Deans Council

Minutes of Oct. 20, 2004 Meeting

UC 310

 

 

Present:  President Hoppe, Bruce Speck, Gaines Hunt, Jim Diehr, Tom Buttery, Mike Gotcher, Sean Hogan, Charles Pinder, Stan Groppel, Deborah Fetch, Gerald Beavers

 

1.      Dr. Hoppe

         Dr. Hoppe reminded the council of the budget meeting this afternoon.  Proposed budget changes will be presented; the proposals include 13 new faculty positions.  We will be adding a limited number of other positions.  We are in very early exploratory stages of discussing APSU returning to scholarship football.  A decision should be made at the beginning of 2005.  This would be a gradual process over the next three years. 

 

         Dr. Pinder asked Dr. Hoppe to consider tuition waivers for graduate assistants.

 

         Ed Davis was introduced as the new Director of Grants. Mr. Davis started last Monday on a part-time basis; he will become full-time in January.  

 

2.      Academic Exclusion Policy - Jim Diehr 

         It appears that not all faculty fully understand the proper usage of the FA and FN grades.    

         Our Student Financial Aid was cited for dates not coinciding.  The date the FA is awarded is not necessarily the date of the last class attended.  Jim Diehr and Houston Davis will discuss this issue with Sheila Bryant and Donna Price and bring a report to Deans Council next week (Oct. 27).

 

3.      Classroom Priority for Departments – Bruce Speck

         This issue will be discussed next week (Oct. 27).

 

4.      Property Control Policy – Charles Pinder, Deborah Fetch, Mike Gotcher

         A report will be presented next week (Oct. 27).

 

5.            Faculty Evaluation Storage – Greg Schutz

         Mr. Schutz informed the council that three copies of the faculty evaluation are currently sent to deans, one copy for the faculty member, one for the department, and one for the dean.  Dr. Speck believes that this many paper copies are not needed. Greg offered one of the following three solutions; 1) current filing system of paper copy (improve the filing system); 2) a read only disk as a backup copy; 3) save in data base with one hard copy and one disk.  What do the deans suggest?  A motion was made that instructor evaluations be kept in a database which will be kept in the Office of Information Technology; deans and chairs would have access to the electronic database for all faculty; one paper copy would be sent to chairs for their review and forwarded to the faculty member for their dossier.  Motion was amended to include that the deans and chairs would have access to the electronic database for all faculty.  The motion was seconded and all approved.  This procedure will be effective this fall. 

 

         It was noted that we should consider moving away from the student evaluation being the sole evaluation of classroom instruction.  Mike Gotcher will chair a subcommittee of Tom Buttery, Stan Groppel, Jim Diehr, Greg Schutz regarding the feasibility of moving toward portfolios and campus-wide evaluation of teaching.  This proposal will be due December 1.  It was suggested that Richard Jackson be invited to a meeting to discuss legal issues.  This discussion led to the possibility of having faculty portfolios/dossiers on disk.   


 

Other

 

Stan Groppel and Charles Pinder

   -     Information regarding the RODP Master of Arts in Professional Studies (MAPS) was distributed.  Charles Pinder believes we may have an opportunity with this program in offering a few courses that may lead to a full offering in the future.  Dr. Pinder advised that we must move now.  Dr. Pinder requested support from the Deans Council.  A motion was made that the Deans Council support this initiative and be aggressive in getting into this RODP program.  The motion was seconded.  All approved. 

   -     The Deans Council members were invited to attend the Graduate Council meeting today at 3:45.

   -     Dr. Pinder reported that the no more than five members of the Institutional Review Board have shown up for any meetings held this semester.  Dr. Pinder asked if there is a reason that he should know about why members are not attending.  He distributed a list of 14 IRB members and requested the deans’ support in having their faculty attend these meetings.  In an attempt to get more attendance, the meetings have been reduced to once per month on Fridays.

 

Mike Gotcher

   -     Dr. Gotcher reported that he is on a committee that is reviewing the elimination of the college curriculum committee.  Mike Gotcher will bring a copy of the proposal to the next meeting.

 

Houston Davis

   -     A motion was made to change the wording in a policy regarding evaluation period of department chairs to include chair/director/coordinator. The motion was seconded and all approved. 

   -     It was suggested that when release time is considered for department chairs that the number of faculty be considered proportionately in the amount of release time that is given.  The three deans were asked to review and bring back a proposal regarding this issue.

   -     Dr. Davis announced that advising issues would be discussed at the New Faculty Orientation meeting this Friday, 2:30 p.m. in the UC Cumberland Room.

 

Bruce Speck

   -     Everyone will need an Eagle card to get on base for the next deans council meeting to be held at Fort Campbell (meeting not yet scheduled).