College Update

From: Sanford Shugart
To: All Faculty and Staff
Date: 3/4/02  4:20 PM
Subject: Collegewide Memo 3-4-02

1. Politics - Thanks to the many of you who participated in our local discussions of political advocacy for the college. The echoes of your emails and letters are coming back to me through members of the legislature. Your voices along with our students will keep our cause before them while they continue to sort through the budget.

There is little news to share on the budget. The House and Senate remain far apart on this, as well as on revenue, reapportionment, and tax reform. It looks like the session may drag on a bit, although some think that the new revenue estimating conference later in the week will help break the log jam. KEEP COMMUNICATING. It really does help.

2. Precision Scheduling - I am encouraged by the details on section management from spring semester. From spring 2001 to spring 2002, the deans reduced the number of sections created in the last two weeks of registration from 102 to 13 (87% reduction!). Further, they reduced the number of sections canceled from 196 to 64 (67%). This is all in spite of great enrollment pressures. What it means is a lot less disruption of schedules for students and faculty, a higher degree of preparation for classes and labs, much less last-minute hiring and load additions, and a general reduction in chaos that has to be good for learning. In addition, maximum class sizes did not suffer in the process, indicating little to no over-filling of classes compared to last year. (I suspect we still have some progress to make here as we address faculty and space shortages in coming years.)

The deans and others will be meeting soon to discuss how to grow more thoughtfully, more "planfully" in the coming year prior to developing a detailed schedule.

3. CLO Search - As you know, five candidates for the CLO position will be on campus in the next two weeks for the first round of interviews. For details, see Ann Puyana's email of February 21. We should be ready soon after spring break to invite a finalist for extended interviews and visits on all campuses.

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