QEP Team Meeting

September 22, 2005

2:30 p.m., HS 400

Members Present: Debbie Nelms, Acting Chair; Katy Goforth, Eugene Grant (attended latter part of meeting), Denise Hall, Brenda Mattison, Sharon Miller, Brian Swords,

Members Absent: Carrie Armbruster, Holly Griffith, Edie Hardin, Lynn Lollis, Marianne Taylor

Others Present: Margaret Burdette, Chris Marino

Length of Meeting: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Presiding: Debbie Nelms, Acting Chair

Debbie called the meeting to order at 1:10 p.m. She announced that Brian Swords had offered to make the presentation to the Executive Staff and thanked him for his willingness to do this. Debbie suggested that the first sentence in the second paragraph in the minutes from the September 7 meeting be changed to read, “Dr. Buckhiester addressed the group and said that he had become involved with the QEP at the beginning of the fiscal year when SACS was transferred to his area.” The minutes from the September 7 and the September 22 meetings were approved.

Concerning the three QEP topic proposals that had been sent to the Team members, Debbie said that she, Margaret, and Chris had received feedback from some of the members and others that resulted in revisions to the three proposals. Debbie distributed revised copies of the proposal “Integrating General Education Into Technical Programs” and pointed out that the major changes were to move the “Conclusion” section to the “Description of Topic Suggestion” section at the beginning of the proposal. She also pointed out that “Requirements” had been deleted from the title of the proposal. She asked the Team to read the revisions and give feedback.

Brenda suggested that the second sentence under “Student Experience” be changed to read, “The definition of the experience could determine the types of activities in which we want all our students to be involved both in and out of the classroom and what the outcomes of those experiences could be as it applies to general education.” The Team agreed.

Chris asked the members if they agreed with all of the questions included. No suggestions for changes were given for the questions. Debbie pointed out that the questions are not all inclusive and had been included as examples to give the next QEP group a starting point. She suggested that the Team get someone not involved with the project to read all of the topic proposals for grammatical errors. The Team approved the “Integrating General Education Into Technical Programs” proposal.

Debbie said that Brian will give the presentation to the SACS Compliance Team on September 30 at 9:00 a.m. in RH 241 and to the Executive Staff on October 4 at 3:00 in the Board Room and encouraged all Team members to come. Margaret suggested that the Team also sit on the stage when the presentation is made to faculty and staff to give support and to be recognized.

The Team then reviewed the revisions made to the proposal “Starting Now: The Transition to College.” Debbie pointed out that the major change in the proposal was changing the definition of the transitional period from “the first semester” to “the time between a student’s first contact with the College and the end of his/her first semester.”

Brenda said that in the second sentence under “Literature and Data Support,” Gardner needed to be identified. She also suggested that bullets be inserted to designate the points under “Relationship to College Plans.” Other minor changes were made to the “Advising” section and the “Literature and Data Support.” The Team agreed to approve this proposal with the suggested changes.

The Team then reviewed the revisions to the proposal, “Aligning Expectations: Building a Foundation for Success.” Debbie explained that the major revision was that in the second paragraph under “Rationale,” the example had been changed. The Team reviewed the proposal and agreed with the revisions that had been made and made several additional minor changes. The Team approved this proposal with the suggested changes.

Debbie said that she would make the changes to all three proposals and email them to the Team members. She asked that they read them again and respond as soon as possible with any corrections.

Chris said that the Team needed to determine a way to obtain student input on the topic proposals. Margaret said that she had talked with the President of the SGA about the possibility of a student gathering in the cafeteria where the Team could serve the students pizza and then ask for their input. Brenda suggested the Team might get a more serious response if the input by students was a course requirement in a classroom. The Team agreed with that idea, and Margaret said that she would talk with Dr. Buckhiester about that approach.

Debbie informed the Team that the three condensed versions of the topic proposals had been emailed to the Executive Staff. The Executive Staff was to discuss the viability of the topics at its next meeting, but no discussion about the proposals took place. She said that the Team needs to get input from the Tri-County Technical College Commission at its next meeting on October 3, even though this will be before the presentation to the Executive Staff, because the next Commission meeting is not until December. Debbie asked Margaret to ask Dr. Booth how he wants the proposals presented to the Commission.

The Team decided that faculty and staff should give input before the students give in put so that faculty would be informed about the proposals and could encourage student participation. Margaret said that she would work with Dr. Booth to schedule a faculty/staff meeting for the presentation.

Debbie thanked the Team for its hard work and for overcoming hurdles to reach its goal of providing three good topic proposals. She said that the Team would not meet again except to attend the presentations to the SACS Compliance Team on September 30, the Executive Staff on October 4, and the faculty and staff, the date and time to be determined.

Chris and the Team thanked Debbie for her good job of serving as Acting Chair.

The meeting adjourned at 2:55 p.m.

Actions to be taken:

  1. Margaret will ask Dr. Booth how he wants the topic proposals presented to the TCTC Commission.
  2. Margaret will work with Dr. Booth to schedule a faculty/staff meeting.
  3. Margaret will ask Dr. Buckhiester about obtaining student input in the classroom.

Minutes recorded by: Betty Dean

Next Meeting: None scheduled

Addendum to Minutes:

  1. Dr. Booth asked Margaret and Debbie to be at the TCTC Commission meeting on October 3 to answer questions about the topic proposals. Debbie gave a brief overview of the process that the Team had gone through to arrive at the topics proposed. Margaret had asked Sarah Shumpert to draw illustrations to clarify the main idea of each proposal. These illustrations were distributed to the Commission members at the meeting, and Margaret explained each one.
  2. The faculty/staff meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 11, at 3:00 p.m. in the Parker Auditorium.
  3. Dr. Buchiester denied the request to take time out of the classroom to obtain student input. The decision was made to email the students giving a brief description of each topic proposal and asking the students to select one topic.

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