Academic Council Minutes
February 15, 2001

Present: Faye Vowell, Pam Kuthe, Claudia Leonard for Gwen CAssel, Al Milligan, Donna Rees, Terry Heiner, Katherine Woodard, Bertha Benavidez, Greg Rolfe, Lou Ollivier, Cynthia Bettison, Magdaleno Mazanarez for Larry French who came in a little later, Jerry Harmon, Michael Metcalf, Judith Lawrence, Junius Logan

Absent: Pat McIntire, Jack Ellis

Guest Chris Casey

Meeting was called to order at 2:05 pm

1. AQIP--Dr. Vowell gave an update on recent AQIP meetings held in Phoenix. Gwen will make announcements in General Assembly today. Faculty and staff will be asked to contribute ideas for the Vital Few goals for next three years in two sessions, one Friday, February 23, and one Wednesday, 28 February. Please encourage your faculty and staff to attend one of the meetings.

2. Technology training--Of the 200 technology training surveys sent out by the Distributed Education Task Force, only 28 were returned. The purpose for the survey is to get information for scheduling technology training in the next few weeks. Faculty were encouraged to return the surveys. Deb McCormick will call people a do survey over the phone. Training sessions will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Secretaries should also be encouraged to attend the training sessions.

3. Spring MBO meetings-A calendars was passed around and Dr. Vowell asked that people sign up for appointments to discuss their MBOs.

4. Faculty Instructional Load Report-A draft of the Spring 2001 Faculty Instructional Load Report was distributed to chairs and they were asked to check for anomalies. Please return or e-mail any changes in one week.

5. Enrollment Management--Preliminary and unofficial enrollment numbers were shared. Numbers are down and a discussion followed regarding some of the suspected reasons and ideas for correction. Judith did feel that the numbers would come up when the CHE report comes out next Friday.

6. Construction Update--Chris Casey gave a report on the progress of construction projects on campus. She will keep campus updated in two-week intervals as she gets her updates from the architects, either by flyers or e-mail. It was consensus of opinion that this would be helpful with the impact each phase of construction has on the entire campus.

7. Security Issues--There was a discussion regarding security issues on campus. Feedback to departments from Campus Police as to security breeches, malfunctioning lights, who was where, when, etc. would be appreciated.

8. Summer School-- Judith suggested a meeting with four departments. Summer school will begin on June 3 and end August 3. The meeting idea was vetoed because the chairs felt changes or corrections could be made via e-mail.

9. MBO Handbook-Dr. French shared a draft of the MBO handbook he has been working on. A discussion regarding MBOs and problems in consistent implementation of the MBO process took place. It is felt that there isn't enough time being spent on the most important item, all "quality of teaching." The student evaluation process was also discussed, and it was agreed that additional information is needed here if they are to present an accurate picture for use in MBOs.

10. Announcements included flyer given out by Museum outlining the Spring/Summer schedule of events. Dr. Harmon announced that WNMU is Number 3in the state behind UNM and NMSU in passing rate for the state teacher exams in the state.

Meeting was adjourned 3:30 pm.