Strategic Enrollment Management Committee Minutes (12/6/11)

Strategic Enrollment Management Committee (SEMC)

Meeting Summary

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Present:  Gayle Arries, Amanda Blanton, Jackie Blakley, Lou Ann Martin, Gwen Owens, Lisa Robinson, and Lynn Lewis

Absent:  Eugene Grant and Linda Driggers

The following is a summary of the SEMC meeting which occurred on Tuesday, December 6, 2011.

Review/Approval of Minutes:

·         The minutes of the November 21 meeting were approved.

Spring Enrollment Update:

·         Amanda gave a brief update regarding spring enrollment figures compared to the same week last year.  As of December 6, registration is up .02 percent.  Including continuing students, 5466 students have registered.    Full time enrollment is down 3 percent, paid registrations is down 9 percent, and continuing is down 106 students.

·         Lisa reported that as of last week 472 students had attended Orientation, with 55-60 students coming through this week as compared to 437 last year.  She is anticipating 400-500 students on late registration day. 

Withdrawal Survey:

·         The Divisions are currently calling students who have their Rans set but who have not registered.  Amanda hopes to have the data regarding reasons students are withdrawing (and therefore are not registered for spring) compiled by next meeting.

College Plan Retention Activity:

·         Amanda asked for input regarding the strategic activity related to retention to be included in the College Strategic Plan. This year, the goal is to refine and implement retention activities, based on the college-wide retention plan and upcoming retention charter.  The rationale is that the ongoing planning, review, and evaluation of College-wide retention activities will enable the SEMC to determine the success of activities and where revisions are needed.  This initiative contributes to the strategic objectives to improve student success and academic goal achievement through a systematic process of monitoring retention activities and benchmarks.

 Retention Updates:

·         Gayle – Student Interviews:   

o   Marketing has been working on a campus video about programs and services and gathered data on what students like about TCTC in order to provide the committee with reasons for why students are retained.  Thirteen students were asked the same questions regarding what they liked about TCTC.   All of the students talked about how their instructors had made a difference.  Some of the students had developed friendships with their instructors, they said their instructors are why they stay at Tri-County, and the students feel they can go to their instructors if they are struggling in class.  The students said that instructors made the impossible possible.  The College intends to post the video on the College’s website, on Facebook, and on AndersonHD.com.  Gayle said that she would send the committee a list of instructors names mentioned by the students for the committee to hear about their best practices.

·         Connection Article:

o   Amanda asked the committee members what they would like to publish in the January issue of Connection.   It was decided that the first article should introduce what the College is doing about retention, introduce Lisa’s new job title, mention that the portal is set up and encourage faculty and staff to join it.  The committee can review the article before it is published. 

·         Academic Recovery Workshops, eTC Portal:

o   Lisa explained that she is working on an Academic Recovery workshop to help students who did not do well academically this fall.  These 1 – 1 ½ hour workshops will take place the end of January and the beginning of February on the Pendleton, Anderson, and Easley Campuses.  Attendance will be optional but students who are identified will be strongly encouraged to attend. 

o   The eTC retention portal is set up and all committee members are encouraged to join it.  Resources will be available on the portal, including information on the Academic Recovery workshops, a list of activities for the year, best practices, and a PowerPoint presentation which contains links to resources. 

·         Retention Brainstorming Ideas: 

o   Eugene will talk about EIT Retention Brainstorming ideas at the January meeting. 

·         Professional Development for Student Success: 

o   On November Election Day 2012, professional development workshops that focus on student retention and student success, as well as other workshops, will be planned.  In March, Andy Masters is presenting on customer service and in June, Mark Taylor is presenting on teaching to the millennium generation. 

·         Retention Best Practice: 

o   The committee members decided to invite faculty members or department heads who practice good retention ideas to present to the Committee at its monthly meetings.  It was suggested that instructors who were mentioned by name in the video interviews be contacted to present, and an article could be published in Connection welcoming faculty who are doing best practices to present.   The committee could start a repository on best practices in the portal and presenters could write an abstract.   People on campus are doing great things and they deserve recognition. 

General Announcements:

·         Lou Ann announced that the results from the Smarter Measures surveys are identifying issues with students before they get to Tri-County.   She intends to have those results integrated into Banner in the future.

Next Meeting:

·         January 23^rd at 10:00 am

Staff Advisory Board Minutes (12/8/11)

Staff Advisory Board Meeting

Minutes of the Meeting

December 8, 2011

8:30 a.m.

Ruby Hicks Conference Room, RH-102

Members Present:    Jennifer Creamer, Tonique Dennis, Vicky Graves, Kelli Harrison, Tonia McClain, and Melinda Zeigler

Members Absent:     Lisa Anderson and Rick Cothran

Length of Meeting:  29 minutes

1.          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Call to Order—Tonique Dennis

2.                                                                          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Chair Report—Not given since the only item discussed at the meeting today was the Pendleton Campus Holiday Drop-In

3.                                                                          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Finalizing Preparations for the Pendleton Campus Holiday Drop-In

·         The event will be held on Friday, December 9, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

·         Sandra McCarroll in the College Café will be preparing the food, and Tonique will check with her about decorations for the event.

·         Lisa Poore will be handling the silent auction for baskets to benefit the United Way.

·         SAB members will meet at 9 a.m. on Friday, December 9, in the Café to set up.

·         Melinda Zeigler will bring games to put on tables.

·         Tonia McClain will check with Lisa Anderson to see if the TCTC Chorus is going to perform.

·         Melinda Zeigler checked with John Woodson about a mic setup and music. John will be out of town, but he asked Kevin Steele to set this up.

·         Tonique Dennis and Kelli Harrison will work on getting door prizes.

4.                                                                          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Unfinished Business

Minutes from the last two SAB meetings as well as today’s minutes will be voted on at the next meeting.

5.         ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Adjournment

            The meeting adjourned at 8:59 a.m. The next meeting will be held on January 12 at 8:30 a.m. in RH-102.

Staff Advisory Board (11/10/11)

Staff Advisory Board Meeting

Minutes of the Meeting

November 10, 2011

8:30 a.m.

Ruby Hicks Conference Room, RH-102

Members Present:    Lisa Anderson Jennifer Creamer, Tonique Dennis, Vicky Graves, Kelli Harrison, Tonia McClain and Melinda Zeigler

Members Absent:     Rick Cothran

Length of Meeting:  1 hour 7 minutes

1.          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Call to Order—Tonique Dennis

2.          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Chair Report

Tonique Dennis thanked Sharon Colcolough for attending today’s meeting.

3.          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Unfinished Business

Ø  Sharon Colcolough to Address the Board—Goals

Sharon stated that in the past the College had an extensive formalized committee process and the process was reduced college wide. Two committees that were not considered for restructuring were the Faculty Senate and the Staff Advisory Board. These committees are the avenue for faculty and staff to provide feedback on issues. Suggested goals are:

·         Address issues and give input into how the College works. Examples are: benefits, perks, and providing activities that are morale boosters such as the Christmas Drop-In and the TCTC picnic.

·         Make TCTC a more enjoyable workplace and solicit ways to make work more meaningful or to make the environment better. Board members may have to solicit issues from co-workers by sending out e-mails periodically in their respective areas or talking to other staff.

·         Review some TCTC policies and procedures as requested by Executive Staff. Members may also look at the policies and procedures on eTC and bring questions/concerns to the Board for possible review. Vicky Graves stated that she feels that the Board has not been aggressive in reading the policies and procedures and that this could be a goal to read them and provide input. Sharon stated that if a policy or procedure is brought forth for review or possible revision, it would be beneficial to the Executive Staff for the Board to include a proposed solution along with the request for revision.

·         Sharon asked the Board if they are getting any input on issues, and Tonique Dennis responded that we do not have a way to get input from staff such as an employee suggestion box.  Using survey monkey to conduct a survey for input was suggested; however, after discussion, it was determined that this method would probably not be effective.

·         Sharon is open to suggestions from the Board on issues that need to be addressed.

Staff Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

Page 2

November 10, 2011

·         At the previous meeting, the group discussed issues with employees not reading announcements. Sharon Colcolough suggested that global e-mails may possibly be explored again since many factors preventing this before have changed. She suggested there may be a way to subscribe or unsubscribe from different e-mail groups.

Ø  Ideas for Christmas Party—The date has not been determined for the Christmas Drop-In. Tonique will check with Doris Simpson to see if December 6 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. or December 9 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. will work with Dr. Booth’s calendar. An event will be planned for the Easley and Anderson Campuses as well.

Action Item: Lisa Anderson will work with staff at the Easley and Anderson Campuses to schedule the event and will e-mail the Board when a date is set.

Ø  Possible Use of Survey Monkey—Discussed above.

Ø  Rick Cothran had suggested that Tonique set up a meeting with Dr. Booth to discuss goals; however, since she and Kelli met with Gregg Stapleton, and Sharon Colcolough addressed the group today, another meeting will not be scheduled.

Ø  The By-Laws are up to date with the meeting days on Thursdays instead of Wednesdays.

4.                                                                          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          New Business

Ø  Review Procedure-1-9-1011.3 Presidential Medallion for Staff Excellence—Review of this procedure was tabled until January 2012.

Ø  Lisa Anderson suggested that the College needs to do more for the United Way other than sending out forms soliciting donations from employees. She suggested asking departments to fix gift baskets each with a different theme such as family movie night or items for pets, if they are willing to participate. A silent auction could be held during the Christmas Drop-In. She also suggested having a door decorating contest at Christmas and employees would vote for their favorite with a money donation. Another suggestion was to auction a parking space at TCTC. All proceeds would go to the United Way. United Way also has a list of agencies that they support and employees could do community service for the agency of their choice. Personnel would like to set up a way for employees to submit professional development and community service activities so that they can track them. Tonique suggested that a committee would need to be set up to handle fundraising projects well in advance of the activities.

Action Item:  Lisa Anderson will get with Lisa Poore to work out the details for having a silent auction at the Christmas Drop-In.

Lisa Anderson made a motion that the meeting be adjourned, and Tonia McClain seconded. All members were in favor, and the meeting adjourned at 9:37 a.m.

Next Meeting:     Called meeting to discuss the Christmas Drop-In on Thursday, November 17, at 10 a.m. in RH-102.

Staff Advisory Board Minutes (10/13/11)

Staff Advisory Board Meeting

Minutes of the Meeting

October 13, 2011

8:30 a.m.

Ruby Hicks Conference Room, RH-102

Members Present:    Lisa Anderson, Rick Cothran, Jennifer Creamer, Tonique Dennis, Kelli Harrison, Tonia McClain, and Melinda Zeigler

Members Absent:     Vicky Graves

Length of Meeting:  40 Minutes

1.          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Call to Order

2.          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Chair Report

Tonique Dennis and Kelli Harrison met with Gregg Stapleton regarding the purpose of the SAB. Tonique thought that Sharon was going to attend today’s meeting; however, she had a meeting out of town today. Gregg gave them an overview of what he thought should be the duties of the SAB. He would like for the Board to review and give feedback on policies and procedures at the request of the Executive Staff, collect staff complaints and work with other College personnel to resolve issues, participate in various projects/workshops such as giving input into revising the College’s mission statement, and look for ways to make the SAB more visible.  The group discussed ways for staff to submit complaints, issues, etc., and Lisa Anderson suggested setting up an e-mail address for submitting issues.

Action Items:  Tonique will ask Sharon if she can attend the next meeting on November 10.

3.          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Unfinished Business

Purpose of the Staff Advisory Board—Discussed in Item 2 above.

4.                                                                          ISSUE DISCUSSED:          New Business

·         Lisa Anderson stated that she has been receiving complaints from faculty/staff at other campuses regarding the Benefits Fair and flu shots not being offered at other campuses. She said that the vendors will not come to other campuses unless they can be guaranteed that 50 people will attend. Currently, we do not have that many faculty/staff at other campuses. She also mentioned that College employees are not reading the campus announcements or going to the Personnel portal for information about Personnel activities. She suggested forming a committee to look at this issue. She also asked Board members to brainstorm and e-mail ideas to her. Rick Cothran suggested asking Baptist Hospital in Easley if they would consider giving flu shots at the Easley Campus.

Staff Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

Page 2

October 13, 2011

Action Items:  Lisa will contact the Baptist Hospital in Easley to see if they would give flu shots at the Easley Campus. SAB members will e-mail ideas to Lisa Anderson regarding offering activities at other campuses.

·         FSD Day—The question was asked if the College will have a Faculty/Staff Development Day this year. Lisa responded that, right now, it only occurs every other year. Sharon has requested that the Executive Staff approve having this every year. Gregg Stapleton suggested at the meeting with Tonique and Kelli that the SAB could have a “Meet and Greet” with the Board members and have a slide presentation describing the function of the SAB.

Action Items:  The group will think of ways to publicize the SAB and discuss later.

·         By-Laws

Ø  Melinda mentioned the By-laws state that the agendas for the SAB meetings will be published and posted on eTC five business days prior to the meetings. The group discussed what would be the best way to communicate this information to staff. There is not a distribution list on eTC that is for staff only. Lisa Anderson pointed out that employees do not read campus announcements. She had to send out a mass e-mail for the Benefits Fair and flu shots. Melinda made a motion that the agendas be posted as an eTC announcement five days prior to the meetings. Lisa seconded and the motion passed with no opposition. Jennifer Creamer suggested that we may need to change the locations for the meetings in case more staff attend the meetings. The group discussed this and decided to meet in RH-102 in November and see if more people attend. If it is determined that we need more space, Melinda will schedule the remaining meetings for the year in RH-248A or RH‑248B.

                        Action Items:  Melinda will post the SAB agendas as indicated and change location of meetings if necessary.

Ø  The By-laws state that the SAB meetings will be scheduled on the second Wednesday of each month at 8:30 a.m. This needs to be changed to the second Thursday of each month. This change was voted on last year; however, the change was not made to the By-laws.

Action Item:  Tonique Dennis will try to get an electronic copy of the By-laws so that this change can be made.

·         Jennifer Creamer asked if surveys had been administered to staff at the college that could be used to identify issues that need to be addressed or if the group could work with Chris to prepare a survey for input to the committee.

Action Items:  Jennifer will check with Chris Marino to see if the results from faculty/staff surveys are located on eTC.

Staff Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

Page 3

October 13, 2011

·         Tonique made a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting as written. Kelli seconded the motion, and the motion passed with no opposition.

5.       ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Announcements

           None

6.       ISSUE DISCUSSED:          Adjournment

            The board will discuss the Christmas Drop-in at the next meeting. Tonique asked            everyone to think about a theme for the drop-in.

            Tonique made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Melinda seconded. All members were in favor, and the meeting adjourned at 9:10 a.m.

            Recorded by:              Melinda Zeigler

          

Academic Delivery Group Minutes (10/25/11)

Academic Delivery Group Meeting

October 25, 2011

2:00 p.m.

Personnel Conference Room

(Revised 11/8/11)      

Members Present:   Jackie Blakley, Tim Bowen, Scott Harvey, Lynn Lewis, Gwen Owens, Donna Shannon, Sarah Shumpert, Brian Swords

Members Absent:       Eugene Grant

Others Present:         

Length of Meeting:  2 hours

Topics Discussed:

Dr. Buckhiester welcomed Amanda Blanton to the meeting.

Amanda and Scott discussed the Fall 2012 academic calendar.  This calendar has been significantly revised to address several issues which include the following:

1. Late registration and the large number of students who wait until then to register;

2. Purge issues;

3. Financial aid issues;

4. Cancelled class issues.

Scott explained that a subgroup of the Post-Registration group comprised of Amanda Blanton, Bill Whitlock, Linda Driggers, Renae Frazier, Lisa Robinson, Lou Ann Martin, and Scott worked diligently on this calendar.  They worked around 25 calendar considerations and, with a lot of compromise by many offices, were able to create this calendar. 

In reviewing the calendar, Scott and Amanda noted the following:

• This calendar is contingent on everyone meeting deadlines.

• Double sessions of orientation/advising will run from July 23 – August 2.

• Grades are due on July 31.  Student Records will complete end of term in one day, and students will have access to grades by 8:00 on August 1.  If a student needs to register on August 2, he/she must see an advisor or the Director of Advising and Tutoring Services, if an advisor is not available. 

• Transcripts will not be available until August 6.

• Registration deadline is August 2 at 8:00 pm.

• Three purge dates are strategically placed in the calendar (August 9, 17 and 24).

• Notify Student Records of cancelled courses by 5:00 pm on August 13.  This is the first day back for faculty after their break, so the deadline was extended to 5:00 pm to give faculty time to review their classes.

• Gateway and dual enrollment students tend to trickle in.  Late students in those two categories must go to Student Records to register. 

• With the increase in the number of Bridge students, additional orientation sessions will be added this summer.

• Consider a “no show” fee for students who register for but do not attend orientation. 

• Consider a contingency calendar with a backup late registration day.  We may have a large number of students on July 30 and need additional time for testing, etc.

• The enrollment impact could be significant.  Estimates are that 200 -500 students could be lost due to the registration deadlines. 

• Communication is the key.  The plan is to saturate this information in the schools, the community, and internally.

The group agreed that Scott and Amanda will present this proposal to the Executive Staff on October 26.  Scott will attend Executive Staff on November 2 to present the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 calendars.  Dr. Buckhiester and members of ADG commended the work group for its excellent work on the revised calendar.  Scott noted that the Spring 2013 calendar has no significant changes. 

The minutes of the October 6, 2011 meeting were approved.

Scott noted that very few instructors are making use of the waitlist function.  The group will discuss this issue at the next meeting.

Several policies and procedures were reviewed.

Institutional Review Board Policy and Procedure – This is the required three-year update.  It is working well, and the only change will be to update the Administrative Responsibility to “Provost” to reflect our organizational changes.

Instructional Program Advisory Committees –

• Page one, change the wording in #1 to make it clearer about the occupations on the committee

• Add # 4 – “Student representatives may be included at the discretion of the department head”.

• Page three, second paragraph, remove the last sentence, “Annually, the Vice President…for verification of all information”.

• Page three, change the second paragraph to “Committee Member responsibilities may include the following”.

• Add # 14, “Provide guidance for accreditation issues when applicable”.

Grading System Credit and Non-credit Courses – Scott presented a revised policy.

• Change Administrative Responsibility to Provost.

• Scott will revise with additional changes and forward to Anne.

Repeat Grade Policy –

• Change Administrative Responsibility to Provost.

• First paragraph, change the wording “only one grade” to “the first grade”.

Anne will work with Scott to finalize these policies and procedures. 

Scott discussed Standards of Academic Progress.  He suggested the following:

• Eliminate the Warning 2, Probation 2 and Suspension 2 status;

• Use a cumulative rather than term GPA;

• Revise the scale from 1 – 20 hours to 1 – 24 hours. 

He noted that he and his staff manually reviewed over 400 transcripts to determine the impact of these changes.  He found that by using the new system the numbers improved for almost every category and students would benefit from it.  The group agreed that, with the revised system, there would be more integrity in the process.  Scott will revise the procedure and move it forward.

Dr. Buckhiester discussed security cameras.  He has had a request to place a security camera inside a classroom, and he asked for Faculty Senate’s input on this issue.  Donna reported three concerns from the Senate:  the type of feed, legal implications, and who can request a camera.  It was reported that the feed would be video only.  Since the classroom is a public place there should not be any legal implications, and the department head and the dean would have to request the camera.  Donna noted that while some faculty are already on board, she would like to take this information back to Faculty Senate for further review and input.

Scott briefly discussed RANS and noted that some RANS have already been set for future semesters/terms.  Scott will determine which advisors are involved and will contact the deans.

Under Announcements, Sarah was pleased to report that the Title III external evaluator was recently on campus.  She met with about 20 people and was very complimentary of her findings.  Sarah also noted that a new Blackboard patch has been installed.  The number of service-desk tickets has declined, and they seem to be isolated in certain departments. 

Dr. Buckhiester noted that now a student on warning, probation or suspension does not have to wait until grades are in to register.  Removing this delay will allow more classes to be open to the student, and he/she may be more successful in registering for appropriate classes. 

Recorded by:             Anne Bryan

Next Meeting:            Tuesday, November 8, at 2:00 p.m., in the Personnel Conf. Room, RH 102

Academic Delivery Group Minutes (10/6/11)

Academic Delivery Group Meeting

October 6, 2011

1:00 p.m.

Personnel Conference Room

Members Present:   Jackie Blakley, Eugene Grant, Scott Harvey, Lynn Lewis, Donna Shannon, Sarah Shumpert, Brian Swords

Members Absent:       Tim Bowen, Gwen Owens

Others Present:          Galen DeHay

Length of Meeting:  2 hours

Topics Discussed:

Dr. Buckhiester welcomed Galen DeHay, who attended as Gwen’s designee.

The minutes of the September 27 meeting were approved with a minor change.

Scott discussed the drop/add pilot and noted the following:

• The policy was more strictly enforced this time.

• Some students were added to a class when it was not college error.

• Jumpstart was excluded from this procedure.

• The calendar will be revised to note that the add period ends at 8:00 p.m. on the last add day.

• We did not account for Military Science classes at Clemson.  Clemson started later than Tri-County which created some issues. After discussion, the group agreed that if Clemson starts later than we do, we will allow our students to add Clemson’s classes (Military Science, band, music) after our add deadline.

• Cooperative work experience and internship classes may start later than the end of the add period, and we will allow these student to add these classes after that date.

• We need to consider the impact of cancelled classes and what we can do for those students.  Cancellations can impact financial aid. 

• The Business Office used an old purge e-mail, which encouraged students to re-register for classes, which may have caused some confusion. The Business Office is aware of this and will no longer use that e-mail.

• Students who want to register for class, but missed the add deadline because of military service will be considered on a case by case basis.  We need to be careful that we are not setting up the student to fail.  The group agreed that the dean, department head, and instructor must all agree with a decision to allow the student to register for class.  Scott needs additional documents (military orders, etc.) on file, and will revise the Curriculum Student Registration Form to include the dean’s signature. 

• If a student was purged because he/she added a class, Scott returned the student to all the classes except the new class.

• If a student was administratively dropped for non-attendance, but was really in the class, Scott needs a justification/explanation of what happened before he will consider adding the student back to the class.

• The Business Office payment plan flyer will be re-worded to avoid confusion about the date to “enroll” in the payment plan. 

• A list of the upper/lower level math, English and sciences classes, in which movement from one to the other is allowed, will be made available. 

All in all, Scott considered the drop/add pilot to be successful.  Many of these issues happen every year, and would have come up regardless of the date.

Scott addressed the issue of students sitting in class.  On occasion, a student who has never registered, never paid, and is not on the official class roll, is allowed to remain in class.  At times, if the student has participated and has grades, the instructor will request that the student be added to the class.  This practice needs to stop.  The deans stated that they want to know when this happens.  Scott will update the form to include a dean’s signature, and will require justification before he places the student in a class.  He reminded the group that financial aid is a big issue as we drop and add students.  Scott will continue to follow this, and will report on this issue again after spring semester.

The group revised the ADG meeting pattern again.  Academic Delivery Group will now meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, beginning at 2:00, in RH 102.  This revised meeting pattern will begin on Tuesday, October 25. 

Sarah updated the group on Blackboard.  A workgroup (Sarah, Jackie, Scott and Mary Heyer) met to try to determine which Blackboard reports would provide Mary with the information she needs to conduct a financial aid student audit.  Two documents, the Grade History Report and the Discussion Board posting, show the dates and times a student is involved in the class, and will meet the requirements for a financial aid audit.  Sarah distributed instructions on how to access these reports through Grade Center and Performance Dashboard.  Mary will request the reports  from the instructor, but will also be given limited access to Blackboard, in case she needs to run reports herself.  All the members of the workgroup were pleased with this solution.  The group agreed that faculty need to be made aware of this process.  Sarah will send the instructional handout to the deans and they will distribute to faculty. 

The workgroup also addressed the need for a common assignment to verify online attendance.  The group agreed that an ice-breaker/introductions discussion board posting would provide this attendance information.  The deans will meet to create the standard assignment.  It was suggested that this assignment be in the same place in all online classes. 

Scott discussed the Fall 2012 academic calendar.  A few of the dates have not been decided yet and have the TBA notation.  The Calendar Committee will address these dates at the next meeting.  Scott noted that, at the top of the page, the session dates in parentheses have been expanded to include the exam dates. 

Galen asked about faculty involvement in section changes.  Section changes can be made on days four and five, but the change must take place in Student Records. 

The Spring and Summer 2013 calendars and the Policy and Procedure Review agenda items will be moved to the next meeting.

Under Announcements, Lynn was pleased to report that Medical Assisting received a 10 year accreditation renewal, with the next site team visit scheduled for 2014.

Jackie mentioned the Anderson Campus wine tasting event to support the new Culinary Arts program. 

Sarah reported that the vice president at Blackboard has admitted that the problems with the new version are Blackboard’s fault.  We are not the only college experiencing problems, and the resolution of these issues is a top priority for Blackboard.  Blackboard is supplying another patch, and everyone is cautiously hopeful. 

Eugene announced that Robert Bosch, LLC will provide $35,000 to fund an additional robotics team.  He also reported that representatives from USC were on campus to provide information about USC’s engineering bridge program. About 40 Arts & Sciences students attended the meeting. 

Scott reported that Acalog has been approved, but a snag has created a skewed timeline.  The implementation will be finished on December 9.  We will not start building the catalog until after drop/add in the spring.  With this late start, we will have six weeks to prepare the catalog.  Scott noted that while it is a relatively simple process, people need to attend training.

Donna reported that Faculty Senate met on September 28, with the next meeting on October 19.  Penny Edwards is this year’s vice president and Mandy Orzechowski is the secretary.  We will use electronic voting via Survey Monkey to elect the adjunct representatives.  Faculty Senate is working on the attendance policy, and the group continues to move forward.

Recorded by:             Anne Bryan

Next Meeting:            Tuesday, October 25, at 1:00 p.m., in the Personnel Conf. Room, RH 102