Academic Council Minutes

COLLEGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES & MATHEMATICS

ACADEMIC COUNCIL

Meeting Minutes

Academic Council Minutes

September 23, 2008

Council Chair called the meeting to order at 9:04 a.m. in room 336 Sequoia Hall.

Present: Juanita Barrena, Susan Crawford, Robin Datel, Dave Evans, Laurel Heffernan, Roger Leezer, Linda Roberts, Gary Shoemaker, Christina Steuart, Jill Trainer, and Heidi Yamazaki

Staff Present: Carlyn Pollock and Laurice Young

Absent: Brian Hausback, Lisa Hammersley andVassili Sergan

Approval of Agenda: Agenda Item added: Discussion of Vice President Steve Garcia memo re: Building hours & closures as well as charging entities for use of campus rooms. Approved asamended.

Approval of Minutes: Approved with out objection or changes.

Announcements:

Chair Shoemaker:

• Gary extended a welcome to Christina Steuart, the ASI NSM Director, who has adjusted her schedule to be able to attend the meetings. All present introduced themselves.

Dean Trainer: None

Associate Dean Heffernan:

• Associate Dean Heffernan passed out an enrollment report with data through the third week of instruction. The orange column is Fall 08 and the green column is Fall 2007. The report compares the FTE and enrollment. The college total FTE is currently 2,756.5 with the projected enrollment at census at 2,607. Our enrollment is down 4% comparing this fall to last fall. The university is on track to make target. All of the other college's enrollment is up with the exception of NSM and Education, with Ed where it was. It was requested that all departments add students before next Monday, September 29th, census date.

Last April our target was set by the university for 2,700 but in May the target was lowered to 2,635. The targets are based on history from previous years. We are on target, but a lower target means a lower budget. Because we are not below our target, money will not be taken away from us. The college FTE in spring is usually 94% of the fall FTE. If that continues to be true this spring, we will miss our target for the year. The Dean and Associate Dean will work with the departments to hit the overall target for the year by hitting the spring target.

A/AS Young: None

ASI Director Steuart: None

Appointment of Committee for Open House and Summer Camp/Recruitment Committee: Thefollowing people were nominated to sit on this committee by their department:ChrisSullivan– Biology, Tom Savage – Chemistry, Robin Datel– Geography, LisaHammersley – Geology, Kimberly Elce – Mathematics, Vera Margoniner – Physics. The nominees were approved without objection.

Computer Committee:

The following people were nominated to sit on this committee by their department: Adam Rechs – Biology, Ben Gherman – Chemistry, Michael Schmandt – Geography, Brian Hausback – Geology, David Zeigler – Mathematics, Hossein Partovi – Physics. The nominees were approved without objection.

The Dean will work on developing a charge. The council had no additional input in to the charge.

Collections Policy:

Dave looked over the Biology policy and determined that it would be hard to make it applicable to the other departments. The following motion was presented:It should be the policy of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics that all faculty, staff, students and other parties acting on behalf of the College shall be held to the code of ethics and collections policies that is adopted by the Department of Biological Sciences.

It was the intention of the Council that if Biology should change the policy in the future that the college would be held to that amended policy. It was requested that the Dean or the Council Chair write a memo to the Chair of Biologystating that any amendments to the policy be sent forward to the Council inorder to keep the them informed of the changes.

It was also requested that the policy and other informationbe sent out to the entire college so that everyone is aware of the policy that has been set. The motion was approved without objection.

NSM Mission Statement:

During the discussion at the previous Council meeting, Juanita was asked to amend the fifth point on the list passed out. She noted the following changes to be made:

There needs to be a comma after California State University, Sacramento.

Point 1: To promote scientific literacy for all students and the greater community.

Point 2: To provide excellent science and math education for the regional workforce.

Point 3: To inspire and prepare students to explore scientific frontiers and meet society’s challenges.

Point 4: No changes

Point 5: To broaden participation and foster inclusion in diverse prospective in Sciences and Mathematics.

It was asked that Dean Trainer incorporate the changes suggested today and send them out to the departments as a draftfor discussion before the next meeting. The amended draft was approved without objection.

Steve Garcia memo regarding building hours:

A copy of this memo was passed out. Laurice reported that she spoke with Kem Gravenberg in Administration and Business Affairs, and was informed that this memo is not necessarily sent out annually but due to budgetary issues they are enforcing the rules that have been in place. As stated in the memo, the policy doesn't necessarily speak to students having access to the building but that it is related to event use in buildings.

It was noted that it states in the memo that charges and building hours do not apply to study hours and student use.

Physics noted a concern that there are extra charges related to events that they have hosted. The charges are for custodial work and for additional use of the air conditioning/heating after hours. The amounts charged are much higher than necessary, but can be negotiated down.

Parking has become a problem for events and visitors to the campus. The departments have had trouble getting permits for maintenance workers and have been charged for requested permits. The departments would like to request an allocation of permits per year or semester.

A motion was made that the Dean raise this issue with the Dean’s Council and that action be taken to provide a limited number of permits to each department for business use. A second was not received.

Laurice reported that the college currently gets an allocation of 25 permits which are given to the departments when requested. As these permits get used, a new set is issued. There is a log associated with each permit and they have to be tracked accordingly or the use of these permits could be taken away by the parking office.

It was suggested that perhaps the Dean could write a memo to the departments and programs noting that there are permits available and if they have a need for a permit they should request it. The Dean's Office will work out a policy to disseminate the permits to the departments. Discussion was closed on the memo.

Other Business:

This Saturday,September 27th is Preview Day. Associate Dean Heffernan has asked for representatives from each department to be at the event with handouts, information and demos to catch people's attention. The Dean's office will check with the departments to find out who will be there from the College. The visitors have been broken up into groups to avoid the large rush of people that was received last year. It was suggested that if enough of the departments have been featured in STEM videos, that they could be shown.

The advising table that was in the lobby of Sequoia Hall the first two weeks of classes was a success. It was very busy Tuesday-Friday the first week and the second week was slower. The Deans and Associate Deans across campus noted that the first week was useful but the second was not. The help given was primarily general advising and information. It was suggested that having two people at the table would be good because then two students can be helped at the same time. The Deans anticipate being asked to continue the tables for future semesters. The perception received by those that sat at the table was that many of these students would not have gone out of their way to get advising, but still had questions. It was noted that an information center in each building would be nice for students so they don't have to go out of their way. Christina noted that we should go to the students because they won't come to you.

Adjourn: 9:52am