Deans Council Meeting Minutes Wednesday, April 27, 2016, 10:00 am Chancellor’s Conference Room, SSC 422

10:00 a.m.: all Deans Council members Attendees: Zulma Toro, Jane Wayland, Shearle Furnish, Michael Hunter Schwartz, Paula Casey, Lawrence Whitman, Lisa Bond-Maupin, Shannon Collier-Tenison, Christy Drale, Karen Wheeler, Lillian Wichinsky, Brad Patterson, Sherry, Robertson, Deborah Baldwin. We will discuss agenda topics out of order. I.

II.

Pulaski Technical College (PTC) Pipeline: Autumn Perkins and Trakenya Dobbins • The goal of this program is to move students directly from PTC to the UALR colleges. • Dr. Dobbins will solicit marketing materials from the colleges to display at PTC. • Academic Advising will work to get checklists made and utilize at PTC. • UCA and UAPB have a presence at PTC. Arkansas Tech may have one soon. • Dr. Robertson asked for a list of graduates from PTC by major. • There will be a system-wide student information system. This will be very helpful in facilitating transfer within the system. Online Education: David Montague, Andrew Wright and Sherry Robertson • Budget Transfers have occurred for Summer I to all colleges (SSCHs and Summer Labor). • David Montague presented the eLearning Task Force results and Revised eLearning Online Course Development Program (see PowerPoint presentation). • Mr. Montague initiated an audit of eLearning to take a look at the budget and ensure eLearning was meeting the terms of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreements with the colleges. o The audit produced better budgetary processes, communication and helped develop working processes in the unit. o The audit resulted in better security standards for data in the unit. • Mr. Montague set up some training and professional development changes for the course designers. • Mr. Montague will send each dean the information about trending data and the tabs of all programs in progress, as well as a list of all master courses to all deans. • Dr. Baldwin requested that Archives and Library should be included in the process. • Quality Matters certified course process has changed to a Quality Matters Master certified course. o This allows the faculty members to take the course and content anywhere and put it into a Blackboard shell. It also allows the institution to continue to use the course and content shell in Blackboard. Both faculty and institution owns the intellectual property. o Mr. Montague will send out a list of the Quality Matters Master certified courses. • eLearning now has a new development program – see handout. o The new development program shows a significant cost savings $1,400 - $5,000 for each course that is designed and receives a successful Quality Matters Master certification. • The financial consultant recommendation was to expand the online offerings. SSCH has been going down for the university, but SSCH for online has been going up. “The colleges should keep work on expanding and strengthening the online programs. 1

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An advisory board for eLearning will be initiated with two-three people from each college. Dr. Robertson and Mr. Montague will contact the deans to get their recommendations.

III.

Monday Morning Student Admitted List: Dr. Toro • Kathy Oliverio is supposed to be getting the information on military students being admitted, but has not been receiving it. • The Provost learned that a number of students who have expressed interest in certain areas have not been advised. The students are not being contacted and this is not acceptable. • The deans are responsible for making sure every student registered for orientation has been advised. • Dr. Patterson will add the deans to the Monday morning list distribution.

IV.

Salary Increases: Dr. Toro • There will be up to a 2% pool salary increase for faculty and non-classified personnel. Someone can get 3% and someone else get 1%. The pool will be 2% of all salaries for all faculty and all nonclassified staff. The unit heads will have two to three days to respond to the Provost’s office. • The unit heads must explain how they determined each raise. • The deans can keep some at the college level (justify and inform everyone). For example, keep .5% at the dean level to allocate to individuals based on the X criteria and in alignment of the college’s vision and direction of the college. • The communication that goes out to campus must make clear that this is not an across the board pay raise. It is a merit based pay raise. Employees must be in place at least six months in order to receive a pay raise. The communication must indicate salary increases for classified employees are state driven. • These are fully merit based salary increases and the unit heads must use annual evaluations to determine every increase. • UALR needs a review process for all non-classified personnel.

V. • • • •

Student Progress Reports: Sherry Robertson New academic progress reports for athletes. Historically there has been a low yield of return of these forms. New forms are consolidated so that there is only one thing for faculty members to complete. 96% return rate this semester. Previously the forms went directly from Athletics to the faculty member. Now the student takes the form directly to the faculty member. Discussion of utilizing the process for athletes for all students across campus. Dr. Robertson will report back on how to implement this.

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