Planning Sub Meet & Confer
Unapproved Notes
Monday, October 21, 2002
Present: Rajendra Penugonda,
Yueh-Ting Lee, Larry Kohanek, John Thoemke, Jullie Kerr-Berry, Rose Marie
Ley, Mark Johnson, Maureen Prenn, Glen Peterson, Tim Kochery, Margi Healy,
Henry Morris, Chris Miller, Terry Flaherty, Susan Coultrap-McQuin, Kellian
Clink, recorder.
1.
Introductions. We have a new student, Rajendra Penugonda representing
MSSA. Visitors at this meeting included Terry Flaherty, Larry Kohanek and
Henry Morris, who have formed with Mark Johnson an ad hoc group to look at
the Master Plan. More on this
under item 3. Also visiting was Dr. Karen Boubel, who was invited to share
with us information about criteria being used to determine Academic Affairs
budgets.
2.
Dr. Karen Boubel, Vice President for Academic Affairs, presented information
about budgetary matters. She
shared with us that it will be impossible to set tuition for several months—April/May
is when it is anticipated that the state might have a budget that will determine
a possible tuition hike. She
noted that everyone is writing realistic budgets that reflect the current
economic situation in the state and that state agencies have taken some serious
hits in the current situation.
On this campus, the reserves was spent down last May/June on equipment requests
for all over campus. The President is in the process of narrowing down the
university’s goals to about five, one of which is academic excellence.
After the elections, we will have a better sense of the possible
economic future in the state and possible funding for higher education.
Right now, the Academic Affairs Council is determining the
staffing needs this week (the week of October 21).
The Deans presented their needs to the other Deans and then
to the VP for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Boubel reported that the days are gone when retirements result in automatic
replacements. Priorities go where the concentration of students reside. She
uses the DataBook to determine where the students are, considers factors such
as market demand (some departments are turning away 26 to 50 percent of the
students who would like to enroll.)
Enrollment demand hires have happened in the past where more than
$400,000 was allocated outside of Academic Affairs moneys to allow for fixed
term and adjunct hires necessary to ensure that freshmen could take some
of their gen eds—courses such as Comp and Speech.
Now those students are in the upper two levels and need the
major courses, perhaps.
A short discussion ensued about some of the factors that have meant an increase
in retention, including faculty attention to student needs, the Freshmen Year
Seminars, Maverick Hall, Learning Groups.
Mark Johnson reported on an ad hoc group of himself, Larry Kohanek, Terry
Flaherty, and Henry Morris that was created to look at making the Master Planning
Document a living document. They have been negotiating with the consultants
to create a brief and easily read document with clear maps that can be more
widely distributed to the campus as a whole.
They are working to get the word out about the Master Plan
so that different constituencies can give input.
He shared the committee's plan to distribute these shorter
documents (the Master Plans themselves cost hundreds of dollars to reproduce)
in the first week of November.
During the first weeks in November, open meetings will be held to gather
input and give a brief presentation. The Planning Committee will be involved
in the open meeting to help garner information and will get the big report
when input has been received and collated.
Raj Penugonda,
Student Rep from MSSA, suggested they also work with the Student Senate.
There will be a lot of activity on this front starting soon!
The small group on Distance Education distributed a draft survey for members
to study and make suggestions.
The small group on Building Concerns is meeting and coming up with a plan.