SSC 052207 Minutes

Minutes

May 22, 2007

9:00 am to 12:00 pm System Office - Room 112

Attendees:  Nadine Jenkins, Chair, KC; Earl Campa, CFC; Nithy Sevanthinathan, System Office Jason Kot, System Office; Mary Shafer, System Office; Diana Pino, CFC; Ed Albracht, TC; System Office; Debra Britton, TUC; Tammy McFarland, System Office- Recorder.

Guests:  Jean Grove, System Office (by phone from Austin); Randy Sparks, System Office; Jen Murillo, System Office

Absent: Larry Rideaux, System Office; Nockie Zizelmann, Bennie Lambert, NHC; Severo Balason, NHC; Terry Sawma, KC

Opening Items

Approval of minutes - accomplished via email

Business

1. Role and Classifications of Advisors-Jean Grove joined the meeting by phone to discuss how to address the inconsistencies in responsibilities and pay grade for academic advisors across the district. Jean explained that at this time the district did not have a job description for Academic Advisors and if the SSC wanted one it would have to be crafted by a committee willing to work several hours to formulate the positions responsibilities and duties. A grid could be used to decide how much time is spent on low skill and high skill tasks, determine required education levels, and assign decision making responsibilities as well as other criteria to determine if the job is exempt or non-exempt status. A rule of thumb for determining if personnel are spending more than 50% of their time on non-exempt functions-then they can not be paid at a higher pay grade.

Academic Advisors should not be registering students (according to HR)-SSC members believe that this is not feasible, if a student is being advised, then it is a simple matter to input the registration schedule and would be a waste of the students time to move to a different area to complete a registration schedule. 

Most colleges in our district have blended the many parts of the advising, registration and even financial aid process and we need to address these functions, educational levels, and responsibilities and pay accordingly.  The frustration is trying to balance the HR requirements (exempt/non-exempt status) with the student services needs and the skills and abilities of personnel.

Jean is ready and willing to work with a committee to craft job descriptions using the skills and functions and educational levels needed to address the student services requirements.  (Jean acknowledged that this would not be a cookie cutter approach due to the differences among the colleges.)

Proposed committee members:

Diana Pino - CFC     Nadine Jenkins - KC    Debra Britton - TUC   Raphael Turner - TC   Cammie Davie - MC   Dement, Marilyn   -- NHC    Jean Grove - System Office    Susan Rush, System Office

2. My Educational Plan- Jen Murillo joined the meeting to review the ongoing improvements being made to the MEP. Once fully operational the MEP will be a great tool in helping students map out their educational plans. The speed of the website has been greatly improved from 1-3 minute loading times to the current 15 seconds (approximate). The website still has its problems such as the "OK" button loops the student back to the front page-giving the student the impression that he/she has completed the program when in actuality he has more to complete. The program also does not back-track and correct the MEP when the student drops or fails a class.

Advisors will need to review the students' MEPs from time to time to insure that they are up-to-date and accurate.

Mary Shafer warned that a problem that might occur is "assuming" that colleague has the students' current degree plans correctly input.

The goal is to make completion of the MEP mandatory for FTIC students with 12 hours or less credit hours by October or November 2007.

Diana Pino asked if there was a test site that the advisors and counselors could use to practice with the MEP.  Jen will forward that link.

Diana will review the MEP proposal with the counselors at their meeting this week.  Once Susan Rush comes on-board, she will work with the advisors to insure they are kept informed on the progress towards full implementation of the MEP.  Both groups will be asked to review the site and offer suggestions for improvements.

The council thanked Jen and her team for all the work they've done to make this site functional.  Jen reminded the Council that she too is interested in making our website the best it can be and to bear with the team while small adjustments are made on the road to full to implementation of an excellent online experience.

3. Update on IT Student Services Help Desk - Randy Sparks reviewed a PowerPoint presentation of work done by the Student Services Help Desk committee and demonstrated the proposed phone tree procedure. The Council discussed improvements to the website and asked Randy and the committee to move forward on the plan to implement the phone tree and to work with Jen Murillo in making the necessary improvements to the website to provide correct contact information and providing appropriate links to students who are experiencing difficulty in accessing information.

Work will continue to insure that students' needs are met and that the IT Help Desk is not inundated by student services type calls that it is not prepared to handle (Service Desk restricts its calls to IT solutions and refers other calls to appropriate areas). 

Web pages will be revised to provide the best contact information for each type of call.  Work will continue to insure that the pages are easily accessed and correct information is provided.

832/813-6855 will be the number used for the informational line-when students call this number seeking assistance they will hear a greeting and then will be asked to select the college they want to contact (Press for Lone Star College–CyFair, etc.)  Once the choice is selected, they will be connected to that college's student services area. 

The main number will be "owned" by the district College Services area and the Student Support Services Program Manger will be responsible for insuring that it is updated whenever necessary.

The number will become operational as soon as the informational recordings can be made.

Council thanked Randy for the work his team has put into this effort.

4. FERPA - Policy and Practice - Mary Shafer. Glen Wood researched the FERPA requirements in allowing parents/guardians to access financial accounts in order to pay for their children's tuitions. Business Offices are correct in telling parents that they can not release that information without written permission from the student (Tomball's form even requires a Notary Public signature). Mary will continue researching this issue and report possible options to the Council at the next meeting.

5. Email as Official Communication to Students- Nadine Jenkins- deferred.

6. Review Drop Process for the Winter Mini-mester-deferred to next meeting.

7. Update on "Apply Texas" - Mary Shafer and Earl Campa will be traveling to Austin on Friday, June 29 to attend a meeting on the Apply Texas Process. Mary Shafer has hard copies of the Apply Texas forms-if any one would like a batch.

8. SSC Retreat Planning - Nadine Jenkins-Nadine received suggestions of April Sound Country Club at $26.00 per person for all day meeting room, continental breakfast, lunch and snack; Café Adobe meeting space with buffet lunch approximately $15.00 per person; Walden Country Club $$$$; and Shirley Acres $$$$ and NW Forest Meeting Center near CF High School. Nadine will continue researching these spaces and make a reservation for Thursday, June 28 from 9 - 2 pm. The Council decided to cancel the June 26 regular SSC meeting. Please forward retreat topics to Nadine.

9. Registration Process Update - Jade will schedule a meeting for this committee prior to the peak fall registration period.

10. Follow-up on the possibility of CE courses being counted toward full time student status for F1 students- Larry Rideaux will meet with Sunny Cooke and Nithy to work on this issue. Update deferred until next meeting.

11. Enrollment Reporting Process Draft Report- Larry Rideaux is collecting responses to this report and will forward them to Diane Novak and Lori Hannes by May 23.

12. Update on Accuplacer - the curriculum committee has taken over the review of the Accuplacer and will report back to SSC when a decision is made.

13. Update on Proposed Student Policies-Ed Albracht reported that the Policy & Procedures were revised as indicated by council members and forwarded to Judy Stubblefield for final review. Larry sent his thanks to everyone that helped with the revisions and review process.

14. Update Ask Online Tutoring Initiative-Terry Sawma-tabled due to Terry's absence.

Next Meeting- Retreat planned for Thursday, June 28, 9 am - 2 pm, location - TBA