MELA Minutes 2024-2025

most of the courses did not relate to their declared majors on the application, and most of them were technical majors. Michelle Mitchell (PRCC) found similar activities and noted students were doing minimal work, if any, but were not being removed from the class before refunds went out. One way in which the PRCC may try to prevent students of this nature from registering for classes is no more email or phone registering; therefore, a student would have register through Teams, showing their ID. 2. TII Update a. Dr. Lebrun (MCCB) stated the TII contract did not make it on the president's agenda because Dr. Graham asked her to provide some usage reports, which Megan Saxton provided. Dr. LeBrun (MCCB) will be sharing these to the consortium via email. Dr. LeBrun (MCCB) visited Gulf Coast Community College about a week ago to meet with Jason Carter, the deputy director, Dr. Graham, and Dr. Pugh and reviewed the overall budget and services currently under contract so they could better understand the usage of the services. The usage reports showed that the consortium had around 647,000 submissions for TII in the last academic year, of which every institution had submissions. Dr. LeBrun (MCCB) had Megan provide a system-wide report highlighting the usage of all services for the presidents, so when it is taken to them this month, they will not have to look over a 30-page report. She feels confident this will be approved by the presidents. However, she added any time a service hits the million-dollar mark she must create a business case and it then will also need to be approved by ITS. She also feels confident ITS will approve the TII contract. 3. EBSCOHost Update a. As Dr. LeBrun (MCCB) stated last month, MELO (Mississippi Electronic Learning Online) wants to move EBSCOHost to a multi-year contract, which will increase by about $25000. However, once we move to the multi-year contract, she feels more confident the increase will only be a 2 -3% annual increase, which these savings can justify the $25000 increase. She also noted that EBSCOHost is a bit more challenging to negotiate with because they are the only ones that provide this service. In addition, Jason Carter requested that he and Dr. LeBrun (MCCB) update the presidents on the services being funded because there is some new leadership among the presidents, and all services have not been reviewed since 2018. She noted that the multiyear contract would not be submitted to the presidents in February because it has been determined that EBSCOHost is exempt from ITS and that a multiyear contract can be made directly with DFA. 4. Thompson Coburn Reminder a. Dr. LeBrun (MCCB) reminded the group that MCCB partnered with Thompson Coburn, a leading law firm specializing in federal regulations, to provide ongoing updates on federal regulations. Aaron Lacey who is with Thompson Coburn will present the first of four webinars on February 26, 2025, from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM (via Zoom).

5. Annual Report Update