Council of Deans Minutes
Date: Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Location: Administration Boardroom
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Members and Staff Representatives present:
Ronna Vanderslice, Vice President for Academic Affairs
Sylvia Burgess, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
Marge Kingsley, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs
John Camey, Dean, School of Business
Lisa Huffman, Dean, School of Education and Behavioral Sciences
Von Underwood, Dean, School of Liberal Arts
Terry Conley, Dean, School of Science and Technology
Susan Camp, Director, CU-Duncan
Karla Oty, Director, Institutional Research, Assessment, and Accountability
Kelly McClure, Director, Information Technology Services
Linda Phillips, Registrar
Mandy Husak, Academic Affairs Coordinator
Members and Staff Representatives absent:
Sherry Young, Director, Library Services
Vinetta Buchanan, Academic Affairs Specialist
Agenda and Notes
 Approval of Council of Deans Minutes – December 2, 2015 Meeting (Handout) – The minutes
were approved as presented.
 Discussion Items:
1. Endowed Lectureships Timeline changed—Faculty expressed concern over the timing of
endowed lectureship awards. Award letters are sent out in the fall so it poses a challenge for
faculty with fall projects. As a result, VPAA Vanderslice worked with VPBF Carter to adjust
the timeline. VP Carter will get the amounts to VP Vanderslice earlier so that the Call for
Proposals can be sent before the end of the spring semester. Proposals will be due one week
after commencement, which will give VP Vanderslice time to review them over the summer
and have the award letters out to the faculty early fall. The following timeline will be used:
 January 4 – Request amounts from VPBF
 March 11 – Receive amounts from VPBF
 April 18 – Send Call for Proposals
 May 16 – Proposals due
 July – Reconcile and set amounts for next year
She expressed that the timeline may need adjustments once we try it once but can be shared
with faculty now.
2. Discussion of beginning of the semester issues—The School of Business had several room
conflicts. There were two instances where classes (1 Math, 1 Psychology) were not on the
School of Business documentation but requests could have been sent to scheduling separately.
Dean Camey expressed concern that the problem will grow over time as more classes are
scheduled in various buildings across campus.
There was an issue with an instructor asking the IRAA office to get into the building or
classroom because he had keys to his office in another building but not to the building where
his class was being taught. Dean Conley was aware and had ordered keys.
The Registrar’s Office had a great deal of traffic dealing with students on the UNIV 2001 hold
the first week.
Tuition issues – there was an expired certificate on software TouchNet. This issue was taken
care of this morning. Students were not able to pay tuition online during the down time. Dean
Camey suggested adding a pop up message in these cases to communicate the issues clearly
with students. Dean Camey shared that the School of Business had a student who paid his/her
tuition with a check, but since there’s a 10 day hold on them, the student still couldn’t enroll.
VP Carter took care of it for the student. If you have students in this situation, please contact
the Business Office.
Student Access to Aggie Access – There are still many issues with passwords and staff spend
a significant amount of time addressing them. Kelly, Scott and Margot have worked on this
issue over the break, making cosmetic changes that might help. The number of questions
needed to reset passwords is 3. This is protocol but is also challenging for students. Dean
Huffman raised the question of why the CU and Blackboard passwords are not the same. This
is because of active directory (BB) and we are not able to do that currently, but Kelly will work
on it.
There was an issue in FLAC where the Non-Instructional Loads were showing up twice for
some faculty members. This has now been rectified.
AVP Kingsley worked at the end of the semester with students on the ZE hold. We only
dropped 1 student that was on a ZE hold; we were successful with getting waivers for the
others. There were 129 students on the UNIV hold and we only dropped 27. This is a
significantly smaller number than in previous semesters. AVP Kingsley also shared that the
ZE problem is continuing where students are finding advisors in departments and getting
enrolled in college level classes while still being on the 24 hour hold. She asked the Deans to
remind their departments that students with remediation needs should be handled through the
Advising Center.
Technical issue with ITV at Duncan –There is a bad microphone in the system which has forced
students to move to an alternate room when available. Students can see and hear but can’t
respond. About 13 classes have been affected. Faculty have been accommodating. There is no
phone jack in the room. Kelly is working on the issue.
Dr. Burgess shared that there is an updated version of Collaborate installed which no longer
requires launcher, but all components have not been reloaded. Our representative was not
aware that it had not been loaded. The previous version of the launcher will be reloaded until
all pieces of the new launcher are ready.
Deans were asked to minimize small classes this semester, yet we still kept too many. VP
Vanderslice will address this with the Chairs in their meeting.
3. Roundtable follow-up/feedback—VPAA Vanderslice stated that program roundtables have
been completed. There were good and different discussions this year. As listed on their
planning documents, the Deans should have assessment data in their office from last semester.
Dr. Vanderslice thanked them for comments and for their work on the assessment process.
The Gen Ed peer reviewers have until Jan 13 to complete their reviews. Dr. Vanderslice will
then decide which Gen Ed Student Learning Outcomes will participate in gen ed roundtables
for the Spring.
4. Intersession Advisement follow-up/feedback—Intersession Advisement was done differently
this year. There were 4 advisors from various departments available in the Advising Center to
advise for all programs. No concerns were noted and traffic was light enough that 3 advisors
may have been enough.
Concerns were noted about departments being empty or only having their Administrative
Assistants present on the Thursday prior to break. All departmental offices must be open when
the university is open. If for some reason they cannot be open, signs should be clearly posted
referring students to the Dean’s office. Phones should also be forwarded to the Dean’s office.
Deans should remind their chairs and ensure this procedure is followed. She asked for
assistance in observing who is and is not here on “hard” days (finals, day before break, day of
return). She stated that if employees did not return on Monday, they should be contacted to
find out why. Our expectation is that faculty are on campus when the campus reopens.
5. Adjunct training follow-up/feedback—There were about 80 attendees, plus the Chairs and
Deans. Feedback has been requested from the Chairs and adjunct faculty. Some thought that
30 minutes was not long enough for some breakout sessions so we may extend the development
session next time. The 30 minutes with the Chairs is beneficial and will continue. All chairs
and all adjuncts are required to attend the training and deans should communicate that
expectation. Some departments had handbooks or other items for the adjuncts that were wellreceived. If you have faculty who could contribute, please let VP Vanderslice know so she can
invite them to present one of the break-out sessions.
Susan Camp thought it would be a good idea if Chairs shared a sample syllabus with their
adjuncts and also made sure that adjuncts have the same textbook editions as the students in
their courses. AVP Kingsley also suggested that the common syllabi and other information for
departments be loaded in Blackboard. AVP Burgess shared that there were lots of questions
asked during the Blackboard breakout session. Departments can arrange to have Lisa Restivo
come and train their faculty and adjuncts to work with Blackboard.
6. Quality Matters training follow-up/feedback and next steps—Dean Camey thought the training
was geared more towards being an evaluator and less on how to produce quality courses. AVP
Burgess mentioned that the training provided is Step 1 in the overview process. AVP Burgess
will lead the follow-up. Deans should provide feedback to her on next steps – how can we take
what we learned and proceed with our courses?
Dean Huffman felt that some faculty members are ready to jump into the Quality Matters
process now and meet the challenges it presents. She felt that we should push and encourage
those faculty members and allow them greater access to the system and process.
Deans should identify faculty that are ready to go through the certification process. It would
be nice to have at least one faculty in each department certified. Many courses have not been
checked in some time. We need to determine how we can take what we learned at the training,
break it into smaller pieces and present it to those teaching online classes. Think about how we
can get our currently taught courses reviewed in a methodical manner. What can the Deans,
Chairs, others that attended the training do to accomplish this?
Dr. Burgess asked whether or not it would be worth getting a Quality Matters workbook for all
people teaching online. Dr. Vanderslice stated that we need to make the Quality Matters
initiative a priority in order to get the full benefit. Now that the training has been completed,
we need to ensure that we continue examining how we can move forward with this initiative.
7. Multi-location expectations for HLC—Cameron had a multi-location HLC visit in September
2014. HLC expects us to ensure certain standards are met at all of the locations where we
deliver programs. VP Vanderslice distributed a handout regarding HLC’s expectations for offsite programs.
Dr. Oty stated that she needs help identifying locations where 50% or more of a program is
delivered. The number of students doesn’t matter; just whether a student could have taken 50%
or more of a program over the last 4 years. Sites are randomly selected and they pick two to
visit where they interview staff and students. We should visit any sites where we deliver 50%
or more of our program at least once per year to review facilities, support services, advisement,
etc.
8. ITS Update—Kelly shared that all images have been uploaded to course rosters (requested at
Faculty Senate last year). Let Kelly know if you can’t see them. Students with no ID won’t
show in roster.
ITS is seeking approval for some positions hopefully by the end of the week. Dr. Oty asked
that Kelly consider including others on campus who will work with programmers or other IT
staff on any interviews in the future. Kelly also requested that he be copied on emails if it’s
something we think he needs to know so that he can be aware of the situation or problem.
9. HLC Criterion 5.C.4—There was a discussion on HLC Criterion 5.C.4 which states that:
The institution plans on the basis of a sound understanding of its current capacity. Institutional
plans anticipate the possible impact of fluctuations in the institution’s sources of revenue, such as
enrollment, the economy, and state support.
In essence, this means that we must have a plan for budget fluctuations. The current budget cut
for supplies was discussed and the deans asked that VP Carter clarify the amount.
Dean Conley asked if the areas that were on the list to be cut had to be so specific because it
was upsetting to some individuals. Dr. Vanderslice replied that if they were less specific,
getting appropriate feedback on specific items would be difficult. VP Vanderslice had shared
contents of the list prior to its dissemination with each of her direct reports to hopefully
alleviate its impact.
10. Remaining Seat Report—Dr. Oty emailed the information to the Deans yesterday. Take a look
at the information to see if any changes need to be made to courses for your area.
11. Spring 2016 Enrollment Update—Dr. Oty provided a day to day comparison. The weekly
comparison will be emailed tomorrow. AVP Kingsley shared that the Academic Advising
Center had 151 and 150 visits on Monday and Tuesday respectively (2 days before classes
started). Dr. Oty stated that we have one less day before the semester started this year than last
year.
If enrollment is down 1.8% or less, we will not have to cut additional money from the budget.
If enrollment is down more than 1.8%, we will have to cut additional money from the budget
on top of the planned amount.
Dr. Oty will email the list by age, class and military enrollment to the Deans tomorrow.
 The meeting adjourned at 3:45 p.m.