Academic Affairs Council
Administrative Notes
Date: August 26, 2014
8:30-11:30 AM
BA 205a
Attendance: Jeff Olson, Maureen Andrade, Kat Brown, David Connelly, Karen Cushing, Newell Dayley, Dan Fairbanks, Parker Fawson,
Michael Savoie, Tom Sturtevant, Richard Tafalla, Mallory Wallin, Fred White, Forrest Williams, Norm Wright, David Yells
Guests: Carolyn Hamilton, Joseph Hwang, Michelle Kearns, Alexis Palmer
Agenda Item
Math Refresher
Workshop
Discussion Summary
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Carolyn Hamilton made a presentation on the Math Refresher Workshops and their impact. The
workshops began in 2007. Had 215 students participate in the workshops in Fall 2014. The program
is self-funded with any leftover funds going to the Math Club. These are face-to-face workshops.
What does the program need?
o Create awareness of the workshops. Need proper advisement for Accuplacer and
workshop.
o Better scheduling for classrooms
o Additional methods to pay instructors which also allow excess funds to go to the Math
Club.
o Whiteboards
Deans inquired if there was data comparing Accuplacer vs Refresher and how students performed.
Carolyn said she has not tracked that data.
Forrest recommended Carolyn make a presentation to the Advisors. She agreed.
Deans would like to know if there was any off-campus data available in regards to offering the
workshop off campus. Carolyn said no.
Dan Fairbanks noted that they are looking into offering a mid-semester workshop for those that
would begin on the block.
New Programs
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ESL Department Split from Basic Composition
o ESL is soft funded and all items, faculty, staff, budget, etc. are already separated from
Basic Composition. ESL revenue for the program is about $3.5 M/year and operating costs
are about $1.2M.
o ESL faculty count is eight. Forrest Williams noted the RTP committee will continue to
function together. The department will continue to stay in current space.
o Approved to move forward.
Three-Year Follow-ups
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BS in Personal Financial Planning
o Tracking along with expectations being met. Big win is 100% placement of students for the
first few graduating classes.
CP in Legal Studies
o Norm reported that WSB is considering dropping this program in future as it is not
meeting expectations. This is not for public information at this point. When a program is
actually dropped, students are given ample notice to complete the program. A specific
plan will be put in place for the discontinued program and all students that were in the
program are notified.
Art: Painting and Drawing; Sculpture and Ceramics Emphases
o Newell noted that these programs should have not been split out. The data is exactly the
same, so hard to track appropriately. Unless the numbers increase, need to figure out
another way to support them.
BS/AS in Geomatics
o Michael Savoie reported the program and enrollments are strong. Third year numbers are
lower than expected. Legislators want the program to be four years. T&C is trying to
balance the program waiting on legislature approval. If approved, UVU will see an increase
of students as two-year students will need to come back for their four-year degree. The
program wants to expand the GIS portion and this will mean an increase of faculty.
Currently working with Environmental Science on the expansion. Michael will check on the
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Completion Plan
Proposal
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graduate data for clarification.
Writing Studies Emphasis
o Emphasis was added as there was some demand for students that were interested in
more technical writing not creative writing. Don’t have specific numbers on the emphasis.
Enrollments are meeting expectations. Michael Savoie would like some data on this
program as there is a need for technical writers in industry. This is not a technical writing
degree, but has the elements. Norm Wright was concerned about the graduation data.
Need more data to better align programs. Fred White noted that this might be an area of
focus for internships. Kat Brown noted that some of the problems with data are not
having information on the graduates and what they are actually doing after graduation.
Dan Fairbanks indicated that maybe this information needs to be indicated in the reports
such as “don’t know whether individual is employed.”
Business Intelligence Systems Emphasis
Computer Forensics Security Emphasis
Healthcare Information Systems Emphasis
o These are specific emphases that are industry driven. Need detail data on emphases. Kat
Brown noted she needs an articulated request and will provide the data. Michael reported
that they have a 90%+ placement. Lack of detailed data is hindering where Michael wants
the programs to go.
BA/BS Marketing
o Program is exceeding all expectations.
Minor Marketing
o Program going along well.
IRI is providing more institutional data. IT Analytics provides more granular data. We need to
decide what information/data we want. If IRI added one more level down such as “emphases,” it
would help and would like them to include an “unknown” category. Jeff noted there is a
clearinghouse that tracks when students leave one institution for another.
AAC approved to move all Three-Year Follow-ups forward but Legal Studies as Norm will make a
few revisions and then send forward.
Michelle Kearns worked with Student Success & Retention Committee on the proposal. The
committee tried to identify why students leave UVU and ways to retain them.
Reviewed handout
o Begin tracking first year bachelor degree cohort.
o Guided Pathways – need to be more intentional in helping students move through their
first year. Savoie noted that we need to assist students when they discover they are in the
wrong major. Kearns reported that the university purchased “College Scheduler” to assist
students in planning their schedules. Concern over how to market the $10K degree.
o Intervention & Outreach – partnering with state on several outreach programs.
o Campus Culture – exploring ways to improve student focused areas such as advising,
customer service, and communication.
o Quality Teaching – create opportunities where some star faculty are put in front of
students. Need to better assess and leverage what we are currently doing. Need to
examine the design of the 19 core courses.
o Financial Resources – Norm noted that the Financial Literacy portion has been turned over
to WSB from UC. Michelle Kearns will follow-up.
o Data and Assessment – need to improve data driven decision making.
o Pre-University Outreach – Need to strengthen outreach with high school counselors.
Michael noted that the biggest problem is “closing the loop” when they go visit.
o Campus Engagement – President asked the taskforce to explore the desire, interest, and
offering of housing. The Deans were not in favor.
o Program Offerings & Curriculum – need to be sure that students are able to enroll in
courses that will allow them to complete their degree.
Jeff recommended that we cost out the items to make sure we are focusing on the ones where we
get the most for our money. Newell noted that the sequencing of action items is also key.
Michelle would like AAC to review the proposal information and provide any feedback. Jeff noted it
was a great basis for future conversations and provides direction to take action.
Add Advisement Proposal to next AAC agenda.
Jeff was hesitant to approve the plan until the cost analysis had been completed. Also need to
consider is the action step effective enough. Dan noted that appropriate variables need to be
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Parts of Term
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Non-Credit Certifications
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Course Fees
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Miscellaneous
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included when obtaining the data. Maureen noted that tutoring was analyzed a few years ago to
determine effectiveness.
Need to know what programs across the university have high completion rates and look at those
factors.
AAC would like Michelle Kearns to report monthly regarding the Completion Plan. Norm proposed
piloting portions of the plan in part within courses to determine their effectiveness. Deans were
asked to take the plan priorities back to their schools/colleges and determine some planned
experiments to implement and bring back to future meeting.
Dan recommended proposing pilot programs in PBA One-Time funding and bring those results back
to PBA the next year to determine if additional resources are needed in the future. Need to
investigate a way to provide future contingent funds if pilot programs are successful. Newell
recommended trying a high cost/low cost program.
Parts of term are created when a department wants to create a course that starts or ends at
various times. In 2009 we only had 5 special requests. In 2014, this number increased to 25.
Problem – when departments request a special accommodation at the last minute or same day as
registration.
Solution - they would like to build the special parts of term in with regular schedules. They can
accommodate later, but not later than 3 weeks prior to the start of the term. AAC approved but
would like a notation added that makes allowances for self-contained courses in order to meet
industry needs. The revision added is “A greater level of flexibility is possible in cases of selfcontained cohorts taking courses or programs that require no marketing, do not involve enrollment
in courses in other departments, or may be offered off campus. These situations can be
accommodated with less time.”
Maureen will note the changes and pass it on. Deans were asked to pay closer attention to their
parts of term schedules to be sure they do not create future problems.
Palmer reported that about 6 months ago CCE began working on non-credit certificates as
requested by industry.
Adolescent Residential Treatment Non-Credit Certificate – met with David Yells and Toni Harris
first, then brought in Kris Doty in the process. First, the certificate program will be a pilot group
with Heritage and if successful, then will be opened to the community. The Behavioral Science
department only wanted to vet the curriculum, but not be involved in the content development at
this time. There is currently not a certificate like this in Utah right. Completers will receive a noncredit certificate of proficiency on their transcript as well.
Hope in the future is for these certificates to be a revenue generator for departments.
UVU began doing community education about 10-15 years ago because we were the only ones in
the valley able to do so. Now there are 10 groups providing community education. Palmer noted
that we need to determine UVU’s niche and if it needs to be continued. Currently, CCE is budget
neutral and the discussion on realignment needs to occur.
AAC approved moving forward with certificate.
Andrade reported that Linda Makin is still working on cost information.
Total PBA amount to be requested is approximately $200,000 for all fees under $10.
Department chairs were agreeable, but concerned there is no mechanism to increase student fees
if enrollments increase.
Fairbanks expressed concern over equipment that is covered by student fees. Jeff feels we do need
to coordinate for PBA. They can obtain figures from the fee audit. We need to be sure we are not
eliminating our revenue generating monies for items such as equipment replacement. Deans will
provide Karen with list of capital equipment items that are funded by course fees for future
discussion.
Need to be sure departments are provided backfill for fees that are eliminated.
Deans approved a request to be made in PBA for these course fees.
A proposal was made to send out a document to chairs providing a cost saving mechanism to free
up funds for higher priorities.
Olson reported that he is making progress on a realignment of Academic Affairs. President has
authorized AA to cost it out. An overview of the concept was provided. Olson noted that to make
the transition, some units will be kept longer than desired and allows for the elimination of
redundancy.
Next meeting date: September 2, 2014, 8:30 am – 11:30 am in BA 205a
Assignments
1. Review Completion Plan with schools/colleges. (Deans)
2. Provide capital equipment items covered by course fees to Karen. (Deans)
Decisions
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AAC approved the split for ESL and Basic Composition to move forward.
AAC approved all Three-Year Follow-ups except Legal Studies.
AAC approved Parts of Term proposal with one modification.
AAC approved the Adolescent Residential Treatment Non-Credit Certificate to move forward.