September 26, 2011 3:30 - 5 p.m. E-501
1. After introductions and a welcome, Brad Orcutt spoke about CUNYFirst project.
Three pillars of CUNYFirst, rolled out in stages: HR, Finance, and Campus Solutions. The latter contains student functions, but CUNY and Oracle did not consider advisement in the planning of the core team, called BARFIT (bursar, admissions, registrar, financial aid, and IT). Therefore LaGuardia has added an "A" to the team, and Jhony and Mitchell represent advisors' interests.
Currently the BARFIT offices are participating in User Acceptance Testing to verify the data that will be migrating from SIMS to CUNYFirst. Once we are ready to convert, SIMS will be turned off, there will be a blackout period, and then CUNYFirst will be turned on. Brad anticipates that this will take place at the earliest in June or July 2012. Brad explained that the initial "cutover" date was November, but due to a number of issues mostly related to our two-session semester our college (along with KBCC) was deferred.
There are still outstanding issues to resolve in the area of financial aid and billing. Further, the FACTS system (a financial aid audit) may come into CUNYFirst.
During the roll-out phase (and there is a separate communications team who will help to direct this) the Train the Trainer team will connect with advisors and faculty to train them. This can take place in a variey of formats.
Finally, it was noted that DegreeWorks 4.0, which we pioneered, will be moving to the CUNY Central server. This may cause delays in refreshing data.
2. Danielle led a discussion of the mission and vision for the DAC in the upcoming year.
As President Mellow has indicated that the 45th credit initiative, Destination Graduation, should use the work of the DAC to inform its project, and since another priority is to prepare for the arrival of a new Provost and realignment of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs, developing a robust agenda makes sense. Ideas were solicited from the group:
- Make policy recommendations and troubleshoot advising issues, in an effort to make advising more effective
- Find concrete ways for advisors to help prevent students from dropping out
- Develop a uniform standard for advisement at the College, and assess delivery methods
- Consider communication and outreach strategies for students
- Determine whether developmental advising as a concept is effective at LaGuardia
- Provide training and referral options for faculty advisors
- Develop a mission statement
These ideas will be considered further at the next meeting.
3. Bruce Hoffacker spoke about the curriculum.
There is no longer a Liberal Arts: Theatre option. Further, it is hoped that Liberal Arts: Psychology will be eliminated in favor of a full Psychology major. (Both sociology and politics faculty are considering establishing their own majors as well.)
Within the Writing and Literature major, journalism and creative writing options are being developed.
There will be a new program with City College that will allow transfer of three courses as a concentration in early childhood learning within the Education major.
Joint degrees are in development with Lehman (nursing) and John Jay (forensic science).
Foreign languages continue to be popular; we offer between 10 and 14 languages and more than 800 students are enrolled in courses. The College has a grant from the Japanese Foundation to develop more courses, and Queens College has special transfer policies for certain language courses.
Important: next year, the College catalogue will be available online only.