December 15, 2004

Members Present:
Stephen Tomasovic, Ph.D., Committee Chair
Michael Ahearn, Ph.D.
Marilyn Greer, Ph.D.
Dr. Toya Candelari
Weldon Gage
Donna Hemphill
Kathy Hoffman
Robert Jenkins
Shreya Kant
Victoria Knutson, Ph.D.
George Stancel, Ph.D.
Jon Wiener, Ph.D.

Members Absent:
Shaun Caldwell
Janet Price, Ph.D.

Dr.'s Tomasovic, Ahearn and Greer attended the 2004 Annual Meeting Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in Atlanta, Georgia. The annual meeting provides workshops and information sessions to adequately prepare institutions for the accreditation process. The 2004 annual meeting also provided an opportunity for the Dr's to have an initial meeting with Dr. Margaret Sullivan, Director of the Consulting Network which is recognized by SACS as the official referral organization for accreditation assistance and consultation. Approximately ten years ago, Dr. Sullivan participated in a reaffirmation for the Health Science Center and has had a long career at institutions and is very familiar with the SACS process. She is also very knowledgeable of the latest issues and continues to assist institutions undergoing the initial accreditation or reaffirmation process. Dr. Sullivan had previously received a copy of our application and other correspondence that was submitted to SACS. At the time of the meeting she had reviewed the application and provided some suggestions and initial guidance. Dr. Sullivan is scheduled to visit the campus on January 18 and 19. A meeting will be scheduled during Dr. Sullivan's visit to meet with the SACS Committee to discuss any areas of concern. She will also be participating in a series of one on one meetings to discuss documentation she has identified in the application. Dr. Tomasovic summarized the initial meeting with Dr. Sullivan by describing the three major areas that were brought to their attention: 1. Core Educational Requirements, How do you prove that individuals are competent to receive the bachelorette degree issued; the institution can no longer rely on the TASP test, but will have to develop its own way of documenting that the students have the necessary skill. 2. Faculty Qualifications, SACS will require more detail for faculty that are teaching courses with PH.D's in other areas; the current faculty tables will need to be reviewed to better explain that faculty are qualified to teach certain courses; transcript equivalency will have to be completed for all International Faculty (52); highest degree is needed. Dr. Tomasovic indicated that the records in Faculty Academic Affairs and the Office of International Affairs will be researched to determine if transcript equivalencies have initially been completed by Global or some other entity. In the event that transcript equivalencies are not available, Dr. Tomasovic will research sources of funding to begin the equivalency process and 3. Institutional Effectiveness, The area that ties the mission of the institution, the current strategic goals, the tactics related to those goals, the outcome measures, whose responsible for them and how the institution is doing in achieving those goals as measured by tracking those outcomes over a period of at least 2 ½ years. In earlier discussions with the graduate school and other academic support departments, Dr. Tomasovic confirmed that the institution has been enacting these processes, but have not documented the processes in a comprehensive table that would allow people who are not familiar with the institution to follow along. Dr. Tomasovic indicated that SACS is going to want to view this documentation for Academic Affairs, for the graduate school, School of Health Sciences and the academic support departments. The institution has been tracking and reporting accountability measures for the Coordinating Board and UT System for several years, therefore the data can be extracted and placed into a comprehensive table. Dr. Tomasovic stated that he had learned that SACS will not expect him to have strategic plans on all clinical areas, but will need something from the level of Executive Vice President, Finance, Development and HR and the Presidents Office. Fortunately, Dr. Mendolsohn and Adrianne Lang of the Management Committee have been working through more details of the strategic planning processes and all documentation is available. The Southeastern Louisiana State University's Accreditation website which was sited as a model. After reviewing their documentation he discovered that there were some areas within our institution that could be improved. He has also met with Allen Powell, Dir. of Internet Services regarding the issue of the website for MDACC's online application. Dr. Tomasovic stated the Mr. Powell along with other support staff will be working on getting the site up and available 24/7 for the convenience of the accreditation committee. There has also been the assignment of an editor from Scientific Publications who will be reviewing the site as it is constructed to ensure the writing is up to standard. As stated a model site has been reviewed and Dr. Tomasovic has asked for permission to use their site map. Use of the site map is pending approval of the provost.

Dr. Tomasovic indicated that Dr. Sullivan may want to meet with some of the offices to talk through what they have and to determine whether Dr. Sullivan feels there are areas that need improvement or more clarity from the perspective of an outsider. Dr. Candelari inquired about the suggestion by Dr. Sullivan to customize Student Support Services for their type of students. Dr. Canderlari stated that because services are contracted through the Health Science Center the services are customized. When Dr. Sullivan refers to customized services, does she mean at MDACC? Dr. Ahearn responded that Dr. Sullivan was referring to students that were married and living off campus. He indicated that Dr. Sullivan recognized that MDACC was not the typical academic institution with dormitories, etc., and most of the Health Science Center Students are only enrolled one academic year. For that reason the student services would not resemble that of any other institution. Dr. Ahearn shared that Dr. Sullivan made a significant statement that our proposal was very small as compared to a large system like the University of Florida and it is guaranteed that every area will be looked at and scrutinized by the site visit team. Dr. Ahearn suggested visiting other sites to review documentation that the institution included in a particular compliance standard that may be of assistance or guidance in addressing the standard for MDACC. Dr. Tomasovic stated that he will follow-up with Dr. Sullivan upon her arrival regarding the expectation of faculty teaching and graduate programs.

Dr. Tomasovic indicated that the institution is currently preparing for a site visit. The accreditation committee will review the application on line prior to the visit and identify any problem areas which the institution will need to address. The goal in any accreditation is to minimize the problem areas and upon visitation provide the accreditation committee greater confidence in accrediting the institution. Dr. Tomasovic indicated that staff would be working heavily on documentation from January to April. The target to submit the Compliance Report is May 1. The timeline is considered achievable, however, quite a bit of effort will be required by staff to thoroughly review all of the information as well as putting the information up on the website and ensuring that the links and underlying infrastructure is rock solid to allow easy 24 hour access to any member of the accreditation committee to access the application without blockouts or inappropriate links. Dr. Greer distributed a Faculty Qualification document received from one of the commissioners. She stated that the documentation is extraordinarily detailed and resembles the format that the strategic plan should follow. Dr. Tomasovic directed attention to page 4 of the document which provided considerations for determining faculty qualifications. Dr. Tomasovic stated that if the highest earned degree is not available a case would have to be established to justify teaching qualifications. Dr. Greer referred to tables on pages 13 and 16 that would be beneficial in relating the qualifications. Dr. Greer suggested that committee review minutes from the meeting with Dr. Sullivan to gain a better understanding of the specific order that the documentation is expected to be listed. The specific order stated would also be input on the web. Following the listings would be all the documentation. Reference page 2 relating to Strategic Planning, each of the major units need to have the specific columns completed appropriately, followed by a link. Dr. Tomasovic requested that Dr. Greer send the link to the university website to all committee members. Dr. Greer suggested that committee review the link to see how all the departments are tied together and the type of documentation that is required. Dr. Greer will be contacting the various departments to retrieve the same documentation as provided on the university site for MDACC's website. Donna Hemphill inquired about the timeframe to provide documents. Dr. Greer stated that in preparation for a site visit in June the Compliance Report would need to be submitted by May 1. Therefore it would be idea to have all the documentation submitted by April. Dr. Tomasovic indicated all available staff would be working on the report continually starting January 1. Dr. Greer inquired if Finance could provide the budgets in electronic format. Donna confirmed that they could provide an electronic format. Dr. Tomasovic indicated that the website can be set up to restrict access to sensitive documents. Once the structure is established it will be maintained for the next 4 years. Dr. Tomasovic stated that Dr. Sullivan indicated that it will be a challenge to identify people who will be familiar with the structure of the institution, and because MDACC has so great of a reputation it would receive a lot of initial good will and credit which would make it hard for the site team to criticize the institution in some respects. Smaller groups will be looking for problematic areas.

Meeting adjourned at 10:45 a.m.
The next committee meeting will be scheduled during Dr. Sullivan's visit:
Date: January 18, 2005
Time: To be announced.
Submitted for review by Maxine Stredic, Education Research and Assessment

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