Present: A. Blair, R. Pack, P. Beeson, W. Kalista, A. Aggelou, N. Laudato, C. Trovato, K. Kelly (co-chair), J. Rajgopal, D. Crossman, I. Frieze, S. Sereika, A. Ashraf, and J. Erlen (co-chair)

Topic Content/Action

Call to order The meeting was called to order at 12:05 p.m. by J. Erlen

Minutes of April 22, 2008 meeting The minutes were amended as follows: (1) Under the item "Strategic Planning", the content should begin "Diane Davis said ", and (2) Under the item "Issues regarding OMET", delete the sentence "CIDDEthis."

The minutes were approved as amended.

Update re: the revised COI procedure when using faculty authored texts R. Pack updated the committee re: the implementation of the new procedure to address the potential COI issue when using faculty authored texts. Publishers, in general, are not interested in withholding royalties and reducing the cost of the faculty authored books sold to students. There is also no way to monitor faculty authored textbooks ordered via the internet. Therefore, the only way to assess the new procedure is through the Pitt bookstore. When faculty orders textbooks, there is now a checkbox on the form to indicate if this is a faculty authored textbook. The bookstore monitors and sends a list to R. Pack that includes the faculty, department, and number of books sold. The faculty calculates the amount of royalties and then remits that amount to the department. The funds are then to be used to benefit students such as using these funds to bring in writers in an English composition class. This fall approximately 50 faculty authored textbooks are in use with 63 courses using faculty authored textbooks.

Update re: Blackboard upgrade N. Laudato provided an update on the implementation to Blackboard 7.3 which was updated as of September 24, 2008. He identified several current issues that have been reported to Blackboard. CIDDE is currently testing Blackboard 8.0 on their development server. He discussed the new features on this version include the grade center, content system upgrades, and peer review functions. Possible target date to upgrade to Blackboard 8.0 is May 2009. He noted that the content system is still being rolled out. There are plans to integrate PeopleSoft for the institutional role which will allow for an institutional content system.

N. Laudato also advertised the upcoming Teaching Fair to be held Wednesday, November 5, 2008 in Alumni Hall.

Update re: calendar, enrollment, and PACUP P. Beeson provided the committee with updates re: current freshman class admission statistics. There were over 21,000 applications for Fall 2008. The Office of Admissions is targeting those who are qualified for admission. Forty-eight percent of the freshman class were in the top 10% in their high school graduating class in those schools reporting this statistic, and the average SAT score was 1262. Retention and four and six year graduation rates continue to increase.

P. Beeson reported that informal comments showed that the Fall term calendar change was well received quite possibly because it was well advertised. A more formal survey will be conducted. There are some other recommendations under review by the Calendar Committee such as adjusting the Spring term so that it has a standardized 70 instructional days, and standardizing the winter break to 3 weeks. However, the latter change has implications for the Summer term.

Lastly, P. Beeson said that PACUP is examining a student initiated proposal to limit the number of final examinations that students can take on one day to two examinations.

Next meeting The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 25, 2008 beginning at 12 noon in Room 826 Cathedral of Learning.

Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 12:55 p.m.

Submitted by,

Judith A. Erlen, Co-chair