Long Range Planning Committee
MINUTES
NOVEMBER 16, 2010
8:30
CHAIR
David Fennema
SECRETARY
Courtney Glazer (for Andrew Baker)
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ATTENDEES
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MEETING DATES
CETESROOM 115
Mike Estep Department, Computing & Technology
Courtney Glazer Department, Education
Matt Jenkins Department Communications, FS Chair Elect
Abbas Johari Department, Multi Media Design
John McArthur Vice President, Academic Affairs
Diann Megert Department, Education
Alfred Duckett Department, Music (Leave of Absence)
Karla Oty (guest) Director, Institutional Research, Assessment, and Accountability
Tuesday, November 16, 8:30am
APPROVED MINUTES
The second meeting of the Long Range Planning Committee for the 2010/2011 academic year
was called to order at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 in CETES room 105 by
committee chair, David Fennema.
Discussion committee members reviewed the minutes of the October 15, 2010, meeting. A
correction to the status of Dr. Duckett was made to the list of attendees.
NEW BUSINESS
Chair David Fennema welcomed the members of the Long - Range Planning committee to the first
meeting of the year. Fennema stated that the objective for this meeting was to set the agenda for
this year and to prioritize the topics from the April 16, 2010 minutes.
DISCUSSION
David Fennema opened the floor for discussion of the recent HLC visit. Vice President McArthur and
Dr. Oty addressed the findings of the team which are strictly recommendations for Cameron to
consider.
1
Faculty Overloads
The HLC team was concerned that Cameron is trying to do too much with too few people. The
suggestion was made that perhaps the curriculum is too large to be supported or that more
faculty are needed.
DISCUSSION
Specifically, 60% of the faculty carry an overload. The team addressed the policy in the
catalog stating that a course with fewer than 10 students should be cancelled. Many of those
courses are still run; for example, the theater department would need to close its doors to
abide by the policy. As a result of this finding, there will be a new form for department chairs
to account for small course sizes.
2
General Education
As expected, the HLC team had recommendations for general education. They thought that
DISCUSSION
all general education faculty should be involved in the assessment of general education. Also,
a review of which courses cover which outcomes should be done to ensure that, if only one
course covers a particular outcome, that all graduates must enroll in that course.
3
Assessment
The team suggested the creation of an annual executive summary of the PQIRs to serve as a
“state of the university’s assessment” report. Such a report would help deans and chairs with
program assessment as well as helping the VPAA see program needs across the university.
DISCUSSION
The latter will assist in making budget decisions. The team also recommended that the
university have a written “assessment plan.” Finally, they asked us to consider how
departments that do a good job on assessment could be rewarded and how help could be
provided to those that do not do a good job.
4
Retention and Graduation Rates
DISCUSSION
There is now a link to this information on the Cameron website for prospective students to
view. The departments will be helping determine why we are losing students.
5
Changes to HLC
HLC is looking at changing the format for evaluating institutions. One element of this is a
portfolio of information that is updated regularly and made available to the public. Another
DISCUSSION
element, called Pathways, would have the university selecting 1 -3 projects to focus on over a
four year period of time. Cameron will need to decide how we will pick the project—where
we need to focus our resources for four years. While the team was highly complimentary of
our planning, this is a new issue to be addressed.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 a.m.