COLLEGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES & MATHEMATICS

ACADEMIC COUNCIL

Meeting Minutes

September 2, 2008

Council Chair called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. in room 336 Sequoia Hall.

Members Present: Juanita Barrena, Susan Crawford, Robin Datel, Dave Evans, Lisa Hammersley, Laurel Heffernan, Roger Leezer, Linda Roberts, Gary Shoemaker,Jill Trainer and Heidi Yamazaki

Absent: Brian Hausback, Vassili Sergan & Christina Steuart

Staff Present: Carlyn Pollock & Laurice Young

Guest(s) Present: Rose Leigh Vines

Elections:

Gary Shoemaker was nominated as Chair of the Council and elected unanimously by voice vote. Susan Crawford was nominated as Vice Chair of the Council and elected unanimously by voice vote. Lisa Hammersleywas nominated to the additional seat on the executive council and was elected by unanimous voice vote. All terms are for the 2008-2009 academic year.

Approval of the Agenda: Approved without objection.

Introductions: All present stated their name and seat on the council or position in the college.

Approval of Minutes from 4/22/08: Itwas asked if the collections policy noted in the April 22nd minutes was followed up on. It was noted that the policy was not brought forward to the council. Minutes were approved as amended with one abstentionto include the following changes: Linda Roberts was absent and Gary Shoemaker was present at the meeting.

Announcements:

Chair Shoemaker:None

Dean Trainer:

  • The college will be conducting two faculty searches this year. One in Geology, postponed from last year and a search in Biology for a Biological Sciences Education Specialist.

Associate Dean Heffernan:

  • The Provost has asked all the colleges to put up a table display toadvise students during the first two weeks of classes. Associate Dean Heffernan will be manning a table in the lobby of Sequoia Hall everyday for the next two weeks from 11 am - 1 pm with the exception of Monday, September 8th. Volunteers were requested to cover the table when she couldn’t be there. It was suggested that the Faculty who have done service in the Academic Advising center be asked as they have experience with general education advising.
  • Associate Dean Heffernan asked that the departments make sure all students are added as soon as possible so that enrollments and availability are current.

AA/S Laurice Young:

  • The Staff retreat was held over the summer. It was a productive meeting, including a team building exercise. The presentations done by the Department Chairs were appreciated.

ASI Director Christina Steuart:

  • It was announced that there is an ASI Director elected to NSM. The Dean’s Office has been in contact with her but has not received confirmation on her availability to attend the Council meetings this semester.

Other:

  • The Dean and Associate Dean were asked how enrollment for the fall is doing. They reported that enrollments are down about 60 FTES from the same point last year. Biology is down probably due to the change in the lower division GE courses, as well as the changes in the grad program. Math has no change, Physics is down, Geography and Geology are down partially. An enrollment report will be e-mailed to the Department Chairs when it is available.

Freshman enrollment across the campus is up but our GE enrollments are down. It was noted that there is a theory that the students aren't ready for GE classes and are taking remedial courses. NSM is hit the hardest by unprepared students because they can't get into lower division science courses. It was also noted that the students may be able to enroll in GE science courses, but they are probably being advised not to.

  • It was asked by how much the college’s spending per FTE has gone down. The college has been cut by $288K for this year. It was noted that if there were no changes to last year, we will have a balanced budget. Due to the cut, we have lowered our FTE. The data has not been processed, but Dean believes that we have spent less per FTE. An analysis will be done and Dean Trainer will send it out at a later date.

It was asked if we are expecting to make up the FTE missed this fall in the spring. It was noted that overall growth by census this fall is not expected. We are going to do our best to make it up in the spring, but with out extra money it will be hard. The effort to contain costs last year went really well. We broke even on the summer schedule. The problem that is occurring is that if you cancel sections, you lose FTE, if you combinesections; you lose less FTEbut still some. We need to work better on taking that savings and putting it where we can to recover the FTEto get back up to our target.

Preview Day:

This agenda item is a follow up on previous meeting minutes and discussion. Preview day is Saturday, September 27th. The council discussed the possibility of holding an open house event on preview day. Associate Dean Heffernan announced that there are tables for each department as well as a college table available in the ballroom for our college during the university activities. The students are being asked to come to the ballroom in time blocks to avoid the surge that happened last year. It was asked if STEM is doing anything and if they are, could the college piggy back on what STEM maybe doing? The council requested that Dave Evans contact Tom Landerholm and Bill DeGraffenreid to see if the college can work with the STEM program for preview day on short notice.

It was also noted that the Expanding Your Horizons event is in the next week or two after preview day and it might be hard to get faculty to come for two events that close together.

It was discussed that it would be beneficial to create a committee to talk about student recruitment within the college. Juanita commented that she thought it might be productive to target people individually instead of in a general group. Susan stated that said she had contact with a local high school counselor this summer and was told that he would be interested in talking to the college about what we can do about recruitment.

It was suggested that the committee discussed at previous meetings, be changed to an Ad-hoc committee to participate in developing an outreach and recruitment effort to talk to high schools.

Susan has been approached by parents via e-mail to have a summer program for high school students as a week long "science camp". The Dean noted a regional need for thiskind of summer science camp that is self supported if not profit making. It would mean that there would be a need for paid faculty to run the program. One problem with a camp would be that the faculty run their research during the summer and it could become a challenge to do both. Gary noted that Physics has had a fairly good successrate with having well screened high school students come in to help with summer research.

A motion was passed to create a committee charged to explore an open house activity day and summer camp program with hopes that each department provide a member to this committee. Lisa Hammersley volunteered to chair the committee. Dean Trainer volunteered to also sit on the committee. Lisa requested that departments send the names assoon as possible.

Other Business:

Computer Committee: The Dean would like to re-establish the computer committee. There was a request that the members be charged with addressing computer needs. It was discussed that the committee should have a charge, including a draft charge, to make sure that the tasks and items given to the committee are being done. The committee and the charge will be looked at and then brought back to the council at the next meeting as well as nominations for the vacant council position filled.

Collections policy committee:It was asked if the college still needs a policy. One option for a policy is that the council could adopt the Biology policy college wide. It was noted that there were discussions previously that there are other kinds of collections that should be included. It was requested that the Biology department's policy could be forwarded to Dave Evans and then brought to the council at the next meeting for movement. Dave will work with Jill to look at the policy and draft something for the next meeting.

College Mission Statement:The Dean passed out the University mission statement and stated that she would like to create a college mission statement. Initial discussions about the college mission statement started last year with the SWOT analysis but got put on the back burner due to the budget. An initial draft that came out of discussion with the chairs was attached to the university statement. The chairs came up with 5 items that can be used to start a mission statement. The list was broadened to include students that are not necessarily moving from NSM into research professions.

It was noted that number threeon the list of items should be changed to: “To inspire and prepare students to explore scientific frontiers.” The council would like to see item number five broadened. The idea ofrecruitment and retention does not stand out to include the individual success of the students, which should be included, possibly on item five noting that broadening student participation is a major goal.

Dean Trainer asked how the council would like to move forwardto create a mission statement and later, a strategic plan for the college. The council noted that the list is good, as long as it contains recruitment and retention. Juanita Barrena was asked to re-word number five and send it back to the Dean to be sent out to the Council.

Adjourn: 9:56 am