Faculty Senate Minutes, 5 September 1995

MINUTES

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

5 September 1995

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

Minutes

Senate approved the 13 June 1995 minutes with the following corrections. The Senator from the Counseling and Human Development Department attended. A second correction was on page 3802 under Proposed Courses, change the description of THEA217 from "...seeking General Education..." to "...seeking Liberal Arts Core...".

Reports

Chairperson's Report

Chairperson D. Eidam welcomed senators to the new academic year. All senators introduced themselves. Chairperson Eidam said the Provost has asked that henceforth the Chairperson provide her with a report of our actions of the meetings with backups. Eidam said that whoever distributes documents at a Senate meeting please insure to give one to the Chairperson.

Senate needs to distinguish between the liberal Arts Core and the General Education designation particularly for offices that implement Senate actions. Senate's course approval form is confused about the distinction. Any course that is in block G1 through G3 is considered in the Liberal Arts Core. The label General Education is for the entire program. The Senate's minutes have been confusing. To say that a writing course is not General Education is contradictory. Eidam would like all course proposals that come to Senate to have a Liberal Arts Core check-off box instead of a General Education check-off box. Eidam asked senators to correct the old course approval forms from now on. A C. McLeod/J. Piperberg motion to change the senate course approval form to replace all references to "General Education with "Liberal Arts Core" passed.

Eidam also said the implementation of the changes to the CQ course designation has led to some computer problems. M.U.'s computers cannot easily remove the past CQ designations in its records. Therefore, a course will continue as CQ up to 1995. Thereafter, courses will be designated either C or Q. If anyone objects to divesting the CQs, please bring their objection to Senate's attention by the next meeting.

Eidam also discussed the issue of alternate senators. Several departments that list as their alternate senator, all others in the department, are implying that any member of their department can be a member of senate. The bulk of the departments are listing only one alternate senator. Is there an inequity here? Does the Senate wish to make a change in the sense of restricting the number of senators that a department can have? If every department said that all others in the department can be a senator, then every faculty member in the University can be a senator. The Chairperson will take no action. if any senator wants to make a motion to limit the number of faculty that can be senators, please ask the Senate secretary to introduce an agenda item.

Since this meeting was an election meeting, Chairperson Eidam said that the tallying would be done after the meeting by the Chairperson and the Chairperson pro tem. He asked for volunteers to help count the votes after the meeting was over because it will be a complex process the first time. Eidam said voters must indicate their preferences in order and not put a candidate's name down if the candidate is unacceptable. This procedure will necessitate fewer votes at the next meeting. Preferential voting systems save time if everyone follows the appropriate procedures. Results will be distributed Thursday morning and senators should receive them Friday. Senators will know what positions are open for nominations for the September 19, 1995 Senate meeting. Elections will continue at that meeting. Senate will fill vacancies that this meeting does not fill.

Student Senate

The only Student Senate representative attending was T. Miskelly. he said the first meeting of Student Senate will be Thursday, September 7. The President of Student Senate, E. Kobleski, was involved in military responsibilities and was unable to attend this senate meeting. Student Senate has many activities planned. There has been an issue that has come up regarding budget allocations, particularly with regard to religious groups. The issue with the IVC Fellowship may go to court.

Vice President for Student Affairs, G. Reighard said he had not had a chance to meet with the student leadership. There is a new Chief attorney for the State System. The Chief Attorney will issue new guidelines in the very near future relative to the Supreme Court ruling last Spring dealing with budget allocations to religious organizations. The ruling should be followed by the Universities within the State System. Reighard does not anticipate any lawsuits at this time. His understanding is that the religious groups are waiting for the Chief Attorney's ruling before they take any legal action.

Administrative Officers

President

President J. Caputo commented that the circular seating allowed him to remain seated while still speaking to senate. He said a lot had happened both politically and economically over the summer. He intends to report on those events at the Convocation on Wednesday evening, September 6. He announced the first organizational meeting of the University Tenure and Promotion Committee. The Promotion and Tenure Committee will elect a new Chairperson.

Vice-President for Academic Affairs

Provost F. McNairy welcomed the faculty to the new academic year. She discussed the pressure of class sizes this semester. M.U. is concerned about the large class sizes and does not take it lightly. This year M.U. had a low attrition rate and many freshman students said yes to Millersville. She would like to say thank you to the faculty for their cooperation in dealing with the many extra students. M.U. has fewer classroom spaces this Fall because of the remodeling of Myers, Bassler and Roddy Halls. MU is opening the University earlier in the morning to accommodate the limited space. The freshmen seemed to enjoy meeting with the faculty who attended the Freshmen Picnic Sunday. M.U. appreciates that the faculty who attended the Freshmen picnic gave of their time on a beautiful day. The Fall Convocation with its state of the University address will occur beginning 4:30 PM on Wednesday, September 6, in Gordinier Hall.

Vice-President for Student Affairs

Vice President for Student Affairs G. Reighard said that Millersville was off to a good start. There is some crowding of students in the dorms, but that is a nice problem to have. Other campuses have reduced enrollment. Even though Millersville planned to close Lyle dormitory to students this Fall, it has put 150 students there because of needed space. Clearly, the campus is crowded this semester.

Reighard wanted to thank the 60 faculty members who volunteered to attend the Sunday afternoon inclusiveness program. MU provided training for well over 120 student volunteers to work on Sunday in the program. This was MU's first effort at conducting such a program. MU brought students in early on Saturday in order for them to attend the program. The freshmen class is very upbeat and involved. MU is very impressed with the quality of the students this year.

Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs

Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs J. Stager distributed a handout listing the 1995 Fall Enrollment Update (see Attachment A) as of the Senate meeting date. MU had a projected enrollment of 5,509 and an actual enrollment of 5,506 students this Fall. MU is up 200 students compared to last year on full-time equivalent students. MU is right on target for student enrollment and at an all-time high for undergraduates and for full-time equivalent students.

Stager said the University is undertaking the development of a campus-wide information system using the world-wide-web. MU is putting together a development team and a group of people to put together some standards and guidelines. Some departments are already working on home pages. The University will be assisting departments who want to set up home pages.

Committee Reports

Academic Standards Committee

Chairperson J. Piperberg distributed an Addendum to the 1994-95 Report of the Academic Standards Committee (see Attachment B) to Senate. The Committee met June 7 and 8 and up to this point had not had a chance to compile the meeting results because it could not get some information from the Registrar. The addendum does not contain anything different from past annual reports. About 120-150 students were dismissed and about half that number appealed their dismissal.

The Academic Policies Committee

Academic Policies Committee Chairperson, B. Nakhai, said that he had discussed the Academic Honesty and Dishonesty Policy during the May Senate meeting. He had hoped to make a policy proposal at the June Senate meeting. The Chairperson was away over the summer and therefore was unable to propose a policy. He has discussed a revised policy with Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, J. Stager. The Committee will hopefully have proposals for Senate after its first meeting this Fall.

Proposed Courses

Under the two meeting rule, senate approved three courses:

ECON327:

Women and Global Economic Development, a new three credit hour General Education, Perspectives course effective Fall 1995 if approved.

PHYS435:

Statistical Mechanics, a new three credit hour course effective Fall 1996 if approved.

THEA350:

Theatre Management, a new three credit hour course effective Spring 1996 if approved.

Business

Senate Elections

Senate held its annual elections. The Chairperson and senate officers posted all nominations for open committee positions received prior to the meeting on the blackboard. After senators completed additional nominations from the floor, the chairperson distributed ballots for senators to use to vote. Senators then voted for their preferred candidates for each committee opening by ranking candidates on the ballot from most to least preferred. After the last senator turned in her vote, the senate officers and volunteers counted the votes.

Senate adjourned after senators voted. the next meeting will be Tuesday, 19 September 1995, from 4:05-5:45 p.m. in Chryst 210.

Respectfully submitted,

Marvin Margolis, Secretary
Faculty Senate

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