Attending: John M. Crisp, Mike Gadell, Homer Garza, Noe Guerra, Mattie Marcum, William Mareth, Mary Peña, Jim Pierce (Chair), Lisa Welch.
Not Present: Dolores Huerta, Vickie Natale.
Reassigned Time/Overload for Steering Committee Members: Jim Pierce reported that in December V.P.I.S.S. Armenta had approved one course release time or overload pay for faculty members on the Steering Committee. Armenta also said that he would ask the supervisors of the A.P.T. committee members to allow them the necessary time from normal duties for the work of the Steering Committee. (This restructuring of committee members' workloads will extend to long semesters through the spring of 2000.) Pierce recommended that faculty committee members work with their chairs immediately to make any changes in class schedules. Mattie Marcum asked about the extent of summer involvement for nine-month employees and Pierce said that the Steering Committee would not have regularly scheduled meetings in the summer, except, possibly, for the summer after the SACS committee visit in the spring of 2000.
Regular Meeting Time: For spring, the committee agreed on a regular meeting every two weeks on Wednesdays starting January 28, from 12:00--1:30 p.m., in the Century Room, with lunch provided.
Videotape:Pierce showed a nine-minute videotape about the history of SACS and the accreditation process.
SACS Convention in New Orleans, December 7-10: Pierce distributed copies of his and John M. Crisp's travel reports from the conference, as well as the minutes of a post-conference debriefing on December 12. He repeated a point that he heard made several times at the conference: members of the SACS visitation team will be interested in insuring that all members of the faculty and staff, at all levels, have participated in the processes of the self-study and that all units should have minutes of their meetings that indicate the involvement of all members.
Institutional Effectiveness: Pierce distributed copies of Doug Boyce's "Report of Consultation on the Areas of Institutional Effectiveness and the Reaffirmation Process," prepared after Boyce's visit to DMC on November 20-21, 1997. Pierce urged members of the Steering Committee to familiarize themselves with their departments' and units' goals and objectives before Dr. Dwyer's Kick-Off visit on January 22, 1998. He also distributed a Unit Level Planning Calendar. Mike Gadell asked whether, over time, units and departments would be expected to increase the number of their assessment objectives over the currently recommended two to three. Pierce said that self-study directors and others at the SACS conference had recommended limiting the active list of objectives to no more than two or three. Departments and units will keep longer lists of goals and objectives and will periodically rotate objectives from that list to the active list. In response to Mary Peña's question, Pierce said that all unit plans should have an anticipated date for achieving results. Gadell asked whether the Unit Plan's Section 9 (Budget Cost Impact) refers to the ongoing cost of a routine course or to changes in the budget. Pierce said, based on information from the SACS conference, that Section 9 refers generally to changes in the budget, pointing out that a significant portion of most college budgets are fixed costs. Mattie Marcum asked about large adjustments in the budget that are not linked to Unit Plans; Pierce said that such changes would not have to be linked in this budget cycle, but in the future they will require links to Unit Plans.
Faculty Credentials: Pierce said that the two points he saw emphasized most often at the SACS conference were (1) the need for Unit Plans that include at least one full cycle (preferably two) of planning, assessment, and use of results and (2) faculty credentials. Acceptable credentialing requires official transcripts or documentation of special skills and experience of instructors who are teaching without the required educational credentials. He referred to pp 43-46 of SACS Criteria for Accreditation for specific requirements. He said that the requirements apply to part-time as well as full-time faculty.
Principal Committees: Pierce recommended using the same committee structure used during the last self-study, with the following exception: he recommended combining Institutional Research with Institutional Effectiveness. Referencing the SACS Criteria for Accreditation, he said that Section I (Principles and Philosophy of Accreditation) is usually handled by the Steering Committee. He recommended development of the following committees:
Committee Chairs: The Steering Committee developed a list of nominees for chairs of the Principal Committees and recommended forwarding it to V.P.I.S.S. Armenta and President Dicianna.
Dr. John Dwyer's Visit, January 22: The Committee developed the following schedule for SACS Liaison Dwyer's Kick-Off Visit:
All meetings, except the luncheon, will be in the Library, Room 108.
Self-Study Web Page: John M. Crisp showed the committee the beginnings of the self-study web page, which is linked near the bottom of the Instructional Programs page on the DMC web site. The self-study page will be used to develop a central calendar for the self-study and to develop links to minutes of other self-study records. Crisp solicited input regarding the kinds of information that should be included on the pages.
Minutes prepared by John M. Crisp.
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