Attending: John M. Crisp, Mike Gadell, Homer Garza, Noe Guerra, Dolores Huerta, Mattie Marcum, William Mareth, Vickie Natale, Mary Peña, Jim Pierce (Chair), Lisa Welch.

Not Attending: None

Principal Committee Chairs Attending: Don Craig, Jo Ann Luckie, John Mastenbrook, Maryann Williams.

Chair's Remarks: Chair Jim Pierce announced that several of the Principal Committees had met, and he said that Steering Committee liaisons need to encourage the committee chairs to meet with their committees at least once this semester. He said that two committees (Organization and Administration and Institutional Advancement) still need liaisons and he asked for volunteers. Noe Guerra volunteered to serve as liaison to the Organization and Administration Committee. Pierce said that a couple of the committee chairs had expressed a need for more members and that he will email the committees, authorizing them to add members, if needed.

Pierce reviewed his April 16 email message to the chairs about what should take place at the first committee meeting. He said that the initial orientation should include three items: the general schedule of the committee's workload, the "must" statements from the Criteria that fall in the committee's area of responsibility, and the resource documents from the College that each committee will need to examine in order to measure the College's compliance with the Criteria

The Self-Study Plan: Pierce said that he had received five Self-Study Plans from other institutions; most are about 35 pages long and to a large extent they quote or paraphrase material in the Handbook for Peer Evaluators and the Handbook for Institutional Self-Study. The Plan is intended to provide guidelines and deadlines for the Principal Committees. Pierce said the Plan has to be submitted to DMC's SACS liaison, John Dwyer, by June; Pierce will bring a draft of the Plan to the Steering Committee's May 6 meeting for comments and will circulate the draft further in June to members of the committee who are available. Principal Committee liaisons should give their committees a brief orientation based on the PowerPoint presentation that Mattie Marcum has developed and a more detailed orientation based on the Self-Study Plan, when it is approved.

Initial Orientations: Pierce said that the initial orientations of the Principal Committees should include the Self-Study schedule and SACS publications. All Principal Committee chairs should have: the Criteria, the Handbook for Institutional Self-Study, and the Resource Manual on Institutional Effectiveness. Pierce said that during their initial meetings the Principal Committees must decide which college publications and reports they will need in the fall. Lisa Welch asked if the Committees should use the new college catalog, which is coming out in September. Pierce said that they should.

The Survey: Pierce said that some of the "must" statements pertain to perceptions that will need to be assessed through a survey; the Principal Committees will sometime this summer need to produce the questions that will comprise the survey, which will be coordinated through Vickie Natale's office. Natale pointed out that during DMC's last Self-Study five different surveys were used and that the committees may review those surveys, as well as surveys from other institutions, in her office. Natale pointed out that the surveys should ask for as much information as is necessary, but that shorter surveys are more likely to be answered. She said her office plans to make the survey scannable. She said that some segments of the campus could be surveyed in the summer and the rest in September; the results should be available in the early fall. Pierce suggested that Natale host a meeting of all Principal Committee chairs to discuss the kinds of survey questions that their committees will need answers to.

Natale said that during the last Self-Study, the Principal Committees developed the survey questions and passed them to the Steering Committee for review. John Mastenbrook asked if the Principal Committees could get feedback on the survey questions from the Steering Committee before the survey reaches its final form. Pierce said yes.

Guidelines for Committee Meeting Minutes: John M. Crisp handed out guidelines for developing minutes of Principal Committee meetings. A discussion ensued regarding efficient ways of posting the minutes to DMC's SACS web pages. Natale suggested that Microsoft Office can now convert text automatically to HTML. Crisp will talk with Laura Montemayor regarding the feasibility of providing an FTP for the minutes-makers of the Principal Committees, so each can upload minutes directly to the server. Additional information will be provided at the May 6 meeting.

PowerPoint Presentation: Mattie Marcum presented the PowerPoint orientation that she has developed for the Principal Committees. The committee discussed ways that it could be used during the initial orientation of the Principal Committees.

The Financial Resources Committee: Liaison Dolores Huerta and Chair Don Craig presented an overview of the work of the Financial Resources Committee (Sections 6.3 and 6.5 of the Criteria). They reviewed the "must" statements and pointed out potential problems. Craig raised a question about 6.3.8 (Refund Policy) and the extent to which the committee must show that DMC is adhering to its refund policy. Pierce said that the Handbook for Peer Evaluators will provide an indication of the depth of detail required by SACS. Huerta and Craig pointed out that Section 6.5 (Externally Funded Grants and Contracts) would include areas such as the Center for Business and Community Education and Workforce Development. Mike Gadell said that this area seems to overlap with Section 4.9 (Consortial Relationships and Contractual Agreements), but that 4.9 appears to involve instructional areas while 6.5 has to do with other types of grants.

Pierce said that "compliance" will often involve the following questions: Is there a DMC policy that governs what people do? Do they know that there is a policy? Are there ways to determine that they're following the policy? Are there sometimes outside checks?

Other Discussion: Marcum, as liaison to the Institutional Effectiveness Committee, said that the committee was having the same problems as other committees regarding clarity and overlap between sections of the Criteria. The hiring of an outside consultant had been suggested. Noe Guerra suggested asking the SACS liaison about the advisability of obtaining a consultant. Marcum asked about duplicating copies of material that committee liasons will be producing for their committees. Pierce said that small copying jobs might be done with departmental resources, but larger jobs should come through him. Craig asked about obtaining copies of the documents that his committee will need; Pierce said that he would work with Natale to make the documents available and that a Self-Study office would open in the summer.

Next Steering Committee Meeting: May 6, 1998, noon, Century Room. On the agenda: a review of the Self-Study Plan and a review of the responsibilities of the Physical Resources Committee.

Minutes prepared by John M. Crisp.