CAS All Senate Meeting Minutes -- FINAL VERSION

October 07, 2016, 2 PM in W1

CAS SEC Members in attendance: Tracy Wiegner (Chair), Chris Lauer (Vice Chair), Jean Ippolito,
Mazen Hamad (Secretary),Doug Mikkelson, , Jan Ray, Katie Young

  1. Announcements by Tracy Wiegner:
  2. Announcement of meetings
  3. 3 PM today in UCB 127 --Natural Sciences Division meeting to discuss reorganization
  4. 3 PM,Oct 14 in STB 108 -- Faculty Congress Town Hall meeting to discuss reorganization
  5. Introduction of CAS Executive Committee Members
  6. Introduction of Standing Committee Members
    (Curriculum Review Committee and Academic Policy Committee)
  7. Presentation by Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Dr. Matt Platz on the topic of budget and hires:
  8. Presentation slides (CAS Senate v 10.6.pdf) sent out via email to all CAS faculty. Slides will also be posted to VCAA website.
  9. Presentation summary: Dr. Platz noted that there is good news about budgets, especially for CAS, because funds have been prioritized to academic affairs and allocated for CAS. Even though there has been a decrease in the number of students at UH Hilo, future decreases are not expected. Other universities across the state and country are seeing similar decreases in enrollments. Hiring was discussed, but the exact number of new faculty hires for CAS was not provided. Postions listed to be adverstised included two EPSCoR hires in Computer Science and Math, three in nursing (funded by increases in tuition and fees), Astronomy, Kinesiology, English, and a Marine Science APT. An optimistic outlook was noted because of increased summer school attendance, improving high school graduation rates, and improvements in freshman retention rates.
  10. Selected questions from audience:
  11. What is one year retention rate for transfer students? Answer: The percentage of transfer students that are still registered one year after transferring to UH Hilo from another college or university.
  12. How are vacancies in the admissions office affecting enrollments? Answer: The director of admissions left several years ago. Last year, a new director, Zach Street, was hired.There is more stability in the admissions office now.
  13. What are some of the things that improved retention? Answer: University 101 was given to all freshman, Dr. Cheryl Ramos became advisor for all KES and Psychology majors, health professions student center opened, and alternatives for pre-nursing students students were introduced.
  14. What is the result from living learning communities? Answer: There are some new living learning communities at UH Hilo. The retention data for these students will be looked at.
  15. Is the right message being sent out to recruit students to UH Hilo?
    Answer: UH Hilo is sending out the message that we have small classes and unparalleled experiences. It’s a place where everyone knows your name and students can work with great research faculty and get hands on experience in the fields of marine science, geology, and astronomy. It would be helpful to have Zach Street inform the faculty about the message being sent out.
  16. Where do collective bargaining raises come from? Answer: The raises are provided be the legislature.
  17. Meeting adjourned.