Provost’s Council
January 12, 20161:00 pm
Ruby Hicks Hall, Room 248
Members Present: Gayle Arries, Dan Averette, Jackie Blakley, Rachel Campbell, Jenni Creamer, Scott Harvey, Tom Hiebel, Linda Jameison, Lynn Lewis, Sarah Shumpert, Brian Swords, Hap Wheeler
Members Absent: Tim Bowen
Others Present: Michelle Jacobson
Length of Meeting: 2 hours
Michelle Jacobson discussed the
financial aid default rate and the Connection
article. Galen gave some background
on Tri-County’s loan history and the increase in the default rate. Michelle implemented a default management
plan and shared that the college default rate is trending in the right
direction. She stressed that the
decrease in the default rate is a team effort and thanked the group for its
work.
She reported that we use
Inceptia, a third party loan servicer, to reach out to students as soon as they
graduate or withdraw. Inceptia continues to contact students through the grace
period and as they move into repayment.
This contact has helped with the decrease in the default rate.
In addition, Michelle is teaching
a Financial Fitness course as part of a learning community. In addition to a pre and post assessment,
course topics include:
·
Budgeting
·
Tracking Spending
·
Credit Cards
·
Loans
·
Cost of education
The Academic Calendar Committee
Charter and By-Laws were reviewed.
Discussion touched on the following.
·
The permanent faculty member provides
institutional memory.
·
Human Resources will have a non-voting member.
·
The final calendar will be presented to
Provost’s Council.
·
Galen will appoint the permanent faculty member.
·
A statement for amending the By-Laws will be
included.
Galen will make any changes and
finalize the document. It was
recommended that the calendar considerations be posted with the committee
charter.
Galen discussed the spring
semester professional development day (March 1) and reminded the group that the
morning is dedicated to institutional activities, with the afternoon open for
department/division activities.
Scott discussed the 2016 Academic
Calendar. He explained that a member of
the Calendar Committee was concerned about the short amount of time between
summer and fall for faculty to have a break and for end of term processing to
take place. In order to lengthen the
break, and to meet all the calendar requirements, the committee used Labor Day
as a class day. During discussion it was noted that:
·
The Labor Day holiday will be used on the
Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
·
Since there are already no classes on the
Wednesday before Thanksgiving, faculty feel they have lost a day.
·
It is hard to find 22 days in the calendar when
faculty can take off.
·
It looks like the same amount of time between
semesters.
It was noted that, if we did not
move Labor Day, the semester would be extended too much for faculty to have a
break.
ACTION ITEM: The Calendar Committee will document the
rationale for the 2016 calendar and will take it to the divisions.
Announcements:
Scott:
Reminded the group that Acalog
training is coming up. The Acalog username
and password have changed slightly and are now linked to a position, rather
than an individual.
Jenni:
The enrollment report is
available. Currently we are trending
toward our enrollment goals. Jenni will
have more information later in the semester.
She noted that the national trend is a decline in enrollment. In our state system, enrollment is down in
all colleges.
Dan:
Because of great team work, the EIT
division now has all classes covered.
The students are aware of the issues and appreciate that there are no
interruptions to their academics.
Linda:
Noted that the first class day
went well, and thanked everyone for the help with providing first day guides.
Galen:
Is considering a new meeting
approach. In the future, Provost’s
Council meetings will be topic based, in a strategic manner, with as much
intent as possible. He also reported
that Executive Staff will take part in Lean Process training. As their training project, he and Linda will
review the suspension process.
With no further business, the
meeting was adjourned.
Recorded By: Anne
Bryan
Next Meeting: Tuesday, January 26, at 1:00, in RH
248
