Council of Deans
Unapproved Minutes
January 28, 2002
Members:
Sullivan
Buckley
Burgess
Dawe
Goode
Harrison
Neale
Soelle
Young
Also Present:
Dr. Linda Dzialo
Mr. Tony Pokorny
1. Sullivan stated that Harrison attended an interesting conference and asked him to tell the
group a little bit about it. Harrison stated that he went to the American Association of Higher
Education's national conference which was focused on engagement of faculty and engagement of
the university and the community. The specific thing he went out there to look at was the program
with emphasis on the use and management ofpart time faculty. He was surprised to fmd the number
ofdifferent views that universities nation wide take with regard to various levels ofpart time faculty.
He was able to contact some ofthe presenters who he thought, from their presentations, would have
good information and asked them to send him their faculty handbook, training modules, etc. for part
time faculty. There were some excellent programs on faculty development. One of the most
outstanding programs was called the Provost's Seminar. Details about this particular seminar were
presented by Harrison. Kimberly Merritt and Harrison went to several sessions together and split
up for others. He will gather the information Kimberly Merritt has and what he brought back and
put together a booklet and make it available through Faculty Development for the deans to pass it
around. Harrison stated that at one time Cameron belonged to the AAHE but we are no longer a
member. We may want to reconsider an institutional membership. There may be a variety ofthings
we can all do from time to time as institutional members. Discussion followed.
2. Agenda Item 1 - Adjunct Faculty Representation
Sullivan stated that this item has to do with a topic that came up in the last Cameron
Council having to do with adjunct faculty representation as part ofthe Faculty Council. Jim Lambert
is on the State Faculty Council that advises the State Regents and apparently there was some
discussion in a meeting on this matter as to what degree and in what way adjunct faculty should be
represented. One side of the spectrum is that they would actually have from each department an
adjunct faculty member that sits on the Faculty Council. The other side is that there is no
representation. Sullivan feels that maybe the best way to do this is to be sure we are talking to the
adjunct faculty, which we are, and every department should solicit ideas and thoughts from the
adjunct faculty and then the department representative take their input to the Faculty Council.
Discussion followed.
3. Agenda Item 2 - SGA Mandatory Excuse Resolution
Sullivan stated this item has come out of the Cameron Council. The Student
Government wants to have a mandatory excuse resolution. Sullivan does not believe this has passed.
What it basically dictates is that if a person is out of school for a number of reasons, the faculty
member has to give them an excused absence and must work with them in making it up. If any of
the deans hear of this, then this is what it is about. We will see where it goes but it is fairly
unrealistic and the Student Government officers were told that. Discussion followed.
4. Agenda Item 3 - Retirement/Recognition Dinner
Sullivan stated that this item has to do with the retirement and recognition dinner as
well as some things that were brought up in the Cameron Council. These are things that the
President will talk about tomorrow. They have been approved - retired faculty and staff will get
parking stickers, the fitness center will be available at no charge for the spouses, and retired faculty
and staffwill get two parking permits at no charge. There will be a retirement and recognition dinner
on April 19. Discussion followed.
5. Agenda Item 4 - Departmental Tuition Waivers
Sullivan stated that he is assuming the deans have looked at their recruiting plans, are
satisfied and have released the tuition waivers. Early release of those is something that almost all
the department chairs have asked for.
6. Agenda Item 5 - New Chairs Training Conference
Sullivan is interested in having a training conference, seminar, retreat or whatever for
new chairs this coming fall. What he would like feedback on is do the deans like this idea and if
so what issues would they want covered. Sullivan asked the deans to e-mail him with their ideas.
He needs to start doing the structure ofthis fairly quickly so that he can find out who to bring in as
a consultant.
7. Agenda Item 6 - Letter re: Teaching in Higher Education (THE) Forum
Sullivan circulated the brochure regarding a conference to be held in April on The
Scholarship of Teaching and the Online Learning Environment: Accelerating the Learning Curve.
He stated that if deans have someone that would like to go and really benefit from it and is really
committed to learning more about this, give him an e-mail and if money is not available from
department budgets, then he will see if he can get some funds.
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COMMENTS
D. Goodea. Distributed a document that gives the directory to get into the new module that has been
added to the SPSS. There were some faculty that had expressed some interest in it so they were emailed that directly. She did not notify all faculty and staffbecause everybody doesn't need it. The
only people who need it are the people who are SPSS users and use that advanced module.
b. The other item Goode mentioned was that Microsoft produced their last operating system
patch for Windows 95 in August 2000. As of December 31,2002, Microsoft no longer supports
Windows 95. This is a terrible time to mention this but as everyone can, any old computers that run
Windows 95 really need to be moved up to Windows 98. Windows 98 will run on a 166 platform
but it really likes to have a 300 platform to run on. The danger with Windows 95 is that there are
no more security patches being released which opens us up to great vulnerability from hackers.
Goode asked everyone to keep that in mind. Sullivan stated that we need to assess what our needs
are. There may be some funds available somewhere that don't have anything to do with E&G
funding. Sullivan asked Goode to send out an e-mail and ask people to evaluate how many oftheir
computers are 95 and of those that are 95 how many are 166. She will do that. Sullivan asked
Goode ifshe thought this was a huge problem. Goode replied that from her records, and she doesn't
have a record of all the computers on campus, there are 88 PC's running 100 mg, 67 that are 120 or
150 and 163 that are 166. Those are just the ones she has documented. Also, Microsoft will quit
supporting Windows 98 in the summer of2003. Discussion followed.
Buckley - No comments.
Dawe - Asked Goode how many users are there on the site license for the SPSS. Goode replied we
now have 25 concurrent. Discussion followed.
Dzialo - Mentioned that on the April 20, Recruitment Day, they have about 20 individuals and
professors that are willing to help. If the deans know ofanyone else who wants to be in on the first
planning session, which will be February 4, let her know. Question was asked if she needs more
people. Dzialo replied that they are in good shape as long as everyone continues to build interest and
support for that day. That is mainly what she needs.
Pokorny - Stated that the eAnnyU proposal is coming along fine. It goes out tomorrow. It was a
document that came together very well because we have been doing very well with our online
program so we could answer most ofthe questions very easily. The one concern he has is that there
is a statement that we cannot charge eAnnyU students more than we charge other Cameron students.
When they talk about charges, they use the terms price, tuition, fees and we are not sure what they
mean when they say we have to charge the same or less to the eAnnyU soldiers. We hope that our
low price will overcome that particular problem. We have tried to write an exception that makes
sense. There is one more thing Pokorny would like the deans to consider. We really don't have
enough really good "bragging" words yet. Ifyou were at a party telling someone about your school,
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how would you brag about it being a special and unique place you are proud? Pokorny asked if
anyone has any words like that in one paragraph that he could get bye-mail by the end ofthe day he
would appreciate it. Sullivan mentioned that there are some good words in the "strengths" portion
of our Title III grant. Discussion followed.
Harrison - No comments.
Young - No comments.
Neale - No comments.
SoelIe a. Stated that she received an e-mail from a chair who asked her to bring up the issue of
accessibility to some of our buildings. It mentioned Howell Hall and that the Communications
building is not wheel chair accessible. Even though there is an elevator in Howell Hall, the way it
is recessed and where the buttons are located makes it difficult to access and often there is a
classroom door that is blocking the elevator door. Soelle is not sure what the chair is referring to in
the Communications building because you enter it on one level, except that possibly they cannot get
in the doors. With the present doors you certainly can't get in them if you are impaired. She will
have to go over and look at that. Sullivan mentioned that we presently are working on a problem
at the Library and trying to get that entryway done. Sullivan asked Soelle to give Harold Robinson
an e-mail. Tom Chapman will need to take a look at Howell Hall.
b. Soelle had one other question. Did Sullivan intentionally leave offItem No.5 (paying for
the health insurance ofretirees) on the Retirement and Fringe Benefits Committee Recommendation
document? Sullivan replied that they discussed it but decided it would absolutely break the bank.
John Sterling has been asked to do a feasibility analysis on that but always in the past when we have
done that it has not been feasible. Brief discussion followed.
Burgess - Stated that two ofthe faculty in the Business Research Center, Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Y, went
over and spoke to ASCOG. Burgess received a letter in the mail this morning thanking them for
coming over and said they did an outstanding job of helping them understand the effects of the
recession and how it would impact them and sent $400 for the BRC as a thank you honorarium for
them coming over to do that. They were extremely complimentary.
Adjourned 11 :38 a.m.
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