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DEANS COUNCIL

Deans Council Meeting

October 25, 2012

 C 131

 

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

 

Members:  Rich Cole, Tom Currin, Ruston Hunt, Thomas Nelson, Jeffrey Ray, Han Reichgelt, Zvi Szafran

Members Absent:  

Guests:  Betsy Adams

 

Item 1. Updates

Dr. Szafran updated the Council on the following:

  • Degree Programs:
    • M.S. Civil Engineering – is on the BoR agenda for 11/13 – Szafran and Currin will attend
    • Environmental  prospectuses will be discussed at the System Office on Thursday
    • DPS – no update
  • Diversity Summit – grants are available to recruit underrepresented groups, Szafran is looking for faculty volunteers
  • SPSU was number one in growth
  • Complete College Georgia – is one way to increase diversity and graduation rates.  New funding from the BoR will focus on graduation rates rather than enrollment.

 

Item 2. Approval of Minutes

The minutes from the October 3, 2012, Deans Council meeting were approved.

 

Item 3.  Discussion of Mini-Grants

Tom Nelson and Han Reichgelt have been working on mini-grant procedures and operations for the coming year.  One issue is how to handle summer extra compensation for these faculty when the regulations require personnel to be paid from the budget year in which the work is performed. Betsy Adams explained the process and potential problems.  Szafran agreed to follow up with Bill Prigge to see what options may be available to pay faculty for work performed in one fiscal year during the next fiscal year.  Also, the document does not address what happens to equipment purchased with grant money or what happens if a faculty member receives money from the grant and then does not complete the project.  This will be addressed and added to the document.   After discussion, it was decided to accept the operating document in principle and work out the issues at a later time.  It was also decided to start with a figure of $75,000 for initial funding.

 

Item 4.  Part-time Faculty

A discussion was held to determine the appropriate percentage of part-time faculty being utilized.  This agenda item was added at the request of the Council.  Steve Hamrick recalled discussions with the former VPAA that 25% should be our target rate and that some areas at that time had very large percentages of part-time faculty.  Szafran stated that our numbers have been lowered by converting many part-time faculty to full-time temps.  No one was sure how the part-time percentages were calculated in the past but Szafran suggested that each dean provide statistics for their areas based both on FTE and student credit hours for face to face courses only.  This discussion will continue and the data is due to Szafran by November 3, 2012.

 

Item 5.  New Business

  • Agenda for the next meeting – Exam Integrity – Jeff Ray
  • Continue part-time faculty discussion
  • Szafran reminded the Council of upcoming events
  • Job ads – first round has been advertised and the second round should be advertised soon.  Ads for the department chairs were done separately.
  • Proposed Center for Digital Engagement – Hunt sent out but has had no response.

 

Action Item(s):

Szafran agreed to follow up with Bill Prigge to see what options may be available to pay faculty for work performed in one fiscal year during the next fiscal year. 

Deans will provide part-time faculty statistics for their areas based both on FTE and student credit hours for face to face courses only. 

 

Future Agenda Item(s):

  • Agenda for the next meeting – Exam Integrity – Jeff Ray
  • Continue part-time faculty discussion
  • Proposed Center for Digital Engagement