Present: Ray Rodrigues (presiding), Mimosa Stephenson, Sylvia Peña, Victor Fuhro, Cindy Lerma, Betsy Boze, Doug Ferrier, Farhat Iftekharuddin, Wayne Lewis, Marilyn Dyer, Carolyn Green

1. Institutional Plans to Address ExCET Scores: Sylvia Peña recommended that we form a Teacher Education Council (as described in the H.O.O.P.) that would review ExCET preparation procedures and resource requirements, plan for upcoming legislative sessions, and plan professional development related to teacher preparation.  Sylvia recommended considering the professional development model used by the Brownsville Reads program.

2. Early Curriculum Alerts: Sylvia pointed out the need to watch for curriculum action requests that would have an impact on degree programs with teacher certification options.  In such cases, the requested change should be reviewed by the School of Education to ensure that the resulting degree program satisfies teacher certification requirements, including the requirement that the degree program not require more than 139 hours of course work.

3. Awards Night: Victor Fuhro asked for suggestions for dates for the Awards Night semester for Spring 1999.  Members suggested May 7 or April 30.

4. Annual South Texas Regional Council Meeting: Victor noted that the regional council meeting would be held at Delmar Community College in Corpus Christi on February 25.  Members decided to have Jim Holt represent Texas Southmost College and Carolyn Green represent University of Texas at Brownsville.

5. Research Enhancement Criteria: Mimosa Stephenson provided the members with the most recent list of criteria used for selection of research enhancement proposals.  Members suggested changes to the criteria.  Mimosa will update the list of criteria for distribution with the call for proposals.

6. Format of Summer Course Schedule: Carolyn Green distributed copies of a suggested format for the course section of the Summer course schedule.  The primary change involves listing the courses alphabetically rather than by school or college.  Members indicated that the schedule should highlight off-campus and distance education courses, have a separate section for graduate courses, and include cross-references in instances where courses may be known by more than one name (e.g., Computer Information Systems or TCIS).

7. Evaluation Academic Administrators: Carolyn Green distributed copies of the calendar for last year and the standard form for evaluation of administrators.  Carolyn will revise the calendar so that reviews with the Provost begin in May.  Ray Rodrigues said that he had not found additional agree/disagree statements to be very helpful in evaluating performance and suggested that members consider adding open-ended questions to the evaluation instrument.

8. Whether or not, and/or in what circumstances, lecturers will vote: Members determined that lecturers should not be eligible to vote.

9. ASSRC recommendation on the grade of “G”: Ray noted that he would respond to the Academic Standards and Student Records Committee regarding its recommendation that use of the grade of “G” be discontinued.

10. Code of Conduct: Ray presented and led a discussion of a Code of Conduct distributed by UT System.

11. Reconsideration of ASEP: Ray distributed a copy of a request for reconsideration under the Accountability System for Educator Preparation (ASEP) drafted by the Council of Education Deans.  The Council of Education Deans recommended an amendment that would make the All Students category the determining factor in rating an entity instead of the requirement for all seven categories being the determining factor.  The request states that “entities should be permitted/encouraged to continue to produce educators in high need areas while improving their programs without the fear that one or two demographic categories may cause them to be under-review or become non-accredited.”  Sylvia will prepare a response.

12. Membership of Council on Undergraduate Research: Ray noted that we have joined the Council on Undergraduate Research and distributed information about the organization.

13. Campus Visits by Pace/Lopez Seniors (Feb. 16-18): Carolyn Green distributed a schedule of on-campus visits scheduled for the Feb. 16-18.  She will contact the academic deans to schedule faculty presentations for these groups of students.