Executive Council Minutes for October 29, 2003

Present: Rich Shultz, Lisa Riedle, Max Anderson, Mesut Muslu, Kurt Rolle, Jerome Wilson, Sheryl Wills, Mohan Gill, Sam Owusu-Ababio, Jaime Hernandez, Chuck Cornett, Tammy Salmon-Stephens, Rob Hasker, Abulkhair Masoom

Minutes for the October 22 meeting were approved with editorial changes.

Announcements:

Rob Hasker reported that visitors from Darmstadt would be arriving tonight.

Tammy Salmon-Stephens reported that the WIE career day was a great success. She also announced that the advisor training sessions would be held on Wednesday and Thursday at noon.

Abulkhair Masoom reminded everyone of the Pioneer Previews going on the Thursday and Friday.

Chuck Cornett advised everyone that most of the toilet paper was missing from the restrooms and that there is an apparent plan to TP some facilities in the near future.

Discussion Topics:

There was a discussion on how best to make the labs available for service during the semester when upgrades are needed and students are using the lab on a continuous basis. Jim has tried to do these operations at off times (Friday nights and Sunday mornings) but rarely finds a time when the labs are not in use. Some times students refuse to get off the computers so that the upgrades can be made. It was suggested and agreed to that a designated time should be posted for lab upgrades. For instance, from 2:00 to 5:00 pm on Friday afternoon students may be asked to vacate a lab for upgrade purposes. It was felt that if everyone knew this in advance, the few times that it would need to be enforced would not be a problem. Lisa is going to discuss this with the computer specialists.

An existing business course was proposed to be added as an elective to the Master of Engineering program. The course was approved.

A discussion concerning graduating senior course checks follow with several departments explaining how they did their checks. Software Engineering was interest in decreasing the workload associated with this activity. Many chairs expressed their perception of the value of this activity.

A discussion also occurred about who approves program degree change forms for courses that are not in the department that the student’s major. For instance, a degree change for a Math course for a Chemistry major. The policy is that for a general education requirement, any change must be approved by the adviser, the chair of the department for the student’s major, the Dean’s office and the Vice Chancellor’s office. At either the Dean’s level or the Vice Chancellor’s level, the chair of the department where the course is housed is usually consulted for their input. For department and/or college requirements, the process stops at the Dean’s level. Sometimes the chair of the department where the course is housed is consulted, but not always. These type of requirements can be waived by the department chair if s/he desires, so final decisions in these cases are usually left up to the chair.

Meeting adjourned at 11:35.