Present: Ray Rodrigues (presiding), Victor Fuhro, Mimosa Stephenson, Marilyn Dyer, Sylvia Peña, Betsy Boze, Farhat Iftekharuddin, Carolyn Green, Jim Holt, Doug Ferrier, José Martín

1.  Access & Equity Committee Membership: Betsy Boze reported on the status of naming replacements to the membership of the committee.  She and Suzanne Hardebeck are working on a salary survey for the committee.

2.  Faculty Searches:  We will run an omnibus ad listing position titles in the Chronicle of Higher Education as well as line ads listing each position separately.  The omnibus ad will refer readers to the Human Resources web page for a description of position requirements.  We will consider running an omnibus ad in Hispanic Outlook.

3.  FY 2000 Operating Budget:  Members reviewed the schedule for developing the FY 2000 budget.  The schedule was revised to include deadlines for departmental presentations to deans and a public budget presentation of school/college budgets.  These presentations will be followed by divisional presentations to the board.  Members will receive an adjusted budget (including all line items and listing faculty positions) to use as a basis for FY 2000 budget preparation.

4.  Retention Efforts:  The deans of schools/colleges are submitting reports of retention efforts to the Provost.  José Martín noted two problems encountered in advising students, the first related to giving proper credit for AP Calculus classes and the second related to TASP waivers for students in one-year certificate programs. These items will be referred to the Advising Center.

5.  Course Scheduling Adjustment:  Members discussed the need to adjust course offerings and class sizes as sections fill during registration.  The deans requested that the reports of classes more than 75% full be sorted by department and time of day.  Deans noted that limits on room and faculty availability cause difficulties in adding more sections and/or seats to sections.  Ray Rodrigues suggested a review of room utilization in SETB.  Members also discussed the possibility of recruiting qualified part-time instructors from among the Winter Texans who will be in the Valley during the Spring.

6.  Adjunct Faculty Meeting:  Given time constraints, Ray reported that we would not have an adjunct faculty meeting this semester.  Victor Fuhro noted that he has a copy of an adjunct faculty manual and that he will work on updating it.

7.  COMP Testing:  Carolyn Green reported that ACT is phasing the COMP test out over the next 2 years.  Given the fact that it will not be available for post-testing two years from now, we will not require incoming freshmen to take the COMP.  Ray asked that Carolyn prepare a briefing on COMP results for a future Academic Affairs Partnership Committee meeting.

8.  Spring Opening Calendar:  Ray reported that the President’s meetings with faculty and staff will take place on January 7.  School/college meetings should be held during the week of January 4.  Ray would like to be invited to these meetings.  Ray also reported that we will have two ceremonies for Winter Commencement, the first at 4:00 p.m. and and the second at 8:00 p.m.

9.  Course Syllabi for AA and AS Degrees: Carolyn reported that THECB site visit in March will include review of general academic courses in the AA and AS degrees.  Pat Wade will be requesting copies of syllabi for these courses in preparation for the site visit.

10.  UT System Sub Committee Academic Advising:  Betsy Boze noted that the academic advising proposal presented last year included a draft policy for the HOOP.  Carolyn will work with Eli Peña to complete the draft for internal review.

11.  Carl Perkins Budget: Jim Holt presented the budget for the current academic year and discussed the process for preparing next year’s budget.  The deadline for budget amendments is July 1, 1999.  Next year’s budget is due at the end of May.  After discussion of the process for reviewing the budget, Ray asked Jim to develop a proposal for establishing a review committee as well as a calendar for budget preparation.

12.  Policy: Purpose and Responsibilities/VP for Academic Affairs: Ray Rodrigues presented a revision to the existing policy.  The new section is B. 9, which addresses the responsibility for establishing a system of internal controls.  Members suggested that section C be amended to state that the policy will be reviewed periodically.

13.  Dual Enrollment with high school teachers serving as adjuncts: Ray and Carolyn led a discussion of the issues related to having high school teachers serve as the instructors for college courses taken for concurrent credit by high school students.  Members supported permitting this arrangement following the guidelines set out by the THECB’s rules and SACS requirements.  Discussion centered around the need for assigning full-time faculty members as lead instructors in these arrangements and the need to connect the students with the campus and college life.