ACED Departmental Minutes
Department of Adult and Career Education
“Positively Impacting Learning Through Evidenced-Based Practices”
Date: February 10, 2016
Location: COE Dean’s Conference Room – Education Center
Time: 9:30a.m. – 11:30a.m.
Faculty present: Dr. Backes, Dr. Wright, Dr. Martinez, Mrs. Amy Williams, Dr. Whisler, Dr. Ellis,
Dr. Pickles, and Mrs. Wendy Miller
I.
Call to Order & Welcome
Dr. Martinez called the meeting to order at 9:35a.m.
II.
Apologies, Recognitions and Announcements
A. Mr. Nawolski sends his apologies by way of Dr. Martinez. There were no other
apologies. Dr. Ott was in town and briefly stopped by the Department.
B. Dr. Ott and Dr. Thomerson are expected to return to the Department in the Fall
(Fall 2016).
C. Mrs. Miller will make contact with Dr. Willis to get an update on the status of her office
and retirement.
III.
Consideration of January 20, 2016 Faculty Meeting Minutes
A. Motion to accept minutes by Dr. Ellis and Dr. Whisler seconded the motion.
o Corrections requested for page 5 to include: motion to adjourn by Dr.
Backes, motion passing and adjournment
o Efforts will be made for formatting consistency for the minutes.
B. Motion passed and minutes were accepted as amended.
IV.
Updates – Dr. Martinez
A. Spring Enrolment & CHP
o Average of $275/credit hour @ 3308 hours = $909,700 generated by
ACED for the Spring semester
o How does this number compare to the expenses of the Department, and
are we paying for ourselves?
o The Department budget for the year is approximately $800k, and this
semester alone we are generating over $900k
o ACED is generating approximately $2.2 million for VSU yearly.
o The online enrollments are a bit larger than face-to-face enrollments.
o We should consider a Dual Enrollment initiative for the OAT program.
B. MOU with UWI
o President Staton has approved the MOU with UWI
o A virtual signing ceremony using web-based video conferencing is being
arranged for the first week in March.
C. Regents Academic Committee on Adult Learning meeting
o Dr. Martinez was in attendance and represented VSU
o Rosalind Fowler announced the “Go Back Move Ahead Program” has
funding for an open house to help recruit non-traditional students.
o Nathan Metzner is the VSU campus liaison.
o What have we done to target specific students?
o Suggestions were made to visit colleges to recruit students.
o We could bring the students here to show off our campus.
o Larry could help us with the marketing strategy
o Jon Sizemore with “Georgia On My Line” (GOML) asked for campuses to
review the listing of online programs on the GOML website for accuracy
and completeness. Dr. Martinez noticed that the BAS in HCP OBC
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D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
option, and the Masters in ACED degree are not listed. He will ask to
have them added to the website
o Mr. Sizemore also spoke about eCampus and the USG signing with the
national consortium of 35 states for reciprocity of online courses. Georgia
is part of the consortium, and VSU has submitted its institutional
membership to the consortium. Our membership will allow students from
states with consortium membership guaranteed online class acceptance
“no questions asked”
MS Certification Testing Program
o Lab 2142 will be designated as an exclusive testing center.
o The lab will be ready for testing by April 25, 2016.
o After April 11, the days and times that 2142 is scheduled for open lab will
be moved to lab 2007 so that the open lab times will remain unchanged.
o We may also be using 2007 as a fourth lab in the future since we are
dedicating 2142 as a testing center.
o Adrian from IT reports that the computers in 2007 are among the most upto-date of the other computer labs in the building.
o What is the plan for the testing logistics?
o We plan administering tests during class time.
o We will be setting up a testing schedule.
o Mrs. Miller needs to know about the use in Lab 2142 so that we can all
coordinate.
o Future planning for adding testing certifications in: Office, Adobe,
QuickBooks, MPA and A+ is being discussed
Personnel
o Dr. Martinez’s recommendation was to combine the funds from Mr.
Nawolski’s and Dr. Wills’ lines to fund two full-time lines in HCP and OAT.
o The OAT line is pretty definite.
o The HCP line is indefinite at this time.
o No new hires will be approved because of the upcoming budget cut.
o Can a non-tenure be turned to a tenure track?
o The hope is that we will be able to make Mr. Nawolski’s and Mrs.
Williams’s positions tenure-track lines.
o The strategy at this point is to keep the positions we have.
o Former Provost/VPAA Dr. Rogers stated that an institution needs a
certain percentage of non-tenure employees to allow for flexibility
o If a person is hired on a non-tenure track they can still be promoted.
o Because we are understaffed and there are no opportunities for adding to
our staff in the near future, we have to become more efficient and protect
our time.
CPR
o Reports were sent
o The reviewers wanted evidence of yearly reviews, so Dr. Martinez sent them
the last three IERs and the IEPs for our department.
Library Orders
o A spreadsheet will be sent to faculty to place orders on any items to be
purchased for our ACED allocation. Orders are due February 14, 2016
TIES Conference
o Dr. Martinez, Dr. Pickles, Dr. Ellis, Mrs. Amy Williams, Mrs. Sheila Hall, Kiiva
Copeland, and Treva Gear will be making presentations at the conference.
o The department should be billed for faculty members who have registered to
attend.
o Faculty were asked to give Mrs. Miller their registration invoices.
o It was suggested that attending faculty members should split up, and take
notes so that they can share what they have learned during the next meeting.
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I.
Merit Pay Possibilities
o The Governor has included a 3% merit pay to his budget, but that budget still
has to be approved.
o Dr. Martinez requested that all Faculty Annual Reports and Plans be
submitted to him as soon as possible.
o The part-time instructors will also be evaluated, and about 85% have
submitted their reports.
o Dr. James Zink, who has been teaching the safety class, called to discuss the
PT evaluations and is planning to attend the upcoming ACED conference.
He lives in North Carolina.
o An item was raised regarding the need to address (in a future meeting) the
use of G.A. time
J. Open House
o Dr. Martinez attended the open house.
o Nakesia Cook was the student representative on the panel, and she did great
representing OAT and ACED.
V.
ACED innovations in Teaching and Learning Conference
A. A poll was conducted of doctoral students and part-time instructors
B. Of the 22 doctoral students who responded, 17 preferred Saturday and 5 preferred
Friday
C. Of the 11 part-time instructors who responded, 8 preferred Saturday and 3 preferred
Friday
D. Dr. Martinez asked for a motion to set the conference date for Saturday, April 16, 2016
E. Dr. Whisler motioned
F. Dr. Ellis seconded the motion
G. During the discussion it was mentioned that this is the Gulf South Conference with a
new tag line (Gulf South Conference with a facelift)
H. After discussion the Motion was passed. There were no abstentions and all were in
favor of passing. The conference date is set for April 16, 2016.
I. The Focus of this conference
o Training Part-time instructors
o We will supply workshops for the part-time instructors to further develop their
skills with online teaching, face-to-face teaching, and the use of Blazeview.
o Doctoral Students
o This is a way to give our doctoral students the opportunity to present, and it
fulfills one of their degree program’s learning outcomes
o Draw from Technical Colleges
o Hopefully will improve relations, recruit potential students, and maybe recruit
more part-time instructors.
o New CTE Teachers
o Dr. Backes is sponsoring his 27 NTI students to attend
o There is a need for activities geared toward these attendees.
o Planning Committee for this conference
o Dr. Martinez asked for volunteers, and Dr. Whisler, and Dr. Backes did so
o Have a registration with an attached cost but have waivers available
VI.
Part-time Faculty handbook
A. Dr. Whisler has been developing a handbook for part-time instructors.
B. The ACED Part-Time Faculty Handbook is designed loosely after VSU’s College of
Arts and Sciences handbook (last updated in 2001).
C. Dr. Backes suggested adding an FAQ sheet at the end.
D. Faculty members were asked to provide to feedback and suggestions for additional
information to Dr. Whisler by Feb. 17, 2016
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VII.
End-of-year (EOY) funding priority
A. Dean Minor wants a list of EOY priorities on items to be purchased from each
department by February 20, 2016.
B. The list needs to have big ticket items like last year’s purchase of the MS Certification
Exams, the laptops, and the chairs for the lab.
o The new chairs have been installed.
o The other labs have not been checked for bad chairs.
o We need to have something to tag bad chairs, maybe sticky notes.
VIII.
Graduate School update
A. Dr. Ellis reported that there were not very many curriculum changes; a lot of the time
was spent talking about graduation.
B. The convocation and commencement ceremonies are moving outside.
C. A grading scale change was discussed.
 It was suggested that an “A” should be between 93-100, instead of
between 90-100
o The grading scale is up to the professor as long as the spread is no more
than 10 points.
IX.
COE & VSU Committee meeting updates – Postponed
X.
Other business
A. ACTE has reached out to Dr. Backes about advertising on their website.
o Dr. Backes and Dr. Martinez will reach out to the College, Graduate School,
Off-Campus Programs, and Provost’s Office for funding to help with the
$5,000.00 cost.
o The advertising includes creative services and unlimited changes.
o The ad will not just appear on the opening page but on every internal page for
the website as a banner at the top of the page
B. Dr. Backes also reported the retractable department promotional banner is in the
process of being printed, and our newly redesigned Master’s brochure is in the process
of being approved.
C. Dr. Ryan from the Counseling Center has been invited to the April meeting to discuss
what we can do to help students and what kind of services the Center offers.
o There was a handout distributed about the changes in students seeking
services at the Counseling Center.
o Faculty members need to be able to identify when it may be appropriate to
recommend services to a student, how to recommend students seek
services, and how to refer students.
o Computer Lab 1136 is having some issues with the door and no one’s card
will open the door. If there is a need to get into the lab, go to Tracy in the
Dean’s office and ask for her key.
XI.
Adjournment
A. Dr. Martinez adjourned the meeting at 11:39 am.
Respectfully submitted by Larry Turner