COTA-Advisory Council Minutes
COTA AC
Meeting Notes 4/3/08
Members in attendance: Artie Fowler, Rita Gulstad, Melissa Hattman, Debbie Schatz, and Yvette Sweeney
Members absent: Doug Couch, Hillary Fuhrman (DHE ex-officio), Sarah Larson, Bruce Miles, LaShandra Shepard, Kandis Smith (COTA ex-officio)
Guests: Julie Chapman (Faculty Fellow-Academic Affairs, DHE) and B.J. White (DHE Research Associate)
Meeting minutes from the March 6th meeting approved.
Conference Review:
Additional comments were solicited. It was agreed that Julie organized and presented the conference data appropriately. No suggestions were offered.
COTA AC Annual Election:
It was clarified that the nomination timeline would end April 28th, by noon. This will allow DHE staff to prepare for the call for votes. There are currently eleven nominees for the three open positions. Verbiage was requested for the ballots and election site from the process last year. Please forward any information to B.J. White. Committee also discussed the mailing list for soliciting nominations and votes, and reviewed the current groups who receive the information. It includes the Chief Academic Officers in the state, MACADA members, U.M. System Transfer Conference attendees, State-wide Articulation Officers, MAPCCS board, MACRAO, Transfer and Articulation Conference attendees, and MCCA members. Each AC member was encouraged to send an e-mail to folks on their campus inviting them to nominate an individual who has interest in transfer and articulation.
COTA April meeting review:
Rita will be attending the COTA meeting on April 23rd. She discussed the survey on dual credit that was sent to institutions in Missouri from DHE and will bring back feedback from COTA’s discussion. The Transfer and Articulation conference and dual credit have been major topics for COTA’s past two meetings.
COTA AC discussed the timing of the Transfer and Articulation conference. COTA received the request from AC to consider moving the conference to fall, based on weather concerns. AC discussed how to change the cycle without missing a year and also the obligations that occur in fall that would be competing with attendance at this conference. COTA considered a year where two conferences could be planned, which they felt was a better alternative than waiting 1.5 years. The Transfer and Articulation conference will be planned in January next year, which will give a little more time for consideration of all issues. AC suggested a one-day conference in January 2009, followed up by a one-day conference in fall 2009, then annually from that point on (fall 2010, fall 2011, etc.) Date recommended by AC to COTA is January 28, 2009. AC suggested that the second or third week of September may be the best time to consider for admissions recruiting staff and faculty. AC also suggested that Jeremy Kintzel should reserve the hotel conference space now, while all facilities are available to allow for expanded attendance. Columbia Missouri is still the best centralized location.
AC also suggested that the conference offer multiple topic tracks for next year, allowing attendees to select the track of highest interest and follow the discussion throughout the day. It was suggested that presentation modalities should be altered throughout the day as well. It was decided that it was too early to suggest topics for the next conference, but there should be follow-up general information session offered on the CAI.
AC discussed the addition of K-12 members to the invitee list. Members cautioned that the conference originated as a working session for higher education (1990’s) and that when K-12 issues were brought in many years ago, the focus changed and some higher education members chose to stop attending. Suggestions included inviting key K-12 stakeholders or that a rotation system might be appropriate. A cycle could be initiated where K-12 would be invited by special invitation, so that it is understood that the invitation is topic related.
It was also discussed whether there would be enough funding to cover the costs of increased attendance. BJ shared that the registration costs cover the expenses.
Suggestions for topics for next COTA AC meeting:
- Best practices in proprietary school credit evaluation
- Progress of committee elections
Miscellaneous Announcements:
BJ announced that COTA has two new members. Pam McIntyre replaced Don Doucette and Julia Leeman replaced Karen Finkenkeller. Welcome to COTA’s newest members.
Minutes submitted by Yvette Sweeney
