Minutes of the Steering Committee Meeting
July 13, 2006
3:30 p.m.
208 Samford

Attended by: Rich Penaskovic, Ann Beth Presley, Kathryn Flynn, John Heilman, Roger Garrison, Bob Locy

Rich Penaskovic called the meeting to order and the minutes of the June 22nd Steering Committee meeting were approved without corrections.

Rich Penaskovic stated that he would mention Joe Ansell and other faculty members who have died in the past month during his comments at the July 18th Senate meeting.

Kathryn Flynn will confirm whether Dr. Richardson will speak at the meeting.

Additional Items

John Heilman was asked if all of the College of Agriculture would undergo Academic Program Review.  He said that the Dept. of Animal Sciences would be the unit within Agriculture that would undergo Academic Program Review during the pilot year.  He said that Animal and Dairy Sciences has several degree programs so it was a logical place to conduct a pilot study.

John Heilman was asked to provide some information on the new International Insurance guidelines.  He said that the new policy was a de-centralization of the payment process.  One member of the Steering Committee noted that the new process would put the burden on departments, many of which are already facing shortfalls or have already allocated funds for the next fiscal year.  John Heilman said that there are a number of issues related to international programs that need review and this review will take place over the next year.  He said that he would gather additional information on the new policy so that he will be able to answer questions about it.

John Heilman noted that both the Post Tenure Review process and the Academic Program Review process would be conducted on a trial basis. 

John Heilman was asked why the new parking deck has been assigned “D Zone” parking.  He stated that the reason was related to safety.

John Heilman told the Steering Committee that a media release related to an anonymous complaint made via Ethics Point was forthcoming.  He said the complaint alleged that a professor in one department had provided a directed study course to a number of students and assigned grades to those students while requiring little or no work of them.  He said that the complaint is being investigated and that spokespeople for the University would make no comment beyond acknowledging the investigation until all the information has been gathered.