SSC 2008 Minutes |

SSC 072208 Minutes

Student Service Council

Minutes

July 22, 2008

9:00 am to Noon

Training Center - 112

Attendees: Earl Campa, CF; Diana Pino, CF; Nadine Jenkins, K; Jade Borne, M; Bennie Lambert, NH; Severo Balason, NH-GPC; Ed Albracht, T; Susan Rush, Jason Kot, Jen Murillo, SO; Larry Rideaux, SO; Glen Woods, SO &; Debra Britton, UC

Absent: Nithy, S.R., SO; Debra Britton, UC; Sandi Patton, SO

Guests: Rika Muhl & Necie Gree

Recorder: Tammy McFarland, SO

Opening Items-- Approval of minutes - accomplished via email

New Business-

1. Update on Testing Centers and new name for Assessment Center Council-LSCS Testing Council
Members discussed the proposal made by the LSCS testing Council to upgrade the position from support staff (B25) to professional staff (C45). This proposal will be included in the review of positions and reorganization of student services staff system wide. This will not be able to be accomplished by September 2008 as requested since it impacts budget and staffing and those decisions have been made of OP09.

Decision: Larry will add this request to his review of student services across the system and Diana Pino will include this request with the review all positions. The review will look at function/compensation/personnel needs across the system and attempt to bring the student services offices into alignment. Also, Larry forwarded the job description "designed" by the testing council to HR so that it could be determined if the job functions were aligned with a pay scale of C45.

The second request of the LSCS Testing Council was for membership into TACTP and NCTA for approximately 20 staff members across the system AND for professional development funds to allow for all staff members to attend the NCTA conference.

Decision: Larry Rideaux agreed to pay the $500 membership fees for these two organizations from his budget. All questions regarding professional development will need to be addressed at each college since this is a budgetary question.

2. Discussion regarding counselors teaching requirement & workload-Diana Pino
What is the teaching requirement for counselors across the system?

     a.)n TC every counselor will teach a 3-credit course either HUMD or EDUC 1300 as mandated by Dr. Murray. Adjunct faculty will also teach these courses as needed.
     b.)n MC - has an education instructor that will teach EDUC 1300; counselors have a teaching requirement in their contracts but due to time constraints-most do not teach.
     c.)n KC-Nadine asked for the historical perspective on why counselors are considered faculty-President Bill Thorne first granted faculty status to counselors but did not require them to teach, KC and TC followed this "tradition" but MC designated counselors as Assistant Deans although over the years there have been other variations. Most colleges are moving to the hybrid approach and counselors are assigned to specific academic departments and work directly with the faculty in those areas-the consensus of the attending council members seems to be that counselors should be afforded faculty status.

Diana will poll the counselors at her next meeting and report back to the group regarding counselors' preferences for professional staff or faculty status.

n KC- not sure if they will be required to teach.

Overall-reporting lines and consistency of job descriptions needs to be aligned across the system.

n NH-counselors have been assigned to academic areas and will not be assisting with the registration of students.

Ø Marketing of EDUC 1300 needs to be ramped up-students will be informed of the course in the FTIC seminars and letters will be sent to students already registered, Larry will ask Siobhan Fleming, interim AVC IR/IE for a list of students and Susan Rush will re-send the flyer announcing the course and work with Steve Lestarjette on an article highlighting the course.

Colleges should not cancel any EDUC 1300 sessions because there could be a "last minute rush" to sign up.

1. Code of Conduct Review- Nadine Jenkins-next meeting is July 28, 2-4 pm at System Office to review and compare the conduct code. Tammy will re-send the policy and procedure section of the draft manual for review. Dick Gregory will also attend this meeting. The goal is to have a "user manual" for both staff and students that will outline the conduct code and highlight the consequences related to breaking the code.

Ongoing Business-

1. Return of Title IV funds as related to our withdrawal and reinstatement procedures-Jason Kot -ongoing, deferred to next meeting

1. Assessment Center and DL Courses-Earl Campa-- deferred

1. Transcript Review Standards and Approval of Vendors-Nithy, S.R., Glen Wood-deferred to May meeting-ongoing-meeting with evaluators-requesting a coordinator at system level for international students. Nithy is preparing a proposal for an evaluator coordinator position.

1. Update on web design- Jen Murillo-included in Rika's presentation
2. Update regarding Pre-Nursing /AAS.AADN programs and FA-Jason Kot, Susan Rush-deferred
3. Review & Update IT Priority List for Student Services Area-Nadine Jenkins -- deferred

Open Items-

Bacterial Meningitis Brochures have been shipped to each college-please check with your central receiving or public information area to see if they are there.
Updated liaisons for committee and projects (see below)
Expanded EarlyAlert-MATH 0308 will be the focus this fall and then will be expanded to include other courses in the spring. The early alert process will be institutionalized and needs to be included in staff meetings, faculty presentations, and budget considerations.
Jade Borne asked that the process of dropping students for non-payment of payment plans be revisited to insure that it will not happen again-Larry will check with Linda Luehrs-Wolfe to confirm that this decision was made and implemented by CESD and the VPADs and report back to the group on its status-preferred resolution-- students will not be dropped for non-payment during de-reg.
THECB has opened up its approved accrediting agencies (Glen will email list to members). Therefore, LSCS will have to review all transcripts from these schools and attempt to develop equivalencies for the courses-we are not required to accept these courses but to make a "good faith" effort to review the courses to see if they meet our course criteria.

Decision: Glen will ask ARC members and transcript evaluators to develop a matrix of evaluated courses to help cut down on duplication of efforts by evaluators reviewing these courses.

MobileGo-needs to have a security guard present at each trip/site-Larry will check with Dick Gregory to see what can be done. Severo checked the contract and it specifically states that the Mobile Go has to have adequate security to protect from theft and vandalism while it is out. The unit is equipped with a security system.

Advising Conference- LSC-Tomball, October 24-please make every effort to allow your Advisors an opportunity to attend this event. More information to follow.
Online Decision Log-Susan Rush is administrating the online decision log for SSC found. Please email her specific decisions that you would like included in this log.
NO AUGUST MEETING-Next meeting September 23 in Training Center, Room 113-115 to include lunch with Donetta Goodall, VC, Student Success.
Guests Presenters:

1. Rika Muhl and Necie Gree- Student Services Webpage Review-Rika projected the draft hub webpage for review and asked that council members contact her with revisions.

Jen stated that HS students will no longer need an external email for applications and will be able to establish one password for both applications and MyRecords (applause)

Rika asked that each college assign personnel (implementer) to help with the revision and updating of the college-specific web pages (and deletion of unused web pages)-Rika's group is not responsible for the content of these pages-only the format.

Once the "implementer" is designated-Jen or Rika will be happy to meet individually with your staff to assist in the revision process.

Common content: application/financial aid/testing, etc will be "housed" on the hub page...links to each college will be provided on this page for specific information related to that college.

UPDATED: Committee Reports & Project Updates:

Students Success Handbook -Jade Borne
Financial Aid Council - Jason Kot
Counselors - Diana Pino
Advisors - Susan Rush
Career Council - Susan Rush
Student Activities - Severo Balason
Admission Registration Council (ARC)- Nadine Jenkins, Glen Wood
Disability Services - Sandi Patton, Ed Albracht
LSCS Testing Council - Larry Rideaux
International Programs & Services- Nithy Sevanthinathan, Bennie Lambert, Glen Wood

Þ Next Meeting- September 23, 2008