Faculty present: Derrek Davis, Charles Miles, Cecile Durish, Greg Garlow, Glen Hunt, Karry Evans, Shina Amachigh, Cloteal Haynes, Stefan Haag, Michele Gallman, Ann Dillon, Ed Mullen, Maria Luz Valverde, Greg harrison, Frank J. Garrahan.

Ed Mullen, Department Chair Election Coordinator, announced that Gaye Lynn Scott has been elected to another year as Government Department Chair.

1. Full-time hiring committee.

A. Interviews were conducted March 26, 27, and 29.

B. Recommendations have been sent to the Dean; then up to the AVP after the Dean conducts follow-up phone interviews.

2. Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation. New Politics Forum is seeking up to 50 students for its summer 2004 Campaign Training BootCamp seminar (June 3-5 in Austin). Go to www.newpoliticsforum.org for more information or call 471-7214 or e-mail embal@mail.utexas.edu (Emily Balanoff).

3. Vicke Hammond Benefit, April 17, Lago Vista: live music, food, fun. Vicke is without health insurance and friends are soliciting donations to help Vicke's family deal with Bob's cancer surgery. Donations can be made to: Benefit for Hammond Family, Security State Bank and Trust, account number 224 992 8, 7626 Lohman Ford Rd., Lago Vista, TX 78645.

4. Professional Development Opportunities.

A. American Political Science Association annual meeting, September 2-5, Chicago, IL

5. ECS using IVC update &endash; Robert Bermea and Sue Raye are determined to offer some classes this way. They are trying to recruit Government faculty who will take the IVC training and be on board for Fall.

6. Master Plan initiatives: Here's what the Department Chair could find in the 232-page pdf Master Plan file that is specifically relevant to the Government Department: maps for South Austin Campus Government classrooms; development of a screening mechanism for DL students in order to increase success and retention; three new full-time positions in Government; support for internationalizing the curriculum.

A. In addition, requests went in for CYP expansion; PIN parking lot; RGC parking garage and faculty offices.

B. Implement "best practices" as defined by SACS and Coordinating Board in all DL courses.

C. Civic Engagement Service Learning: create half-time position to find and manage service learning opportunities.

D. Online DL Faculty Evaluation system for DL students.

E. Distributed Learning Environment: classrooms equipped with multimedia delivery equipment that is easy to access by the instructor, flexible enough for quick laptop connection.

7. Departmental budget requests for FY 05 must be in by noon, April 13. Master Plan requests cannot be duplicated in the budget process.

8. Jim Fowler's retirement celebration is scheduled for Friday, April 23, from 3 to 6 at Scholtz's. Come and go, wear a blue shirt and khaki pants in Jim's honor. Send donations for gift to Gaye Lynn Scott at NRG.

Adjunct Faculty Committee: An orientation is being planned for the new adjuncts who will be teaching for the first time this summer. the committee will also be conducting more interviews in the next few weeks.

Faculty Development Committee: Karry Evans reported that she was not having much luck pursuing a Saturday colloquium commemorating Brown v. Board of Education. the decision was made to spend the summer developing ideas and finding panelist and to hold some sort of event in September or early October for both students and faculty. Thanks to Karry for all her hard work, time, effort, and misery in chairing this committee in recent years!

Faculty Evaluation Committee: Adjunct evaluations are being sent to faculty by the Dean's office. There was discussion about the unmanageable timeline as it relates to MSTA and HPH status for the 2004-2005 academic year. Departments must get adjunct faculty evaluation summary forms to the Deans by early March and then decisions regarding MSTAs and HPHs are made in mid-March, before the faculty get to see their evaluations or ask for a meeting to discuss them. Some of this is an institutional problem since these are College-wide deadlines, some of it is the challenge at the departmental level to get the summary forms to the Dean by the end of February rather than the beginning of March, and some of it is the delay in sending out the evaluations once they arrive at the Dean's office. The Department Chair promises to work harder next year (in concert with the Faculty Evaluations Committee chair) to get evaluations to the Dean early and to pester the Dean to ensure they're sent out as quickly as possible.

The Task Force postponed discussion of the proposed departmental definitions of "excellent", "very good", "good", "needs improvement" and "unacceptable". We'll take this up at a summer meeting. These proposed departmental standards are contained in the minutes of our February 27 meeting.

Student Assessment Committee: Faculty have been asked to be either a first or second reader for our annual assessment effort. If you have not yet completed that task (completed artifacts are trickling in to Frank Garrahan at NRG), please do so as soon as possible. Results will be presented at a summer department meeting.

Derrek Davis presented a proposal for a Model Arab League option to accompany a GOVT 2305 course. Karry Evans presented a proposal for a Model Organization of American States option to accompany a GOVT 2305 course. Both courses were approved by the Task Force. The MAL course is tentatively planned for Spring 2005 and the MOAS option for Fall 2005.

One new textbook was added to the GOVT 2305 list. Two new textbooks were added to the GOVT 2306 list. The updated list will be sent out to faculty via e-mail before the Spring semester ends.

Rex Peebles, the Dean of Social & Behavioral Sciences, provided information about ACC's effort to be reaccredited. ACC, currently on warning by SACS, has until December 2004 to receive reaffirmation of accreditation. ACC hired a SACS consultant to help us prepare for a SACS visit in September. The consultant found major problems related to faculty credentials. In the Government Department, a very narrow standard is being applied: faculty who do not have at least a master's degree in political science or at least 18 graduate hours in political science along with a master's degree in another discipline, are not considered properly credentialed.

Historically the Government Department has hired faculty with Master's degrees in related disciplines. Our SACS consultant tells us that this does not meet the letter of the law as applied by SACS. This means that those with a JD, or a Master's in Public Administration, or Public Affairs, or Public Policy, or International Affairs, etc., will no longer be deemed properly credentialed unless, in addition, they have at least 18 graduate hours in political science.

Letters from the Deans will go out by the middle of April to all faculty who are currently teaching at ACC, telling them where they stand in relation to this. All faculty will be able to ask for a meeting with their Department Chairs and Deans to discuss their situation and examine options. All problems must be resolved by early July before Fall registration begins in late July.

Remember that, as Dr. Kinslow has said, this is not a question of teaching quality, it is a question of narrowly defined teaching credentials.