Tuesday, October 21, 2014
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Those present: Jeff Altig, Lillian Armijo, Gary Axen, Lisa Beinhoff, Michelle Creech-Eakman, Mary Dezember, Sue Dunston, Tom Engler, Sara Grijalva, Nikolai Kalugin, Corey Leclerc, Lisa Majkowski, Subhasish Mazumdar, Navid Mojtabai, Shari Montazeri, Warren Ostergren, Frank Reinow, Clint Richardson, Snezna Rogelj, Mark Samuels, Bill Stone, Kevin Wedeward, Andrei Zagrai. Lyndsey Lewis keeping minutes.
The meeting was called to order at 3:49 pm.
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Motion was made by Kevin Wedeward to approve the minutes, seconded by Sue Dunston. Minutes were approved unanimously.
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Accreditation Reports – Mary Dezember
Dr. Dezember reported that all accreditation material is being posted. There are five criteria. Criteria 1 through 4 are online for everyone to read and comment on. Criteria 5 is almost complete and will be online soon. The last forum to make comments is October 30
by 5:00 pm.
Dr. Dezember announced the integrated planning workspace team will be having a meeting soon with your student learning coordinators. She will have some templates or forms available. After this year they will always be due September 1
. This will give everyone time to look at what their department needs before President Lopez goes to the Legislature. Dr. Dezember noted to remember that student learning coordinators are not students and should be a faculty member. This is the person responsible in each department for the assessment reports of student learning. Dr. Dezember will be contacting everyone soon to move forward with a meeting.
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Advising Processes – Lisa Majkowski
The HSI-STEM Grant supported the advising process for the last few years but that will no longer be happening. Lisa would like to try and lighten faculty's workload. She has already started contacting new students for the next fall semester regarding what to expect so students are better situated.
Lisa presented a new advising plan. After a student has paid their admission fee, they will receive a phone call from the Director of the
Office for Student Learning. The detailed discussion will include: logging on to the Tech email system, confirmation of major, review of their placement form, explanation of terms “pre-requisite” and “co-requisite”, using the Tech course schedule website, understanding the role of the faculty advisor, and understanding the student's role in the advising process.
Lisa will be sending questions to department chairs by email for feedback regarding this new advising process.
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New Payroll System – Jeff Altig/Dave Raymond
(This item was moved to the beginning of the agenda)
Dr. Altig explained that he has two issues with the payroll system that are not working. The first issue is that department chairs are being asked to approve student's timesheets who are not under their department but are working for someone in their department. The second issue is as soon as the timesheet is approved, you can't view their information again as it disappears. Then if there are any errors, the Payroll office will ask you to come in and sign. As a result this is creating different records, the paper records and the electronic records.
Dr. Raymond reported that he has been meeting with Melissa Tull and Millie Tourville periodically. The last meeting looked like they had some basis of optimism. The big issue of having the right person sign off seems to be an issue related to Banner. These are technical issues with the way Banner is set up. The problem is having a good way of delegating authority to the right people.
Dr. Ostergren noted there is no limitation on the data that your proxy can view. Dr. Zagrai stated that it is set up in fifteen minute intervals. For example, if a student is a few minutes late in entering information, then that student has to stay fifteen minutes late to enter data. Dr. Creech-Eakman reported that roughly 80% of her students submit their timecard by hand. The students put in time entries by hand with an explanation in the comment box that they forgot or don't have internet access. Students can adjust the time. The students need training and there isn't a formalized training available. It was mentioned that a positive feature to this system, is that it allows students to work for different departments at different pay rates as long as there is no overlapping.
Dr. Axen mentioned that the issue he had while department chair was the “hard” 5:00 pm Friday deadline. Then things would start rolling to payroll on Monday at 8:00 am. Dr. Axen said it almost seems like the deadline should be in the middle of the week. It was discussed that by moving the deadline there is quite a gap of when students do the work and when they get paid.
Dr. Raymond stated that he would like to get all the problems solved by the end of the semester. (Note: There is a working group including Dr. Raymond, Dr. Ostergren, Millie Tourville, Melissa Tull and Lonnie Marquez that is meeting regularly to work on resolving these issues.) Dr. Dezember noted that this topic was brought to the council of chairs back in the spring where it was identified as a problem. She also collected emails from department chairs and took them to Lonnie. Dr. Raymond asked Dr. Dezember and Lyndsey to locate the council of chair minutes from when this was first brought up and send them to him.
a. Administratively dropping students who don't attend the first two classes
Dr. Stone explained that his suggestion was to put something in the catalog to give an instructor the option to drop a student who does not attend the first two classes. After a student misses the first class, the instructor would send a notification that they will be dropped if they do not contact them before the next class. This would allow students who are on the waiting list to take the class. Dr. Stone is proposing this as an instructor option.
It was discussed that this must first be an established policy that is put into the catalog. If this policy is implemented, the instructor would be the one to send the email and contact students. Sara noted that they would refund the students tuition and fees.
Dr. Dezember asked if there is any way we can gather data before we implement this. Sara noted that on the third Wednesday students are dropped for non-validation. Usually 20 or 25 students are dropped. Dr. Dezember did look at other school policies after this was brought up at the last meeting. Dr. Dezember will send some examples of what she found on this issue.
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2015 – 2020 Academic Calendar – Sara Grijalva
Sara presented the academic calendar for 2015 – 2020. Need to set dates for fall 2015 going forward. Sara mentioned to be aware that we will be observing Martin Luther King Day in January as an academic holiday. It wasn't an issue in the past as the first week of classes didn't start until Tuesday. Now that we know this it will be an issue in January 2016, 2017, and 2018. In fall 2015 and fall 2019 there is only one week between Thanksgiving and final exams. Sara noted this body has discussed this before, took a vote, and decided it was better to have it this way then to not have enough time over the winter break to process grades and financial aid.
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E&ES course changes – Gary Axen
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ERTH 200, Introduction to Mineralogy, 3 cr, 2 cls hrs, 3 lab hrs
Prerequisite: a 100-level ERTH course and associated lab
An introduction to minerals, including identification in hand
samples and thin sections, crystal structures, physical properties, chemical compositions, occurrences and uses. Lab will focus on
mineral identification by physical and optical properties.
ERTH 200, Introduction to Mineralogy, 4 cr, 3 cls hrs, 3 lab hrs
Prerequisite:
a 100-level ERTH course and associated lab: and
An introduction to minerals, including identification in hand samples and thin sections, crystal structures, physical properties, chemical compositions, occurrences and uses. Lab will focus on mineral identification by physical and optical properties.
No change to the class description is required. In fact, the proposed changes to the class/laboratory are more in line with the present catalog description.
The present credit listing is proposed to be increased to 4 credits to reflect the work load appropriate for this class, particularly in relationship to changes proposed to lab requirements and expectations.
CHEM 121 is proposed as a prerequisite to ERTH 200 to eliminate potential problems students might have with understanding the basic chemistry concepts used in mineralogy.
Dr. Axen made a motion to accept these changes, Dr. Creech-Eakman seconded. Motion Passed unanimously.
It was suggested that there should be a slight modification in the description for the catalog due to adding an extra credit. This change will also increase total number of credits for the degree. These changes will also have to be presented to the Council of Chairs and Faculty Senate before May so that they can be included in the new catalog. Dr. Axen agreed to do this.
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ERTH 445/GEOL 545/GEOP 545
Petroleum Exploration Geophysics, 3 cr, 2 cl hrs, 3 lab hrs
A 100-level ERTH course and associated lab
Offered fall semester, odd-numbered years
TO REPLACE GEOP 546, GEOP 557 and ERTH 445:
Dr. Axen made a motion to accept these changes, Dr. Dunston seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
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By unanimous consent the council of chairs adjourned at 5:01 pm.