NEW MEXICO INSTITUTE OF MINING AND
Call to order and approval of minutes
Chair Dave Raymond called the meeting to order at 4:08 pm with a call for approval of the December 2, 2014 minutes.
Dr. Hamdy Soliman moved to approve the minutes, seconded by Dr. Brian Borchers. The motion passed unanimously.
There was a small correction under 1to change “President” to “Chair”.
Science Fair – Rose Baca-Rivet, Tony Ortiz
Tony Ortiz asked for support for the 63rd annual science fair on March 28
. It has been at NMT for 63 years and we are losing the support from our faculty. We would like to work together to get faculty back on board by being a judge. We want the high school students that we select to attend the International Science Fair to be a reflection of NMT's faculty as who they chose to represent NMT. Last year we had 8 faculty from NMT but 24 from UNM, 10 from NMSU, 10 from ENMU, 5 from NNMC, 5 from CNM, and 5 from Highlands University.
You can also support your departments by doing a special award. It does not need to be a cash award. You can offer a scholarship where it is dependent on the student coming to NMT to be awarded. They are trying to bring back the $700 book award for students. Mailings will be going out soon to faculty asking if they would like to be a judge.
Rose Baca thanked those who participated at Science Olympiad.
Accreditation site visit – Mary Dezember
Dr. Mary Dezember announced that she wanted to discuss the upcoming HLC site visit and some things that need to be reported. The HLC Site Visit is once every 10 years, with a report once every four years. This is an update of the assurance argument that was just sent. The next Student Research Symposium is April 16
. Last year there were 58 presentations and 134 students. This year we have 92 presentations with a 174 student presenters. The topics will get people outside of NMT excited about what NMT is doing. Other high schools and community colleges can come and see what kind of research NMT is doing.
Dr. Mary Dezember presented a site visit schedule for preparation and discussion meetings. This will give us an idea the types of meeting that they want to have and who will be involved. There will also be some open forms. Please come and read the Assurance Argument. At a recent conference she learned that reviewers are finding two major issues. The first is that the report is not well written or did not have enough evidence files, and the second are people on campus aren't saying what is in the document.
There is a separate group from the reviewers, the Federal Compliance panel. There was a separate report, the Federal Compliance Report that was sent it. They said it was well organized and detailed, but they needed additional information. You may be contacted for more information.
A Faculty Roster is now available on the Academic Affairs page and in the catalog. Instructors are full time permanent people who have been hired but not as tenure track. Lecturers are our adjuncts.
Another part of the Federal Compliance document was that we needed to report student complaints since the last compliance review. Dr. Mary Dezember, Dr. Lorie Liebrock, and Melissa Jaramillo-Fleming needed to define the type of student complaints (issues or concerns) that we have.
Level 1 Complaint: A verbal complaint that is resolved. These are not tracked unless required by specific policy or law.
Level 2 Complaint: A written complaint containing information that identifies the student that reaches the level of the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Dean of Graduate Studies, or the Vice President of Student and University Relations, who is also the Dean of Students. This type of complaint and its resolution are tracked. We now have an intake sheet and a database to track these issues.
Level 3 –Formal Grievance - Complaint: Formal Grievance, which is a written complaint alleging a wrong-doing by the institution or its faculty or staff that requests further action than what was determined or an appeal of a determination, such as an appeal for a hearing with the Student Discipline Committee.
The report listed instructor issues which totaled 55 for the last four years with the majority being in the last couple of years. Dr. Mary Dezember then broke down what the complaints were for the last two years. If the student's concern is found to be valid, the instructor is attending instructor trainings, Teaching Coffee Hour, or having the department chairs working with them more.
Every semester we will report on the types of complaints that we are getting so that everyone can see the types of issues the students are reporting.
Our Student Complaint Policy is listed in the catalog for students. Dr. Mary Dezember went over who faculty can go to for student concerns. Academic Affairs handles any undergraduate student academic concern, behavioral issues in a non-academic setting report to Melissa Jaramillo-Fleming unless it is an emotional health issue for undergraduate or graduate report to Janet Ward, graduate students report to Dr. Lorie Liebrock, student harassment issues report to Randy Saavedera, and Elaine DeBrine-Howell intervenes on student success issues. She helps with academic advisors and handles academic warnings.
Lastly, we have three things that we call Undergraduate Academic Advising:
Incoming Student Academic Advising: Incoming Freshmen and Transfer Students
Initial Contact: Director of the Office for Student Learning
Academic Advisor – Primary Advisor
Department Chair steps in when needed
Living Learning Community Coordinator if applicable
Established Undergraduate Student Academic Advising
Academic Advisor and, if needed, the Associate Dean for Student Success
Intervention Advising for Undergraduate Students
Associate Dean for Student Success
When to contact the Office for Student Learning about Advising: Contact the Director for questions about the advising process and timeline, advisor training, the New Student Advisor Communication Workflow, if you encounter problems with contacting a new advisee, and any other related topics. Contact the Living Learning Community Coordinator for information about the LLC program, application process, and courses related to the different LLC projects. Major/Minor/Advisor change forms for existing students should be submitted to Melanie Apodaca.
A group including Dr. Steve Simpson, Dr. Brian Borchers, Dr. Julie Ford, Dr. Jamie Voyles, and Dr. Sharon Sessions teach a class on general or various professional development. These classes enable your graduate students to do what they need to do in their department. They came up with the idea to possibly having modular 1 credit classes for graduate students on various topics for professional development. They are now trying to find what types of areas there is an interest for by using a graduate student survey. Would like at the very least Department chairs to fill out the Faculty Survey and see what would meet their department's needs. There are comment boxes for any feedback.
Distinguished Research Award Nominations – Ali Fakhimi
Dr. Ali Fakhimi announced that he is soliciting nominations for the 2015 Distinguished Research Award. Nominations are requested to be submitted by March 27
to the Vice President of R&ED and to Dr. Ali Fakhimi.
Academic Freedom and Tenure – Employee Handbook – Tom Kieft
Dr. Tom Kieft announced that he was asked to present today as the Chair of this committee, Dr. Mike Heagy was unable to be here today. This committee has taken up the issue of the draft employee handbook. It is a large document with a lot of problem areas. The committee held a lengthy meeting where they addressed four of the more contentious issues. They have some recommendations on those issues as well as an overall recommendation to delay sending this to the regents.
The four contentious issues are: News Media, Response to a Reference Inquiry, Personal Appearance, and the distinction between faculty and students.
Media has been modified by Human Resources. “The official spokesperson for New Mexico Tech is the President, or the person designated by the President to speak to the news media. Academic, research, and other related topics are excluded from this policy.” Our recommendation is: New Mexico Tech will not abrogate the First Amendment rights of its employees (or simply delete this section).
Response to reference inquiry. “Any request for information, written or verbal, about a current or former employee shall be referred to the Director of Human Resources.” Recommendation is to delete entirely.
Personal Appearance. “Dress, grooming, and personal cleanliness standards contribute to the morale of all employees, and affect the professional image that New Mexico Tech conveys to those persons who come in contact with this Institute. During business hours and at any New Mexico Tech function, employees are expected to present a clean and neat appearance, and to dress according to the requirements of their positions and the function. Employees who appear for work inappropriately dressed may be sent home and directed to return to work in proper attire.” Our recommendation is to delete the last sentence.
Students as employees? “This handbook applies to all employees with the exception of students employed through the Financial Aid Office. Recommendation: The distinction between employees and students should be clarified. For example, graduate TAs and RAs are not employed through the Financial Aid Office and thus appear to be covered by the Employee Handbook.
The committee's final recommendation is NMT employees and students, as well as the committee, need more time to review the draft handbook and to make further recommendations. We recommend further discussion at the April Senate meeting and thus postponement of presentation to the Regents.
Dr. Lorie Liebrock noted that this would be a violation of our policy on policies because it is not the one that is posted and it is being revised. We also have not had a chance to review the revisions.
Dr. Warren Ostergren noted that Human Resources put a lot of time in updating the handbook. JoAnn Salome agreed that it would not be released until we had final approval. The Board of Regents viewed it as is but were aware some modification still need to be done. Human Resources are willing to work with us and they already worked on modifying some concerns.
Dr. Tom Kieft made a motion to prolong the process of considering the draft.
Dr. Peter Mozley made a friendly amendment to vote on all recommendations at once, seconded by Dr. Sue Dunston. Motion passed unanimously.
Computing on Campus – Zun Zheng/Joe Franklin
Argos is in training phase. It will be available at the end of this year. Hyperion is phasing out in two years.
Degreeworks is almost done. The training is complete and will be released in April.
Workflow is in training. It will be starting before the summer.
Email service is underway. Google conversion will start in June.
Developing a strategy for FTE Based Billing. The implementation will be next year.
Developing a strategy for Software Licensing. The implementation will be next year.
Datacenter, NMT is in the process of receiving funding approval.
Help Desk Consolidation, authorize software support this month.
Dr. Bruce Harrison asked why we are on the blacklist for emails. His emails bounced back several days after they were sent. He would like to be warned if we are on the blacklist. Joe Franklin explained that the blacklist comes about because of our current mail system and they don't notify us. He will work on announcing this to everyone. He needs to first have a better process of how to get this out. He will possibly designate a particular place to look at for this information on their web page. ITC is working on getting us off the current system. Once we are on the Gmail system, the blacklist will not be a problem. However, the spam problem will still exist if you forward your personal email to your NMT email. There will be a better way to look at your email with the Gmail system.
Report of Council of Chairs – Warren Ostergren
Dr. Warren Ostergren noted that there are various items that everyone should look at. An Academic advising committee has been set up. Please read all the items in there.
Report of Graduate Council – Lorie Liebrock
Dr. Lorie Liebrock reported that there is no business at this time. Graduate Council is cancelled for the Month of March. Academic catalog changes will be in the April meeting. They will bring these items forward at the 1
Faculty Senate meeting. There were some problems with minutes and they did not come forward in time to get to this body today.
By unanimous decision the meeting was adjourned at 5:11pm.