Present: T. Jay Phillips, Doug Ferrier, John Ronnau, Farhat Iftekharrudin, Sylvia Peña, Eldon Nelson, Betsy Boze,  Edna Claus, Rene Villarreal, Eli Peña, Olivia Rivas, Hilda Silva, Mike Nava, Victor Fuhro, Pat Wade, Jon Steingass, Delayne Hudspeth, Wayne Lewis, Jóse Martín,- Presiding

#1 Victor presented several information items:
A. HUD Funding-This is a grant with associated technical workshop in San Diego. Jim said that the VPEA asked him to attend. Also, someone from SA will possibly be attending. Victor will e-mail information and the Provost will get direction in the Executive Council on how to proceed so we will not be over-represented.
B. Chancellor’s Response to Student Advisory Council Recommendation- The deans were asked to review the responses and be ready for discussing them at next week’s Deans Council.
C. UT System’s Program Review Memo- Pat will draft a response and present to the Deans’ Council prior to the Dec 9 deadline.
D. Minority/Women Doctoral Directory- There was a presentation of this directory, suggested by Dr. Sylvia Pena, and a discussion about the need to subscribe. There was consensus that we should subscribe and use it to assist in faculty searches.
E. Proposal on Faculty Recruitment & Retention Plan- The goal of this proposal, submitted by Victor, was to facilitate and enhance the experience of professionals joining our faculty.  The item on a possible merit award for the Chairpersons will be considered separately from the rest of the proposal.  Victor proposed that $100K be budgeted next year to support this initiative. The consensus was to support the proposal.

The Provost’s Critics- José consulted about the possibility of asking faculty and others from the different units to get together informally to provide feedback and suggestions on how to improve our services.  This would starting with the Office of the Provost and VPAA.  Folks would serve voluntarily out of a desire to do what they could to improve what we do for our students and region.  This was not part of a formal procedure.  For example, this type of activity should not be included in anyone’s portfolio for personnel action.   This is expected to take a couple of hours a month, at most.  The participants will not be expected to represent their respective units, but participate as concerned and caring members of the overall university community.  Should anyone decide that this is not a good use of time, no one supervised by this person would be asked to participate.

#2 HOOP 5.2.4.2: Graduate Committee Membership- On the submitted draft, There was no consensus for the support of this policy revision. The issue focused on a graduate student’s presence during a meeting where personnel items could be discussed.  The opinion was expressed that, since the qualifications for membership relate to academic and professional experience, discussion on these qualifications should be a matter of peer review.  Although there was a strong consensus that the participation of graduate students in all other work of the committee was desirable, there was no consensus to support this policy revision as submitted, and therefore it will be reviewed again at the next meeting.

#3 Standards for Purchasing of Computer Equipment- After much discussion related to the procedures, José asked Wayne to seek a recommendation from the Technology Committee or one of its subcommittees and to include Purchasing in any deliberations.   José asked Wayne to present the recommendations from those deliberations to the Deans Council.

 #4 Software Standards- After discussion, José again asked that Wayne seek a recommendation from the Technology Committee to present to Deans Council.

#5 TIF Priorities- José asked that Wayne create an action item related to TIF priorities and bring it back to Deans Council for consideration.

#6 TEXAN III- Wayne briefed Deans Council on a problem that arises with long distance service when someone tries to dial from the outside to access the campus IT system. Deans Council consensus was to go back to old system.  José asked that Wayne present this as an action item at the next Deans Council.

#7 STING Program- Olivia, Hilda, and Mike made a detailed presentation of the STING Program to the Deans Council.  The presentation was well received by the Deans and Directors present, who voiced their appreciation for the reported success of the program.