Council of Deans
Unapproved Minutes
June 10, 2002
Members:
Sullivan
Buckley
Burgess
Dawe
Goode (Absent)
Harrison
Neale
Soe1le
Young
Also Present:
President Don Davis
Dr. Linda Dzialo
Ms. Zoe DuRant
Mr. Tony Pokorny
Mr. Bob Ziegler
Agenda items were presented out of order.
1. Agenda Item 2 - Budget
a. Sullivan stated that the budget was sent to the Regents on June 19 and he feels good
about what has been done with the budget given the shortfall this year.
b. President Davis stated that we have actually fared pretty good this year, especially
when you look at where we could have been and where the general state of economy is for
Oklahoma. A lot ofwhat we were able to do is due to the frugality throughout the year ofthe people
in this room. There are open faculty positions that have not been filled and those here have been
very judicious with other spending. As a result, we were able to build on a reserve that we like to
keep at about 7 - 8 percent and we were able to do a little better than that. We also did not have to
draw down the endowment funds to put into operational expenditures. That is something that we
have always tried to avoid because those endowment funds should be on top of everything else and
not be used to supplant operational monies. Also we were treated very well by the members ofthe
Oklahoma Legislature, primarily the Senate. We have had a great champion the last few years in
Stratton Taylor. He has managed to do a lot of wonderful things for higher education in general.
The Governor was also receptive to the notion that education would receive less of a reduction than
other state agencies. Also, the one that always comes through is Bill Burgess because he works very
carefully with the people who allocate the money at the State Regents Office. Had any ofthose three
entities not come through, we could have had real problems, but they all came through very well so
we are in good shape. Our operational budgets are basically the same and we are still holding the
line on most vacant positions. We have looked at some of the very critical positions and funded
those that are absolutely necessary. We have put aside a pot ofmoney that is equal to a 3 % stipend
for all the faculty and staff members who were employed throughout the year last year and still
employed as ofthe Fall semester. Whether or not that will become a part of the continuing salary,
we don't know. The recommendation will be that we do that on September 1 and payment will be
made at the end of September. This doesn't place us in any fundingjeopardy at all and Davis thinks
it is a good idea. This, of course, requires approval of the Board of Regents and no action can be
taken until after the Board meeting. Discussion of the stipend followed.
c. Sullivan stated that we are also in good shape on our faculty development. One ofthe
issues that he heard when he visited with the deans and departments is that they would like to have
more money to do some faculty development. He plans to make an allocation to the deans from the
faculty development account, probably 6 or 7 thousand dollars per school for them to work with on
faculty development.
2. Agenda Item 3 - Deans Retreat - July 17
Sullivan stated that the Deans Retreat will be July 17. He has had some great input on
that so far. He asked the deans to continue to send in their ideas and he will put them on the agenda
and get through as many as possible.
3. Agenda Item 4 - Department Chairs Workshop (HANDOUT)
a. Sullivan handed out the proposed schedule for the Department Chairs Workshop.
One ofthe things Sullivan picked up from his meetings with the departments is that the chairs would
like to have some kind ofspecific training. He proposed a chairs workshop to Kimberly Merritt and
she is putting it together. Short discussion followed.
b. Sullivan mentioned that on the morning ofthe August 12, there will be a presentation
by Charles Glassick. The Faculty Council has brought him to campus and he will spend a couple
of hours with the department chairs.
4. Agenda Item 5 - Faculty Council Sponsored Workshop - August 13
Sullivan stated that Charles Glassick will be doing a faculty workshop on August 13 and
that will be voluntary. We will have an opportunity to listen to him.
5. Agenda Item 6 - Board of Regents Meeting - June 18-19, Cameron University
Sullivan stated that there will be an OU/CU Board of Regents meeting at Cameron on
June 18 and 19.
6. Agenda Item 7 - Review and Certification of Online Courses (HANDOUT)
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Sullivan handed out a draft of a memo he plans to finalize after he receives comments
from the deans. This has to do with the review and certification of online courses. He thought we
had a good handle on this in terms of being sure we have a team of faculty moving to be in charge
ofthis but evidently it never reached that point. He would like for the deans to review this and give
him feedback on how it is set up and ifwe need to do something different, let him know. This is the
way he thinks it should be done. Discussion followed.
7. Agenda Item 8 - Provost's Schedule
Sullivan informed the group that he will be leaving on June21 5t and return on July 9th •
He will be teaching a course in Hanau and then taking five days leave.
8. Agenda Item 9 - Publication of Catalog - Changes to Curriculum Committee
Sullivan asked the deans to note that we will be publishing the new catalog in the Spring
of 2003. If there are any new programs, new courses or changes to existing courses deans need to
be made be sure to get them in to the Curriculum Committee so they can be approved and put in the
catalog. The catalog needs to be as current as possible. This is a long lead time but sometimes it
takes a long time to get the changes through the committee.
9. Agenda Item 1 - Zoe DuRant - Several Issues
a. Sullivan stated that both Dr. Dzialo and Zoe DuRant have some issues they would
like to discuss.
b. DuRant stated that one ofthe issues that she has talked to Sullivan about is turning
in ofgrades. The deadline for turning in ofgrades is always published in the schedule, typically the
third day after the last dayoffmals. She had quite a few faculty that did not get their grades turned
in on time. Faculty were called and some were not concerned that they were late. What is important
is that faculty have to get the grades turned on time because it impacts so many reports and
everything that is run, especially in the spring, because we have students that will be graduating;
students who are trying to get certified as teachers need to get their degree audits in right away;
students who will graduate with honors; also there is a tight turn around in the probation and
suspension area especially at the end ofDecember when letters have to be sent to the students about
probation and suspension so they can meet before the Academic Appeals Committee before classes
start in January. Turning in ofgrades impacts a lot ofdifferent reports, graduation requirements and
everything. She would like to deans to really stress to the faculty members that they need to get
those grades turned in by the date that is specified in the schedule. Discussion followed.
c. DuRant stated that another issue that she has talked to Sullivan about is that they have
had a lot ofdisgruntled students the last couple oftimes when they have done degree audits and look
at transcripts to see if students have enough requirements for graduation and they will be short of
upper division hours. They come back to her people and say they were assured by their advisor that
they had met the 40 hours of upper division credits when in fact they had not. DuRant asked the
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deans to stress to those professors who do advising and who sit down with students and go over their
degrees to see if they have met the requirements, to make sure they do a close check of the upper
division hours (3000 and 4000 numbers). Discussion followed.
10. Dr. Dzialo stated that 8BI is keeping her people busy and there are several things that she
wants to mention to give the council members a heads up.
a. One item is in the area of financial aid. In the past students were funded as their
courses came along. If they took a 16 week course they received money for that; if they took a
weekend course they had to come back in to get their money for that; if it was a second eight-week
course they came back in for that. The Business Office was continuously cutting checks. With 8BI
we do not have the capability of doing all those multiple payments. It would require a lot of
customization, so what they are going to do is follow the system that 8BI has in place. This means
the student that takes X amount of hours in different formats, will get their money up front and at
the time they get that they will sign something saying they realize they are obligated to those courses
and if they modifY or change a course that gets them out of that grouping of X amount of courses,
they will have to go back to Financial Aid. If they do that they are not going to be able to drop a
course unless they give us the money back. It is a different way of operating. It will be a smoother
system for the Business Office and more student user friendly. It does expose us to some liability
ifthey don't do what they say they are going to do and we will have to evaluate it after we have done
it for a semester or two.
b. Another issue that is springing forth from 8BI is that when 8BI is operational, every
staff, faculty and student will have to get a new ill card and that cannot happen until SBI comes
alive. That leaves us with the question of what to do with the new freshmen coming in this fall. No
decision will be made on what to do during that period of time without key people being involved.
She has identified about lO different areas that potentially could be problems if they have 700-800
students going around without ID cards. Discussion followed.
c. Dzialo stated that there are some other issues that because of SBI they want everyone
to be aware of. DuRant has talked about deadlines and how important it is to meet them. SBI is
going to remove some ofthe flexibility when grades come in late. Dzialo distributed an Admissions
and Records calendar for August through October. In looking at the calendar, deadlines when things
have to be turned in are sooner and the turnaround time is quicker and those turnaround times must
be met.
d. Dzialo stated that another issue is - in glancing at the back ofan emollment schedule,
there are a lots and lots of dates, and SBI only has five slots and we have many more variations in
dates than that. We have to narrow them down to five so they are proposing consolidating three of
those dates. The proposal is to consolidate the "last day to drop or withdraw without entry on
transcript," "last date to enroll or add a single class," and "last date to drop or withdraw with a full
refund." The key one that would impact the most people is the last date to emoll or add a single
class. Right now students can come in on the sixth day and still enroll. If we consolidate that they
will be able to do that on the tenth day. Harrison asked if we couldn't just leave it in the book that
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says the sixth day and not fool with the program. We can have a rule of our own that doesn't have
to be tied to a machine. We Can still have our date and leave it off the program. The students,
facu1ty and everybody on campus, and in every publication, can be told that the sixth day is the date
and never mind the fact that theoretically it could be done on the other day. We don't have to change
our rule. After further discussion, Sullivan polled the group and all were in agreement with this
suggestion.
e. DuRant asked the deans to make note ofthe dates when the input for the schedule are
due for the Spring 2003 schedule. The dates have been pushed forward on when the input is due
because the HP 3000 is schedu1ed to be unavailable September 13-23. All the input for the Spring
2003 schedule has to be in prior to that date. Those deadlines have been pushed up quite a bit (refer
to the calendar that was distributed).
f. Dzialo stated she has one other item regarding Recruitment Day. After Recruitment
Day was over, she and her people debriefed the entire event. They received a lot ofevaluations back
from staffand faculty and have come up with about 20 do-betters, changes, improvements, and a list
of things that people thought worked. The majority thought we needed to do a fall day and try
Saturday one more time. She was going to bring before the group the date ofOctober 26 to get input
but after checking with organizations, clubs and everything else, it was discovered that it was an
ACT day. They will go back to the drawing board and come up yvith another day iIi October.
g. DuRant mentioned that with the new system facu1ty will be able to enter their own
grades. It cou1d be that we cou1d possibly start this by the end of the first eight weeks session, but
in talking with Dawne Massey, she said that it may be optional at that time depending on the training
schedu1e but it will be mandatory at the end ofthe Fall semester. At that time facu1ty will be putting
their grades in themselves into the new system through the IRIS web link. The way they plan to
verify the grades is print out a grade roster and send that over to the faculty to double check that what
they actually put in is the proper grade for each ofthose students. The faculty member will sign off
on that and that will become the grade report that will be retained in the Registrar's Office. The
deadlines for them to input the grades will be the same - three days after the final exams.
11. Sullivan stated that at next week's Council meeting he will want to talk about some kind
of early intervention for students that appear to be at risk. He will need to have input on that but he
will have a document to look at next week.
12. Sullivan stated that most ofus have not been through a change in presidency in 22 years.
We can almost be assured that the new president, whomever it is going to be, will want to come
around to the schools and be briefed on what their mission statement is, what their strengths and
weaknesses are, what their needs are and members ofthis Council need to be putting that together.
The new president will probably start at the school level and then maybe go down to the department
level. President Davis has indicated that the Board ofRegents may appoint a new president as early
as next week. Sullivan doesn't know when the new president might be on campus. Sullivan wants .
to encourage everyone here to begin getting things together.
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COMMENTS
Soelle - No comments.
Buckley - No comments. Sullivan mentioned that Richard Braley is up at Tinker this summer,
working on a CASI project. Cameron is the first and only regional university to receive one ofthose.
What Braley is doing is going through a number of things at Tinker because they are having some
serious computer security lapses up there and he is doing an analysis of that. He will be bringing
some knowledge back and may be bringing some real opportunities back to campus for computer
security and hopefully some work here with the 5100.
Ziegler - No comments.
Neale - No comments.
Harrison - No comments.
Dawe - Stated that he has something he just wants to put on the record more than anything else
because he doesn't know how it can be handled. This SBI system - the issues that have been raised
about dates and fInancial aid being semester based, that model does not fit with our on campus
graduate offerings at all, particularly the MBA program where we have students coming in every
single month on a continuous basis and they can start at any time throughout the year. The only way
he can see this being handled is to go with a manual system for the Graduate School. We are moving
backwards at the Graduate School because ofthis SBI system. Dzialo stated that she does not think
so because if they come in later on, that is their first payment. It is just if a student is taking a 16
week, an 8 week and a weekend course, the way it is now they have to continuously come in. If
someone comes in and takes something in the middle ofthe semester they will get their payment then
because that will be their first entry for the semester. Dawe mentioned that the European program
is a manual system anyway and it will continue to be a manual system. Dawe feels the new system
is adding on another level ofsome manual input in tracking ofstudents who are on-campus in some
ofour programs. Students in the MBA program don't come in and enroll on a semester basis. They
might enroll in one course and finish it that month; take a month off and then enroll in another
course. They may not enroll until half a month later. Dzialo stated they would get their payment
at each course. It is just when someone enrolls for the semester in a variety of things, they will be
able to get all their money up front. She does not believe there will be a problem. She asked Dawe
to get with her and discuss this. Sullivan mentioned that we have already spent $50,000-$60,000
on customization and in order to customize this part ofthe system to fit more or less exactly what
we have been doing would cost $36,000. So, what we have elected to do, at least this year, is to go
with the standard package and try it. If it just doesn't work, we will figure out where to get the
money and customize it next year. They can customize it anytime. Ifthere are major problems then
let us know.
Young - No comments.
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Burgess - No comments.
Goode - Absent
Adjourned 12:04 p.m.
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