Meeting & Agendas

Department Chair Pamela Soto called the meeting to order at 1:30 pm. The advisory board members introduce themselves to the rest of the panel.

Pamela Soto proceeded by addressing the first item in the agenda, the Chair and Vice Chair Election. Pam made a motion to nominate Jill Adams as Chair, Michelle made the motion to nominate Toni Bauer as Vice Chair. Committee vote was taken and motioned carried for approval

All degrees had changes; some courses expire and the AAS had changes due to the legislative mandates. Anatomy & Physiology will change from Anatomy Lecture and Lab and Physiology Lecture and Lab to A & P I and A & P II starting this fall 2016. Moving from certificate to an AAS is considered a stackable degree. For students who start with the certificate programs take BIOL 2404 then proceed to the AAS will have to take A & P II. Reason for BIOL 2404 requirement is that not all students proceed to the AAS degree. BIOL 2404 does not have an assessment test required to take the course while Anatomy & Physiology I requires an assessment that must be passed with a minimum grade of 70 to be allowed to register.

Nan Walters explained the Areas of Study (AOS) and the guided pathways. Student were not graduating and taking courses that they did not need for the degree plans they were in costing them time and money. With 180 degree plans for students to choose from when applying to the college it was over whelming. The college has decided to group majors into ten areas of study with like disciplines. Personal Fitness and Health and Kinesiology right now are under the Education area. We do not know where they will end up in. Pat Recek wants Personal Trainer to stay in Health Sciences. The health science maintains all affiliate agreements that includes the practicum sites for the personal trainers. The administration has the last word. The changes will take effect September 1. There is rational for both arguments but the majority of courses fall under the FITT and not general education. We have had major changes the last two years. Every degree plan that had Anatomy and Physiology had to go before the curriculum committee. Reverse transfer allows student to bring back college credit from other universities and use them to get a degree. The degree map is a very helpful tool that allows student not only to see where they are completing the required courses for their major but two other degree plans that they might be close to completing. It gives the student a percentage of how close they are to finishing a degree. ACC will hire fifteen additional advisers.

The Survey Monkey was sent out to 32 participants 18 responded. The top three STRENGHTS in ranking from 1 to 3 were Internship, curriculum strength and competent/experienced faculty. The three top WEAKNESSESS were; limited class offerings, location (RVS only) and lack of national (NCCA) accreditation. The three OPPORTUNITIES Offer more classes, location (more central) and accreditation/partner. The two top THREATS were competition from online certifying avenues and lack of program visibility.

Changes since the last IPR have been nominal. Many of the current initiatives will be similar to what were submitted previously. Reason for the lack of changes can be attributed to the Department Chair’s lack of resources, administration’s lack of prioritizing program needs, overall decrease in college revenue and outside entities offering competition in training of Personal Fitness Trainers. Discussion on how to apply for Perkins grants with justifications documents with supported trends and technology needs that the students need to know for employment. Ways to attract military by course exempting or substitution; or college credit for hero’s.