Provost's Council Minutes 4-22-14

Provost’s Council
April 22, 2014
2:00 pm.
Ruby Hicks Hall, Room 245
Members Present:     Dan Averette, Jackie Blakley,  Jenni Creamer, Tim Bowen, Todd Crisp-Simon, Scott Harvey,  Dan Holland, Lynn Lewis, Rob Massey, Sarah Shumpert, Brian Swords, Hap Wheeler
Members Absent:      Galen DeHay
Others Present:          Kevin Steele
Length of Meeting:   2 hours
Topics Discussed:

Dan Averette presided over the meeting in Galen’s absence.

 After a motion by Tim Bowen and a second by Scott Harvey, the March 25, 2014 meeting minutes were approved, with a minor revision.

 Scott Harvey presented the Spring and Summer 2015 academic calendars and noted the following:

 

·         Change in the format to show all sessions.

·         Session dates now include exam periods.

·         No longer lists the enrollment verification dates, since the college will begin using Attendance Tracker to verify. 

·         If a student is administratively dropped, an e-mail will be sent to the student and the instructor.

 It was noted that the many different sessions could cause confusion.  Scott will add the number of weeks to the session legend.   Dan Holland noted that the last day to drop and be refund eligible should be very noticeable on the calendar.  Todd Crisp-Simon motioned and Jackie Blakley seconded the approval of the calendars.  The motion passed.

 Dan A. distributed a list of policies and procedures for review during this cycle.  To distribute the work load, members of the group were assigned polices / procedures to review for credibility and possible revision. 

 Dan A. led the discussion on the PAC Debriefing session and noted the positive feedback that he had received.  The momentum is picking up and it is up the units to keep it moving.  Others in the group noted positive feedback, as well.  Dan asked for ideas/input on how to keep moving forward.  The following were mentioned.

·         Hold ourselves accountable

·         Engage students in the process (SGA, Club Advisors, work studies, etc. – Reach out to a bigger sample.)

·         Accomplish next steps to communicate with units by:

o   Staff Meetings

o   Live it day to day

o   Stay positive.  People need to understand why.

o   Consistent message

o   Use the information from the PAC meeting

o   Pick a behavior and discuss it during staff meetings.  Role-play could be very effective.

o   Similar to Benjamin Franklin’s work on the 13 virtues. 

 

It was noted that we need to be very careful in how this is rolled out.  There is some concern about how all the models and pieces fit together.  Focus on the image shift of the transformative student experience, and be aware of the muddle we are creating. 

Other concerns include:

·         No listening

·         Lecturer positions – employee dissent

·         Lack of training

·         Unequal hiring process – based on favoritism

·         Shared governance – steps needed to accomplish

·         Too much talk and too little action

·         Faculty Senate issues

·         Adjunct pay

·         Smoking policy

·         Staff need to be included too

·         Change takes time.  Will not happen overnight.

·         Leadership must model.  Employees will follow suit and grow.

·         Need more faculty ownership

·         Too many models (TSE, CBM, Competencies, Service) - What are we working on?  What do we want to do?

·         PAC has great initiatives, but does not seem to accomplish anything.

·         Initiative fatigue

·         Many of these issues may be a result of growing pains.  Where is the balance?  When is it acceptable to pre-determine things

The transformative student experience is a direction.  The college has made a conscious commitment to this direction.  We need to pull together with a common focus to try achieve these goals.

Announcements:

Scott reminded the group the grade deadline is now at 9:00 a.m., not at noon.

Sarah noted the authentic discussion that came from this meeting and is leaving with more questions.

Todd thanked everyone for allowing him to serve on the group. 

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

Recorded By:             Anne Bryan

Next Meeting:            Tuesday, May 13, at 2:00, in RH 245