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

Members: Bill Barnes, Dave Caudill, Tom Currin, Alan Gabrielli, Steve Hamrick, Ruston Hunt, Joyce Mills, Jeff Orr, Nikki Palamiotis, Jeffrey Ray, Han Reichgelt, Zvi Szafran

Members Absent: Nikki Palamiotis

Guests:

Item 1. Updates

Dr. Szafran updated the Council on the following:

Library - Joyce Mills talked about issues they are having in the Library with the computer lab printers. Students are still unable to print from the computers even after repeated attempts by IT and an outside vendor to fix the problem. Zvi will follow up with Ron Koger on this issue.
EDP for ETC Computers – Szafran asked if all of the new computers purchased for the Engineering Technology Center went through the EDP approval process. Jeff Ray affirmed that all purchases had EDP approval.
STEM Grant – SPSU received $350,000 last year and was asked to reapply by the System Office. Alan Gabrielli is working on the new proposal.
Oil Cap Prototype – Russ Hunt shared a small scale plastic oil cap developed by a faculty member and student. They are preparing to market the prototype.
Research Foundation – is in the process of being approved by the Board of Regents.
Core Curriculum – The UCC approved the learning outcomes and is scheduled to go before the general faculty in two weeks. Because this needs to go down town for approval soon, Alan will ask Pam Frinzi to send something out to the faculty to approve by email.
Game Jam – was a huge success. SPSU had the 8^th largest turnout and students developed 19 games. Coca Cola was one of the sponsors.
Hamrick - Steve Hamrick announced that we must now verify the citizenship of all students receiving in-state tuition. Hamrick also reported that we currently have 375 applications for spring graduation and there are potentially 80 more probable, which will make this our largest graduation ever. DegreeWorks is rolling out well. Spring enrollment is also at an all-time high for spring semesters.
Faculty Search Process – Zvi attended Monday’s information session on PeopleAdmin hosted by Human Resources. He stated that the biggest issue is with the submission of outside letters of recommendation. Human Resources is working with PeopleAdmin to find a solution to the problem. It was also suggested that search committees could ask for letters of recommendation directly from the narrowed-down pool of applicants. Dr. Szafran further suggested that the administrative assistants should not be asked to print out the applications. Mary Ellen McGee stated that by doing this we are returning to a manual process. Our goal is to use technology. Quint Hill stated that the applications can be accessed from any computer making it more convenient for the search committee members to view applications.
Green Building Center – the proposed Center, to be administered by non-SPSU personnel, received mixed responses from the Council members. Some of the comments/concerns were:

Where will the Center be housed until the CM Building is built? This has not been determined.
Opposed to outside businesses coming on campus
This Center proposal is not in line with our other Centers.
Do not feel intention of Centers was to include outside businesses.
Strong opposition to this Center from two Council members
Would like to see a moratorium on Centers until we are able to assess how existing Centers are doing.
Each Center is given two years before assessment – most are profitable.
Centers should be managed by faculty in partnership with industry.
Centers provide potential for income for the University and new buildings.
Most faculty don’t want to take on the responsibility of a Center because of their heavy teaching load.
The Construction Management Building is not dependent on this Center.
The University depends on three sources of funding; state funding (which is declining), student tuition, and external revenues. Therefore we must explore all opportunities.
Bill Barnes and Russ Hunt will address the format in which the proposal was submitted.

Dr. Szafran asked that all concerns be sent to Bill Barnes.

IRB – all voted in favor. Alan Gabrielli will sign off on it.

Item 2. Summer Pay Policy

The Council briefly discussed the new summer pay policy. Dr. Szafran emphasized that just because a course is listed does not guarantee the course will run. Deans will decide if low-enrollment courses are cancelled or not. Steve will finalize the document and distribute it to the faculty.

Item 3. Hiring for 2011/2012

Dr. Szafran dismissed all but the academic deans and continued the meeting to discuss which faculty searches were highest priority and which will continue and which searches will be cancelled.

Meeting adjourned at 4:00 PM