MELA Meeting Minutes 2003 - 2017

III. Approval of April 2014 Minutes. Christa Wilhite made the motion to accept minutes; Keri Cole seconded the motion. Motion carried.

IV.

Unfinished Business

a. Mini Terms: Census Dates i. Last month, control dates with standard percentages were approved. Census dates were tabled. Since the April meeting, Ive and Raul recommended a 33% census date, which is what we have always done with flexibility to shift the date to Friday. Raul came up with a way to make this happen so that the 33% will be forced to a particular day of the week. 1. ELCs would need to come up with what date would be best. Audra sent out an e-mail asking how colleges were taking attendance. Some colleges were taking attendance 5 times, and some were taking it 6 times prior to census date. 2. Raul recommended that all institutions to take attendance the same number of times. Raul recommends the census date be pushed to the following Sunday, instead of Friday, since we are counting Saturday and Sundays as instructional days. For short-term courses, where attendance is taken three times, the day would push to Wednesday. ii. Motion made by Keri Cole to adopt what State Board recommends of a census date of Wednesday (for short-term courses) or Sunday (for full-term courses) after the 33% mark of a semester, with a contingency that we see the written policy language prior to it being sent to the Presidents. Motion seconded by Jennifer Leimer. Motion carried. iii. In the new policy that is written, attendance must be taken 5 times prior to the census for 15-week terms. Audra will draft specific wording for the policy, with a table, and will send it out to the group. This would not dictate when instructors could take attendance. It would only dictate the census date. b. Proposed Calendar i. Based on financial aid’s recommendation, the Calendar Subcommittee met again and revised the calendar. The revised calendar allows terms to fall within the financial-aid reporting period. For those colleges that want to offer an intercession, 3-week terms have been added. 3-week terms are the only way they will fit into the financial aid standard term reporting period. It is up to each college to utilize these terms if they so choose. ii. For the December intercession term, it would be part of the Spring term. Although students register for the course in the Fall, it falls within the 14-days prior to the standard Spring term. iii. Audra mentioned that institutions may offer a solely online course, that is not shared with others in the MSVCC, and not built it in the ET. If it is a shared course, it must be built within the shared calendar. iv. The Calendar Subcommittee is recommending that the proposed calendar be approved and forwarded to the Academic Deans at the June meeting. The ELCs voted. All voted in favor, none opposed. Calendar approved. 1. Tish Stewart recommended that each college take the approved calendar back to their Financial Aid Director since it will affect each college’s operations.

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