University of Nebraska Kearney

Minutes of the Meeting of the Deans Council
9 a.m. – August 31, 2004
Warner Conference Room

PRESENT: Finnie Murray, Lois Flagstad, Marilyn Hadley, Larry Hardesty, Frank Harrold, William Jurma, Ken Nikels and Kathy Smith

GUESTS: Kate Benzel and Kathy Livingston

1. First Year Experience: Kate Benzel, Director of the First-Year Experience gave the Deans an update about activities in the program. The First-Year Experience now has a Web site, and Kate invited everyone to check it out. The actual number of students has not increased from Fall 2003 to Fall 2004, however, faculty development has improved. Since teaching First-Year classes requires extra time, Kate suggests that departments might create a core of faculty to teach these classes. The classes are offered only in Fall Semesters, and proposals for new classes are being sought. The use of student peer leadership has been very successful and has become a wonderful resource for First-Year Program students. She again mentioned the proposed Fall Academic Convocation and hoped it could be an all-campus event that will target First-Year students.
    
2. Reporting Census Data: Kathy Livingston reported that campus data reporting will undergo a change from previous years. This is attributed to the development of the data warehouse that has been in the making for 3 years. Human Resource information has been submitted; now it is time for student information to be comparably reported for all campuses. Specs were received by Institutional Research two weeks ago. Two areas will have a major impact on reporting.
   
   When UNK joined the University of Nebraska in 1991 enrollment reporting by College placed secondary education majors within the College of Education. This is the only report where secondary majors are reported in this manner. All others report within discipline. SIS is set up with the major assigned to discipline rather than COE. Development of the student extract for the data warehouse dictates conformity to information in SIS. Thus secondary education majors will now be reported in the college of discipline, rather than COE. This change will decrease enrollment for COE and increase enrollment for the remaining colleges.
   
   The second impact is similar. Pre-professional programs need to be reported in University College rather than the college of discipline. While most of these pre-professional programs have been reported in NSS, other colleges may have minimal change as well. This change will decrease enrollment for NSS (and perhaps others) and increase University College.
   
   It was determined that the change needed to be made, but UNK will provide a footnote explaining the modifications. A draft of the footnote will be distributed for the Deans to review and comment.
    
3. Approval of Minutes: July 20 and August 3, 2004 Minutes were approved with slight modifications. After the changes are made, they will then be put on the Web.
    
4. Priority Program Funds Request: We have $210,000 in new money for UNK Priority Programs. At the next meeting, the proposals of the Deans for the use of new money will be reviewed. After a Dean presents a request, everyone but the presenter will discuss that item. Senior VC will then make final determination.
    
5. Instructor Appointments: To help with obtaining faculty to meet diversity goals, perhaps Deans could work with departments to identify minority students and “grow our own”. It is Dave Anderson’s advice that someone hired into a term contract as an Instructor can be promoted to a tenure track position.
    
6. FERPA & Discipline Records: Student Code of Conduct disciplinary results are protected by FERPA. Recently, a student was disbarred from a program as a result of disciplinary actions. At present, sharing such information between various areas of campus are prohibited. It may be necessary to add a phrase like “This information will be shared with the campus community,” to conform to FERPA regulations. Incidents of plagiarism or stalking are examples of other information that may need to be shared. The campus must be educated in the correct ways to handle delicate situations. A session to discuss resources available and guidelines pertaining to sharing student information could be set with College Chairs and Directors, as well as anyone who serves as an Advisor for student organizations.
    
7. Learning Communities: The Healthy Life Styles Learning Community has a waiting list; the College of Education’s Learning Community is up and running. However, Communities sponsored by Political Science, Service Learning, College of Business and Natural and Social Sciences are not showing solid numbers.
    
8. Non-Resident Distance Ed Tuition Differential: The question of how to divide funds from the Non-Resident Distance Education Tuition differential is still not resolved. Jean Mattson suggested we estimate what will be generated and add to budgets in advance. If necessary, budgets could be adjusted accordingly. Ken Nikels will seek information on additional options for disbursement of those funds.
    
9. Remuneration for Initial Preparation of Distance Ed Courses: In talking with Roger Davis of UNKEA, Ken Nikels was advised that faculty preparing for Distance Ed courses during the academic year must be compensated. Summer stipends are given to faculty by Continuing Education that make preparations in the summer for distance education classes. In the past, faculty could apply early for the $2,500. Ken will get clarification and offer suggestions to UNKEA. He will report to the Deans after that. In the accreditation review, North Central strongly suggested that Continuing Ed should be consulted for approval prior to offering classes.
    
10. Fall New Faculty Staff Orientation Review: The New Faculty/Staff Orientation seemed to go well. Feedback was requested from the Deans. Harrold and Hadley have forwarded comments to Senior Vice Chancellor’s office. If others have comments, please do the same.
     
11. Other: The Faculty Sick Leave Form was discussed briefly. There is such a form, and it should be completed when a faculty member has been gone two weeks. This is necessary for disability determination dates. Then, the faculty member will need a physician’s release to return to work.

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned. The next meeting of the Deans will be on Tuesday, September 14, 2004, at 9 a.m. in the Warner Conference Room.