I. CALL TO ORDER

Dr. Anderson called the regular meeting of the Academic Affairs Council to order at 9:00 a.m. He welcomed Dr. Charlie Jones who attended the meeting in Dr. Nick Cheper's absence. Also, President Cole visited with the members later in the meeting.

Members Present: Duane C. Anderson, Pamla Armstrong, Ed Brackett, Bob Feighner, Kurt Jackson, Linda Mitchusson, Kenneth Moore, Jack Paschall, Chuck Perry, Shirley Talley, Nancy Thomason, Alvin Turner, and Bruce Weems.
Members Absent: Nick Cheper
Others Present: Bill Cole, Marilyn Cole, and Charlie Jones
Recorder: Sue Milner

The minutes for the Academic Affairs Council meeting of December 8, 1998, were approved as posted on the web page.

COI, December 17, 1998
Several items were shared.

1. State Regents will sponsor the Second Annual Research Day at the Capitol Rotunda April 19. Dr. Anderson and deans will identify undergraduate ECU students to submit a poster display of their research at this event.

2. System-wide Business Program Review. There was discussion and council members received all materials.

3. Dr. Cindy Ross distributed a proposed academic calendar policy addition. The change will allow institutions to develop and implement assessment systems to validate competency-based student learning. It is not a policy yet.

4. Faculty Transfer Committee report. Updated forms were received. It appears there are no errors in the transfer matrix. A new procedure has been developed to allow faculty to suggest changes to those committees which do not meet. New changes will be on the State Regents' web page by the end of the month.

5. Dr. Nagle discussed low productivity programs. East Central has none.

6. The Electronic Committee met the previous day. A representative from Western Governors' University spoke to the committee. Dr. Anderson will send materials to deans illustrating how Western Governors' University developed their general education program.

7. The State Regents met at Seminole December 4, 1998. The topic of discussion was how to distribute monies to Langston University which has a new urban campus on North Lincoln in Oklahoma City.

Calendar Dates
    January 6 -   Deans meeting at 9:00 a.m.
    January 8 -   Faculty return to campus from midterm break
    January 11 - Spring regular enrollment
    January 15 - Non-instructional forms due (new revision)
    January 21 - Fall 1999 Proposed Fall Load Report due
    January 22 - Reappointment of non-tenured faculty due
                        Final Fall 1998 Faculty Load due
                       Spring 1999 update of Proposed Faculty Load due
    January 25 - Last day to withdraw and drop single classes
    February 4 - Dean's meeting, 9:00 a.m.
    February 5 - Recommendations for tenure due
    February 9 - Interscholastic Meet
    February 16 - Academic Affairs Council meeting

Fall 1998 System Enrollment Data
Dr. Anderson distributed and discussed two tables showing comparative headcount and FTE standard enrollments in Oklahoma public and private colleges and universities. The Fall 1997 and Fall 1998 semesters were compared. Deans are to share the information with department chairs and faculty.

Faculty Load Report Calendar
Dr. Anderson referred to the calendar for submitting Class Schedules and Load Reports. These were distributed in December.

1999-2000 Academic Calendar
Dr. Anderson distributed the Academic Calendar. The calendar has been submitted to the Regents that will be considered at their January meeting. In all likelihood the calendar will be approved. Deans may start planning with this calendar. Also, preparation has begun on a tentative Summer 2000 calendar.

Spring Start-up Schedule
Faculty return on January 8. Plans should be made for school and department meetings. Enrollment is Monday, January 11 from 8:00 to 5:00. Notes should be posted that students may go to the Registry office for enrollment after 5:00. Dr. Paschall and Dr. Anderson will be in room 101, Administration Building for advising.

After discussion, it was decided to open enrollment for the remainder of this week, beginning January 6, with plans to establish open enrollment in the future. During open enrollment, the Enrollment Centers, Advising Center, and Registry may enroll students. If students need advising, they should go to the Advising Center if continuing or transfer students. Beginning freshmen may enroll as published in the Schedule of Classes.

Academic Committee - January Meeting
The Academic Committee meets January 26 at 2:30 p.m. This is the last opportunity for any changes in the 1999-00 ECU Catalog.

Academic Computer Count
The annual computer count is due January 29.

Institutional Expenditures Memo
Dr. Anderson referred to the memo sent by President Cole concerning institutional expenditures and asked that they adhere to the policy.

Dean's Meeting, January 6, 1999
Deans will meet at 9:00 a.m. for a called Dean's Meeting. Handouts were distributed to deans.

Other

1. Copies of the Regents' Policy on Learning Site Initiatives were distributed. East Central has been designated as a learning site. Responsibilities include meeting the needs of citizenry for higher education opportunities. Institutions must cooperate if this is to be accomplished.

2. Copies of the five-year GPA and ACT comparisons for 1994-1998 were distributed.

Dr. Cole spoke briefly to the Academic Affairs Council. Some of the topics discussed were personnel changes, outlook for the year, renovation of old library and old Science Hall, accreditation progress for North Central's visit in 2001-02, and emphasis on reestablishing recruitment of students from area schools.

Student Evaluation of Faculty Teaching Effectiveness
The evaluations are ready to be returned to deans. They are to be collected from Dr. Talley's office by January 6.

Professional Development - Spring 1999
The due date for submitting professional development programs is January 15.

UNIV 3001
Five sections of UNIV 3001 are scheduled for the spring semester. All are closed. There is an attempt to reduce the days into the semester that the course actually exists. The course will continue to meet Wednesday at noon. There are some issues to work through.

Other

1. The enrollment schedule for Monday, January 11 is ready. Deans should notify Dr. Talley if there are changes in locations for enrollment centers. The Advising Center is for undeclared majors.

2. The Interscholastic Meeting is February 9. There are some testing weaknesses. Dr. Talley hopes they will be addressed and corrected. If there are any room conflicts or other problems, calls should be made to one of the deans or Dr. Talley.

Continuing Education and Community Services Center--Nancy Thomason
The Child Development Center received a grant for $5,000 to buy new equipment and toys.

If anyone has programs for children, such as summer academies, Barbara Reed-Hardison will offer activities for them at the Wellness Center while they are on campus. She initiated this program last summer and it was quite successful.

Registry--Pamla Armstrong
The end of semester work went well and the office is ready to start the spring semester. Faculty members are very helpful when they are careful to assure that all students listed on their roster are attending class.

Computer Services--Bob Feighner
The office is in the process of follow-up on partial payments.

The library has agreed to be a test site for electronic requisitions. They will test the system by enabling the library to enter requisitions electronically for approval by supervisors and processing by the Purchasing Office. By learning enough from this endeavor, they hope to have a functioning system that can soon be used by other schools/departments on campus.

Libraries--Dr. Chuck Perry
The library added an additional data base to the search bank, Psychological Abstracts. This is important to those in social work or the broad area of human behavior. This search bank is available to everyone.

The library is currently open mornings and to faculty in the afternoon by appointment. The library hours are being reviewed for possible changes during the time between semesters because of intersession classes. The library plans to provide easy access to the library when classes are in session.

School of Humanities and Social Sciences--Dr. Alvin Turner
The School has employed Ms. Linda Massey for a position in the Human Resources Department, effective spring semester. Mr. Michael Birzer has been asked to join the criminal justice faculty beginning with the fall 1999 semester. The School will be interviewing candidates for the criminal justice position in the next two weeks.

School of Mathematics and Sciences--Dr. Bruce Weems
New faculty in the school beginning midterm includes a mathematics professor, Mr. Robert Ferdinand from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, and Mr. Clay Carley, III who comes to us with an M.S. Degree from Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute. The School applied for four summer academies and was awarded four. Dr. Eugene Hobbs, Dr. McInness, Dr. Block and Dr. Weirick, and Dr. Weems are recipients of the academies.

School of Business--Dr. Linda Mitchusson
Dr. Drew Parkes is in New York attending the American Economics Association Meeting. January 26, Dr. Mitchusson and others will go to Oklahoma City for a meeting with the Regents for a system-wide review of business programs. The

School is offering an intersession class January 11-14. They will do a specific course for the managers at Valley View Regional Hospital. This may lead to other opportunities.

On February 27, the School of Business will have a reception for winners of the Interscholastic Meet and their parents. This is being used as a recruiting tool for the School of Business.

School of Education and Psychology--Dr. Kenneth Moore
NCATE has named its chair for the ECU site visit, David Whitehorse. He makes a pre-visit in February to meet with deans, Dr. Anderson, and Dr. Cole.

A public hearing required by law for the Teacher Education Program is scheduled in the Estep Multimedia Center at 6:00 p.m., January 21. A program will be presented and public and faculty will have an opportunity for input.

The School will be sending a request to Teacher Education faculty for their two to three-page update of their vitae.

There is one resignation in the HPER Department. Dr. Marc Evans will be taking a position in Texas.

Faculty Senate--Dr. Charlie Jones for Dr. Cheper
There was nothing new to report from the Faculty Senate.

School of Graduate Studies--Dr. Jack Paschall
The Adjunct Faculty Handbook soon will be ready for Dr. Anderson's review.

Grants and Research Information Center--Dr. Ed Brackett
Grants continue to do well. ECU should be well ahead of last year's $15 million grants submitted.

Assessment and Institutional Research Center--Dr. Kurt Jackson
The research for the Title III final report is completed. There will be further discussion on the report once it is published. The next Fact Book will be started this month. The Critical Thinking process will continue early this spring to give faculty an opportunity to gather valid samples of student work.

Computer Proficiency Requirement
Dr. Anderson has the deans' input on the computer proficiency requirement. This will be presented to the Academic Committee at the January 26 meeting.

Four-year Degree Plan Sample
A sample of a four-year degree plan, prepared by the Health Information Management Department, was distributed. Dr. Anderson would like to see all degree programs have such a plan.

Budget Preparation for 1999-2000
Council members received budget forms for the 1999-00 Fiscal Year. Dr. Anderson discussed revisions made in the Guideline and reported budget revisions in the 1998-99 budgets. Budget meetings will be scheduled in late March or early April. Budgets are due February 15, 1999.

Institutional Technology Plan
Dr. Anderson plans to get a group of faculty together to develop a plan. Members will include a Faculty Senate representative, Mr. Feighner, Mr. Waller, Deans, the vice presidents and others from Student Services, Fiscal Affairs, and Institutional Advancement. The group will produce a final document that will add specifications for each budget.

ECU Strategic Plan
The document distributed in August will be finalized this spring. Next year, the Five-year Department and School Plans must be revised. Another revision will be done just before the North Central Accreditation visit.