On Thursday and Friday, September 17th and 18th, the Board of Regents will convene their sessions in our Student Union Building. The Academic and Student Affairs Committee (Ralston Room) will meet concurrently with the Administrative Budget Committee (Remington Room) beginning at 9:00 AM on Thursday. The Academic and Student Affairs Committee meeting will begin the discussions and recommendations for the submission items we have on the agenda (see below). At 1:15 PM the full Board will convene and hear the recommendations from the two committees. The meetings are open to the public and I invite you to attend any of the sessions you can spare time for to learn more about the governance of the Montana University System.
Montana State University Billings Proposed New Programs
The following programs were submitted as Notices of Intent at the July Board of Regents meeting. At this week’s meeting the items will appear on the Board’s Submission Agenda.
Bachelor of Science in Health Promotions
Bachelor of Science/Arts in Environmental Studies and Minor
Creation of the Center for the Study of the Northern Plains
Addition of a Performance Option in the Bachelor of Arts in Music
The following faculty members will assist in making the case for these programs by serving as resource persons during the questioning by the Board: Dr. Gary Gray for Health Promotions, Dr. Keith Edgerton for Environmental Studies and the Center for the Study of the Northern Plains, and Dr. Gary Behm for the Performance Option in music. Any other faculty or staff interested in hearing the discussion of these programs are welcome to attend. Assuming we are successful at this stage, the programs will be passed forward to the approval stage for the November Board meeting for a final vote.
InterSession ‘97-’98
Our first effort at conducting an InterSession last year was highly successful. Those of you that participated deserve commendation. We gained 58 semester FTE through the effort. The concept was popular enough to be adopted by the University of Montana in a program given the same name as ours and by the College of Technology at Great Falls in a program called Spring Shorts. Because of its success and the very positive student comments we received, we have begun planning for another InterSession this year. In addition to faculty, many unsung heroes worked very hard last year to help make the InterSession a success. It took an enormous effort on the part of the business office staff, admissions and registration, advising, housing and financial aid to make it happen. They are willing to go the extra mile again this year to better serve students. I have asked the Deans to begin to work with Department Chairs to design an appropriate program of courses for this year. The issue of compensation for teaching during the InterSession is currently under discussion with the Faculty Administration Committee and the Collaborative Bargaining Team. We hope to have resolution of this issue soon. My office fields several calls a day from students interested in classes in the InterSession. I am sure many more offices are doing the same. For maximum benefit to students we should have a schedule of classes available to them very early in October. I am hopeful the issues surrounding the InterSession will be resolved soon to meet this deadline.
I have heard some concern by faculty about the potential to compromise the quality of classes offered in a compressed format such as InterSession. Clearly, not all courses lend themselves to this format. However, for those courses being piloted in this compressed format, we have a wonderful opportunity to examine the learning experience by carefully articulating the outcomes for the courses, without regard to the format, designing assessment procedures to test the outcomes and comparing the outcomes. We will have the same issues concerning the learning experience when we begin to pilot asynchronously delivered courses and we will need to do the same outcomes based assessment to determine whether the format is appropriate. The experience at other Universities with both asynchronous courses and compressed format courses has been highly encouraging with respect to the learner but we will need to do our own testing to validate our courses and programs.
Early Registration
Registration for InterSession and Spring Semester has been moved forward this fall to begin on November 3. Please help spread the word to students.
Early Commencement
Due to a conflict of scheduling with the Metra, commencement will be on April 25th, 1998, one week earlier than usual. Accordingly, the Senior Faculty Banquet will be on Friday, April 24th. Please note this is the weekend before finals and seniors will be expected to return to classes for their final examinations after graduation. This will undoubtedly be somewhat unpopular but considering all the options available, the Commencement Committee felt this solution was the best of several less than optimum solutions.
MSU For A DAY
We have been invited by the Bozeman campus to participate in an event they call MSU For A Day on November 4th and 5th. Two times a year Montana State University-Bozeman sends a large contingency of faculty, staff and administrators to a different Montana community for public relations and recruiting. This is the year they are visiting Billings. Montana State University-Bozeman will bring 12-16 faculty members and arrange for them to spend two days in our high schools teaching classes and enhancing their visibility in Billings. They have invited us to submit the names of 12-16 members of our faculty to join them in this public relations event (our faculty will not be teamed with the Bozeman faculty but will be assigned to different classrooms). This could be a wonderful opportunity for us to show our high school students our excellence. I have asked the Deans to gather a list of faculty interested in participating in the event. Bozeman staff will begin working with the high schools to arrange the faculty assignments as soon as I send to them a list of names and disciplines of interested faculty.
Enrollment Issues
I would like to take this additional opportunity to publicly thank all Department Chairs and faculty who raised the enrollment caps on their classes this semester to allow students to register for the classes they needed. This is a good example of our living up to our motto of Access and Excellence.
Re-Accreditation Self-Study, First Draft to Circulate in October
Our Self-Study Task Force is targeting the second week in October to have the first draft of the University’s self-study available for comment from the University community. There will be obvious areas where more information is needed and where the document needs strengthening. It will be important for everyone on campus to examine the draft copy and contact one of the three Co-Chairs with suggestions, criticisms and most importantly, additional information. The Self-study Task Force Co-chairs are David Hood, Elizabeth Porch and Jane Howell.
Temporary Budgets
Shortly you will receive a temporary operating budget for your unit. It is anticipated that the temporary budget will undergo many changes before it is final. I can assure you the budget is a central issue in the collaborative bargaining process and the process is expected to influence the final budget. In spite of the expected changes we feel it is important to issue a temporary budget for your immediate concerns with fiscal planning for the year ahead. Ms. Trudy Collins is working on the temporary budget now and plans to distribute it shortly.
Campus Talk Correction
In the September 15 issue of Campus Talk Dr. Randy Rhine was said to be serving the College of Professional Studies and Lifelong Learning as its Dean. This information is incorrect. At this time Dr. Rhine continues to have the title of Director.