Faculty Council Minutes Feb. 20, 2001

Announcements:

1.      On March 20, a gala honoring Governor Hunt will be held in Raleigh.  Two buses will be leaving for the event – one at 5:00 p.m. and one at 6:00 p.m. – which begins at 7:00.  Mark your calendars (Sally Adkin).

2.      Research symposium is coming fast.  Please consider registering interesting Miniterm projects, independent studies, and seminar projects with Dick Waghorn.  This is not simply a science event; entries across the curriculum are welcome (Marylin Link).

3.      Workshops for SIG are impending; please watch your email (Jonathan Bennett).

4.      Michael Newbauer has joined the SLI staff.  He comes to NCSSM with a wealth of YMCA experience (Marlene Blakeney).  Mr. Newbauer informed the staff of an upcoming evening session with local police to review safety procedures with students.  He also invited any faculty who were interested to join the “Privs” committee.

5.      Yellow permission slips have now gone hi-tech (Tom Clayton).  The administration is turning to online messages alerting you about students who will miss class because of athletic and other special events that require early dismissal.  Faculty will receive the message one-week ahead.  Additionally, the online test/project/paper registration has been revised.  It is in Outlook – click on “tools” – then select “forms” – then “choose forms” to register.

6.      A small cluster of computers will be used to engage in a hi-tech tutoring program for fourth graders (Dr. Steve Warshaw).  Thirteen students are volunteering their time to execute the program.  As the program requires additional software and hardware, Steve asked the faculty which computers would be best for this function.  It was recommended that the Academic Technology Committee should review the selection.  The Board is entertaining possible changes tot he student handbook depending on the outcome of its next meeting.

7.      The Welfare Committee reported (Dr. Jon Miller) that, since graduation was now on a Saturday, that the last day of school for faculty would be the proceeding Thursday, rather that Friday.

8.      Minutes of previous Faculty Council Meetings were passed with changes.

Motions:

The Director of Academic Programs will send a written acknowledgement to those students who achieve letter grades of A- or better in all classes each quarter.

The vote (without quorum): 20 aye; 6 nay; 1 abstention.

Discussion Items: Academic Technology (Jim Litle)

A draft of the Academic Technology Committee’s proposal is on the T: drive in the “Academic Technology” folder.  It discusses the school’s goals and potential implementation of their plan; please got to the site and offer the group (Alston, Litle, Halpin) feedback.  As early as this spring, NCSSM will be moving towards becoming both a wired and wireless campus.  We need to be prepared by May 1 (the day next year’s juniors are offered admission) to inform them of what specs they will need with their computer(s) to utilize the NCSSM system.  As 1/3 to ½ of entering students purchase their own computers, NCSSM may explore a computer purchasing program with manufacturers; computer purchases may become mandatory by 2002 which would necessitate the choice of a particular vendor rather than recommendations for certain platforms and specs.  Without selecting a single vendor, prices breaks would not be possible.  The Foundation cannot help fund this purchase effort.  Issues to consider include: How will present day computers be retrofitted to interact with newer systems?  How might current computer clusters be specialized to suit particular department’s needs better?  What percent of students would be challenged by the 1500.00 price tag of a computer? Will this cost affect parent giving?  What accessibility should kids have to the network?  Should it be 24-7?  A brief debate about student access to the Internet ensued.  The main pro for allowing unlimited internet/network use was that it would allow for monitoring by ITS and that, in all probability, students would circumvent controls and gain access anyway.

Faculty Council ended in some frustration as, for the second meeting in a row, a quorum was not present to vote on motions.   Please come.