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TENNESSEE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY March 1, 2000 The Academic Council met at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1, 2000, in the Deans' Conference Room of Derryberry Hall. Dr. John Harris, Chairperson, presided at the meeting. The following members of the Council were present:
The following members of the Council were absent: SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS PROCEEDINGS Approval of the Agenda Two items were added to the agenda under Such Other Matters: (1) a change in Procedures for the Admissions and Credits Committee and (2) discussion of changing the academic calendar to ensure a two-week break between fall commencement and Christmas. Dr. Gutek MOVED approval of the agenda, Professor Hunter SECONDED the motion, and the agenda was APPROVED as amended. Approval of the Minutes of the September 8 Meeting Dr. Gutek MOVED approval of the minutes of the September 8 meeting, and Professor Hunter SECONDED the motion. Ms. Mullins pointed out that an "s" should be added to her name on the roster. The minutes were APPROVED with this correction.SGA Bill to Change the Last Day to Add/Change Sections Jason Wilds presented SGA Bill #17, which was passed last year, to change the last day to add/change sections so that students would have three days to add a course after the last day to drop a course. Mr. Rose said that current guidelines state that the last day to drop a class is one week into the semester, but it would be possible to implement the change the SGA has requested. Dr. O'Connor MOVED approval of the SGA bill, and Mr.Wilds SECONDED the motion. It was pointed out that students should be aware that adding a class after missing potentially six class meetings could pose a problem for success in the class. The Council debated the issue, and then Professor Dodson proposed an AMENDMENT to change the bill to read "one business day" and not "three calendar days." Dr. Gutek SECONDED the motion, and the amendment was APPROVED by a unanimous vote. The original motion PASSED by a unanimous vote. It was understood that the implementation date will be Fall Semester 2000. (A copy of the bill as approved is attached to the file copy of the minutes.)Such Other Matters Change in the Procedures of the Admissions and Credits CommitteeProfessor Tolbert stated that the Admissions and Credits Committee has been canceling several meetings a year. Consequently, the Committee voted to change the Procedures, page 2, under the heading of V. MEETINGS to Delete A. and B. requiring three regular meetings per year with special meetings to be called by the chairperson and replace them with the following statement:
Professor Tolbert MOVED approval of the procedural change, and Dr. Elkins SECONDED the motion. Professor Tolbert added that this change does not affect subcommittee meetings. The motion PASSED by a unanimous vote. Starting Date for Fall Semester In response to questions from several students, Dr. Barker said that he is taking a straw poll to see how the Council feels about the fall semester calendar. He noted that our calendar is controlled by a number of factors, among them the TBR requirements that fall semester not start before August 20 (unless waived) and that it end before Christmas and the campus requirement that there be 30 days between the end of fall semester and the beginning of spring semester. Tennessee Tech will always have commencement on Saturday, and commencement this year was as late in the semester as it will ever occur. The students said last fall's schedule was detrimental to getting Christmas jobs, and they suggested letting the calendar work back to the maximum time between graduation and Christmas and then freeze it there. This would mean the start date would still be controlled by the commencement date but an earlier one, and there would always be a Saturday between graduation and Christmas and perhaps two Saturdays. There would still be some movement in the starting date to make it fall on the right day of the week. Dr. Barker stated that he did not want a vote on this suggested way of dealing with the calendar, but if anyone is opposed to it, he would like to know about it. It will be several years before the problem will come up again. Appointment of a Nominating Committee Dr. Harris announced that he will be appointing a committee to report at the next meeting on its recommendation for a chairperson for the Council for 2000-01. Dr. Gutek questioned whether the recent article in the Oracle describing some of the problems at Tech should be discussed by the Council. Dr. Harris said the mechanism is in place and most of these issues have already been discussed. AdjournmentThe meeting was ADJOURNED at 3:50 p.m. APPROVED 4/5/00
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