MEETING DATE:        September 21, 2010

 

PERSON PRESIDING:            Shanan Gibson

 

ATTENDEES:              Terry Jones, Sachiyo Shearman, Shanan Gibson, Margit Schmidt, John Crammer

 

EX-OFFICIO:               Angela Anderson, Patrick Carr, Kimberly Heidal

 

VISITORS:                  

 

The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. in Rawl 142 by Shanan Gibson.  Gibson told the committee that the visitors at the August meeting agreed with the minutes as submitted.  Angela Anderson moved (Terry Jones seconded) approval of the minutes of the August 26, 2010 meeting as written.  Motion passed.

 

Gibson updated the committee on the status of the visual calendar.  Lori Lee and Gibson met with ITCS to learn how to do the update; the procedure is not difficult.  Lee is doing the calendars through Spring 2012.  The procedure involves easy web entry of the calendar; after calendars through Spring 2012 are complete, ITCS will create the ability to simply replicate the calendars. This will make completing subsequent years very (most changes involve modifying dates except where entries are added or removed).  Gibson asked the chair of the Committee on Committees whether the charge for the Calendar Committee should be changed to include this new responsibility; they responded that they thought updating the visual calendar was an administrative duty.

 

The committee next moved on to discussion of creating an exam schedule for distance education classes.  Crammer mentioned that the committee had first visited this in 2003 and based on the advice of Clayton Sessoms decided to not create an exam policy for DE classes except for those that have common exams.  Crammer suggested allowing any time from Reading Day through the end of exams.  Gibson said she uses Reading  Day (Margit Schmidt agreed with this) and also Saturday.  Anderson said that there should be no set day for DE class exams.  Gibson notes that the exam schedule is for classes that have set meeting times and days.  Sachiyo Shearman asked why the committee was discussing this; Crammer replied that Marianna Walker had suggested this.  Gibson notes that Walker did not want an exam schedule for DE classes, but a faculty member had asked for one.  Shearman said that faculty want some guidance as in a range of dates for the exams.  Anderson pointed out that faculty are required only to meet their class during exams to satisfy the required number of minutes per semester hour.  Crammer suggested contacting departments having common exams with DE classes.  Gibson will contact chairs of departments with this situation and report their responses at the next meeting.  Gibson suggested including a statement in the exam schedule narrative to the effect that Distance Education classes give their exam in a timely fashion to allow submitting grades in time.

 

Gibson commented on the academic calendars for Pitt Community College, Pitt County Schools, and the UNC system schedules that were distributed before the meeting.  She noted that ECU is not doing anything different from the other schools; Crammer noted that the new ECU drop date is more in line with other schools than it was in the past.

 

The committee then moved on to consider the draft of the 2012-13 academic calendar.  Crammer asked about consistency in capitalizing Summer Session and Fall/Spring Semester (he will fix it).  Gibson pointed out there are no major changes from last year; some times have been changed; there was discussion concerning noon versus 12:00 am/pm and a.m./am or p.m./pm.  Crammer asked about Saturday classes; Anderson responded that there have been no Saturday classes for the past several years (Crammer will also remove the Saturday reference from the exam narrative).  Gibson noted the addition of the grades due date.  Schmidt asked about the 48-hour rule for grades; Gibson responded that this has been gone since Banner began being used to submit grades.  Gibson asked whether it is fair to say that the calendar is okay except for editorial changes.  She has talked with colleagues who teach DE classes and they do not want an exam schedule for DE classes.  Crammer asked about setting “guidelines” for DE exams.  Shearman asked about “Late Processing Fee” being in capital letters and also about the equal number for days of the week in summer.  Gibson replied that we do not require equal number of days in the summer but the total number of minutes works out.  Anderson commented on Second Session registration and final examinations for the 11-week term.  Shearman asked about consistency for summer being “term” or “session”; it was agreed to use “session”.  Anderson commented on orientation sessions for Fall and Spring.  Schmidt asked about consistency for Holiday/holiday and Break/break (it was noted that a holiday is one day and a break is usually two or more days).  It was agreed to remove “registration” and “Saturdays” from the number of days.  Shearman asked why the due date for submitting grades in Fall/Spring is noon Saturday; Anderson replied that the reason in the Fall is that staff in the Registrar’s office work on Saturday.  Anderson asked about starting Fall earlier.  Gibson replied that the survey last year showed that faculty wanted the three week break in August; she added that the Faculty Senate liked being asked for their opinion.

 

Gibson said the committee will meet in October.  Reid Parker cannot attend the meeting today because of a scheduling conflict.  Anderson mentioned the change for Spring 2011 from the Cashiers Office concerning December 31 and January 3 because the university is closed.  Gibson said the change s in time to be made in the downloadable calendar.  Anderson will talk with John Toller.

  

The meeting was adjourned at 10:52 a.m..