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DEANS COUNCIL

Extended Deans Council Meeting

B-120

September 12, 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:   Jeff Ray

Guests:  Tom Ball for Jeff Ray, Sylvia Carson

 

Item 1. Updates

Dr. Szafran updated the Council on the following:

  • David Stone, David Caudill, and Jon Preston are working on an NSF STEP proposal that could yield up to one million dollars over five years.
  • Senior Vice Chancellor was here last Friday.  Szafran stated it was a good meeting and that they talked about online learning and degree programs we are proposing among other things.  Szafran hopes the Chancellor will be supporting our efforts.
  • Senior Staff – items discussed at the meeting yesterday included:
  • Survey done by SES on students who were eligible to attend and didn’t and why.  Response rate was approximately 15% (80 students) and factors included:
    • Tuition/fees highest factor for not coming this semester
    • Transferred
    • Life interferences
    • Graduated
    • 60% stated they did not have an advisor – need to work on this area
    • Majors not a factor
    • 52% were adult learners
    • SES will follow up with the students.
    • It was asked if the Council could receive responses by schools?  Szafran will ask Sam Conn for the raw data from the survey sent to students who were eligible but did not return this semester to see if more information may be available.
    • Transfer Student GPA – briefly discussed in Senior Staff but tabled and will be discussed at a later date.
    • IT – software is being purchased to help identify students in trouble.
    • Jumpstart/GPA – unusual results from Jumpstart – most of these students transferred to Georgia Tech.
  • Space Utilization Policy – minor changes have been made to the application/approval process especially when it comes to costing out the projects earlier in the process – all costs associated with the project must be discovered before approval
  • Bandwidth – there are serious bandwidth problems in Building J – doing more and more online and will continue to experience problems all over campus as we continue to grow
  • Project costs – finding it more expensive to go to outside vendors but some projects completed internally have not been up to standard.  Some problems due to fast growth.
  • Polyday – goal is to raise $150,000 in donations from the local community and the faculty/ staff campaign

 

Item 2. Hosting John Boyer

Szafran talked about the upcoming visit by John Boyer and his associate Katie Prichard and went over the agenda for the day.  All workshops are open to faculty and staff.  He asked the Council how to use his visit going forward and stated it is his goal to continue to bring people to campus to engage our faculty in new ideas and ways to teach.  Szafran will send out the link to John Boyer’s website to the campus.  He asked the Council to forward him the names of people who are doing unusual things in teaching that we can benefit from and bring them to campus.

 

Item 3. New Classroom Scheduling Policy

Steve Hamrick distributed the classroom schedule arranged by time slots.  Szafran stated that our goal is to maximize utilization of our space by using either the BoR algorithm or one of our own.  Comments from the Council:

  • Trend in US is 3-hour blocks – create blocks and enforce them but accommodate special situations
  • Be more strategic about what we offer and when
  • Create separate time blocks for core courses and major courses so they don’t conflict?
  • Enforce whatever template we come up with or we won’t have accomplished anything
  • Encourage cohort-type scheduling early on
  • Start implementing mandatory advising
  • Banner can restrict courses outside the blocks – we do not utilize this option
  • Most other schools start evening classes at 7:00 PM not 6:00 PM
  • CS considered weekend classes but must have campus services available for those students
  • Sunday classes may create a negative image of the school
  • 2-day schedules are very popular with students and faculty
  • Stick with MWF/TTR and shift towards 2-day schedules in the future
  • Szafran stated it is alright to modify MWF 3-hour blocks as long as the 3-hour block is filled and Fridays are utilized
  • Enforce deadline for when schedules are input and have rooms that are not scheduled released to others to use.  No bumping others out and no fake courses to hold rooms in case they are needed later.  Szafran asked how we can stop these things from happening.  Responses were: better planning and taking a closer look at courses, no over-scheduling to hold rooms unless it’s based on projected growth, chairs should look at the previous year and plan their schedule accordingly.  Deans should review the courses for low enrollment.
  • There are some issues getting classes assigned to the proper-sized room – room optimization software may move classes after they have been entered.  This may cause technology-related issues especially in CSE.
  • Another issued noted is that some departmental labs are restricted in use and when others use them and don’t know what they’re doing they can mess things up.  Additionally, some faculty are not leaving the classrooms in good order for the next class, i.e. unplugging technology, not cleaning the whiteboards, etc.  Chairs should ensure all classroom space is fully utilized and if not lightly used rooms may be reassigned.
  • Szafran stated that departments must share and work together.  If someone is not being a good neighbor they should be warned and if it continues notify their chair.

 

Action Items:

Szafran will ask Sam Conn for the raw data from the survey sent to students who were eligible but did not return this semester to see if more information may be available.

Szafran will send out the link to John Boyer’s website to the campus.