PROVOST’s COUNCIL
MINUTES
February 17, 2016, 8:30-10:00
Present
Alison Morrison-Shetlar, Brandon Schwab, Tim Metz, Brian Kloeppel, Jill
Granger, Carol Burton, Darrell Parker, Dale Carpenter, Richard Starnes,
Lowell Davis, Doug Keskula, Greg Hodges
Guests
Mike Byers, Cindy Nicholson, Chip Ferguson for Jeff Ray, Tim Carstens for
Farzaneh Razzaghi, Andrew Adams for George Brown
Recorder
Anne Aldrich
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Update from
Executive Council
(Alison)
Budget has been the primary discussion. Academic Affairs continues to try to
meet the needs of growing units by maximizing resources and efficiencies.
We also spent time discussing scholarships and ways to utilize some internal
funds for now to increase those scholarships.
DISCUSSION
Multi-Term
Registration
(Lowell Davis)
In previous meetings we have discussed multi-term registration with a good
deal of support from this council. Darrell has offered to pilot the MBA
program in this initiative.
We need to decide if we want students to simply see courses in advance or do
we want them to be able to register for courses in advance. Darrell is
suggesting at the undergraduate level we have students see the courses and plan
the full year schedule to make sure that works. If we can get a graduate plan
for a full year, this would allow us to intervene if needed. It was suggested
using the undergraduate planning process for a cycle first. COB faculty are
very excited about this - it could potentially eliminate Advising Day each
semester. This could also reduce faculty induced errors by reducing student
registrations from 8 times to 4 times in their college careers. Faculty are aware
there is extra work in planning the schedule. This has positive and negative
implications for Financial. Lowell is suggesting we build the schedule for a
year and go from there.
Multi-term registration was a very brief topic of conversation at the
Department Head Workshop yesterday. There were mixed reviews and a fair
amount of concern about unintended consequences. The majority were
concerned, hesitant and will need more discussion.
It was suggested to have program directors simply conduct a 3-4 year plan just
to see how this would look ahead of time - to assist in deciding whether we go
forward or not. This information could just be shared with deans. Dale
suggested it would be helpful to have the Registrar send out a degree audit to
students every semester - this could be helpful in a multi-term registration
success.
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Degree Works is being utilized by every institution in the system aside from
WCU and Pembroke. There is a similar feature in Banner that we are trying to
access that would not be of any additional cost to the university. When we
discuss this at the workday we need to include how we would register
freshmen for multi-term.
Action Item
Administration and
Finance Initiatives
(Mike Byers/
Cindy Nicholson)
The deans will have further conversations with constituencies to decide
whether we wish to pursue this initiative. As deans meet with their department
heads/program directors in the next 30 days, please provide feedback (pros and
cons) to Lowell. We will then bring this back for a workday discussion in the
next 30-45 days. Course releases need to be part of this discussion as there is
no consistent policy across colleges or departments.
Mike announced the departure of Kristen Crosson, an essential resource for
Administration and Finance. A search will begin immediately to seek her
replacement.
Mike reviewed the following A&F initiatives:
 Catalytics - ability to better manage budgets.
 EPayables - will allow us to pay a number of bills with a credit card that
will make an immediate payment. By doing this we generate rebates to
the university which will allow us to pay for administrative functions and
reallocate state funds to some other purpose; some vendors will not choose
to do this as there is a cost to them.
 Facilities Management o One of our four boilers has completely stopped working. We have
permission to utilize some funds to address some of the issues we
are having with the steam plant. This will not allow us to replace the
steam plant but should alleviate issues for the next decade until the
steam plant can be replaced.
o Mixed Use Facility, Brown and the coming Natural Science
Building are other projects.
 One of our challenges regarding these projects is we do not have
resources to manage all of them thus we have found a way
through auxiliary funds (small tax on all projects) to expand and
contract project management resources as needed.
 Travel Card - We are very close to rolling out a Travel Card that can pay
for everything but food. We hope to test this soon and then roll it out to
those who have interest.
Mike introduced Cindy Nicholson (replaced Arthur Stephens), Chief
Procurement Officer. Cindy asked the council to please feel free to come to her
with any issues, suggestions or ideas - her door is always open. Administration
and Finance are working hard to improve processes and move us forward in
efficiencies.
Graduate
Enrollment
(Alison/
Brian Kloeppel)
How do we move forward to increase graduate enrollment for the short and
long term? Brian provided information as to where we are point in time. Two
items that came out of the marketing conversation on Monday are honing in on
two events this semester where we can market out graduate programs to our
current students - The Chancellor’s List event and Catamount Career and
Networking Day.
COB - We have a table set up at the Catamount Career and Networking Day as
well as having a separate COB event. We would welcome the graduate school
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to have a table at the COB Deans Open House for graduate programs. We will
focus on Advising Day to seniors and rising seniors with the hope to plant the
seed in juniors as well. The COB Advising Office has had to review and make
sure they have all of the materials for these events so will be better prepared.
We still need to think about the long term so what changes do we need to make
- Darrell is working with his MBA director on this initiative.
A&S - We are also cleaning up materials, brochures, etc. All five programs
have a table at Catamount Career and Networking Day. Programs that require
testing could be an issue for an applicant to be an enrolled students (GMAT,
etc.). We are sending out a number of faculty members to colleges in the
region that do not have graduate programs that we offer - this is more of a long
game by establishing these relationships. We are staying on top of applications
to act on them as quickly as we can. Brian stated that programs that have
managed their prospects well, have also had better results (English Department
has had such success).
Brian shared Tier One and Tier Two data for marketing initiatives. There are
some programs here that accept applications in Tier One. Tier Two is not the
same - we have rolling dates for some, deadlines for others. These dates need
to be considered as we look at marketing target dates. Brian reviewed these
programs with the council. Discussion ensued.
Tony Johnson is meeting with each of the deans and has spent time with Brian
and Kevan. They have a plan of attack and Tony is reporting every Friday as
to what he is doing. Alison is trying to determine the best way to provide this
data. It was agreed this information will be discussed within Provost Council.
Discussion ensued.
Action Item
Summer Session
(Lowell Davis)
Review the graduate programs we have on our websites. If you are still having
website issues, please contact IT to resolve. Websites are not frozen. This
includes colleges and departments that have not yet moved to the new
template. Make sure web pages are up to date with the latest bells and whistles
- it will be a waste of marketing dollars if these items are not easily accessed.
Don Strickland in Graduate School and Research is willing to help with this
initiative in the short term.
We are starting to market for summer session. Please send courses you would
like to feature on the website within the next two weeks. We have produced a
summer session handbook (still in draft form) - your assistants have received it.
Student Affairs has 50K they will use for need based stipends for students who
enroll in Catamount Gap and ASP. Each student will receive $500. This may
be a good way to get more summer students. On Advising Day Killian Annex
is going to be transformed into a beach for marketing purposes.
UPATES
Search Updates
(Alison)
Vice Chancellor for Alumni and Development - two candidates for the Vice
Chancellor for Alumni and Development to the chancellor and are awaiting his
decision.
We have had three candidates to campus for the Chief Diversity Officer
position. Alison will meet with search committee Friday to hear strengths and
weaknesses.
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Faculty Senate
(Alison)
Faculty Senate - neither Alison nor the Chancellor will be present for the
February Faculty Senate meeting. At the planning meeting it was determined
there is a lack of understanding of our budget model. Therefore Faculty Senate
leadership will have Kristen Crosson conduct a presentation on the budget
model. Greg will attend to answer any questions regarding Academic Affairs.
If you are able to attend tomorrow, please do.
Tenure, Promotion,
Reappointment
(Alison)
TPR letters went out yesterday and today. The process is moving along.
Dossiers go to the Chancellor on Friday. The formative feedback process has
smoothed this process in a significant way in the past two years.
Faculty Scholarship
Celebration
(Alison)
The Faculty Scholarship event was great. It was phenomenal to see the faculty
receive well-deserved awards.
President Spellings
Campus Visit
(Alison)
President Margaret Spellings will visit campus in March. Alison will keep the
council updated as details emerge. Open sessions will be open to anyone.
President Spellings has requested to meet as many people as possible in as
many open sessions as possible. There will be additional security on campus.
Honors College
Event
(Jill Granger)
On Friday afternoon we will conduct top prospect interviews followed by a
reception. We have 26 prospects plus parents followed by the Open House on
Saturday.
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