College of Engineering, Mathematics, and Science

Executive Council Minutes

May 4, 2006

 

Members Present:    M. Anderson, J. Clifton,  C. Cornett, M. Gill, P. Jinkins, A. Masoom, M. Muslu, S. Owusu-Ababio, L. Riedle, K. Rolle, R. Shultz, D. St.John,

 

Visitor:  T. Salmon-Stephens

 

Minutes from April 27, 2006 were approved.

 

Announcements:

 

  1. Abulkhair said the General Electric Competition final presentations were last week.  The students did very well.  Three of the five judges were UWP graduates in mechanical engineering.  GE will be contacting UWP for co-ops and permanent positions.  Abulkhair said he should also be receiving a publication with pictures from the competition.
  2. Rich announced that we have five delegates coming from Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Galway, Ireland next week on Thursday, May 11th.  They will be spending the day with us at UWP.
  3. Rich said that there wouldn’t be an Executive Council Meeting next week because of the visitors from Ireland.
  4. Max asked who to contact about Bioengineering and was given Marilyn Tufte’s name.
  5. Rich said that a delegation from Wuhan, China will be visiting the same day as the Irish delegation.  Wuhan would like to expand and increase offerings between the Universities.  An electrical engineering delegate will be coming at that time.  Rich will meet with them and see what they have to offer.

 

Agenda:

 

  1. Core GPA  – Max Anderson

Max said that with the increase in enrollment we might want to consider a change in requirements for entering a degree granting program.  At present each program sets a target GPA that a student must meet to enter that program.  By adjusting the GPA we attempt to control the number of majors to a level that we can effectively teach.  However, the process is reactive and if not managed diligently can result in less than optimal results.  Max suggested that each program determine how many students they can teach and allow students to enter the program up to that number.  This could be accomplished by setting a higher GPA that would guarantee admission and then admitting students by GPA rank below that level until the desired number is reached.  The questions to be answered are:  Do we need to make the change?; Would we have the same high level GPA for all programs?; How do we incorporate co-ops and exchange students who are away for a semester?; Should every department have the same student to faculty ratio?; Do none engineering majors want to be a part of such a plan?  The discussion will be continued this summer.

 

  1. Web Pages – Rich Shultz

Rich said that John Krogman called and is asking that people utilize Dan Frommelt’s area when work is needed on web pages.  Dan’s area has students hired that can do the work and they do a great job.  If anyone has questions, contact Dan Frommelt directly.

Other:

 

  1. Chuck brought up the subject of laptop computers.  Rich said that each Department needs to look at what is appropriate for their labs, offices, etc. and spend money on what works best for that particular area, i.e., desktop vs. laptop.
  2. Lisa asked everyone to submit their schedules for the fall 2006 semester of when they were not available to meet for Executive Council to Jean as soon as possible.
  3. Lisa mentioned that each Department should consider obtaining a purchasing card if they didn’t have one already.  Having a purchasing card is faster at ordering items especially if there are deadlines for items needed.

 

The meeting adjourned at 10:45 a.m.