning Assessment
- Need more online courses
- Formula funding may change to be based on graduation rates
- School of Engineering – still pending
- Desire to Learn – USG is still negotiating the contract
- ABET – 4 undergraduate programs reviewed recently with only minor concerns.
- Fall Enrollment – system wide enrollment is up 2.1%; SPSU is up 5%; graduate students
– currently at 760 and applications are way up
Item 2. Intellectual Property Issues
The Council discussed the need to come forward with materials to begin a campus conversation
dealing with intellectual property issues. Our P&P is woefully out of date, and does
not address some critical issues. Comments/concerns:
- Issue of work for hire except if the work was done at the request of the University
- Since our P&P states that this material is the property of the faculty, does the University
have a license to use it?
- Selling electronic courseware could cause a conflict of interest if used at a competing
university
- Suggest that we gather as much information as possible and then hold an open forum
- Make sure that all faculty understand the intellectual property policy at the time
of their initial employment.
After open forums are held, we will need to reconvene the Intellectual Property Committee
(asking the President to appoint committee members), and have the committee work with
Dave Caudill and Russ Hunt to draft a new P&P.
Item 3. RPG Issues
The University is required to submit its follow-up RPG plan to the Board of Regents
by December 1. We need each department’s RPG plan (that was due December 2010) no
later than Friday to meet this deadline. Other issues related to RPG and SPSU’s RPG
plan include:
- Kelly Payton is working on web reports that will help departments quantify RPG issues
in the future.
- Early warning – the number of faculty getting this information in on time has increased
(though a small number are not taking it seriously). Some are still lax on reporting
of mid-term grades
- Our SACS QEP – must make this successful; must actually give this the opportunity
to be successful or face consequences with SACS
- Other items implemented to help retention:
- Hiring professional advisors
- Advisor training
- QEP
- Departments looking at what’s happening with their majors and figuring out ways to
address problems
