Members Present:  College of the Arts: Shellie Nielsen;  College of Business Administration:  Trellis Green, Bob Smith; College of Education and Psychology: Janet Nelson, Jesse Palmer, John Rachal, Lillian Range; College of Health and Human Sciences: Michael Forster; College of Liberal Arts:  Art Kaul; College of Nursing: Janie Butts; Norma Cuellar; College of Science and Technology:  Douglas McCain; Bob Coates, Dean Dunn, Mary Dayne Gregg, Lary Lux, Gerald Mattson; Gulf Park: Darlys Alford; USM Libraries: Sherry Laughlin.

Members Represented by Proxy:  College of the Arts:  Kimberley Davis (pr. Carol Green); Cheryl Goggin (pr. Shellie Nielsen); College of Business Administration:  Ernest King (pr. Trellis Green); Scott Magruder (pr. Trellis Green); College of Health and Human Sciences:   Mary Ann Adams (pr. Michael Forster); College of Liberal Arts:  Charles Bolton (pr. Louis Kyriakoudes); Linda Goff (pr. Shellie Nielsen); Alexandra Jaffe (pr. Art Kaul); Stephen Oshrin (pr. Art Kaul--proxy received 1/26/99); William Powell (pr. Sherry Laughlin); College of Science and Technology:  Karen Thrash (pr. Mary Dayne Gregg); Delia Anderson (pr. Sherry Laughlin); Center for Marine Science:  Steve Lohrenz (pr. Donald Redalje); USM Libraries: Karolyn Thompson (pr. Carol Green); Gulf Park: Shahdad Naghshpour (pr. Darlys Alford--proxy received 2/4/99)

Members Absent:  College of Education and Psychology:  Daniel Surry; College of Health and Human Sciences: Jan Drummond; Susan Graham-Kresge; College of International and Continuing Education:  Mark Miller; College of Liberal Arts:  Michael Dearmey; Kim Herzinger; Stephen Mallory; College of Science and Technology:  Lawrence Mead.

FORUM SPEAKER:  Dr. James Williams, Vice-President, USM Gulf Coast

We weren't certain how the IHL vote on the USM Gulf Coast campus issue would go until it was actually taken.  There may still be some misunderstanding about this, so I want to talk about it today, and talk about how we got to this point.  The Gulf Coast campus was acquired by USM in 1972, and was designated an off-campus degree granting center.  Legislation placed restrictions on what these off-campus centers could do. There were nine of these centers, and in the last five years or so, about 60% of students enrolled at these centers have been at USM Gulf Coast.  Until the early 1990s, the economy was flat, and there wasn't much population growth on the Gulf Coast.  That changed when gaming legislation started a wave of economic growth.  Predictions are that within five years, the population of the five counties on the coast will be one million.  I think this figure may be a stretch, but this will still be the major population center in the state.

There has been pressure by the coast community since 1972 for a four year university here.  Several years ago the IHL tried unsuccessfully to close two of our state universities.  I don't think any of the existing eight universities will go away.  This IHL vote makes sense.  We will not have a separate ninth university, but will have the dual campus concept at USM.

The coast delegation to the Mississippi Legislature asked for an Attorney General's opinion as to whether the 1972 legislation would apply if USM had a dual campus.  The opinion was lengthy and said there were three cases in Mississippi legislation where the law defines where the university is:  Alcorn, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Jackson State. The Attorney General further stated that it was the responsibility of the IHL to determine what the university is; if the IHL chose to make the Gulf Coast a campus of USM, it had the authority to do so.

In October, President Fleming submitted a plan to the IHL outlining the notion that USM would be a two campus university and would teach some limited lower division course work at the Gulf Coast campus.  In essence, that document, along with supplemental information from the Gulf Coast, was approved.  You may ask what is meant by lower divison course work. In the core curriculum in the USM catalog, there are five courses of study.  We don't intend to teach all those options on the coast campus for a very long time.  A "resident core" has been defined as a more narrow core than is in the current catalog.  Students at the Gulf Coast campus would be able to satisfy the core requirements by taking those courses.  Other lower division course work would be offered which is required by programs available on the coast.  However we would not teach lower division courses required by Polymer Science, for example, because we won't offer that program here.

The thrust of the IHL decision is that expansion will be phased over five years.  Freshmen will be admitted in the fall of 1999, pending funding from the Legislature.  A $2 million line has been submitted to the Legislature to fund Gulf Coast expansion.  Dr. Layzell said, of that $2 million, $1.1 million would be designated for USM and $900,000 would be set aside for a multi-institutional center, which will be layered on top of USM.  In Dr. Layzell's concept of a multi-institutional center, other institutions would not offer any program that is in the USM inventory of programs.  Any USM program--even those offered only at Hattiesburg--is protected.  If USM decides not to teach a program on the coast, another institution could offer that program through the multi-institutional center, which is USM's responsibility and will be administered by USM.  A quote in this morning's newspaper from an IHL official refers to program offerings and not necessarily to a place.  These courses might be offered in other locations at property owned by those institutions.  For example, MSU has property on the coast and could offer courses there, but these would be coordinated through the center and adminstered by USM.  One program discussed at IHL about a year ago was engineering.  There is a need to assure that just because USM does not have a particular program, it will not be impossible for it to be offered here, and the multi-institutional center concept will allow that.

We will admit no more than 150 freshmen in the first year; 300 in the second; 450 in the third year; 600 in the fourth year; and 750 in the fifth year.  That is the freshmen enrollment cap.  There will be reviews in years three and five.  The review will look at numbers enrolled and the waiting list, and this will determine the need.  In year one, no sophomore courses will be taught. Another provision of the agreement is that we continue to strengthen our relationship with community colleges.  We expect that the majority of the students who attend the USM Gulf Coast campus will continue to come to us through the community college system.  We have already begun taking initial steps to get ready if funding takes place, and we will know about funding in April or early May.   At that time we will be in a position to announce the admission of a freshman class.  We will begin accepting applications now and will have admissions packets ready to go next week.

Another question to be resolved involved admissions criteria and the Ayers' case.  We have been in touch with the judge in the Ayers case, and the admissions procedure that has been approved  includes placing a student in an admissions pool once the  initial admissions criteria have been satisfied.  If the pool exceeds the number of students to be admitted, other criteria must be applied, including letters of reference addressing the likelihood of success in the program, and a writing sample which will involve why the student is selecting a major offered on the Gulf Coast campus.  We do not plan to offer developmental courses, so students will need to come to us with skill levels that will insure their success in the program.

The IHL vote for the Gulf Coast campus proposal was 7 to 5, so we are sure we will be watched very closely.  This entering class needs to be of high quality, the programs offered need to be rigorous, and the students need to be successful.  The board's decision was clearly not to create a ninth university.  There is no reference to residence halls, fraternities, sororities, or athletics.  We are to deliver academic programs using the infrastructure that is here and in Hattiesburg.  Some students are now housed on the Gulf Coast campus on a short term basis--the conference center, the law enforcement academy--and these will be allowed to continue as is.

Questions:
Art Kaul:  If another university brings a program here, would the degree be from that university?
JW:  Yes
Art Kaul:  What is your enrollment projection for the next 10 years?
JW:  We don't know.  If population continue to grow as expected, maybe 3000 to 7000 students.  We think those students who start here will stay here, so this proposal will probably increase upper division enrollments.
John Rachal:  Will admissions criteria include the ACT and/or SAT?
JW:  Yes
John Rachal:  If students are in a doctoral program in Hattiesburg and taking courses on the Gulf Coast campus, are they considered in residence?
JW:  We've had discussions about this.  That is a policy the institution can make.  We are one university and we make the decision as to how to define residence credit.
Jerry Mattson:  Will the resident core be offered as traditional or non-traditional courses, day or night only classes?
JW:  We have a classroom space problem, although there is a new classroom building on the drawing board.
We offer a lot of different formats for classes and this probably won't change.  The majority of our classes will probably be offered in normal time blocks a couple of times a week.  There may be some Friday and Saturday offerings and we can take advantage of afternoon slots where we're not so heavily scheduled.  One thing that we don't want to do is anything that looks like we are weakening the program.  We have to comply with all IHL requirements.
Trellis Green:  What is current enrollment and what happens to the students who are already here?
JW:  1700 students.  Some of these will graduate.  Everyone who comes here now is a transfer student and we'll continue to accept them.
Linda Mignor:  Are we going to start recruiting faculty even though we don't have funds?
JW:  We will try to build a pool from which we can hire as soon as the budget is approved.  We must have the faculty hired before fall.
Jesse Palmer:  Will more faculty from Hattiesburg teach courses here?
JW:  We will need to hire new faculty.  Some departments will be able to spare faculty from Hattiesburg and we'll use some adjuncts; however, we don't want the freshman load taught heavily by adjuncts.  We are talking about doing some extraordinary things here--writing across the curriculum, mentoring--and we don't want this to be disjointed.
Mary Dayne Gregg:  Will there still be two separate budgets?
JW:  Yes.  The IHL wants to be able to track Gulf Coast dollars to determine how they're being spent.

Business Meeting
1.0    Call to Order
2.0    Approval of Agenda  The agenda was approved as distributed.
3.0    Approval of Minutes  The minutes were approved as distributed.

4.0    Executive Committee Reports
4.1    President's Report:  Jesse Palmer
IHL: The universities center concept was a compromise that we had to make in order to get the Gulf Coast plan approved.  We had several capitol improvement requests for IHL:  student services pre-planning ($500,000), Polymer Science Research Renovation ($6,000,000), general repair and renovation ($3,000,000).  In accordance with HB 609, a common form for the preparation and submission of the annual performance by teacher education programs was approved.  We reported the intent to establish a Bachelor of Science Degree in International Business.  IHL approved our request to purchase a high resolution Spectrometer ($300,000).  There was a request to purchase property adjacent to the Gulf Coast campus.  USM also requested the initiation of a project for renovation and additions to the Speech and Hearing building to accomodate the expanded Dubard School.  $600,000 is available from SB 3254 to finance the design and construction.
Cabinet:  The Foundation has purchased property adjacent to the Peck house.  The field house is a major priority, with a cost of $7.3 million.  $2 million in bonds is available through December 1999.  Private funding will generate additional revenue.  Expectations are that the state bond bill will generate $60-$65 million, with USM's part being about $10 million.  This coincides with USM's capitol improvement requests.  The Navy will build a new facility at Stennis to house the admiral and staff.  Marine Science will get new space in the old admiral's building and there will be funds for renovation.  There is a space allocation plan for the new liberal arts and theater and dance buildings.  The Chair of the Cultural Diversity Committee is Alvin Williams from Business Administration.  The Peoplesoft package is on schedule.  John McGowan has indicated there is a need to upgrade and update all campus web sites.  All Y2K preparations must be finished by July 1st.  IHL approved a USM Research Foundation, and it immediately received a donation of $2.1 million in technology.
Deans Council:  There have been discussions about giving course credit for teachers successfully completing the National Teacher Certification, but no decisions have been made.  A report of part-time faculty for the fall semester 1998 was presented by Dr. Hollandsworth. The total annual budget for part time faculty is $450,000; $303.076 was spent in the fall.  The Provost advocates allocating all part-time faculty funds at the beginning of the year and letting Deans manage the funds.  There was some discussion about increasing pay for part time faculty, but this will wait until the strategic plan is finished.  The Library has implemented a new document delivery service which is available to all faculty, staff, and students.  Access is through the Library web page and costs of the journal articles are paid by the Library.  The University Librarian's title has been changed to Dean of Library Services.  Preliminary enrollment figures indicate that enrollment is down 3.4%.
Other:  The University Faculty Senates Association met on the USM campus on January 20th.  A new constitution was reviewed and will be submitted to IHL.  The IHL voted in December to appoint the President of the University Faculty Senates Association to the state health insurance advisory board.  The new academic calendar has been approved and we will have a holiday on Memorial Day.  Doug McCain will serve in the Senate while Robert Bateman is on sabbatical.  Kate Greene has resigned from the Senate and another member will be appointed from Liberal Arts.  Karen Thrash will chair the Academic and Governance Committee.  Faculty evaluations of chairs and deans will be conducted by March 31, 1999. Attention should be given to Mississippi legislative bills SB2098 (also HB 126) dealing with the Gulf Coast status, to SB2276 concerning gaming related courses, and to HB636, which would require all faculty with the same number of years' experience and credentials to be paid the same salary and teach the same number of courses.
4.2  President Elect's Report:  Art Kaul
The Staff Council voted to endorse both resolutions (concerning salary appeals and representation to the state health insurance advisory board) that we will be voting on today.  The Liberal Arts College Council has approved a proposal calling for plus/minus grading with quality points attached for graduate courses.  This will go to the Graduate Council next.  A similar proposal a few years ago for undergraduates was defeated by the Student Council and the deans.  This is being referred to the Academic and Governance Committee.
4.3   Secretary's Report:  Sherry Laughlin  No Report
4.4   Secretary Elect's Report:  Shellie Nielsen
Proxies were announced and an attendance roster was passed.

5.0   Committee Reports
5.1  Academic and Governance Committee:  Karen Thrash  No Report
5.2  Administrative and Faculty Evaluations:  Bill Powell  No Report
5.3  Athletic Liaison:  Trellis Green
The Search Committee for the Athletic Director will soon be organized and someone from the Faculty Senate will be on it.  The Athletic Liaison Committee will look into faculty and staff football ticket prices.
5.4  Awards:  Linda Goff  No Report
5.5  Benefits and Work Environment:  Mike Forster
An addendum to the Faculty Salary Appeals resolution was sent to Senate members via the listserv. The resolution was seconded and passed unanimously.  The text of the resolution is available on the Senate web site.  Since the IHL has appointed the State Faculty Senates Association President to be on the state health insurance advisory board, the committee withdraws its resolution regarding representation to this board.
5.6  Constitution and Bylaws:  Sherry Laughlin
The committee has met and will be presenting amendments for a vote at the next meeting.
5.7  Elections:  Mary Dayne Gregg No report
5.8  Environment:  Dick Conville No report
5.9  Faculty Development:  Norma Cuellar  No report
5.10  Technology:  Dan Surry No report
Jesse Palmer asked the Technology Committee to look into USM's policy on email privacy.
5.11 University Club:  Kim Herzinger No report
5.12 Parking:  Bill Scarborough  No report
6.0  Old Business
7.0  New Business
8.0  Announcement
9.0  Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 4:15.

Respectfully submitted:  Sherry Laughlin