March 09, 2005

Members Present:
Stephen Tomasovic, Ph.D., Committee Chair
Michael Ahearn, Ph.D.
Dr. Toya Candelari, Dr.PH.
Shaun Caldwell
Justin Faye
Weldon Gage
Marilyn Greer, Ph.D.
Donna Hemphill
Kathy Hoffman
Robert Jenkins
Shreya Kant
Marvin L. Meistrich, Ph.D.
George Stancel, Ph.D.
Jon Wiener, Ph.D.


Members Absent:
Victoria Knutson, Ph.D.

I. Review of Minutes

The committee was asked to review the minutes of the February 24 meeting. All corrections were acknowledged and will be recorded as noted.

II. Review of Telephone Conversation with Dr. Jack Allen Concerning Visit

The chair of the SACS committee has been selected by Dr. Jack Allen, our SACS Liaison. Dr. Richard Peppler, Dean, College of Graduate Health Sciences and Associate Dean, College of Medicine, of The University of Tennessee was selected from among the previously suggested institutions. Dr. Peppler is very engaged in the process and has made immediate inquiries and requests for documentation. Dr. Tomasovic cautioned the committee to ensure that any documents forwarded to Dr. Peppler are consistent with the documentation that will be available during the visit. Dr. Allen indicated that the visitation dates would have to be moved forward from August to July. The confirmed date of visitation is scheduled for July 26-28, 2005. Dr. Greer contacted Dr. Mendelsohn and Dr. Kripke's office and other pertinent staff involved in the accreditation process and was very successful in getting the calendars and availability to coincide with the confirmed date of visitation. Dr. Tomasovic stated that Adrianne Lang is currently trying to confirm at least two Regents that would be available to meet with the visitation team on the first day of visitation. He also indicated that he is planning to set up executive briefings in the month of June which will include the Regents, Dr. Mendelsohn and Dr. Kripe, Dr. Leach, Ben Melson, Dr. Ahearn, Dr. Stancel, Dr. Greer, Dr. Di Giovonni, Dr. Willerson, Dr. Buya, and Ms. Linda Brannon.. Dr. Stancel suggested Dr. Judith L. Craven as a representative from the Regents because of her prior experience as a Dean, familiarity with the accreditation process and location in Houston.

Dr. Greer provided the committee with a copy of the Institutional Summary Form that will be forwarded as requested by Dr. Jack Allen and Dr. Peppler. Dr. Tomasovic indicated that the Institutional Summary Form is an example of the first document that will become part of the official record once forwarded and asked that the committee review for accuracy and provide changes as soon as possible. Dr. Greer indicated that the GSBS catalog and the HSC catalog would be forwarded along with the Institutional Summary Form. No additional information has been provided about the site visit attendees. Dr. Greer is in the process of confirming the best location for accommodations between the Hilton and the Marriott. The Crown Plaza and the Warwick were additional suggestions.

III. Review of Website

Dr. Tomasovic introduced Robert Armand of Institutional Research, formerly Education Research and Assessment. Prior to the website review, Dr. Tomasovic discussed his reasoning in changing the name of the Education Research and Assessment department under Dr. Marilyn Greer to Institutional Research. The name was changed to better encompass the evolution of responsibilities since its inception in 2002, to better reflect its focus of more institutional related work than educational, and for the accreditation process. Robert is helping interface with the Department of Internet Services and the Department of Academic Programs Education Products to upload the SACS Compliance Report to the public domain for institutional review and to provide around-the-clock access to the SACS Review Team. The website is still under construction, but with the use of a laptop and projector, Mr. Armand was able to demonstrate some of its functionality and capability. The site was modeled after the Southeastern Louisiana University SACS Accreditation website. A sample of the site was distributed to the committee. In the presentation, Mr. Armand indicated that the content in hard copy is exactly the same on the site, but the appearance of the content may differ. He provided the SHS catalog as an example and indicated that he was attempting to make the web version as similar to the hard copy as possible. There were several discussions and concerns regarding the links. Mr. Armand indicated that all documents outside of the institution would not be updated because there are no live links. All of the links are being built into the M.D. Anderson website. Dr. Tomasovic commented that the risk is that all the documents that are outside our institution like the Regents would not be updated. How do other schools handle this? Mr. Armand indicated that with other sites and Southeastern Louisiana as an example has two links. One link points to the local information which is static and an additional link to points to the live documentation. Dr. Greer indicated that the way in which the website is being built avoids the site reviewer from receiving an error message if the link to the outside documentation is unavailable due to maintenance. The only disadvantage is that the information is very static. Dr. Tomasovic will discuss risks with Dr. Allen and if a cutoff time could be placed on documentation. Dr. Tomasovic inquired about how Mr. Armand is tracking changes and ensuring that the latest version is included. Mr. Armand stated that he could put time anddate stamps on the documentation as it is uploaded. Dr. Tomasovic indicated that a set of CD's containing all documentation will be sent to the SACS Review Team six weeks in advance. He indicated that six weeks in advance of sending the documentation he will have staff scroll through the website daily to ensure that all areas are functional. Robert Armand indicated that the faculty credential section of the website will contain a search engine in which staff can be retrieved by college, last name, or department. Dr. Greer referred the committee to the third page of the Southeastern Louisiana University and indicated that she would have to meet with the members to set up a similar page for all faculty. Dr. Tomasovic requested that the paper copy, disk copy and work copy look as similar as possible with the least amount of reformatting. Robert Armand will prepare a disk for review within the next two weeks. Dr. Stancel inquired about the formal mechanism that would be used for staff comments. Dr. Tomasovic indicated that once the site is set up there would be an announcement or notice sent out in Faculty Notes, Employee Notes and/or email providing a URL to the site. Any comments would be forwarded to Dr. Greer. If the comments relate to editorial issues they will be addressed accordingly. If the comments relate to content they will be brought before the committee to discuss and verify if the change is appropriate.

IV. Review of Core Requirements Assignments - Updates

Dr. Jon Wiener discussed the receipt of comments from the legal offices for the GSBS catalog. The modifications were completed and forwarded back to Linda Brandon's office to forward to Systems.

Dr. Ahearn indicated that the School of Health Sciences catalog and Handbook are completed.

Dr. Greer indicated that Ms. Sheena Sharma in her office is currently working on the Fact Book and should have it completed within a few weeks. Dr. Greer will be contacting the committee for additional information.

The first set of faculty credentials has been forwarded to an evaluation company called SpanTran Educational Services. They will be performing evaluation for equivalency of foreign transcripts, verifications of receipt, and translations. There are 53 transcripts to be ordered for the HSC and 50 transcripts for M. D. Anderson faculty that are currently being reviewed by SpanTran. Additionally, there may be another 20 to 30 foreign transcripts from the HSC that will have to be forwarded to SpanTran. SpanTran requires approximately one month to complete the review. The HSC has been very cooperative in providing the transcript requests. The transcripts are being processed through Institutional Research, but contain return envelopes for the HSC. The HSC will provide notarized copies of the original transcripts for our files.

The Comprehensive Standards assignments were predicated on an August visit and were initially due on April 19th. As a result of the visit being moved forward, the assignment due date has also been moved forward by two weeks. The assignments are now due on April 5th. Dr. Tomasovic inquired about the status of the Federal Mandates. Dr. Greer indicated that they are complete, but need to be reviewed. Dr. Tomasovic requested a hard copy of the Federal Mandates to review with the two deans.

V. Visit to Bastrop and Smithville

Dr. Greer indicated that she had spoke with the assistant for Dr. Statterfield and Dr. Giavanni. An email correspondence was provided to the committee regarding the off-site visit and items requested during the visit. The committee was urged to submit any additional considerations. Dr. Greer was asked to coordinate a lunch meeting with the postdoc for Dr. Martha Skinder and the GRA's for Dr. Sharon Pepper to administer an evaluation and determine their specialties. Dr. Tomasovic expressed concerna bout the tour and suggested that the time be utilized to determine the provisions of library support, support services and any gaps that may exist and are related to SACS. Dr. Stancel expressed a concern with the students raising the issue of student appropriate response to their concerns. Dr. Wiener referred Dr. Stancel to Mr. Charlie Figari to obtain advance notice on the issue. Dr. Greer will follow up with Mr. Figari to ascertain what student services are being provided to Smithville and Bastrop students.

VI. Other Business

Dr. Greer has made a few changes to the first draft of the GSBS Alumni Survey. The SHS Survey will be completed within a week.

Dr. Wiener inquired about the GSBS Catalog that was being sent to SACS. According to Dr. Margaret Sullivan the language should duplicate the outcome matrixes. The catalog for 03-05 does not duplicate the outcome matrixes, whereas the catalog for 05-07 was revised to meet the recommendation. Dr. Tomasovic suggested that the discrepancy be explained within the documentation. Dr. Greer suggested that she cold also send the 05-07 GSBS catalog. Dr. Tomasovic suggested forwarding the catalog along with a letter explaining why two catalogs are enclosed and include in the text that the new catalog consists of revisions applied to reflect SACS standards and is about to be sent to System for approval.

VII. Adjournment of Meeting; Announcement of Next Meeting

The meeting was adjourned at 2:04 p.m.
The next committee meeting is scheduled for March 23, 2005.
Submitted for review by Maxine Stredic, Institutional Research

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