NOTE: At times, issues of confidentiality may require that some items discussed in meetings be excluded from these minutes.

ALC MEMBERS: Robert Glenn Allen, Austin Asgill, Tom Ball, Bill Barnes, Richard Bennett, Renee Butler, David Caudill, Lance Crimm, Tom Currin, Venu Dasigi, Ameen Farooq, Alan Gabrielli, Steven Hamrick, Bob Homer, Ruston Hunt, Sonny Kim, Andrew McMorran, Joyce Mills, Julie Newell, Mark Nunes, Ilseok Oh, Jeff Orr, Nikki Palamiotis, Phil Patterson, Dawn Ramsey, Jeffrey Ray, Nancy Reichert, Han Reichgelt, Ronny Richardson, Richard Ruhala, Becky Rutherfoord, Khalid Siddiqi, Denise Stover, John Sweigart, Zvi Szafran, Andy Wang, and Tim Zeigler

MEMBERS ABSENT: Dawn Ramsey, Denise Stover

GUESTS: Pam Frinzi, Bill Prigge

Item 1. Updates

Dr. Szafran introduced Bill Prigge, our new Vice President for Business and Finance.

Dr. Szafran updated the Council on the following:

Budget – There is nothing new to report at the present time. There is a proposal for no formula funding for one year and a budget cut of 10%. Our cut this year was 8% so if approved the cut will be an additional 2%. No decision has been made on a tuition increase. The changes to the HOPE Scholarship are complex and will result in a reduction in the amount and possibly the number of awards given. Books and fees will no longer be covered. Federal Pell Grants are being reduced as well. Chairs should keep this in mind when scheduling future classes.
Degree Proposals – When submitting these proposals to the System Office, we will most likely be asked if we can afford to offer these programs with a tuition increase and without formula funding. He stated that our answer would be no, that the cost cannot be covered by tuition generated alone and that new programs generate costs campus-wide, not just in Academic Affairs.

ETCMA – proposal is ready to go
Education – is in the editing process

STEM Grant – The STEM Grant of $350,000 awarded to SPSU in 2007 must be reapplied for and that only one-half of the grants will be re-awarded. Currently approximately $210,000 of our grant is being used for faculty salaries. SPSU has re-applied for the grant and is waiting for the results.
Engineering Alliance Banquet – Two SPSU students were honored at this event – SPSU had the top Engineering student and the top Engineering Technology student.
Tech Fee – 40 proposals totaling 1.8 million dollars have been submitted for funding.
End-of-Year Equipment Money – Some $500,000 will be available for end of year spending and encouraged everyone to prepare and submit their departmental requests. These requests, as well as tech fee requests, will be carefully scrutinized to determine if future or additional costs may be incurred as these factors may impact the decision on whether to approve them or not.

Item 2. Evaluation of Part-time and Temporary Faculty

Dr. Szafran reviewed the evaluation form for part-time and temporary faculty and asked the chairs for feedback. Some comments/concerns from the Council were:

Classroom assessment – chair does not attend class, review exams, etc., for part-time and temporary faculty and only uses student evaluation to assess these faculty
Some part-time faculty are monitored by regular faculty – who should do the evaluation? Szafran responded that this is ultimately the chair’s responsibility. Appointee from chair may do the evaluation but the chair is responsible for making sure it is done.
When/how often should this be done? Some departments only hire part-time faculty for one semester and if this is done once per year the SIRs may not be back in time for the evaluation.
There is currently no P&P for part-time faculty activities but there probably should be one.
Suggest we do part-time evaluations in September to reduce the time crunch in the spring.
Require evaluation the first semester hired and thereafter annually.
If the faculty member works for multiple departments do they each evaluate the faculty member? Szafran responded affirmatively.
Evaluation of all faculty (including part-time and temporary) is a SACS requirement.
This evaluation process is to begin with the next academic year.
Chairs can ask for whatever evidence they need from the part-time and temporary faculty.
Add a summary conclusion to the evaluation form
Senate needs to review the form before the end of the year so we need to get the final version to Pam Frinzi.
Leave off summary conclusion about satisfactory/unsatisfactory/no rehire because there is no guarantee of future employment.
Is a face-to-face meeting required with the faculty member? Szafran responded no, but the faculty member must be given a copy of the evaluation and an opportunity to respond.

Item 3. Comprehensive Program Review

Bob Homer gave a brief update and passed out a handout of what the reviewers will be looking for. Dr. Szafran sent out a link last year to the current reviews and the timeline of when they are due for the chairs to review. He stated that a professional body accreditation review can be used as long as all questions are answered in the review. It was stated that the P&P is not clear about how the reports get from the department to Bob Homer to be posted. Szafran stated they should be sent directly to Bob. Szafran will go over the P&P and send it out to the Council for review and finalization.

Item 4. Honors SPSU 1001 Questionnaire

Because of some Honors cohort issues, Nancy Reichert distributed and asked the Council members to fill out a questionnaire about how they will be incorporating SPSU 1001 into their programs.

Item 5. New Business

Advisor Training – Dawn Ramsey announced there will be summer workshops for advisor training and that 95% of the full-time faculty participated in the mandatory advisor training this year. Summer will be round two and will cover a two-year plan. It was suggested that all professional advisors attend the summer training. It was suggested that we need to have a new form for evaluating full-time faculty that specifically addresses the faculty advising requirement.
Administrator Contracts - The BoR has requested that faculty administrators’ contracts include terminology that details what happens to faculty administrators when they no longer serve in their administrative capacity.
Ethics Training - The BoR has further stated that both faculty and staff must comply with the integrity policy and complete the required ethics course. Anyone, whether faculty or staff, who does not comply is subject to termination per the BoR.

Meeting adjourned at 4:00 P.M.