Thank you, Jim. Good afternoon, everyone.
I hope everyone had a restorative Thanksgiving break and was able to spend time with friends and family.
I want to thank Johnny Brown, Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police, for coming to speak to us. I know these presentations are very important for all of us.
In order to maximize our visitor’s time, I will be very brief in my report.
Rick Sears, executive director of Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning, recently told me about an Alumni Pathway Dashboard developed by IRAP that provides employment information for App State alumni dating back to 1966. This is a university initiative that significantly expands our knowledge about alumni and will simultaneously support UNC System program review requirements. We anticipate it will also support various other efforts, including accreditation efforts at the institutional and program levels.
The data includes information on the industries they work in, their occupations, and their employers. Additionally, it can be reviewed based on current locations and salaries of alumni. It can also be filtered by student program and graduation year to provide a multi-year view of alumni wages by degree level and program. Should you have any questions, I am sure Rick would be happy to answer them and help you. Perhaps he could be invited to a future meeting to give a presentation on this outstanding tool.
I want to address the public records request for syllabi, which comes from the High Country Times — an online media site that states that it is a member of the Missouri-based Coalition Opposing Governmental Secrecy.
The North Carolina Public Records Act requires government agencies, including universities, to allow public inspection and copying of public records. Per the App State copyright policy, syllabi are directed works of the university and therefore subject to the N.C. Public Records Act. I want to thank you all for quickly complying and recognize the hard work by the deans, Acting Senior Vice Provost Jamie Parson and the Office of General Counsel in accommodating this request.
Following up on the RECAST initiative that I mentioned last month — I met with the steering committee and discussed their findings and feedback on a potential reorganization of the College of Fine and Applied Arts and the Hayes School of Music. I am considering the information they provided and will be having some follow-up conversations in the new year. I will inform the Faculty Senate at future meetings as this process continues.
I would like to commend two students who presented during the Academic Affairs/Student Affairs Committee meeting of the Board of Trustees last Friday down in Hickory. Sarah Johnson, a junior Sustainable Technology major from Statesville, and Ben Tugwell, a senior Accounting major and Theater minor from Charlotte, did an outstanding job on their presentations. The response was positive, and everyone was very impressed with these students. I look forward to having more students present to the committee at future meetings — these presentations are essential for demonstrating the real impact of our faculty and staff to university leaders and the stakeholders who advocate for App State across North Carolina.
To close, we are just four days away from Fall Commencement ceremonies. I appreciate your flexibility and diligence as we deal with the weather. I realize that it has caused a disruption for all as — including our students — we work hard to conduct final exams. I look forward to seeing you in the Holmes Center on Friday as we celebrate our fall graduates.
Chair Westerman, this concludes my remarks.