Academic Affairs / Provost
April Meeting Minutes
Provost Council
April 26, 2012
Martin 128
Minutes
The following were present: Dr. George Wilson, Dr. Mike Grelle, Dr. Shari Bax, Dr. Rick Sluder, Dr. Jim Graham, Dean Gersham Nelson, Dean Roger Best, Dean Mike Wright, Dean Alice Greife, Dean Joseph Lewandowski, Dr. Art Rennels, and Ms. Debbie Combs.
Information Items
Dr. Wilson introduced Dr. Art Rennels as the new Faculty Senate Vice President and welcomed him to the Provost Council.
Fall 2012 Gen Ed Course Update: Dr. Sluder will bring this item back to the next meeting. The target increase for course offerings is 10% to accommodate the expected enrollment.
Dr. Sluder will bring information to this group on the results of the financial aid program review that is in progress. He expressed his appreciation for everyone’s assistance while preparing for the visit and during the visit.
Minutes
The minutes were accepted as distributed.
Report Items
President’s Cabinet: Nothing to report.
Faculty Senate: Dr. Rennels reported officers were elected at the last meeting. Cheryl Riley is the new president. The Senate approved the 2012-13 meeting schedule and by-laws and new officers were seated.
Discussion Items
SHIPS: SHIPS stands for Student Housing Interest Programs. Research shows students in SHIPS maintain strong GPAs and make decisions based on academic factors. Retention is also good amongst these students. Dr. Bax plans to have some good practices discussion with Academic Council due to the importance of faculty interactions with SHIPS students.
Finals Schedule: Dr. Grelle reported on receiving calls regarding finals for online courses. He will draft a document for the Faculty Guide that explicitly states the finals schedules pertains to online courses as well as face to face. He will bring the draft back to this group to review.
Blackboard Outcomes: Dr. Grelle reported we will not be using the Blackboard system and they have agreed to a refund. After discussing other systems and options the decision was made for Dr. Grelle to invite Task Stream to bring their system to campus in the fall on a trial basis.
Course Capacities: Dr. Wilson stated course capacity needs to be provided to meet the needs of our students and to be where the market is. Summer enrollment is down which is partly due to a change in financial aid regulations. Discussion was held regarding the guideline for the number of seats per class. Dr. Wilson will send an email to the deans stating 25 is the expectation.
Enrollment Update: Dr. Sluder reported it looks like the incoming freshman class will exceed the target. To achieve the total enrollment target it will take the efforts of everyone.
Retention Rates by Department: Dr. Sluder distributed the attached retention information and gave an overview of the reports.
Cappex: Dr. Sluder distributed information on Cappex which is a service contracted with for online recruiting. According to Cappex one of every three high school seniors use Cappex.com. UCM creates campaigns for sending information to those students based on their interests, GPA, etc. Dr. Sluder asked the deans to think about niches where they would like to create campaigns.
Other
There being no other business to discuss, the meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Debbie Combs, Recording Secretary
