November 16, 2000 Meeting Minutes

Academic Council Minutes
2:00-3:30 Hunter Hall

Present: Benavidez, Muncrief, Metcalf, Ollivier, Milligan, Heiner, McIntire, Culhane representing French, Woodard, Decker, Vowell, Rees, Harmon.

Guests: Tony Macias, Judith Lawrence, JoNell Morce, Linda Smerglia, Marcia Harris-Bourdette.

1. Purchasing Policies and Travel Policies: Faye Vowell stated that the recent audit has been completed and that the findings indicate that the existing purchasing policies need to be enforced. She asked that each department please monitor their purchasing to avoid violating existing policies. The existing policies were discussed: (1) 10-day travel voucher policy; (2) 2-day notice to business office for travel requests; and (3) after-the-fact purchase orders. A discussion followed. Purchasing policies are posted on the web under Policies and Procedures. Chairs may also ask the VPAA for a hard copy. Dr. Vowell also stated that she would e-mail any new policies to Chairs.

2. Post-Tenure Review: Judith Lawrence presented a printout from the Faculty Contract Data Base that showed where each faculty member is in the tenure process. Jerry Harmon stated that post-tenure review should be done five years after tenure is granted. A discussion followed. Faye Vowell asked that the chairs review the list to see who is up for post-tenure review and suggested that a new list be created by December.  She additionally asked that any corrections to this database be given to Judith Lawrence.

3. Budget Update: Faye Vowell indicated that the base budget allocation would be down by $214,000 for next year. The chairs received a current budget update on November 11 and were asked to review and give the VPAA feedback, specifically looking at negative balances. The VPAA has a copy of the audited actuals from last year. This copy can be reviewed in the VPAA’s office.

4. Academic Secretaries Meeting: At the recent Academic Secretaries’ Meeting the evaluation process was discussed. It was the consensus of the Chairs that secretaries should not see evaluations. Only Department Chairs, the instructor, and those in the chain of command should see faculty evaluations. The evaluation forms should be placed in the envelope and forwarded to the VPAA’s office without review by the secretaries in order to maintain the confidentiality of this process. It was also mentioned that those administering the evaluations should have more training and that the VPAA’s office would monitor the forms and see how many forms are actually unusable.

5. Faculty Recruitment and Hiring Policy: Faye Vowell asked the Chairs to review and give written feedback to the Policies and Procedure Committee.

6. Faculty Hiring: Faye Vowell announced that all faculty positions open or that would be coming open will be advertised for Fall 2001. Dr. Vowell encouraged each department to complete their advertising paperwork and to include the following language: “Hiring contingent upon funding.” Additionally, Judith Lawrence presented CUPA figures for salary ranges for each of the nine faculty positions presently open in Nursing, History, Sociology, OTA, Business Administration (Marketing), Applied Technology (Drafting & Design), Applied Technology (Office Administration), Math and Computer Science, and Natural Sciences (Biology).

7. Update on Chair Work Groups: Donna Rees stated that at the last meeting Larry French distributed a proposed policy on independent study. Vowell asked that Rees and Milligan follow up on this policy proposal. The scholarship work group will meet in the near future. A partial draft of the MBO Handbook has been created by Larry French.

8. Adjunct Faculty Policy: The adjunct faculty policy proposal will be placed on the December agenda for discussion. Faye Vowell stated that some departments with large numbers of continuing adjuncts may be converted to full-time term contracts. Chairs will discuss this.

9. Equipment Allocations for 2000-2001: Faye Vowell stated that the ITT PMT is looking for ways to streamline purchasing and provide better service. She suggested that the University have a group of standard choices, both upper end and lower end, so that we can be sure that the people servicing the machines are familiar with them. April Matthews has put some figures together for purchasing; however, some disparity between catalog prices and block purchase prices from CATTS was discussed. Dr. Vowell would like to have any equipment money back that is not spent, so Chairs were encouraged to order expeditiously to stay within this year’s budget. Of the recently allocated equipment money, $100,000 was from our equipment allocation; $40,000 was from Title III(V).

10. Banner: Judith Lawrence announced that Banner is ready to accept grades. Grades can be entered from department terminals or the Banner lab. Off-campus grades can be entered through Banner also. It is not mandatory to enter grades through Banner. Additionally, the Registrar must still have a handwritten copy of all grades. Al Milligan suggested the use of a scantron-type form that would serve both purposes.
Phone-in grades were discussed.

11. MBOs: Faye Vowell reminded the Chairs that they are to discuss MBOs with faculty members the last full week before Thanksgiving. She also stated that letters of non-renewal to unsatisfactory probationary faculty must be sent out. The week after Thanksgiving, Dr. Vowell would like to review their progress toward MBO goals with the Chairs.

12. Announcements: Jerry Harmon announced that the deadline for language changes in the catalog is November 11. The question was raised about new courses going to the C & I Committee and how they should be handled regarding the catalog. The consensus of the group was that the departments should assume a positive response from C & I and include new courses in the catalog and remove them later if necessary. A discussion followed regarding cross-listed courses. Louis Ollivier suggested that departments coordinate cross-listed classes among themselves.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:20 p.m.