Meeting & Agendas

Attendees:

Full-Time Faculty: Larry Stephens, Kristy McDermott, Okera Bishop, Darryl Houston, Kelli Blount, Kimberly Cameron, Jay Thibodeaux, Mary Ferguson, Dr. Reed Peoples, Lillian Spell, and Germaine Randolph

Adjunct Faculty: Mandi Damico, Emma-Lee Caprio, Mark Schrutka, Leisa Puri, David Smith, Donald McDaniel, Claudia Rodriguez, Carol Hitzfelder, Danielle Stanley, June Geppert, Virginia Hauser, John Naranjo (J.D), and Melinda Gildart

Welcome- Larry welcomed all the full-time accounting faculty to the meeting. They took time to discuss the activities faculty had engaged in over the summer. The agenda was reviewed, focusing on moving forward and planning for the next two upcoming semesters.

Fall 2026 Updates/ Full-Time Hiring

• The Department Chair provided an update on changes for Accounting that will take effect in the Fall 2026 Semester. Denise's last day will be August 31, 2026. Larry shared with the faculty that May Wang is now on full FMLA. May intends to return to teach for the Spring 2027 Semester. It was announced that Kelli Blount will be teaching ACNT 2332 for the Fall 2026. 
• There will be a job requisition open for a full-time faculty position. The job posting will be posted today. Larry informed the full-time faculty that he wants to have someone selected before the end of the Fall Semester.

Full-Time Faculty Workload and Scheduling

• Full-Time faculty had discussed their workload in terms of scheduling. ACNT 2333 Advanced Accounting will be available for the Spring 2027 Semester.
• The Department Chair had reviewed the Fall 2026 Course Schedule with the full-time faculty and confirmed which sections will have enough enrollment and which sections were cancelled due to low enrollment. There were online synchronous Saturday sections added for ACCT 2301 and ACCT 2302. The enrollment for the Hybrid 2nd 8-week evening section for ACCT 2302 at the Round Rock campus was added to see if it will make. Due to low enrollment, the 12-week section for ACNT 2347 was cancelled, and students were contacted to update their registration to the 16-week session.  Mandi’s section for ACCT 2301 does not have enough enrollment; students will be asked to switch their registration to a different section available at Northridge.
• It was discussed to have the course ACNT 2303 available on the Summer 2027 course schedule.
• It was announced that Tracie, who is an adjunct and teaches ACNT 1373, may not continue as an adjunct next year. She will be focusing on the responsibilities of the chairperson for TXCPA.
• Enrollment for the ACCT 2302 section at the HAYS campus will pick up since students will be registering for the 2nd 8-week session.
• For ACNT 2345, Accounting will be bringing in a new adjunct to help out with the course ACNT 2345 for the Spring 2027 Semester. The course will include new content. For the Fall 2026 Semester, the Tuesday section for ACNT 2345 was cancelled. Discussion about enrollment for other courses on the Fall 2026 course schedule continued. The only upper-level accounting courses that have seats available are ACNT 2336 and ACNT 1391.
• Larry provided an update about the enrollment for Fall 2026. Altogether, there are 43, 611 students enrolled for the Fall 2026 Semester. For the School of Business, 4,000 students are enrolled. Almost 1,700 students are part of the free tuition cohort. Enrollment for Accounting is up by 11% compared to last year’s enrollment. The majority of enrollment is seen in our transfer courses ACCT 2301 and ACCT 2302.

Spring 2027 Scheduling

The full-time faculty were informed that they have been assigned their sections for the Spring 2027 Semester. Larry had mentioned that if they want to add a 2301 or 2302 section for the Spring, to let him know before September 1, 2026.

Curriculum Changes

The discussion shifted towards changes in the curriculum. There have not been any major changes. One change to consider is to allow CPA review courses to count towards the 150 hours to sit for the CPA exam. Larry mentioned that he wants to have this change approved this year. He would like to have recommendations from the Task Force and Accounting Advising Committee and discuss the change with the Board. Full-time faculty had provided their input about how the CPA review classes should be offered, the duration of the classes, and surveying the students when they have completed one of the CPA review courses.

Credit Hours

Faculty members discussed how the credit hours for a course should reflect the amount of work students are expected to do outside of class. Larry pointed out to the full-time faculty that the expected hours of outside work should be clearly stated in the syllabus. Students should plan to spend 10 to 12 hours each week on course activities.

Assessments

Larry shifted the conversation to focus on assessments. He explained to the faculty that the assessments would need an algorithmic structure to prevent cheating on exams. Kimberly mentioned that when the textbook changes, the assessments will need to be revised.

12:30 pm- 1:00 pm ( Lunch Break) / 1:00 pm: Adjunct Faculty are invited to attend the meeting. 

The presentation by McGraw Hill representatives Brandon Sheer and Stephanie Maldonado showcased some exciting new features coming to Connect this fall. Brandon announced that Connect will introduce a new instructor interface tool, while the existing interface will remain accessible until the end of December. Instructors will be able to duplicate and update information from their previous courses for the upcoming term. Another new feature in Connect is the assignment actions tool, which will allow instructors to grant extensions on assignments for students. Stephanie mentioned that AI is integrated into the course materials, providing benefits to both instructors and students without relying on outside sources. Additionally, there is a feature called Check Knowledge, which will help students generate test questions based on their reading material. Proctorio will now include an in-test chat feature, and the E-Book will have a translation capability that can translate into 30 different languages.

Olinda and representatives from Pearson provided updates to the faculty regarding the new key features available in the My Accounting Lab courseware. Olinda explained that the new AI-powered tools will enable students to read and engage with their reading assignments more effectively. Online assignments will now include dynamic study modules. The AI study tool can summarize content, provide practice questions, and explain the answers to those questions. Another useful feature allows students to save notes in a digital notebook. Pearson also shared that a study preparation tool is built into the courseware, and there will be no additional charge for this feature. Additionally, My Accounting Lab will now include a translation tool. Other updated features for the courseware include the Excel Skills simulation and the Excel Grader Project. Pearson concluded their presentation by providing updated contact information for faculty to address any issues, questions, or concerns they may have.

Shiloh from Cengage provided the faculty with updates regarding the courseware CNOW and the latest textbook editions. He announced that the 30th edition of "Accounting" by Warren is now available for the courses ACNT 1303, ACNT 1304, and ACNT 2311. Additionally, he mentioned that "Payroll Accounting 2027" will be available in November. Faculty were also informed that new resources will be included for the 29th edition of Warren Accounting. These resources will feature "Tell Me More" learning objective videos, "Show Me How" videos, an AI Student Assistant, and Adaptive Study Plans. Furthermore, new features for the 29th edition will include the AI Skill Builder Assignment and the AI Excel Assignment, which aim to help students acquire career-ready AI skills. There is a new edition of the textbook that is used for the course ACNT 1393, but there are still changes being made to the homework platforms for the new edition.

New Adjuncts

Our new Accounting adjunct instructors are Emma-Lee Caprio, Mark Schrutka, Leisa Puri, Mandi Damico, and Donald McDaniel.

Old Things/News

Larry discussed the importance of student engagement with the faculty. He shared that there are many training opportunities available.

Participation for Departmental Meetings

• Adjunct faculty were informed that they are welcome to attend Accounting Advising Committee Meetings.
• Three adjunct volunteers will need to be recruited to serve on the Accounting Task Force. The adjuncts who have volunteered to serve on the Accounting Task Force are Carol Hitzfelder, Donald McDaniel, John Naranjo (J.D), Melinda Gildart, and Claudia Rodriguez.
• It was also mentioned that anyone who wants to be a part of the Advisory Committee can volunteer.
• Accounting can still recruit people for the Advisory Committee.

Accounting Departmental Calendar and Communications

• Larry informed the faculty that everyone in the Accounting Department should have access to the Accounting Department calendar, which includes all meeting and deadline dates. He also requested that all faculty meet with him once each semester.
• It was announced that TLED has reorganized communication for Student Academic Affairs
• When communicating with students via email, faculty members must report any concerns that students express. It is important for students to have access to the College Policy and Resources link on Blackboard. Faculty should also be mindful of specific email addresses and encourage students to send their emails through Blackboard.

Retroactive Withdrawals

• Retroactive withdrawals occur when a student has been attending but faces circumstances that result in excessive absences. The only students who cannot withdraw are veteran students and international students, and they will have to follow the normal withdrawal policy.
• To monitor student progress, faculty members are encouraged to use the Inspire Academic Alert Advising system. This system generates alerts for students who have missed several assignments and have not been attending class regularly. It is integrated with the class rosters in Blackboard. Also, instructors can add notes to the alert that only the advising staff can see.

Goals for Fall 2026

• Applications are available to complete for the 2-year Bridge Symposium.

• Beta Alpha Psi, a business organization, will be reaching out to community college students. This organization will help establish chapters at the college and help students transfer to a 4-year university so they can be a part of Emerging Scholard if they are business majors.
• Larry shared that he wants to begin working on getting the organization set up for the Emerging Scholars for the Fall. Faculty advisors have been asked to select 25 students to apply. Students will only need to pay a $10 fee.

Conclusion of Meeting

• At the conclusion of the meeting, Larry allowed faculty to ask any questions they needed answered.
• There was a question about course setup for ACCT 2301 and 2302. For ACCT 2302, to find the course template, the instructor must connect the course first. If any problems occur with the ACCT 2301 course setup, instructors can use the “Ask My Instructor” tool.
• Dr. Peoples mentioned that faculty should make sure that their courses are 100% accessible. To check a course's accessibility in Blackboard, select Actions, Books & Tools, and Ally Course Accessibility report.

Things to Get Done

• Instructors will need to have their Lighthouse at 100% compliance. The course syllabus, curriculum vitae, and office hours.
• An email for instructors to certify their class roster’s attendance will be sent out.  All changes, if a student needs to register, will need to be made before the deadline. Communication from the student counts.
• Instructors will need to make sure announcements are posted for their courses, course syllabus, and course schedule in Blackboard.