Administrators Discuss Transfer Policy Act, Other Legislation

Editor-in-Chief

   Transfer students with an associate’s degree will soon be able to transfer their credit hours due to the Roger Phillips Transfer Policy Act which passed the Arkansas House of Representatives, according to an announcement made at the first Assembly meeting of the semester Feb. 12.

   During his administrative report, Provost David Ray said the bill, which passed unanimously, would allow state-wide transfers of associate’s degrees in arts, science and teaching. Some faculty members asked if a grade of “D” in classes would be transferable, since it currently is not according to university policy. Ray said flexibility with cases like this will remain with the new policy.

   Gary Marshall, professor of speech communication, asked if the transfer students with associate’s degrees from other universities will have to meet just state requirements, which is 35 hours, or university requirements, which is 44 hours.

Photo by Latoya Shelton

Report - Athletic Director Alvy Early gives the athletic committee report at the meeting held Feb. 12 in the Memorial Classroom Building auditorium. The Assembly held its first meeting of the semester.

   Chancellor Jack Lassiter said some questions still remain in this regard. He said the bill is to help students who attend a two-year college and get an associate’s degree that want to transfer to a four-year institution, but are told they have to take lower level courses.

   “We want to get to a point where the transfer student gets credit for what they completed,” Lassiter said.

   Lassiter also noted the bill does give exceptions for accreditation requirements. He used the example if the Forestry Resources major requires a freshman-level dendrology course and the transfer student did not take that class to get their associate’s degree, the university can require them to take it.

   “This will encourage more students to transfer to a four-year institution,” Lassiter said. “It’s frustrating when you can’t transfer those hours.”

   Lassiter also talked about another “hot” piece of legislation – the lottery scholarship. He said the current bill for the lottery scholarship requires universities to pledge not to raise tuition over the Arkansas Department of Higher Education’s tuition price index. He said this percentage in the ADHE index does not help universities on the lower end of the tuition price range.

   “Tuition limits in percent will not benefit the campus,” Lassiter said.

   He said the bill has not been introduced yet. Lassiter noted another tag in the bill is universities have to agree to reduce costs of text books.

   “(The university) doesn’t control that, the publisher does,” Wayne Poniewaz, associate professor of psychology, said.

   Lassiter said the campus bookstore has the lowest markup of any bookstore in the state.

   Robert Moore, professor of English, asked if the legislature could be convinced to have a sliding scale in the percent of tuition increase allowed for colleges who receive the lottery scholarships. Lassiter said the idea is one of the things the administration is trying to have included in different bill packages.

   The last piece of legislation Lassiter discussed was a possible resolution to do away with amendment 33. This resolution, which would be presented to the general public, would do away with Boards of Trustees at universities. He said this would not be a good thing because governance would be turned over to state agencies, but he did not think it would make the ballot.

Chancellor’s Report

   In his report, Lassiter announced Linda Yeiser is currently serving as the interim vice chancellor of Advancement. He said after meeting with the committee to hire to position, chaired by Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Clay Brown, he decided to make that position the director of development and readvertise the job position.

   Lassiter also discussed the Arkansas Early College High School program the university participates in with the Southeast Arkansas Education Cooperative. He said there was “misinformation” about the audits and scrutiny the AECHS program came under last year after allegations of grade inflation.

   “This institution never had anything to do with (the allegations),” Lassiter said. “We will continue to work with the program this year.”
 
   He went on to say the program is beneficial as it helps students get college experience in high school.

   Lassiter also cleared up misinformation about the centennial clock tower. He said he valued opinions from everyone, but encouraged people to have correct information.

   He said 65 people have committed $10,000 to the centennial endowment fund, and the goal is to have $1 million. He said the $1 million endowment will never be touched. A committee, made of faculty and students, will decide how to spend the earnings made off the interest of the endowment. He said the money will be spent on projects and activities on campus, but never for salaries.

   Lassiter also talked about the economy and the budget. He said he has no fears about the upcoming challenge to create a new budget.

   “The economy is not great, its tough,” Lassiter said. “I want to reassure you our budget is strong.”

   Marshall asked about money that was appropriated but not released by Gov. Mike Beebe. Lassiter said $700,000 was taken from the university’s budget last year, two weeks before it was finalized. He said that was due to projections about revenue for this year, but the revenue has exceeded the projections. Lassiter said the decision not to release the money is Beebe’s, but he respects his decision.

   “I appreciate what he is doing,” Lassiter said. “I wish we could have that money, but Arkansas is always, historically, the last to go into a recession and the last to come out of recessions.”

Administrative Reports

   In administrative reports, Vice Chancellor for College of Technology – Crossett said Crossett and College of Technology – McGehee have a new Associate Vice Chancellor of Technological Programs, Misty Paschall. She also announced COTC practical nurses had a 100 percent passing rate on their state boards.

   Vice Chancellor for COTM said the campus would participate in Say Go College Week.

   Brown said International Week was currently happening and encouraged everyone to view the International Display in Harris Hall.

   “The students bring a neat perspective to our campus,” Brown said.

   He noted the Martin Luther King Jr. and Presidential watch party had “a great turn out.” He said Weevil Welcome Days brought 700 students to campus and thanked all of the faculty for participating.

   During the Finance and Administration report, Jay Jones said the administration was beginning preliminary work on the budget. He said budget packets will be out by the end of the month, with budget hearings sometime in mid-March. He noted Wells and Sorrells Halls have now opened back up. Jones also announced work had started on the Centennial Clock Tower, a $218,000 project.

   Provost David Ray announced enrollment numbers are up for the spring semester at 3,233 students and said he is “very pleased.” He also thanked everyone for participating in Weevil Welcome Days.

   “This is a great opportunity for the campus to put its best foot forward,” Ray said.

   Ray also announced the Division of Music’s accreditation has been pushed back to Sept. 15 – 16.

Committee Reports

   Faculty members gave the following committee reports during the meeting:

• Athletic committee – Alvy Early said the committee added two students, Matt Whiting and Meagan Wilson, at its Jan. 26 meeting. He said the NCAA drug testing, which happens once a year, already took place on campus. He said the university had not received the results yet. He noted the institution does test for steroids and street drugs. As far as fall grade point averages for athletes, he said most coaches are satisfied with the grades but some are looking at how to improve.

      Early announced it looks like both women’s and men’s basketball teams will qualify for the tournament in Brookhaven, Miss. Tickets will be available for both games.

• Curriculum and Standards – The committee met two times and changed some course names and requirements. In the School of Business, the Topics of International Finance changed to International Finance with additional requirements and is offered in the spring. The description was updated and added to the finance concentration as a requirement. The agriculture business degree had a course title change and updated requirements as well. The School of Education deleted the pre-requisite requirement for Needs of Diverse Learners for Instructional Technology.  In the School of Arts and Humanities, students can take more than one seminar in foreign language and long as a different language is offered each time. A new major, modern languages, was approved.

• Teacher Education – An NCATE accreditation visit will take place March 7 – 11 for reaccreditation. Peggy Doss, dean of the School of Education, said the school has to be accredited by NCATE in order for students to be licensed to teach by Arkansas. She said the school received national recognition for their P-4 early childhood program, middle level program and educational leadership program.

      Doss said the average GPA for the 27 students admitted to the School of Education in the fall was 3.38. The average GPA for the 12 students admitted in the spring was 3.06. She said the school admitted 18 interns to Intern I in the fall and 9 interns in the spring. She noted one modification the ADHE made to the master’s of art in teaching program. She said every candidate must have at least 30 hours of content in the area they will be licensed to teach. The school is also looking at a new graduate degree in physical education.

• Ad Hoc committee – The committee to revise the Assembly’s constitution met Oct. 16 to look at updates to the document, including adding the Colleges of Technology and positions and deleting obsolete wording. The project will likely continue into next year.  

   Moore announced the eight annual documentary film festival will take place March 11 – 12. The festival, free and open to the public, will show 22 films.

   The next Assembly meeting will take place April 7. Marsha Clayton, Assembly chair, said the body will be electing officers at this meeting. 

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