Faculty Senate Minutes, 15 November 1994

MINUTES

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

15 NOVEMBER 1994

Chairperson D. Eidam called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m. in Chryst Hall, Room 210. All departments attended. T. Cawley, C. Coveleski, and E. Kobeski attended for the Student Senate. T. Boeckel attended for the Snapper.

Minutes

Senate approved the 1 November 1994 meeting minutes with the following changes: On page 3662, Graduate Course and Program Review Committee, change the word, "wave" to "waive" in each paragraph. On page 3664, Academic Outcomes Assessment Committee, change the sentence, "Since the committee does not know exactly what it is looking for, it will help out faculty who submit a proposal." to "Since departments may not be aware of what the committee is looking for..." On the same page, Motions Concerning Admissionto- Retention in- and Completion of the Major, change "Yelogates" to "Yelagotes." Also in the second paragraph change "Senator D. Eidam asked what it means to have a course capped, ..." to "Senator D. Eidam asked what it means to have a major capped, ..."

Senator F. Erickson asked for senate's unanimous consent to put items X, Proposal for Masters Degree in Nursing, etc. on today's agenda before any other business items. Senate consented.

Reports

Chairperson's Report

Chairperson D. Eidam said that in its first meeting of the Spring semester in February, senate will elect its officers and the chairs of the University honors program and international curriculum committee. Those chairs take office in the Fall but senate elects them in the Spring.

The commencement speaker will be Stephen Bunzenhauser, the director of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra. Graduation is 2 PM Sunday December 18. The commencement committee meets on Thursday, November 18, 1994l see committee chairperson, Dean D. Zubatsky, for more details. Senate does not yet have a volunteer to serve as a representative to the administrative computing advisory committee. Eidam asked the senate if anyone was interested. Since there were no volunteers and all who he asked to serve declined, Eidam volunteered himself until such time as someone wishes to serve. finally he said he could order coffee for senate meetings if there was sufficient interest.

Student Senate

Since neither the student senate president nor the student vice-president attended this meeting, student recording secretary, T. Crawley, invited senators to attend the next student senate meeting, Thursday, November 17, 1994, at 6:30 PM in the SMAC.

Administrative Officers

Vice-President for Academic Affairs

Provost F. McNairy displayed a copy of an advertising insert that will appear in next Sunday's Sunday News. The insert announces the launching of the ACE, the Adult Continuing Education, program at MU. The insert gives class schedules and policies that prospective students might not be familiar with.

Vice-President for Student Affairs

Vice President for Student Affairs G. Reighard discussed the state of traffic conditions on campus streets. He said MU was trying to improve traffic patterns on George and Frederick streets at points where most students and faculty cross those streets. MU is working with PennDOT and the Borough. It has ordered banners to go across the streets that will indicate the pedestrian crosswalks. It is seeking permission to hang the banners. The banners will be an experiment; MU will see if they help.

Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs

Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs J. Stager said that registration began on Monday, November 14, 1994. MU has already registered 1500 students. He said that MU needs more Perspectives course seats. If any faculty would like to add a perspective course for the Spring, MU could use it.

Committee Reports

University Course and Program Review Committee

Under the three meeting rule, chairperson C. McLeod introduced two new courses:

ESCI 425:

ESCI 449:

A R. Clark/J. Piperberg motion to waive the three meeting rule for the above two courses and to place themon the next meeting's agenda passed.

Academic Policies Committee

Chairperson B. Nakhai said the committee had a successful fourth meeting last Wednesday. It reached a consensus on incomplete grade as well as study abroad policies. Nakhai submitted A Policy Regarding Study Abroad Credits motion to the senate for the next meeting's agenda (see Attachment A).

Nakhai said he did not want to distribute the incomplete grade policy because he wanted first to check with the administration to insure that the wording was OK. He said that he would mail the motion to senators when it was ready. He would like that motion to be an agenda item for the next senate meeting also.

Nakhai said that an academic dishonesty policy had been referred to the committee. It will be the next agenda item for the committee. The policy is already in the governance manual. A brochure describing MU's current academic dishonesty policy had been referred to SSHE lawyers. The attorneys gave MU comments on the wording of the policy and the policies committee will examine those comments.

Theme Committee

Chairperson J. Piperberg said that Congressman Robert Walker will speak tonight at 8 PM in Myers Auditorium of McComsey Hall, Tuesday, November 15, 1994, on the Space Frontier. An art exhibit has been set up in Ganser Gallery.

Proposed Courses

There were no chalenges to proposed courses. Senator C. Stameshkin noted the proposed enrollment for the Perspective course, ENGL 337: Women Writers in the Middle Ages. She asked if the maximum class size could be changed from 35 to 25 since perspective courses by definition are to be "small". Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs J. Stager commented that maximum class size was set by department chairs and approved by deans each semester. Stameshkin was advised to meet with the proposer of the course and the English department senator. Any changes could be proposed at the next senate meeting.

Business

Proposal for Masters Degree in Nursing

Senate considered a proposal for a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)(See the Nursing Department for a copy of the proposal). Graduate Course and Program Review Committee Chairperson F. Erickson proposed the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Degree. He introduced Nursing Department Chairperson C. Phillips who spoke in favor of the proposal. Senate unanimously approved the new degree.

Proposed Revision of the Masters in Mathematics Education Degree Program

Senate next considered a Proposed Revision of the Masters in Mathematics Education Degree Program (see the Mathematics department for a copy of the 80 page proposal). Graduate Course and Program Review Committee Chairperson F. Erickson and the members of his committee supported the revised program. Erickson introduced Mathematics Chairperson C. Denlinger to answer specific questions. Senate unanimously approved the revised degree program.

Declaration of Science and Language Arts Options

Undergraduate Course and Program Review Committee Chairperson C. McLeod recommended that senate approve two new declarations of science and language arts options (see Attachments B and C, pages 3668-3675, of the 1 November 1994 minutes). School of Science and Mathematics Dean A. Hoffman spoke in favor of the science option. Senator J. Piperberg noted that one biology course was not included in the list of science courses that sutdents could select. A J. Piperberg/M. Gray-Schlegel motion to amend the original motion to add Biology 281: Behavioral Biology to the science option list passed. Senate then approved the science option as amended. Senate discussed and approved the language arts option.

Motions Concerning Retention in- and Completion of the Major

Senate resumed discussion of two motions concerning retention in- and completion of the major (see pages 3653 of the 4 October 1994 minutes, current Governance Manual policy on page 3642 of the 20 September 1994 minutes, page 3642, see also Attachment A, page 3, of the 21 April 1994 Agenda). For the first motion, Retention in the Major Policy, the chairperson recognized former Academic Policies Committee chairperson R. Clark. A R. Clark/S. Peters motion to limit discussion to twenty minutes passed. A long discussion followed.

At the end of twenty minutes, the chair consulted Roberts Rules of Order and ruled that senate could not vote on the motion at this time. A R. Clark/S. Luek motion to extend the discussion to 5:20 PM passed. The discussion continued. C. McLeod/B. Nakhai moved to amend the Retention-in-the-Major Policy by removing the sentence "Departments reserve the right to dismiss students from the major for non-academic reasons" fromt he sixth paragraph of the motion. After a long discussion the motion to amend passed. A R. Clark/J. Piperberg motion to postpone further action on the amended original motion until the next meeting passed. Senate also returned the remaining motion (Completion-of-the-Major) to the next meeting's agenda.

A B. Nakhai/G. Yelagotes motion to place the Academic Policies Committee motions before all other business items at the December 6 meeting passed. Senate returned a General Education Review Committee Proposal to the next meeting's agenda. The GERC is proposing that CQ courses be separated into C and Q courses (see Attachment D of the 1 November 1994 minutes).

Senate adjourned at 5:30 p.m.

The next meeting will be Tuesday, 6 December, 1994, from 4:05 - 5:45 p.m. in Chryst 210.

Respectfully submitted,

Marvin Margolis, Secretary
Faculty Senate

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