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University Planning and Quality Council

Minutes

September 1, 2009

Members Present:  Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo, Provost Cathy Barlow, Mr. Charlie Maimone, Ms. Pat Leonard, Dr. Debra Saunders-White, Dr. David Cordle, Mr. Larry Clark, Dr. Karen Wetherill, Dr. James McCann, Dr. Mike Walker, Dr. Steve McFarland, Dr. Bruce McKinney, Dr. Lou Buttino, Dr. Dick Dillaman, Dr. Carol McNulty, Dr. David Weber, Mr. William Fleming, Mr. Bob Russell, Mr. Mark Blackwell, Mr. Max Allen, Mr. Mark Lanier, Mr. Rick Thompson, and Dr. Kenneth Spackman.

Others Attending:  Dr. Johnson Akinleye, Ms. Sharon Boyd, Dr. Kate Bruce, Ms. Lisa Castellino, Dr. Terry Curran, Dr. Jose Hernandez, Ms. Cindy Lawson and Dr. Nathan Lindsay.

Chancellor DePaolo called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm. Because six new members have joined the Planning Council this academic year, Chancellor DePaolo asked that everyone identify themselves by name and title. The six new members are:

Dr. Spackman provided copies of the Planning Council Annual Report 2008-09 and highlighted the Council's accomplishments during the past year. This provided both an overview of recent activities for new members and the context for this year's continuation of the project, started in December 2008, of considering potential new progress measures.

Dr. Spackman briefly discussed the 2009 Dashboard and new slides from the 2009 Progress Measure Trends (both available on the planning Web site), both of which were completed after the last Planning Council meeting of April 14.

Dr. McFarland and Dr. Bruce presented the concept of an Undergraduate Research Involvement Index as a means of measuring progress in one of the areas identified as a potential new progress measure. The proposed index would have ten components in three categories: direct mentoring (honors theses, directed independent study), presentations and publications (author of scholarly publication or project report, presentation at professional meeting, presentation at off campus research event, presentation at on campus research event), and awards and grants (national undergraduate research recognition, significant research experience participation, undergraduate research fellowship, compensated participation on a contract or grant). Differential weights will be assigned to the ten components when calculating the index. Discussion was guided by two questions: 1) Are these the right indicators? 2) Are the components within each category listed in decreasing order of importance? Feedback and suggestions for improvement were sought; approval would be considered at a future meeting following faculty input. Discussion elicited the following questions to be considered by the group developing the index:

• How will the index acknowledge the size, program mix, and other characteristics of universities if it is adpoted by other institutions?
• Is it intelligible to the public/
• Should the index count programmatic requirements for research embedded in courses?
• How does it count students with multiple research experiences?
• Should compensation by contracts and grants be broadened to other sources of compensation (and how would that be tracked)?
• Does the index capture impact of the research?
• Does the index capture impact of the experience (e.g., employment)?
• Is "research" inclusive of scholarly, creative or artistic involvement?

Consideration of data related to additional potential progress measures was postponed until the September 22 meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:15 pm.

Future Meetings  (At 2:00-3:30 pm in AL 215)

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Last Updated: September 15, 2009