Faculty Senate Minutes, 6 December 1994

MINUTES

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

6 DECEMBER 1994

Chairperson D. Eidam called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m. in Chryst Hall, Room 210. All departmental senators attended. T. Cawley attended for the Student Senate.

Minutes

Senate approved the 15 November 1994 meeting minutes without changes.

Reports

Chairperson's Report

Chairperson D. Eidam said that Senator S. Suziedelis of the History Department resigned from the Academic Policies Committee as a Social Science representative. His term ends in August 1995. During the elections to be held at the February 7, 1995, meeting of the spring semester, senate will elect his replacement as well as the officers. Eidam said the voting would be by the old algorithm. The new algorithm starts in the fall of 1995.

Commencement will be December 18, 1994, at 2 PM. There will be 366 undergraduate and 30 graduate students graduating. The number to call for snow cancellation is 872-3244.

Eidam said that yesterday (December 5) he met with J. Sheridan and Rev. R. Sayre. The United Campus Ministry is sponsoring an award for excellence in teaching. Students will nominate professors for the award. A committee of 12 students, none from United Campus Ministry, will evaluate the nominations of the students. After selecting semi-finalists, three finalists will be interviewed. The winner will receive the recognition rather than anything tangible. The selection will be done once a year. There are six well established criteria. The announcement will be in the December 7 issue of the Snapper.

Eidam called upon Senator R. Clark who announced that there is a virus on the internet called "good times". It corrupts a hard drive if one downloads it to a PC. If you come across anything like a virus, please contact Mr. Khalid Chaudhary, the director of academic computing. Also please contact Mr. Anthony Mordosky, assistant vice president for computer technologies. they will disseminate the information across the university.

Student Senate

Student senate president J. Haugh, needed to work and could not attend the senate meeting. The student senate recording secretary, T. Cawley, spoke to senate in his place. She said student seante had met for the last time this semester and finished all its business. She invited senators and everyone at this meeting to attend a holiday party tonight, 6 December, 1994 at 9 PM.

Administrative Officers

Vice-President for Student Affairs

Vice President for Student Affairs G. Reighard distributed copies of a document "Faculty Senate and Student Senate Committees" (see attachment A). The document is comprehensive and lists the name and address of committee members. He said that there have been thefts of professor's text books at Shippensburg University recently. Apparently the police have not captured all textbook thieves. He urged all Millersville professors to guard their books carefully. He said that book buyers must be registered in order to buy books from the faculty. Please ask book buyers to confirm that they are registered.

Acting Vice-President for Advancement

Acting Vice-President for Advancement, A. Dmitzak, said that Vice-President G. Eckert was soliciting funds in the Southwestern U.S. and in Southern California. She discussed the progress of the Millersville University capital campaign. The campaign has raised 8.5 million dollars which is roughly 65% of the campaign's goal. As of 2 December, the campaign has raised $3.5 million for facilities.

The ground breaking for the remodelling of Myers and Roddy Halls will begin sometime in the Spring of 1995. The faculty giving part of the campaign has achieved 84% of its goal. Senate parliamentarian C. Scharnberger chairs the faculty gift committee. Over 250 faculty donors have given over $272,000. The faculty gift funds will be allocated to endowments (scholarships, library acquisitions, and equipment), the Medal Fund, and facilities. The noninstructional staff part of the campaign has raised $131,000. The faculty and staff are sending a good message to donors off campus.

There has been a reorganization of the unviersity advancement office. The advancement office has established corporate partnership programs to expand corporate gifts and to establish solid relationships with businesses and corporations. The university has begun strategic planning and marketing initiatives. The enrollment planning initiative has to do with how we recruit now and for the future. It will look at continuing education, traditional versus nontraditional students, etc. The latest issue of the Millersville Review is out. This article was redesigned by a desktop publishing firm. The next winter issue will feature an article about professor D. Denenberg and his "heroes" program and an article by professor W. Krumske.
Committee Reports

University Course and Program Review Committee

Under the three meeting rule, chairperson C. McLeod introduced one course:

HPED163:

McLeod asked that two items be placed on the agenda for the 7 February 1995, meeting. An International Business Certificate Program to be first offered in Fall 1994 if approved and revisions to the B.S. Secondary Education Social Studies major to be first offered Fall 1995 if approved.

University Theme Committee

Chairperson J. Piperberg said that the committee would soon distribute solicitations for proposed themes for the 1997-1998 academic year. The committee would like proposals by 15 February, 1995.

International Selection Committee

Chairperson M. Arnold announced that the committee reviewed applicants for the Strathclyde University exchange program and selected professors D. and R. Umble.

International Studies Curriculum Committee

Chairperson O. Iglesias said on November 19 the committee met and the agenda was the current status of the international studies curriculum.

Cooperative Education Committee

Chairperson W. Dorman announced that the committee met in November and will have another meeting, 7 December. The committee is reviewing coop manual information. It will come to senate in February with some coop policies revision.

Faculty Emeritus

A M. Rosenthal/G. Yelagotes motion to recommend Professor Hazel I. Jackson for Professor of English Emerita passed (see Attachment B). A R. Frerichs/G. Yelagotes motion to recommend Mr. Marvin Donner for Assistant Professor of Administrative Faculty Emeritus passed (see Attachment C).

Proposed Courses

A R. Clark/S. Luek motion to act on Business agenda item XIII, Course Approvals, at this time passed. A R. Clark/J. Piperberg motion to approve: ESCI425: Geodynamics, a new three-credit non=General Education course to be first offered in the Spring of 1995 and ESCI449: Radar Meteorology, a new three-credit hour non-General Education course to be first offered in the Spring of 1995 passed.

Under the three meeting rule senate approved one course:

PSYC319:

Business

Policy Regarding Study Abroad Credits

Senate considered a proposed policy regarding study abroad credits submitted by the academic policy committee (See Attachment A, page 3686, of the November 15, 1994, minutes). Academic policies committee chairperson B. Nakhai spoke in support of the policy. He said it sets up an approval process for students who study abroad and seek credit at MU. The new policy satisfies financial aid requirements since it treats the courses, completed abroad as resident credits. Senate passed the motion with an effective immediately implementation date.

Incomplete Grade Policy

Senate considered an incomplete grade policy submitted by the academic policies committee (See Attachment D). Academic policies committee chairperson B. Nakhai mailed senators a copy of the policy proposal before this meeting. Nakhai spoke in favor of the motion. A long discussion followed. Alternate senator D. LaPierre asked if the policy would apply to graduate students. Nakhai said the policy only applied to undergraduates. Senator C. McLeod asked that the senate secretary place the rationale for the motion in the minutes.

Rationale

The above motion clarifies the policy on the issuance of incomplete grades and resolves all the problems addressed by the Registrar in his February 16, 1994 memorandum in the following manners:

1.		After the 8-week time period (or extension) has expired, the Registrar will ask the instructor to assign a grade to close out the record.

2.		If the student does not enroll in the Univesity during the following semester, the instructor will still be asked to assign a grade to close out the incomplete and the student will have to re-register for the course when s/he returns if s/he wishes to change the recorded grade.

3.		If the student cannot complete the work within the 8-week period, the instructor may request a reasonable time extension for the student to complete the work; or the instructor may choose to simply assign a grade based on the work which has been completed.

Senate defeated a F. Erickson/C. McLeod amendment to the motion to make rationale item 3 part of the motion. Senate asked that the minutes specifically say that noone is objecting to item 3 of the rationale but senate is choosing not to put item 3 directly in into the motion. Either faculty or students or both have the right to request a reasonable time extension to remove an incompelte grade after the 8 week period is completed. Senator C. McLeod asked that the minutes show a link between the rationale and the policy. Senate then approved the original motion with an implementation date effective the first day of the Fall 1995 semester.

Motion Concerning Completion of the Major

Senate chairperson D. Eidam reminded senate that when President J. Caputo referred the whole matter of Admission to- Retention in- and Completion of the Major to senate, he directed it to consider the package as a whole. Should senate pass any one of the items, the chairperson will not be submitting them one at a time for the thirty day clock. Instead, the whole set of motions will go eventually to the president in a package. Senate resumed debate on the Retention-in-th Major policy proposal (see page 3683 of the 15 November 1994 minutes, page 3653 of the 4 October 1994 minutes, current Governance Manual policy on page 3642 of the 20 September 1994 minutes, and Attachment A of page 3 of the 21 April 1994 Agenda). Eidam reminded senators that at the last meeting senate deleted the second sentence of the second to last paragraph from the original retention-in-the-major motion.

Former Academic Policies Committee chairperson R. Clark reminded senators that at the last senate meeting he asked senators to think about the second to the last paragraph in the Retention in the Major motion. Clark said that departments need to retain some autonomy to make decisions about retention in the major based upon issues that senate brought up at the 15 November 1994 meeting. R. Clark/R. Fulmer moved to amend (replace) the second to last paragraph in the retention-in-the-major motion as follows:

A student who has met the departmental retention requirements at the time of review thereafter cannot be dismissed from the major for reasons based solely on GPA unless the student fails to meet the minimum Millersville University requirements for completion of the major. If a student's performance after the retention is found to be unsatisfactory for reasons other than GPA, deparmtents have the right to dismiss the student from the major pending a second departmental review and a two-thirds majority vote of the faculty members in the department.

In the discussion, senator W. Dorman asked if a student would be dismissed from a major because of plagiarism. Provost F. McNairy said no. Faculty do not have that authority. Senator F. Erickson spoke in favor of the amendment. Senator C. McLeod asked the secretary to compose a corrected copy of the rention-in-the-major policy to include in the minutes (see attachment E). Acting Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs K. Gregoire said that students with mental health problems may not be appropriate social work, nursing, psychology, etc. majors.

A C. Stameshkin/G. Yelagotes motion to move the question on the amendment passed. Senate voted in favor of the amendment. It returned the amended motion and the remaining Completion-of-the-Major motion to the next meeting's agenda.

General Education Review Committee Proposal

Senate returned this item to the next meeting's agenda. The General Education Review Committee is prposing that CQ courses be separated into C and Q courses (see Attachment D of the 1 November 1994 minutes).

Senate adjourned at 5:45 p.m.

The next meeting will be Tuesday, 7 February, 1995, from 4:05 - 5:45 p.m. in Chryst 210.

Respectfully submitted,

Marvin Margolis, Secretary
Faculty Senate

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