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DEANS COUNCIL

Extended Deans Council Meeting

B-120

August 22, 2012

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

Members: Dave Caudill, Rich Cole, Tom Currin, Steve Hamrick, Ruston Hunt, Joyce Mills, Thomas Nelson, Jeff Orr, Nikki Palamiotis, Jeffrey Ray, Han Reichgelt, Zvi Szafran

Members Absent:

Guests: Ron Dempsey, Sylvia Carson, Sarah Holliday

Item 1. Updates

Ron Dempsey visited the Council meeting today to talk about PolyDay, part of our faculty/staff campaign, and asked everyone to consider soliciting five companies for donations. He asked that the Foundation be notified before contacting the companies so that there are no duplications. Dempsey is looking for volunteers for Marietta and Cobb County solicitation only. Dempsey will send a list of prospects to the Council members. He also distributed a handout.

Dr. Szafran updated the Council on the following:

Complete College Georgia Report – went downtown this morning and was not significantly different from the original. Szafran has been trying to get Board of Regents support for online lab courses and has talked with Chancellor Houston Davis about this and he is supportive. Davis will be on campus on September 7^th from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM to talk to Zvi and the Deans (11:00 AM with the deans).
Flex Benefits – possible change in the flex benefit program – USG is considering turning over the administration of this program to an outside vendor.
Minors – two minor proposals were submitted late yesterday afternoon and approved by the BoR this morning.
Kia cars - have arrived on campus.
Enrollment – is up to an all-time high of 6,156, approximately an 8% increase. It appears the program with the highest increase in enrollment is in New Media Arts. Graduate enrollment is up 5%. Enrollment at the majority of USG schools is down.
New Program Proposals - Civil masters prospectus was approved and will be going downtown soon; DPS is still on Zvi’s desk
Architecture and Computer Game Design - 4 teams of students made a pitch to game designers last night. Cole will send out the link to the web address for the Architecture/Game Design pitch.
Architecture Master’s degree begins next fall.
Greenhouse is almost completed.
Engineering – received an endowed scholarship in the amount of $30,000.
Library – Google search is now available for the catalog.
OS&E – Szafran will discuss the budget after today’s meeting.

Item 2. Adjusting Term Dates

Han and Steve talked about issues with some hybrid courses not meeting before the drop date and Han would like the drop date to be at least one week after classes begin. e-Core sets its own schedule for drops and typically precedes our dates but this time it is after and is causing problems for students. Due to financial aid constraints we must have a lock down date and it must be within Federal guidelines. A system calendar would solve such problems but is unlikely according to Steve. Steve will talk with Gary Mann to see what flexibility is available to adjust term dates and will report back to the Council.

Item 3. QEP Update and Block Scheduling

Becky Rutherfoord and Sarah Holliday we at today’s meeting to discuss the QEP and block scheduling for the cohorts. Sarah ran numbers before the meeting and reported that they appear flat from 2010 to 2011. She stated that the block scheduling process is not clear and being followed and that the blocks need to be created much earlier. Sarah reviewed 32 sections of ENGL 1101 and found that only 1/3 to 1/4 of the students are in the right block. Sarah is working with Sam Conn in IT to see what suggestions he may have. She also met with the academic advisors and reported that five advisors are advising and registering over 1,300 students.

Tom Currin asked what we are trying to do with the QEP, why it is not working, and what the data is for the QEP. Han is assisting with QEP data gathering and will have it available for the next Extended Deans Council meeting. Other comments:

Students are finding ways around the cohort
Blocks were not created this year
Did better in clock scheduling last year than this year
Setting up blocks is not difficult
Departments should be setting them up and having the deans review their schedule
Becky stated this is not possible since the departments create their schedule and submit it directly to the Registrar
Students are not enrolling early enough
Dave Caudill suggested creating a Gant Chart with dates/actions
Should registering students into blocks be a function of the departments or Enrollment Services? Must registration into blocks wait until Journey? Departments could set up block, notify Enrollment Services, Journey would catch students who aren’t coming, and then Enrollment Services could register the students. Consensus – when Enrollment Services accepts students for Journey, have them enroll the students into blocks. Sarah could take care of the no shows. Szafran agreed to talk to Ron Koger about logistics.
Becky suggested we run numbers from this year and add 6% to make sure there are enough English Comp classes.
Zvi will talk to Ron Koger to see about the possibility of them registering students into blocks when the students sign up for Journey.
Deans will work with Dave on a timeline
Hamrick stated that it is not a simple process to register students into blocks – it is a manual process and would probably necessitate hiring temps to help

Item 4. Student Services for Hybrid/Online Students

Dr. Szafran distributed a survey taken about student needs and stated that he, David Caudill, and Sam Conn are working together to increase availability and accessibility of services for online students.

Amy Coughenour, Assistant Professor/Librarian, was invited to today’s meeting and was introduced by Joyce Mills. Joyce complemented Amy on the work she had done to help students in person, online, by email, via chat software, and with the use of FAQs. Amy recommended chat software for other areas on campus as well. With the Library being the only place with chat available, they receive many non-Library questions. Questions/Comments from the Council:

Should advisors have scheduled time for chat?
Concept is good but who would answer questions? Who would cover weekends and nights?
Would like to see faculty have office hours live and online.
Chat is not just used for online students but all students.
Need evening hours for services.
Look at departments, deans, and the VPAA offices to see what services are or should be available. Per the student survey, Academic Affairs is not the biggest complaint area from students.
Deans should check with departments to identify what services are offered online. Can students access information other than by telephone or email?
Is report available to show when students are online? Caudill thinks that there is.
Zvi wants to present to Senior Staff what Academic Affairs is doing to support online students.
There may be FERPA issues with online chat being used for advising.
According to the student survey, lack of a response in any form was the biggest complaint outside of Academic Affairs.

Next steps:

Dave Caudill will get information on when students are typically online.
Han Reichgelt will ask his online faculty about their response time and availability to online students
Push this direction of online services to the whole University.

Item 5. Mini Grants

Dr. Szafran wants to support faculty by offering mini grants aimed at increasing success rates in gateway courses and asked if we should limit those who’ve received mini grants in the past? Hunt stated his opinion that everyone should be open to apply and have past work be included as part of the evaluation process. Szafran stated the three categories for the mini grants should be:

Pedagogical conversion of the ET courses to being project-based
Changes that will improve success rates in gateway courses
Undergraduate research

The suggestion was that 1/2 of the money awarded go to Undergraduate research and the remainder split between the first two.

He also stated that we should encourage interdisciplinary proposals and that the proposals should include prior grants and outcomes of such.

Szafran also stated that the Council needs to determine a review method and asked who would be willing to chair a subcommittee. After discussion it was decided that the chair should be a dean and each school should appoint a faculty member to be part of the subcommittee. Han Reichgelt volunteered to chair the mini grant subcommittee and will work with Russ Hunt to get things started. Debbie will send Han a list of the suggested criteria for the mini grants.

Item 6. New Business

Nikki Palamiotis announced that the Graduate Student Association was approved yesterday and that she is working with IT to find a way to have the meetings available online as well. Someone suggested Freeconferencecall.com now has video capability.

Action Items:

Cole will send out the link to the web address for the Architecture/Game Design pitch.

Steve will talk with Gary Mann to see what flexibility is available to adjust term dates and will report back to the Council.

Zvi will talk to Ron Koger to see about the possibility of them registering students into blocks when the students sign up for Journey.

Dave Caudill will get information on when students are typically online.

Han Reichgelt will ask his online faculty about their response time and availability to online students.

Han Reichgelt volunteered to chair the mini grant subcommittee and will work with Russ Hunt to get things started.

Debbie will send Han a list of the suggested criteria for the mini grants.