NCTA Dean's Council Retreat

Dean's Council Minutes Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Attendees

Ron Rosati, Brad Ramsdale, Doug Smith, Barb Berg, Jennifer McConville, Eric Reed, Mary Rittenhouse, Mary Crawford, Joanna Hergenreder, Catherine Hauptman (recorder)

WELCOME

  • Ron Rosati welcomed everyone to the dean’s council retreat meeting.

2015-2016 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  • Ron discussed the 2015-16 NCTA accomplishments with dean’s council
  • This is a rough draft and not all of the pieces have been pulled together.
  • Some highlights were discussed
    • 4 new certificates
    • 50 year celebration
    • ASPEN institute, NCTA is in the top 150 schools
    • A to B transfer agreement with Lincoln
    • Biomass project, heats and cools almost all of campus 90%
  • Mary Crawford will pull together a list of major accomplishments and then a list of additional accomplishments for the NCTA Alumni weekend.  Ron would like Mary to have the list to him by Thursday so he can share them at the alumni board meeting and banquet.
  •  This list will continue to be put together and finalized.

 

COLLEGE WIDE CHAIR RESPONSIBILITITES

  • Ron let the dean’s council know that Jennifer McConville will now hold the title of Associate Dean.
  • Some of the duties of the Dean’s office are being decentralized to other areas of campus.
  • The College wide responsibilities were discussed.  If the division chair is listed by the initiative they are responsible to make sure the policies are in place, they advertise the initiative and any other things that go along with the initiative.  Faculty and staff will go to the responsible person. 
    • Examples of College wide responsibilities:
      • BSAS – Doug Smith
      • Assessment – Brad Ramsdale
      • AVMA Accreditation – Barb Berg
      • Accreditation – Mary Rittenhouse
      • Farm – Doug Smith
      • A-B Transfer – Doug Smith
      • Link to Lincoln – Doug Smith
      • Graves Ranch – Doug Smith
      • Distance education –  Brad Ramsdale and Eric Reed
      • Emergency Plan – Tee Bush 
      • Diversity plan –  Judy Bowmaster
      • IACUC committee -  Barb Berg
      • Campus Biosecurity – Joanna Hergenreder
  •  Brad Ramsdale proposed that he and Eric are responsible for the distance education.  There currently is no committee for this but Eric and Brad will form one in the near future.
  • The college wide responsibilities will continue to be discussed in later Dean’s council meetings.  

BUDGET UPDATE

  • Jennifer McConville updated the Dean’s council on the current budget and projected budget for next year.
  • Administration overhead went over but this is due to accreditation, advertising for positions, faculty moving here that were hired, etc….
  • The Computer combined budget is good.  New laptops are being ordered for Doug and Brad.  Concerns were brought up about the no DVD drive in the new laptops.  Jennifer is going to try and have a computer in each classroom that would provide a DVD player. 
    • Joanna Hergenreder is going to work with Justin Baugher, IT manager, and have their IT committee meeting meet. 
  • Jennifer informed the Dean’s council that the overall expenses of the college are at 87%.  The fiscal year ends the end of this month.   The budget will end on a positive note and this hasn’t happened for several years.  
  • The budget is completely transparent as well this year. 
  • The budget is a major accomplishment for the year.

STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE

  • The Dean’s council reviewed the updates to the strategic plan appendix and recommended some changes. 
  • Joanna Hergenreder and Barb Berg brought up the point of having faculty get together after each semester to set the next year’s schedule.   She, as faculty senate president, will bring this up at their next meeting. 
  • Brad Ramsdale brought up a model he seen to do a winter or fall intercession for 4 weeks to get some basic reading, writing and general education out of the way. 
  • Ron Rosati reminded the Dean’s council that if we have a student with a learning disability we need to let Kevin Martin know and he will follow the process to get them help while they are at NCTA and to be successful. 
  • Eric Reed will bring up the issue of testing out of Reading and Writing classes to Academic council. 
  • Catherine will update the changes to the strategic plan and bring back to the next Dean’s council meeting.   

INSPIRE

  • This agenda item will be discussed further at our August 17th Faculty and staff in-service meeting.  Jennifer McConville and Jan Gilbert will coordinate the training.
  • Jennifer will put together training for the summer for staff for a refresher of the Inspire program.
    • Jennifer will look into having faculty at NCTA also use Inspire

DISTANCE EDUACATION

  • Ron Rosati looked over the NCTA Distance Learning policy with the Dean’s council.
  • Eric Reed and Brad Ramsdale will take the lead on this policy.  Eric and Brad will continue to work on the Distance Education for NCTA.   
  • When the policy has been updated Brad and Eric will bring this agenda item to a future Dean’s council meeting.

FACULTY EQUITY PROCESS

  • Ron Rosati discussed the process for NCTA faculty salary equity.
  • At this point no approval has been given to move forward.
  • Ron hopes to get letters out with any faculty equity adjustments in July.

STUDENT ORIENTATION

  • Jennifer McConville discussed the draft schedule for NCTA freshman orientation.  The schedule is very rough at this time so we will offer suggestions for Ryan. 
  • The group discussed doing a BINGO type game throughout the weekend where the students would take a card and have it signed at different stations throughout the college campus. 
  • The division hours were discussed moving to Saturday afternoon, move in will be earlier on Saturday, having kids move in Friday night after 5pm was also discussed.
  • Doug Smith suggested that his would do the Barnyard Olympics on Wednesday night and include that with the ice cream social.
  • Mary Rittenhouse said AMS would do Tuesday night and come up with an activity.
  • Veterinary technology will take Thursday night and come up with ideas. 
  • Sunday morning cowboy church for the weekend of orientation on campus will be Joanna Hergenreder followed by a lunch.
  • Mary Rittenhouse will see about having a movie night on the Friday of orientation week instead of a dance.  It was suggested that the dance move to that Thursday evening of orientation week.
  • Jennifer suggested having the clubs on campus talk to students about their club during one of the lunches or brunches.
  • This weekend will continue to be discussed.  The suggestions made today will be brought back to Ryan for adjustments, then taken to the New Student Orientation Weekend committee and then a more final draft to Dean’s council.
  • This agenda item will be on our next meeting’s agenda. 

DAIRY PROGRAM UPDATE

  • Doug Smith discussed the Memorandum of Agreement with South Dakota State University that he has put together.
  • The purpose of this MOA is to provide NCTA students with the opportunity to take coursework at SDSU that may be applied towards completion of NCTA’s Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree with Dairy Production Concentration in the APS major
  • This MOA is still not signed, it needs to go to Academic Council, and we need to let the Higher Learning Commission know about this option under APS.
  • Mary Rittenhouse asked that Intro to Microeconomics be listed as a prerequisite.  Microeconomics is not required for this option.  Doug will look into this.
  • This is the early stages of the agreement and still needs some work.
  • This agenda item will be brought back again when it has become more finalized. 

URBAN AGRICULTURE

  • Ron Rosati updated the Dean’s council on the Urban Agriculture program in Omaha.
  • Currently they are in the beginning stages of hiring a faculty member to fill the position.  This is a half time position with Extension and NCTA.  UNO is also asking about having this faculty member teach their horticulture classes as their instructor retired.
  • This agenda will be brought back to a future Dean’s council meeting.

VETERINARY TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

  • Barb Berg updated the Dean’s council on the AVMA accreditation.
  • Vet Tech is back on track with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)  and maintain their full accreditation
  • A dental x-ray machine is still needed as a result of the AVMA report.
  • NCTA is working with UNL on a Lincoln veterinary technology program.  NCTA is in discussions and Barb will continue to update Dean’s council on the status.

ASSESSMENT

  • Brad Ramsdale discussed the survey results from the graduation survey for students of NCTA who graduated in May.
  • Nothing surprising was on the surveys.  Most answers were good or very good.
  • Brad asked that Jennifer become a member of the Assessment committee.  The committee will meet twice this summer.

PLAGIARISM POLICY

  • The Plagiarism policy was discussed with Dean’s council.
  • Eric Reed has put this policy together
  • Under the “Guide for Faculty” section the Dean’s council has decided to add the penalty for plagiarism which is determined by the faculty member.   The plagiarism penalty will be listed in each course syllabi.
    • Each faculty member will need to list their plagiarism penalty in their course syllabi.
    • They will also need to state a link to get to the plagiarism policy. 
  • Eric will make the change above discussed and bring the final draft to the next Dean’s council.
  • Brad Ramsdale suggested that we have a student handbook online similar to our faculty and staff handbooks.  Jennifer will talk to Ryan about making this happen.

STUDENT ATTENDENCE POLICY

  • Doug Smith has put together a draft NCTA Student Attendance Policy for the Dean’s council to review.
  • Faculty suggested that the NCTA students involved on teams to let their instructors know a week ahead of time when they will be gone so work can be made up.
  • Brad Ramsdale suggested that Doug refer to see Kevin Martin about a leave of absence form if they are going to be gone an extended amount of time. 
  • Ron asked Doug to put a heading over each statement for ex) Leave of Absence, Financial Aid, Extra Curricular Activities, etc
  • Excused verse Unexcused needs to be defined in the policy. 
  • Doug will update the above changes to the draft Student Attendance Policy and bring back to a future Dean’s council.

FACILITIES – Office changes/Space changes

  • Ron Rosati updated dean’s council on the office and space changes around campus
  • Tee Bush is now on floor two of Ag Hall in Dottie Evan’s old office.
  • The fitness center is now being moved to the Stucco building on campus.
  • Eric Reed will be moving to the big office in the General Education Suite and Dan Widick will move to Eric’s office.
  • Tee and Ruth’s old office is now the student lounge center for 3rd floor of ag hall.

FACILITIES MASTER PLAN

  • A facilities master plan was discussed for NCTA.   Ron would like Dean’s council to come to the meeting next week to discuss priority needs on campus.
  • Right now we don’t have funding but if we have a list so funding becomes available we can move forward with some items.
  • This will be on next week’s agenda. 

PROMOTION PROCEDURES

  • The promotion procedures will be moving to an online format.  Catherine and Jan will work with Zaneta Hahn to accomplish this.
  • Catherine will update the timeline to meet the end of February deadline.
  • This agenda item will be brought to a future Dean’s council meeting when the task in accomplished.  

OTHER BUSINESS

  • New Dean’s council meeting times will be every Wednesday 1 to 3pm for the remainder of the summer.  
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