I. CALL TO ORDER

Dr. Anderson called a regular meeting of the Academic Affairs Council to order at 9:02 a.m.

Members Present: Duane C. Anderson, Pamla Armstrong, Bob Feighner, Kurt Jackson Carlotta Lockmiller, Linda Mitchusson, Kenneth Moore, Jack Paschall, Charles Perry, Shirley Talley, Nancy Thomason, Alvin Turner, Bill Walden, Bruce Weems
Others Present: Marilyn Cole
Recorder: Sue Milner

The minutes of August 12-13, 1999, for the Academic Affairs Council were approved as distributed.

Council on Instruction, September 9, 1999
Welcome and introduction of new members were made and a list of the members was distributed.

1. Council members voted and passed the Admission Policy that will be sent to the President's Council for their consideration and, if passed, the fall 2000 admission will be the following: 24 ACT to O.U., 22 ACT at OSU, 21 ACT at ECU and other regional universities. A high school GPA of 3.0 and Class Rank in top 50% policy lowers standards for concurrent enrollment.
 
2. Changes are being made to the policy on electronic delivery of courses and the Academic Calendar Policy. Change is in effect for off campus electronic delivery and for classes taught on campus that have a primary focus on web-based instruction. Dr. Anderson will send the policy to deans when approved.

3. Saul Magauna is the liaison for the Student Advisory Board Work Plan for 1999-2000. The Work Plan is on graduate preparation, competency-based degrees, improving student advisement, and minimal library access.

4. Committee Reports: Changes in the ADN-BSN and LPN-ADN articulation impacts two-year and four-year programs because East Central has ADN students in our RN completion program.

5. February 9, ECU will be one of four universities hosting "higher education fairs." This is a public relations effort on the part of education. More will be learned about this later.

6. Round Robin Fall Enrollment Report: Each of the universities reported their enrollment for fall. Those up in enrollment were the following: Oklahoma Community College, Oklahoma State University, University of Oklahoma, Cameron, and Panhandle. Those down in enrollment were the following: Southwestern, Northwestern, UCO, USAO, Southeastern, and East Central. Langston had no changes.

7. Dr. Cindy Ross discussed a letter from the Chancellor to university presidents reminding universities to adhere to APRA's rules for the electronic delivery of courses.

Calendar Dates
September 23 - Last day to change "I" grades from Spring 99 and Summer 9.
                         Business Career Fair
September 25 - Homecoming
September 30 - Last day to drop 1st 8-week class.
October 1- Course syllabi's due. Send on a disc to Academic Affairs Office.
October 14 - Last day to drop 16-week classes with guaranteed "W."
October 19 - Assessment day
                     Academic Affairs Council Meeting

Fall Enrollment Report
Headcount is 4,004, down 1.6 percent. There are 1,120 freshmen and 560 sophomores. This is continuing evidence that ECU is attracting very few transfer students.

Course Syllabi
Deans are to do two things: First, submit syllabi electronically on a disc for all courses taught in the fall semester by October 1. In multiple classes, each faculty member should submit a syllabus.

Secondly, each of the deans who have general education courses should print out a hard copy of the syllabus for themselves and verify that the syllabi address the general education outcomes. Initial in the right-hand corner at the top of the page of each of them. Send the syllabi to the Academic Affairs Office on the same due date. Those found not addressing the outcomes are returned to department chairs but also, forward them to Dr. Anderson and indicate that they are not do not address the literacy understanding outcomes. Dr. Anderson and the Advisory Committee will review them. The General Education Advisory Committee will be charged with the task of making a recommendation to delete those courses from the curriculum or suggest how to fix them. Student outcomes will not be up for review until after the North Central Accreditation visit. If information coming from the General Education Advisory Committee and Assessment Committee makes review seem appropriate, another committee will be formed for the review.

Web Page
Lori Mardis is responsible for the formatting of web pages for departments. The web page is a recruiting tool; therefore, departments must provide information to keep it current.

NCA Steering Committee & Academic Affairs Council
Committee work will start September 14. In this first year of organization, criterion teams are being established. Over the next two years, the members of the Academic Affairs Council must assume a leadership role.

Assessment Reports and Other Activities
All assessment reports must be submitted to the Assessment Center. Dr. Jackson will be requesting the sampling process in the next week and will send a list to deans showing all class sections selected for the process.

Transfer Student Recruiting and Enrollment
A notice will be sent of recruiting trips to two-year schools. Either Todd Essary or Laurie Speed will be arranging the trips. It is important that faculties attend these recruiting trips.

Student Services has set the Transfer Enrollment Day for October 26 for enrollment in the spring 2000 semester.

Policy Update and Advising Workshops--October 15
Workshops for deans and department chairs were started to provide adequate information on policy and student advising. This is the fifth year for the workshops. The Advising Center has been encouraged to put an electronic copy of the Advising Handbook on a web page.

New Faculty Seminar--Part II & III
Bob Vavricka will present a session for new faculty October 18 and distribute Advising Workbooks. Pamla Armstrong will review Regent Policy for new faculty.

Other
As interim grants officer, Dr. Anderson reminded the Council that summer academy proposals are due October 1. Eisenhower proposals are due November 2.

As a point of information, Dr. Weems and Dr. Schmelling will propose to deliver ECU's nursing program to Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant. The faculties in the Nursing Department have been working on a grant for external funding, which is due in February. East Central and Southeastern will provide additional monies for this program. The Nursing faculty are excited about this new endeavor because they could emerge from this with a very special nursing mission in this program.

V. AGENDA OF THE ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

Regents Faculty Curriculum Committee--October 13
Ten committees will meet October 13. Dr. Talley has contacted ECU's representatives on each committee and will provide a van for transportation. Those wishing to ride by van should respond to Dr. Talley. No other travel expenditures are available if the faculty chooses not to ride the van.

Enrollment--November 2
Spring 2000 beginning freshman enrollment and orientation is set for November 2. It is expected that approximately 40-50 students will be enrolling. Changes in enrollment or advising center locations should be reported to Dr. Talley.

Recycling Status
A recycling employee will start September 14. It will take awhile to get everyone's recycled paper since this is a job of eight hours per week.

Professional Development Opportunities
A Faculty & Staff Professional Development brochure was distributed to council members. One session noted was Multimedia in the Classroom. The faculty listed have agreed to accommodate those interested on a one-on-one basis to help the faculty on curriculum presentation.

Dr. Anderson requests that school and department chair secretaries attend the training session set for Wednesday, September 29. There will also be a follow-up training session. Only full-time School and Department secretaries are eligible for this session. Centralized training will be provided through the Public Information Office for department brochure preparation and copies of PageMaker will be provided so work can be done in school or department offices. Follow-up and assistance in training will be done as needed. Schools and departments should get together and decide what the brochures will contain for recruiting efforts.

There is training for faculty who are teaching on OneNet. They are encouraged to attend this session.

Plagiarism: Its Prevention and Detection is planned for Wednesday, September 22. This topic was suggested by the English Proficiency Committee. This is an issue across all campuses and will be especially helpful to new faculty.

Other
Dr. Talley thanked Ms. Thomason for assistance of John Wingard who worked very diligently to help get the Professional Development Brochure published.

VI. UNIT REPORTS

School of Business--Dr. Linda Mitchusson
The School had an on-site visit from the Regents' Review Team. Dr. Mitchusson thanks all of those who helped with this process.

Frank Vater is retiring from the Small Business Administration as of September 30. The position will be advertised.

Dr. Anderson indicated that the Business Report is a good example of a news letter. Also, he noted that Dr. Cole has designated Rebecca Kennedy and Dr. Anderson to develop rules and guidelines for department news letters.

Continuing Education and Community Services Center--Ms. Nancy Thomason
The Center received notice from the State Department of Education that they could offer 10 to 12 Para-Professional classes throughout the State of Oklahoma.

September 18 is the 25th Anniversary of the Continuing Education and Community Services Center. Various events will be held during the morning and a black tie optional dance in the evening.

Registry Office--Ms. Pamla Armstrong
A part-time position is open in the Registry Office for which an ad has been published.

School of Humanities and Social Sciences--Dr. Alvin Turner
The Legal Studies Program is having difficulty in scheduling the accrediting agency site visit. They were committed to September but canceled that visit.

Dr. Alvin Turner attended the Western Art History Symposium at the University of Oklahoma.

Faculty Senate--Mr. Bill Walden
September 20 is the first meeting of the Faculty Senate for this academic year. The Senate has received a few concerns. Mr. Walden encourages all to send what they want for the agenda. A previous concern addressed is the lack of lighting at the stadium track. It now has 24-hour lighting.

School of Graduate Studies--Dr. Jack Paschall
Dr. Paschall was pleased to announce a record enrollment at Ardmore and McAlester.

Libraries--Dr. Charles Perry
"Biology" is the top topic on the list and close second by "Political Science."

North Central Accreditation Self-Study--Dr. Carlotta Lockmiller
The Advisory Committee is complete. The last four members are the following: Jim Vercelli, continuing education representative, Allyson McNeil, Student Senate President, Martha Skinner, support staff representative, Barbara Reed-Hardison, Wellness Center. This makes a total of twenty members.

The first meeting is September 14 at 2:30 in the Alumni Center Conference Room. Dr. Cole will open the meeting. The Journal will have an article in the next issue to inform the student body of the North Central Accreditation visit.

Assessment Center and Institutional Research--Dr. Kurt Jackson
Compilation of data has been sent to the Regents for annual reporting. Dr. Jackson distributed and explained the OSRHE Remediation File for 1998-99.

A draft letter to faculty concerning "critical thinking" was discussed.

Computer Services--Mr. Bob Feighner
All computer services personnel have been spending a lot of time getting the Sterling Williams Center software up and wired.

East Central is part of a task force looking at standardizing an electronic data exchange proposal.

School of Mathematics and Sciences--Dr. Bruce Weems
There was nothing to report other than grants and the nursing program that was previously discussed.

School of Education and Psychology--Dr. Kenneth Moore
The School received a $12,000 grant for service learning. John Bedford received the teacher preparation in technology grant of $147,000. East Central University and Tulsa Community College were the only two schools receiving these grants. The grant will allow ECU to employ Mr. Curtis Fuchs to work on teacher preparation in technology.

VII. OLD BUSINESS

Strategic Planning Time Lines/Procedures
Time lines for Strategic Planning are meaningful dates. They do not apply just to schools and department but to everyone on the Academic Affairs Council. Deans are to provide a draft with the necessary updates to the old strategic plan for Dr. Anderson by December 3. Otherwise, the department drafts are to come to deans and returned according to time lines.

Most of the Academic Affairs Council members do not have an assessment plan but there is assessment data available that Dr. Jackson collects that reflect on registry, computer services, and other areas. Council members are to contact Dr. Anderson if help is needed on the plan. Review the previous strategic plan and note the items planned for completion. Make the plan meaningful by contrasting goals set previously and the outcome. This becomes a critical part of the preparation for the NCA Self-Study. The workload will be assigned if minimum updates are not completed.

VIII. NEW BUSINESS

Faculty responded very positively to submitting abstracts for Research Day at UCO. Seventeen student proposals, sixteen student/faculty proposals and thirty-three abstracts were submitted. A reminder will be sent to participating faculty and students of the poster board preparation.

IX. ADJOURN

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:50 a.m.

Duane C. Anderson
Vice President for Academic Affairs