VCAA Academic Administrative Council Meeting

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

1:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Minutes

Present:

Hora, Steve: Int. Vice Chancellor, Acad Affairs
Brown, Dan: Graduate Programs
Castberg, Rick: CAS Social Sciences Division
Golian-Lui, Linda: University Librarian
Hallacher, Leon: CAS Natural Sciences Div.
Hennessey, Brendan: Institutional Research
Hirokawa, Randy: Dean, CAS
Leonard, Barbara: Faculty Congress / Miller, David: CAS Humanities Division
Miser, Ann B: AVCAA
Pezzuto, John: Dean, College of Pharmacy
Silva, Kalena: Director, KHUOK CHL
Simmons, Kenith: Asst VC Academic Affairs
Tamashiro, Corinne: Acting Dean, CCECS
Zenz, Cathy: University Registrar
Guests: Bill Chen, Loli Chih, Kathleen Stacey

Agenda:

1.  CIP’s and Space Changes: Guests, Bill Chen and Loli Chih

2.  Approve Minutes of August 9, 2006

3.  Discuss recent changes to Program Reviews and Requests for Proposals

4.  Executive Policy E5.209: Transfer and Inter-Campus Articulation

5.  Fall Term News and Annual Reviews

6.  System wide Financial Audit of the University of Hawaii System: Phase I

7.  Tenure and Promotion Candidates

Next Meeting: Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Chancellor’s Conference Room

Prior to the meeting’s agenda, Linda Golian-Lui introduced Kathleen Stacey, the new head of Technical Services for Mookini Library. Kathleen was welcomed by all.

Item 1.

Bill Chen and Loli Chih reported on upcoming and ongoing facility projects.

New Buildings:

·  Student Life Building will be open in approximately 1½ years and will include a swimming pool (that is not designed to be a competitive pool).

·  The new Science and Technology Building is at the last stage of design. The hope is it will go out to bid in November or December, 2006. Construction will begin next year, and the building may be ready as early as December, 2008 ($25 million project). Note: Beaumont will be razed, probably February or March, 2007, to accommodate the new building

Projects in design:

·  College of Hawaiian Language Phase 1 Building ($20 million project). This building will be approximately 17,000 sq. ft. In October people will meet to define what space is needed and how space will be utilized.

·  Student Services Building ($25.5 million project). About 35% of the design is completed. Design is set to be completed by the end of the year. When this building is completed, the Chancellor and Vice Chancellors will move to the current Student Services Building after some renovations.

Current year renovations and new projects:

·  The Redwood City project will be completed in mid-September. We will be experimenting with photo-voltaic cells on the rooftops to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing energy costs.

·  Covered Walkways project. Two of the three walkways will be completed by December, 2006. The third will begin upon the completion of the first two.

·  Nowelo/Komohana Streets stoplight project. This project is projected to be completed February, 2007.

·  China-U.S. Center contract will be overseen by the Board of Regents. The Chancellor of Hawaii Community College will represent the Board in negotiating any new contract.

·  UH Hilo will enter into a lease agreement for space in the new Merrill Lynch Building on Kilauea Street. The lease will extend for approximately five years after which administrators will move into the newly-vacated Student Services Building. Hopefully the lease will begin on November 1, 2006 and the move will take place during the first two weeks of November. Programs moving to the leased building will be as follows: (a) VC Administrative Affairs Office, (b) University Relations Office that is housed currently in College Hall, (c) Development Office that is housed currently in CAS Dean’s Office, (d) all of Human Resources, (e) two offices of Technology and Learning that are located currently in UCB, and (f) the Webmasters’ offices. Bill Chen will create a list of all vacated spaces so that people on campus can apply for the spaces. The Space Committee will determine how space will be re-assigned.

·  Library renovation project begins December 18th.

o  Phase 1 = 3rd Floor. Graphics will be moving to CC 306-07. HITS will be moving to UCB 113. Polycom rooms will be set up in UCB in Robert Chi’s former office.

o  Phase 2 = 2nd Floor. Will begin May, 2007. Should be a short project and hopefully will be completed by August, 2007.

o  Phase 3 = 1st Floor. Will begin Fall, 2007.

Linda Golian-Lui announced that Sunday, October 29 will be “Library Make a Difference Day” to help clear out the 3rd Floor. All help will be appreciated.

Bill Chen said the plan for the future in terms of renovation is to try to get all needed renovations and updates for each building completed simultaneously in order to avoid as much disruption as possible.

Item 2.

Minutes of August 9, 2006 were approved.

Item 3.

Steve Hora distributed and explained the new forms to be used for program reviews and program proposals. This template will be used for future planning and program reviews, although current academic department program reviews that have already begun on our campus will continue with the former program review format.

Item 4.

A lively discussion ensued on the issue of coordinating curricular changes with all UH system campuses. The current Executive Policy E5.209 requires that changes be coordinated through consultation with all campuses and that implementation be deferred for one full academic year if the changes affect students transferring from other UH campuses. Issues addressed included but were not limited to the following:

·  The need for departments and colleges to be more nimble in curricular responses to current needs than this policy would seem to allow

·  The difficulty of determining what does and does not constitute changes which “affect students transferring from other UH campuses”

·  The question of whether or not an age of wide-spread electronic transfer of information really demands such a long “wait time” especially in light of the additional time that consultation would take before any changes would even be sent to curriculum committees for review

·  The concern that all campuses are abiding by this policy since we have not heard much from other campuses about such changes

In keeping with the above discussion, the Council discussed the tentative proposal to change to two-year academic catalogs for UH Hilo rather than one-year catalogs. Many Council members believed that one-year catalogs served students better.

The deans and directors of all colleges will discuss both of these issues in their next meeting and report back to the Council.

Item 5.

Brendan Hennessey reported some data that he thought the Council would find interesting.

·  Enrollment as of August 26, 2006 = 3510. This figure included a retention rate for all students from 2005 of 60%.

·  New students to campus are 1104. Of those, 43% are new freshmen; 57% are new transfers. 233 students are returning to UH Hilo after stopping out for at least a year.

·  Of the new freshmen as of August 26, 68% are residents and 31% are non-residents. This is an important gain in resident students for UH Hilo as we try to meet the Board of Regents preferred ratio of 70% – 30% resident to non-resident students.

·  Of the new transfers, 38% are residents and 62% are non-residents.

·  Retention rate for first time, full time freshmen of freshman class of 2005 was 67%. Retention rate for resident freshmen was 69% and for non-resident freshmen was 59%.

Brendan initiated a roll-out of data to ten departments undergoing review of some kind this academic year. He reported fall, spring, and summer data, both summary and detailed data. Brendan cautioned that he can go back reliably only to Fall, 2004. He will refine the data sent to people as they see the need for changes. Brendan wants to make this roll out an annual event, probably in October, with data sent to deans and divisions so they can review and respond annually to what is occurring in their areas of responsibility.

Support for Brendan’s work and ideas was high. Council members believed the data would save them time, would give good information for planning purposes, and could fit multiple documents that need to be completed. The suggestion was made to hold workshops for department chairs on how to read and interpret the data and how to apply it in the most useful ways. Brendan emphasized that all data must be accompanied by explanation.

Item 6.

Steve Hora announced that the UH system will be undergoing an audit this year. Academic programs will be asked to show how their budgets reflect the strategic plan of their institutions. A UH Hilo committee has been formed to address these issues consisting of Steve Hora, Kenith Simmons, the deans, and Barbara Leonard. It might be best to refer questions from auditors to one of these committee members so that current and accurate information can be transmitted.

Item 7.

At least two Tenure and Promotion Review Committees will be meeting this year. Deans need to give Steve the names of any faculty member going up for tenure or promotion.

Meeting adjourned.

Next meeting will be Wednesday, October 11, 2006 from 1:30 – 3:30 pm in Chancellor’s Conference Room.

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