Council of Deans Minutes
Date: Wednesday, March 2, 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
Sherry Young, Director, Library Services
Linda Phillips, Registrar
Mandy Husak, Academic Affairs Coordinator
Vinetta Buchanan, Academic Affairs Specialist
Agenda and Notes
 Approval of Council of Deans Minutes – February 3, 2016 Meeting (Handout) – The minutes
were approved as presented.
 Discussion Items:
1. Aggie Registration Update—Linda Phillips provided an update on Aggie Registration. Two
trainings have been conducted so far with two more scheduled for Friday, March 4 at 8:30
am and 1:30 pm. There has been good attendance so far (39 at the first training and 22 at the
second one) but many of the attendees were administrative assistants. Linda appealed to the
Deans and Directors to encourage their Chairs, faculty and advisors to attend. Linda will add
a few more training sessions for next week.
Posters have been put up around campus to create awareness of the new process. A webpage
has been created at https://www.cameron.edu/aggieregistration and user guides for faculty
and students are available there. VPAA Vanderslice has also done interviews with CUTV and
the Collegian. In addition, there will be a presentation at the next Student Government
Association meeting. VPAA Vanderslice encouraged the Deans and Directors to request a
refresher for Degree Works from Linda or Mandy if needed as it will go hand in hand with
Aggie Registration.
2. Accessibility Update—AVP Burgess reminded the group that a webpage has been created at
http://www.cameron.edu/online/blackboard-accessibility-submissions for faculty to request
assistance with making their course documents accessible. Faculty can upload their
documents to the webpage and the Distance Learning Office will make them accessible and
return them to the faculty member. Emails have gone out to the faculty to inform them of this
process and student workers have been hired specifically for this task. She urged the Deans
and Directors to encourage their faculty to submit their documents. Top priority is given to
faculty with current or upcoming students with accessibility needs. Online and Top 30
courses also have priority over traditional classes.
3. Increasing the Adjunct pool—VPAA Vanderslice shared that we need to do some
advertising in order to attract good adjunct faculty. She asked the Deans and Directors to
start thinking now about the qualifications they’re looking for in order to meet their needs
for next year. A question was raised about using OpenHire to recruit adjuncts. VPAA
Vanderslice will check with Human Resources to see if this can be done.
4. New Student Orientation—VPEMSS Horinek and his team are trying to do student
orientation differently. Recent high school graduates applying for admission will be required
to attend a 3 hour orientation session. This session will include the students logging into
Aggie Access, getting to know campus, visiting the Advising and Testing Centers and
completing the ACT Engage survey. More information will be disseminated as plans for the
new process are finalized.
5. Retiree Information—It is time to submit information on retirees for the Service Awards and
Retirement Reception. The form can be located on the Council of Deans folder on the w
drive. Information should be submitted by March 31.
6. Drafts of Never Attended/Non-Attendance policies for review—VPAA Vanderslice shared
samples of Non-Attendance policies for review. We need to come up with a policy of our
own for students who do not attend class on the first day or never attend. This process will be
different than Administrative Withdrawals. These students will need to be designated as N/A
or something else that will distinguish them from a regular W or AW.
VPAA Vanderslice asked that if anyone finds good policies from other universities that they
share it with her so that we can come up with something that will work for us. We will ask
faculty to report students who don’t attend in the fall. For this to be successful, all faculty
will need to participate. Deans should begin discussing this with faculty now.
7. Updated policy for inclusion in syllabi no later than Fall 2016—VPAA Vanderslice shared an
update to the excused absence policy that deals with make-up exams for these students. This
policy has come through Faculty Senate and has been approved by the President. We will
make some changes in the addendum to notify students of this new policy.
8. HLC Criterion 4.A.4—Dr. Oty
The institution maintains and exercises authority over the prerequisites for courses, rigor of courses,
expectations for student learning, access to learning resources, and faculty qualifications for all its
programs, including dual credit programs. It assures that its dual credit courses or programs for high
school students are equivalent in learning outcomes and levels of achievement to its higher education
curriculum.
This criterion is in line with what we have been discussing about faculty qualifications.
College courses taught at the high schools have to be equivalent to the courses taught at the
college campus.
9. Early Alert Update—Dr. Oty provided an update on Early Alert. Usage is up to 77%.
AVPAA Kingsley has already received Early Alert numbers for Top 30 courses.
 The meeting adjourned at 2:50 p.m.