The Executive Council held its monthly meeting at 1:30 p.m. in the President’s Conference Room in Lee Hall. Present were Dr. Mark Keenum, presiding, Dr. Tracey Baham, Mr. Robert Banik, Mr. Trey Breckenridge, Ms. Leslie Corey, Mr. Jason Cory, Ms. Ra’Sheda Boddie-Forbes, Dr. Regina Hyatt, Ms. Christine Jackson, Dr. Julie Jordan, Ms. Lucy Mellen, Mr. Les Potts, Mr. John Rush, Mr. Sid Salter, Dr. David Shaw, Mr. Lee Weiskopf, Mr. Dylan White, and Mr. Jim Laird.

In accordance with IHL Board Policy 102.03 Institutional Mission Statements, Dr. Baham presented the mission statement for annual review. Council members approved one change, pending formal approval by the IHL Board of Trustees at the March 20, 2025, regular monthly meeting.

Dr. Shaw presented:

-- AOP 12.12: Credit and Grades. The update aligns the policy with SACSCOC policy stating that for every hour of credit awarded, lecture-based courses must offer 50 minutes of direct instruction and 100 minutes of indirect instruction over a 15-week semester. Any shortened formats must increase the weekly instructional time to keep the same number of contact hours as in traditional 15-week semesters. Additionally, the modifications adjusted the quality points for grades GDP and I, and NG grades are clarified. Council members voted to approve.

-- AOP 12.38: Undergraduate Academic Advisement. Revisions add some clarification for the different advising pathways and some flexibility for the differences among systems, colleges, and departments. Minor adjustments address changes in office names and position names. Council members voted to approve.

-- AOP 13.03: Responsibilities in Instruction and Curriculum, and Attendance at Classes. This policy was removed from the agenda for further review and discussion. It will be considered at a future meeting.

OP 70.05 Federal Property at Mississippi State University was shared as a consent item. No substantive changes were made to this policy during its recently completed review. The only changes were to correct the URLs of reference material.

Additionally, AOP 12.01: Academic Add/Drop was shared as an information item. This policy was recently modified as a technical change to extend the time to drop a class from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the sixth-class day. The time was already in implementation, and now the policy has been modified accordingly. Also, the last sentence in section 1.D was deleted because there has never been an effective date to drop a class.