Deans’ Meeting Agenda
March 4, 2014
Noon – 3:45 pm – Time Change
Deputy 301A
CARRY OVER ITEMS
1. 3000/5000 course set up & ARR course requests as they relate to D2L
Lynn Johnson
Reminder for deans to watch for 3000 and 5000 level courses to be requested at the same time, to help avoid
some of the issues with creating courses after the semester has started, manual enrollments, etc. Also ARR
course request forms from dept.
2. Academic and Student Affairs Awards Attachment 1
Martin
Shared award submission information.
3. Support staff discussion Attachments 2-5
Jeanine
Discussion of the level of support within colleges. Is there a need for additional staff to serve faculty? Summer
coverage. One of the key recommendations from the clerical study involved sharing workloads by creating pools of
support staff/cross training to cover more than one area; wasn’t implemented. How are we training staff in the skills
they need to do the work they need to do? MnSCU training opportunities, IT training, interpersonal skills, diversity
training. Budget for prof development; offer annually. Also may need to provide assistance in finding the training
opportunities. New staff orientation, or ambassador program for new staff? Include in future MAP update
conversations.
4. NIMS Training Martin
Reminder to do this from Bill Maki; make sure it’s recorded.
NEW ITEMS
1. Institutional Research
Doug Olney (Guest)
30th day enrollment down .5 % to meet the annual enrollment goal. Also shared course completion rates by
student class rank. Freshman online course completion rate is lower than juniors and seniors. Overall, online
course completion rate is very similar to on campus course completion rates. Should we allow freshman to take
online courses? Why do freshman take online courses? Course availability, when do they register? Asked Doug
to compare completion rates of freshman who took both online and on campus courses. How many are late
registrations? Also which of the courses are liberal ed courses.
2. 5th grader field trip – April 11th Attachment 6
Mike Heitkamp
Get started curriculum with Bemidji Public Schools. Mike shared the schedule of the academic breakout sessions.
½ hour hands on session to engage the students. Faculty can include students in the sessions. School provides
chaperones and Admissions provides an ambassador to help get students to and from sessions. Two sessions
offered, morning and afternoon. Did this event last year as well. Would like 12 groups for each session; 20
students per group. Mike would like names of faculty via email by Friday. Mike and Brett Bahr are the admission
office contacts.
3. Role of administration
Martin
Visioning, strategizing, clearing the way for optimal performance, championing the cause. Using individual efforts
to get things done. Finding resources. Shield faculty and staff from forces beyond their control. Anything that
enhances the employee and student relationship. Excellence.
4. Summer vacation times/retreats
May 19-21 or June 2-4 – dates held for retreat
Hold dates for revisiting MAP retreat; June 2 and 3.
Martin
5. Promotion applications/Non-renewals/Tenure
Notice to Faculty
Due to Provost Office - 3-31-14
Martin
Reminder that summary recommendations for tenure and promotion need to be out to faculty now. Faculty have
the opportunity to respond. Final document due to Martin at the end of the month; would appreciate it earlier if
possible. Deadline for probationary track non-renewals has passed.
6. Scheduling classrooms
Jeanine
Nursing has identified classroom needs; difficulties created by class scheduling not following the same patterns as
other courses due to clinical scheduling. Dedicated classroom space would resolve this issue. Requested
information on specific needs – schedules and class sizes. Patrick will work with Robin to explore options for fall
semester; room changes will need to be made this week.
Patrick also shared a list of courses that are currently scheduled to meet outside of the scheduling guidelines to
review reasons for these exceptions. Have they been approved or should the schedules be adjusted? Check with
Patrick or Michelle to determine which is the case.
7. Summer chair courses Attachment 7
Patrick
Review list to make sure course payment is categorized correctly. Provide updates to Patrick. Remind
departments that summer course profits to fund bottom dollars go to Academic Affairs.
8. Deans List criteria – change Attachment 8
Patrick
Proposal to raise the GPA criteria for Dean’s list to 3.5 from 3.25. Would be in line with most of the other MnSCU
Universities. Will take to Meet and Confer.
9. Time and leave reporting for faculty
Patrick
Different look and feel for online system. Will be effective May 21 – for faculty sick leave and personal days, etc.
10. Load/overload for arranged courses
Patrick
Grievance on non payment for arranged course. Clarification that ARR courses should not be paid (load credit or
overload) without a written agreement. Patrick will send out some language about this to clarify.
11. PLA, CAEL, accelerated courses & competency based programs – working adults Martin/Bob
Off campus, distance delivered programs should consider competency based learning, and accelerated courses.
12. MNCC 20th Anniversary Summit – St. Thomas – St. Paul
Martin
Campus Compact event – space for two faculty to attend. Let Jackie know who will/can attend.
13. Chairs forum agenda
Martin
March 19th – agenda will include enrollment, retention and future budget ramifications. New faculty lines and where
our enrollments need to be, to avoid budget challenges in the next two years. Growth opportunities in planning.
14. Meet and Confer items from last meeting (2-24-14)
Martin
Course evaluation review will be brought forward to next meet and confer for comment and implementation next
fall. Also discussed making awards differentiable from each other – i.e. an additional minor would need to include
additional/different courses from another award.
15. Initiating Campus Advocacy Effort in Support of MnSCU Bonding Request Attachment 9 Martin
Request to contact legislators to support bonding request for Sanford and Memorial renovation project.
16. System Dean Training Attachment 10 and 11
Deans are enrolled in the system modules and were asked to complete.
Martin
17. University Approval for Practicum Placements
Jim
Support for Professional Education students who are required to be off campus and out of classes to fulfill
additional practicum hours needed for licensure standards. Students may meet resistance from some faculty for
missing course time to meet this requirement. Faculty could follow process already in place for students who are
away from campus for music events, etc. Students do need to be aware of test schedules.
18. Discussion of how visiting professors are hosted and provided for while here
Jim
Visiting teacher from Switzerland, requested housing assistance from a faculty member. Sanjeev and Cherish are
the formal contacts for any international visitor, including the scheduling of the Glas House.
19. Wait list – carry over or new
Colleen
Colleen is collecting questions from faculty and deans about what information may be helpful to pull out of wait lists
to share with Michelle. For example, unduplicated number of students on wait lists, class level of students on the
wait lists.
20. Safety Issues – emergency procedures
Colleen
Suggested more regular training sessions would be useful, including at start up. Also concerns about open
buildings not being monitored on weekends and what kind of process is being used by security to determine who
should be let into closed buildings, etc. There is an emergency procedures group at the University to address
some of these issues. Will share this feedback with Bill to learn about future plans for additional training and next
steps.
21. QM Institutional Rep
Lynn
Need for faculty to serve as IR for MOQI. Discussed possible faculty within colleges. May also be beneficial to use
the dollars for faculty compensation for having courses reviewed instead of release time for a faculty IR.
Suggested focus on a program to have all courses reviewed rather than any or all courses to try to increase
number of reviewed courses and campus awareness.
22. Other
Patrick reminded deans of need to review courses that haven’t been offered in the past five years. Reviewed chair
evaluation process.