February's meeting of the Board of Trustees delved into a range of issues, not the least of which was an announcement by Interim President Ray Kieft that he has withdrawn his application for the position of president.

As reported in the Feb. 2 @Metro Special Edition, Kieft said that after discussions with his wife about their future, he had decided to not pursue the college presidency on a permanent basis. Kieft, whose contract as interim runs out in June, assured the trustees that he would continue on until then if needed and would help with any transition in leadership. To read more go to
http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/@metro/tw@metro_vol2/kieft_twv2020905.htm

In his report, Chair Bruce Benson said that he had learned that a $161 million accounting error in the state's favor as reported in the media the previous week was in fact real. "This will mean there will be no rescissions this year and it will help with next year's state budget," he said.

Benson also suggested that a $4 per credit hour tuition increase—which would have to be taken to a vote of the students—might help with AHEC's deferred maintenance funding shortfall. For information about the maintenance problems go to
http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/@metro/tw@metro_vol2/home_twv2111704.htm

CCHE Performance Contract
The board reviewed the latest draft of Metro State's CCHE performance contract, and after one deletion, voted to accept it. (The CCHE has since approved the final draft of Metro's performance contract. Go to http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/@metro/tw@metro_vol2/contract_twv2020905.htm)

The item that was deleted had called for teacher education students to participate in a pilot assessment tool called ABCTE. Trustee Adele Phelan told the board that she had major concerns that a pilot assessment test with voluntary participation did not belong in the contract.

Interim Dean of Professional Studies Sandra Haynes said that while the faculty had been willing to participate in the pilot, she agreed with Phelan about the appropriateness of its inclusion in the performance contract.

Faculty Senate President Hal Nees expressed the need to better define certain items regarding general studies and transferable core courses, particularly with Kieft leaving. "A new president who was not a part of the negotiations will have to follow through with the contract's requirements," he said. He also brought forth the Senate's concern that the contract will require major curriculum revision in general studies and that the college will have to rely on tenure and tenure-track faculty to complete any revisions.

In addition, Nees said that the Senate had concerns about the funding of high-priority programs, asking "What does it mean if you're not listed as high-priority?"

Benson assured Nees that "the college can go back and have a discussion with the CCHE if something in the contract is causing a problem."

Remediation
A lengthy discussion about remediation ensued after a presentation by Bill Hathaway Clark, interim associate dean of Student Services and director of admissions, pointed out faculty concerns that students may not be ready for the academic rigor of Metro's intro math, reading and English courses, even though they received passing grades in remedial courses taken at other institutions.

Hathaway-Clark had been asked by Trustee Alex Cranberg to provide more information about the ACT and Accuplacer scores and how they relate to remediation. An ACT score below a certain threshold requires a student to take the Accuplacer. Scores on the Accuplacer determine the need for remedial classes.

Math Chair Steve Beatty and English Chair Joan Griffin joined the discussion to voice their concerns that a student who receives a passing grade in a remedial course cannot be required to take the Accuplacer again. Nor can the college raise the scores, as the CCHE has mandated that Accuplacer scoring be consistent across the state institutions.

While Beaty said that his department tries to encourage remedial students to take the math group learning class, Griffin said that the situation for English students can best be described as "muddied waters." She said that the testing has been a long-standing concern of the faculty.

Chair Bruce Benson asked the professors and administrators to tackle this problem and come back to the board with potential solutions.

Student Housing
A substantial amount of time was spent discussing four housing projects with the potential to create more than 2,500 apartments for students at all three colleges at Auraria. To read more go to
http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/@metro/tw@metro_vol2/housing_twv2020905.htm