The College of Education Executive Committee met on Thursday, September 24, 1998, at 8:30 a. m. in the Conference Room in the Education Center with Dean Toth presiding. Members present were: Drs. McGahee, Ducharme, Dixey, Gunter, Atterbom, Backes, M. Reed, Siegrist, Swank, Price, T. Reed, Bauer, Lahr, Miller, and Ms. Roberts.

Dean Toth reported on Chancellor Portch's visit to campus yesterday. Chancellor Portch had many interesting comments and observations. He reported that the system-wide SAT score is 981; for this fall semester, VSU's SAT score for entering freshmen is 998.5. Dean Toth asked Ms. Roberts to see if she could get the SAT scores for COE freshmen as well as the SAT scores for COE students overall.

Dean Toth asked department heads to please gather data for a request from Dr. McKay for courses being taught either on WWW or on-line. This issue will be discussed more at next week's meeting. The data is due to Dr. McKay by September 30.

Dr. Ron Barnette has been asked to represent VSU at the October meeting of the Board of Regents and present information on what VSU is doing relative to this year's BOR theme of "teachers and technology." Dean Toth is concerned that not all technology innovations being pursued by the COE, as well as the other colleges, will be adequately represented. He asked Dr. T. Reed to send Dr. Barnette information relating to how technology is used in the COE.

Dean Toth will ask Dr. John Slate, vice chair of the Institutional Review Board, to attend next week's meeting to answer questions relating to procedures being required by the IRB for approval of research efforts. Several faculty members have questioned the appropriateness of some of these procedures, particularly for research efforts being undertaken by students in a class.

Dean Toth announced that he had selected Dr. Ellen Wiley to be the COE representative on the Interdisciplinary Program Committee.

Dean Toth announced that Dr. John Hummel had agreed to work on a FIPSE proposal for the COE. Dr. Hummel would like to work on a web-based course project; anyone interested in working with Dr. Hummel should contact him.

Dean Toth reported on the meeting he attended last Thursday on the "principles and actions for the preparation of teachers." Both Dr. Muyskens and Dr. Kettlewell were there to help explain key elements of the principles. Dr. Benjamin and Dr. Dasher also attended the meeting. Some of the main points discussed were: the definition of majors and minors, factoring race and gender into teacher preparation, and a system-wide cap on the number of hours in teacher education programs. At the end of the discussion, Dr. Muyskens summarized the discussion and stated that he felt another meeting would be necessary before any conclusions could be reached.

Dean Toth announced that Dr. David Graf has developed a definition of "service learning." Dean Toth will distribute a copy of the definition to department heads.

Dean Toth announced that all position announcements should have been submitted to Dr. T. Reed.

Dean Toth distributed copies of some rule changes from the Professional Standards Commission (PSC); any questions about these changes should be brought up at the next meeting.

Dean Toth has read the annual reports each department/program has prepared to be sent to PSC. Dean Toth noted the excellent job which Dr. Lahr had done with his responses. There are three departmental responses which need to be re-written; Dean Toth will talk with those department heads later today.

Ms. Roberts reminded department heads that in-progress grades are to be entered into Banner next week. These grades are required for all 1000- and 2000-level classes. Also, "Family Day" is scheduled for this weekend. Ms. Roberts also distributed brochures for each major in the COE; these brochures were developed by the Office of Planning and Placement.

Dr. Bauer reported on an analysis he had completed of freshmen students at VSU. There were 1280 applicants from VSU's 41-county service area; of these applicants, 871 (68 percent) had been accepted.

Dr. Swank reported that the required scores for Praxis I will be raised March 1, 2001. He has written to PSC for clarification of what this change will entail. He also announced that students' test scores (Praxis I, SAT, etc.) are available on the "old" Banner system under the menu "SOATEST."

Dean Toth announced that Who's Who nominations are due October 27. Ms. Roberts is a member of this year's selection committee.

Dean Toth announced that VSU has established a K2 committee; Tom Archibald is the project leader for this group. Mr. Archibald expects many of VSU's problems to arise because of the number of 486 computers on campus; currently, the number of 486 computers on campus is 414. Mr. Archibald has written a grant to replace these 486 computers.

Dean Toth raised the issue of the calendar for Summer Semester, 1999. The summer semester is scheduled to begin classes on June 2. However, Dean Toth has surveyed the school systems in VSU's 41-county service area and has found that the vast majority of them do not complete post-planning activities for teachers until June 8, 9, or 10. If the COE follows the June 2 starting date for classes, the number of graduate students able to attend summer school will be drastically reduced. He raised the idea of the COE starting classes later than June 2. Much discussion followed. Dr. Price made the motion that the COE request to begin classes on June 14 and end classes on the regular university schedule; seconded by Dr. McGahee. This change will allow the COE to have an approximately 7-week summer session, with classes running slightly longer each day to make-up the missed time. The motion was unanimously approved. Dr. Bauer and Ms. Roberts were asked to determine time slots for classes for summer semester.

Dean Toth announced that he would distribute the list of faculty who must undergo pre- and post-tenure review this year within the next few days.

Dean Toth announced that two teachers from Cook High School had been approved for PBTS grants.

Dean Toth expressed concern about the number of students who were not enrolled in full academic loads this semester. One hundred seventy-six freshmen and sophomores are taking just 12 hours this semester; 444 juniors and seniors are taking just 12 hours. Of the 1800 students campus-wide who are taking 12 hours, 620 are COE majors. Dean Toth asked department heads to remind advisors that students who take just 12 hours each semester will take longer than four years to complete their degrees.

Dean Toth asked department heads to review prerequisites and co-requisites for semester courses in their departments to make sure that they are offered before the required course is offered.

Dean Toth announced that the University System of Georgia has been awarded one of the ten European Union Centers in the United States; this group is concerned with curricula review in the European Union. Anyone wishing to be nominated to this group should let Dean Toth know.

Dean Toth reviewed the library allocations for the COE. He noted that the COE, as a whole, has a particularly high serial cost. He suggested that departments examine the feasibility of replacing serials with a serial database. Currently, library allocations university wide are spent on serials (81 percent) and books and other media (19 percent). Additionally, Dean Toth stated that Dr. Gaumond had asked if the COE wanted to continue to house the IMC in the Education Center once the new library addition is completed. Dean Toth asked department heads to get input from departmental faculty about this issue for discussion at a future meeting.

Dean Toth announced that no decision had been made about faculty salaries for classes taught during the May-mester.

Dean Toth asked Dr. Price and Dr. Siegrist to carry doctoral program advising sheets with them to the meeting in Albany on Saturday.

Dean Toth circulated a copy of the Pulaski County Annual Report, developed by the Pulaski County School System. Dean Toth noted that the report contained some excellent information.

Dean Toth noted that the Valdosta Magazine had an excellent article in it about the speech and hearing clinic.

Dean Toth discussed budget problems at the university. Dr. Benjamin has asked each dean to be prepared to take a 2 percent cut in his/her budget. According to Mr. Brignati, summer school lost about $400,000; fall semester revenue was down approximately $700,000. Of these losses, approximately 50 percent will need to come from academics, 42 percent from institutional support, and 5 percent from student services. In order to cover part of the losses, Dr. Benjamin has taken part of the funding for Faculty Development, the international travel budget, unfilled positions, and the $114,000 provided by the Board of Regents to help defray the cost of the Albany doctoral program.

Dean Toth announced that Dean Clark had found that Dr. Mike Crowe had done an excellent job of providing a great deal of the documentation needed to satisfy the "must" and "should" statements for the SACS review.

Dean Toth asked department heads to notify him of any specific bookstore problems which they had this semester; he wants to provide this documentation to Dr. Benjamin so that he will have a basis for discussion of the problem with Mr. Brignati.

Dean Toth announced that Dr. Michael Brooks (Sociology Department) will chair a core curriculum and assessment task force. This task force will examine assessment of the core curriculum as well as objectives for Areas A-E. Dr. Brooks is looking for volunteers to serve on this task force.

Dr. McKay has expressed concern about the commitments the COE has made for off-campus undergraduate programs over the next two years. It is Dean Toth's position that only if the numbers of students are there will the COE commit to an off-campus program.

Dean Toth reminded department heads to check their e-mail daily.

Dean Toth discussed the graduate programs being offered at Ware County High School and at Charlton County High School. These programs are reserved for only the teachers at these schools. These are special programs which are designed to address the school improvement plans developed by each school. The programs will focus on problem areas in each of these schools.

Dr. M. Reed distributed a faculty list for each department and asked department heads to revise the list as needed and return it to her.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:07 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,