...and in other news...
 
Since I’ve gone quite a few days without updating these pages, here a few quick notes on things going on.  Some of these items have already appeared in Deans Council minutes, A&S Chair minutes, or in campus announcements.
  1. •Advising - As I reported earlier, advising is a University System priority.  The Advising Task Force has proposed requiring a series of training sessions for faculty and some staff.  The Deans have endorsed this concept, and a pilot program will begin next semester.
  2. •New Degree Programs - Zvi is holding the Chemistry and Psychology degree Letters of Intent until letters are ready for the DPS in IT and the BS in Systems Engineering.  Meanwhile, work on the full proposals continues, and we should have complete Chemistry and Psychology proposals by December (chem) and January (psych).
  3. •The new Engineering degree curricula will include a number of ENGR courses that will be appropriate to include in an Engineering Physics degree.  BPS will soon put forth a proposal for an Engr Phys concentration in the existing Phys BS.  This program could possibly be spun off as a separate degree program in the future.
  4. •Equipment Money - The Deans Council has all the equipment proposals and work has begun on establishing campus-wide priorities.  This shouldn’t take too long, so expect to see funds allocated by the end of the month.  Equipment requests totaled over $550,000 against a budget of just $395,000, but this is better than previous years when requests exceeded budget by 50 to 100%.  Thank the new lab fees for meeting much of the need for instructional equipment.
  5. •Computer replacement - The deans also considered a proposed policy from Bill Gruzska to establish a regular budget for the replacement of computers (instructional, faculty, and staff) on campus.  IT has recommended a 4-year cycle for replacement, but has had to rely on end-of-year funds to purchase replacement hardware.  In most cases, departments have few options to replace aging hardware: they can use the department operating budget, they can request equipment money or tech fee money, or they can hope that IT will receive enough EOY money to meet the need.  The proposal would establish a budget drawing from several sources, including a portion from the AA equipment budget (we currently spend tens of thousands of equipment dollars each year on replacement hardware), some from the tech fees, some from tuition revenue, and some from the general fund.  The deans agreed that the proposal has merit, but many details remain to be worked out.
  6. •Technology Fee Proposals - The Deans Council asked Gruzska to defend his proposed policy change for Tech Fee proposals that would have given priority to collaborative projects.  The deans strongly objected to this change and asked that it be removed from the Tech Fee Proposal form.  Gruzska refused to remove it but agreed to move it off the front page of the form, and to downplay the importance of collaboration in the tech fee approval process.  The offending form was replaced in less than one day (thanks, Bill!).
  7. •A&S Department Chair meetings - We are reaching the point in the semester where it becomes difficult to get everyone at the table.  We will only be able to meet 2 more of our regularly scheduled meetings this semester (but have penciled in 2 dates in case something comes up we have to meet to handle).
Thursday, October 19, 2006