Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Those present: Jeff Altig, Ivan Avramidi, Penny Boston, Michelle Creech-Eakman, Iver Davidson, Mary Dezember, Sue Dunston, Tom Engler, Sara Grijalva, Nikolai Kalugin, Corey Leclerc, Lorie Liebrock, Lisa Majkowski, Subhasish Mazumdar, Shari Montazeri, Warren Ostergren, Clint Richardson, Snezna Rogelj, Mark Samuels, Bill Stone, Kevin Wedeward, Andrei Zagrai. Lyndsey Lewis keeping minutes.
Dr. Warren Ostergren called the meeting to order at 3:51 pm.
Motion was made by Dr. Michelle Creech-Eakman to approve the minutes, seconded by Dr. Sue Dunston. Minutes were approved unanimously.
Communication with Admission Office – Tony Ortiz
Tony Ortiz informed the Council of Chairs that he would like to touch base about what the Office of Admission is working on and how they work with each department. The Month end report was up 43% for “Paids” from last year at this time. (“Paids” are students who have accepted their offer of admission by paying an acceptance fee.) He would like to get some feedback regarding how we communicate and work with each other. Research @ Tech Day was the previous day. There were approximately 500 family members with 200 students on campus for this event. The Office of Admission typically sends an email to the department chair or department secretary to ask about visiting with students. For this event, the response was slow.
Some suggestions to improve communication efforts included to send an email reminder with a deadline and add the Deans to these emails to assist with a response. Dr. Sue Dunston stated that the workshops work better for the CLASS department as there were no students present for Research @ Tech Day.
The Office of Admission has individual visits for students that are done every day at 10:00 or 2:00. Tony Ortiz explained that they can get the students on campus but they want to talk to faculty. They are looking for ways to make this process easier as we promote that they can visit with a faculty member. Visits will be increasing soon as it will be spring break for different schools the month of March. The visit is the make or break deal. We want them to leave here with a great experience. A suggestion to have student visitors meet with faculty during their office hours was given.
April 8
is Counselor Visit Day. Counselors will be here to experience our campus. The Office of Admission is considering having a department fair in the Fidel ballroom to highlight each department.
It was asked how the chairs can help with the step before they are on campus. Tony Ortiz explained that the Office of Admission sends a list to each department every month of inquiries who expressed an interest in your department. If you have any material that you would like to be given to students, let him know. He will pay to print the material and for postage to get to the students.
It was asked what students see at the booth when they are recruiting. The Office of Admission has a “fair piece” with information regarding our school, statistics, and scholarship information. They have a “view book” that highlights every department. It's also available online. Faculty can also go out recruiting with the Office of Admission. Tony Ortiz noted that we also have many undecided students that faculty can also contact. Personal connection is the most important with students. Dr. Clint Richardson stated that he will send out emails to students and follow up with a phone call. His department has also starting having their student organizations contact the students. Tony Ortiz noted that the Office of Admission, including student workers, is also doing this. Tony Ortiz asked for faculty to email him with questions or ideas.
Course Offerings – Sara Grijalva
Sara Grijalva announced that the Registrar's office is collecting the summer and fall course offerings. She has an idea to tweak the online registering so it makes it easier for the students. If students try to register for a course that begins the same time another class ends they are getting a time conflict. Students are then under the impression that they need to get a form signed which make the online process inefficient. She would like to propose to set up the course offering without having courses that end at the top of the hour. Essentially it would be ending the classes five minutes early. It was agreed to do this. Let Sara Grijalva know of any problems.
Advising Committee – Sara Grijalva
Sara Grijalva reported that there is a new advising committee on campus. The purpose of the committee is to see if our advising is working on campus. They will look at current and new student advising, graduate student advising, intervention, and the registration process. Faculty representation include: Dr. Corey Leclerc, Dr. Snezna Rogelj, Dr. Jeff Altig, Dr. Hamdy Soliman, and Dr. David Grow. Staff representation include: Sara Grijalva, Lisa Majkowski, Tony Ortiz, Elaine DeBrine-Howell and Michael Voegerl. There is an oversight committee who will review their progress. This includes the Deans and Vice Presidents. Also, Patrick Lopez is the chair. The committee anticipates getting feedback from faculty and developing a policy. Dr. Warren Ostergren noted that a key recommendation of the consultant we used was to provide a webpage with advising information. Improved communication is very important. He expects the committee to provide a recommendation as to whether our new advising process should be captured as a procedure or a policy.
Sara Grijalva announced that Argos is the new reporting software that was purchased by the HSI Stem grant. The need for Argos was twofold. The Brioserve software that we use for financial reports will not be supported by Banner (Sun Guard or Ellucian) in two years. We needed to find another way to have our financial reports supported. We currently use Microsoft Access to pull the data out of our database for our student reports. There were some audit findings regarding the security. We chose Argos over other products for the feature that will allow end users, like faculty, to pull the data they need directly. During the spring semester and summer we are in the design phase, setting it up the way we want it to run and finding out what faculty need. Sara Grijalva's staff will get in touch with faculty during the spring semester to determine needs. The data you have access to will be based on privileges granted. This will be different depending on your role. Banner has access to information since 1986.
Dr. Ivan Avramidi noted that it would be helpful to have a workshop on the subject and Sara Grijalva agreed. Dr. Michelle Creech-Eakman suggested getting together with assessment members in each department. Sara Grijalva noted the Faculty Senate Assessment Committee has already seen the product and provided feedback.
Advising Timeline Update – Lisa Majkowski
Lisa Majkowski reported that she has been making calls to new students. Most students have already looked at the department homepage and course catalog. The main topics that Lisa has covered are expectations and making sure they are prepared. These expectations include: what is a pre-requisite and what is a co-requisite, being prepared for communication (nmt email), email etiquette (including not just using the subject line “hello” and including appropriate information such as a name), and being patient when working with faculty during the summer.
Lisa Majkowski has a new “Paid” list of students that she hopes to send out to each department chair following the meeting. There are over 250 new students who are a “Paid” for fall 2015. Roughly 4% are transfer students. We have a record number of preferred students. Preferred students had to accept their admission by the end of January. They get special privileges such as being able to register early. There were 124 preferred students last year. This year we have twice that. Also, preferred students tend to have a high registration rate.
Lisa Majkowski noted that she has a list of each department chair's faculty. The list includes who their advisees are by first major, second major, and minor. She will send this out so each department can have a picture of what their advising load is. Department chairs will need to develop their advisor assignments and return them to Lisa Majkowski by the end of the month. From there, the assignments will be entered into Banner. Lisa Majkowski will launch the communication workflow on March 4
. We will have an automated system that allows us to track where the student is in the process. The first week of March, she will have training for new advisors. She would like to hear from the department chairs if there is an advisor that is new that she needs to work with. Evelyn Koenigsberg and Lisa Majkowski will hold a seminar on Making Workflow Work for You on March 3
. This gives the advisors two weeks to complete the workflow. Preferred students will be able to register as early as April 20
. Then starting May 1
, non-preferred students can register.
Dr. Tom Engler asked who is advising the Engineering undecideds. Lisa Majkowski noted that Electrical Engineering had volunteered to advise these students. Dr. Snezna Rogelj volunteered for Biology to advise the other undecided students.
Lisa Majkowski noted that it is too early to know if this is a larger incoming class or just an earlier class. Also, we usually have approximately 130 transfer students that start in the fall. We should start to see these students in April. She is encouraging transfer students to send a current transcript. We also do not get AP scores until July. Sara Grijalva explained that students are recommended to register where they place now without the AP courses. We do not have a good mechanism to check afterwards if the student did actually pass, until we get actual AP scores.
Dr. Tom Engler reported that the ABET visit is not until fall 2016. However, he will start collecting material from all departments this fall in preparation for the visit.
Trans 101 Workshop – Warren Ostergren
The Human Resource Offices is assisting QuSAR by advertising a Gender Identity Workshop. The workshop will answer what does Trans mean and how can to respect peers. The workshop will be held on March 10
Dr. Warren Ostergren encouraged all faculty to attend.
JoAnn Salome is sending out a sign up request.
CLASS Course Levels – Sue Dunston
Dr. Sue Dunston explained interest in 300 level courses that have a pre-requisite as junior standing or consent of instructor. If students take lower level humanities and social science courses in later years, they might be bored. CLASS designs 100 or 200 level courses for students with less academic experience. Her main concern is what is appropriate for our students and whether we want a range.
Dr. Tom Engler noted that this problem evolved because there were so few seats some years ago for freshman. Then we had our upper classmen having to back track to try to complete requirements. Some of that problem might be resolved if we had enough seats and if we advise them early enough. Dr. Lorie Liebrock suggested that the new Advising Committee consider this because faculty could emphasize getting these courses completed early. However, some departments do schedule their humanities and social sciences in later semesters,
If you have feedback on when you advise your students to take their humanities and social science courses let Dr. Sue Dunston know. This will be discussed more at the next meeting after she discusses further with her department.
Discussion of best practices for department communication with students – Warren Ostergren
Dr. Warren Ostergren reported that we have had some students raise concerns with the communication they receive. The communication is typically handled by each department and we would like to share some of the “best practices”.
Dr. Kevin Wedeward stated that Electrical Engineering sends out a weekly newsletter to all students from the department secretary.
Dr. Penny Boston stated that Earth and Environmental Science send notices as they come in. We have an undergraduate and graduate student that we ask to solicit input from fellow students regarding any concerns and then bring it forward to the faculty meeting. The point person will then pass the information back to the other students.
Dr. Subhasish Mazumdar reported his department sends broadcast emails and they have a webpage for job offers. They also have a student forum with a student representative that communicates to them. All faculty can attend but it is primarily for the students.
Dr. Nikolai Kalugin reported that the department secretary sends out information to students.
Dr. Michelle Creech-Eakman reported that the department does a social every semester with food.
Dr. Bill Stone noted that the Math Department is using Facebook.
Dr. Snezna Rogelj noted that the Biology department uses Facebook and has a seminar speaker. If there isn't a seminar speaker, they still get together to have a social hour with food.
Dr. Ostergren thanked the departments for these excellent practices.
By unanimous consent the council of chairs adjourned at 4:57 pm.