On the line: speaking: OUS staff - Shirley Clark, Gratten Kerans, Nancy Goldschmidt, Provosts - George Kartsounes, OIT; John Minahan, WOU; Mary Kathyrn Tetreault, PSU; Lorraine Davis, UO: a substitute whose name I missed for Tim White, OSU

A pre-``meeting" conversation discussed OIT's benefactor and conversion of OIT to a private institution. OUS staff remarked that legislators (Steve Harper by name) are supportive of the conversion: that OUS Board members have participated in the conversations. Provost Kartsounes anticipated many questions at the OUS Board meeting on Jan. 18. In his opinion the conversion looks good from a business plan point of view and would benefit local community colleges by providing more ``remediation" students. He estimated that tuition would increase to roughly $9500/year.

At the start of the official meeting, Shirley Clark brief previewed the items anticipated at Jan. 18 joint boards meeting. These included the governor's budget with proposals for increased revenue, discussion of OSU audit process and K-16 work force issues with input from state economist on the impacts of anticipated shortages in nurses, engineers and educators.

Review of Proposed New Programs, all from PSU: Proposed Ph.D. in Mathematics was deferred to the February meeting to accommodate further review and comment by OSU: UO. Three proposals for Graduate Certificates were presented. The Certificate Program for Real Estate Development was approved. Those for Addictions Counseling: Marriage/Family Counseling were the subject of some discussion. UO: OHSU sought added clarity on the admissions or selection criteria for admission of ``qualified professionals" not otherwise enrolled at PSU. There was agreement to modify the language in the Marriage/Family Counseling Certificate proposal to acknowledge the existence of UO's M.S. in Marriage/Family counseling. These last two proposals are to be resubmitted to Shirley Clark by Feb 1 for further consideration at the next Academic Council meeting.

Gratten Kerans reported briefly on discussion of budget proposals by legislators. He enumerated specific OUS cuts in the then-current legislative proposal, which are not reproduced here since they're undergoing continuous modification. In response to a question about the meaning of the cuts to each campus, Mr. Kerans stated that a spreadsheet has been sent to each campus showing the impact of this proposal on each campus. He sees the legislators acting very pragmatically to assemble a package that will be approved in a one day special session. His closing comment was that Senate President Derfler and Gov. Kitzhaber both unenthusiastically forecast a long term budget gap that is being pushed off into the next biennium.

Nancy Goldschmidt then moderated a discussion of standardizing internships and practica. OSU (& OIT) were cited as outliers on the awarding of credit or these experiences, in ways and for reasons that were unclear to me. One conclusion about awarding of credit was that it be based on outcomes with assessment included. A ``P" is the OUS designation for these experiences that causes them to affect revenue appearing in the cells. Capstone projects, such as those at Eastern: PSU, are not included in this designation. OSU contends they are penalized for having many of these courses. WOU wants a dry run to see what this designation means in terms of revenue changes to each campus. Insurance issues are also a factor in considering these classes.

Thus ended the first hour of the meeting, all phones were disconnected, Dr Turner left to teach his class, and a second hour was convened on the topic of tuition. According to John Minahan, the following points were discussed. Program specific tuition was discussed, without resolution. It is seen as desirable to avoid/eliminate subsidizing M.S. programs with undergraduate tuition. There was discussion establishing an index to comparators' costs and setting tuition as the difference between the index and state funding. Consideration was given to having distance education and continuing education tuition fluctuate with the market. Finally, there was again consideration of eliminating the 12 to 18 hour plateau. Provost Minahan agrees with the strength of the argument that this eliminates exploration of areas outside a narrowly defined program; ``education vs. training" and ``the business model is not appropriately applied to academic institutions".