Millersville University, Faculty Senate
MINUTES
FACULTY SENATE MEETING
17 October 1995
Prior Minutes
Reports
...| Chairperson
| Student Senate
| Committee Reports
...| General Education Review
| Joint Senate Conference
| Proposed Courses
|
Business
...| Graduate Residency
| Senate Elections
|
Chairperson D. Eidam called the meeting to order at 4:10 p.m. in Chryst
Hall, Room 210. All department senators attended except Political
Science. Student President E. Kobeski and J. Ishler attended for the
Student Senate. C. Blaettler attended for the Snapper.
Minutes
Senate approved the 3 October 1995 meeting
minutes with the following corrections. On page 3838, Vice-President for
Student Affairs, change the spelling of Dr. Charlene Yeager to Dr.
Charlene Jeager.
Reports
Chairperson's Report
Chairperson D. Eidam announced that he would have to leave at 5 PM to go
to the hospital to relieve individuals taking care of his spouse. The
chairperson pro tempore, J. Piperberg took over Eidam's duties.
Student Senate
Student Senate President E. Kobeski distributed a handout describing the
Iowa State University Four-Year Graduation Plan (see Attachment A).
Student senate is researching the contract at this time.
APSCUF President
APSCUF President S. Centola distributed a handout describing the Task
Force on the General Education Curriculum and it Resources (see Attachment
B). He reported on the progress APSCUF has made since his last report to
senate, 19 September 1995. APSCUF has a specific proposal that it would
like to take to the November meeting of Meet and Discuss. The proposal
specifies who constitutes the task force and defines its charge.
The task force will be entitled the Task Force on the General Education
Curriculum and its Resources. It is important to make clear that
everyone will be involved in the work that must be done. Given the
situation that the University and the System faces now, and will be
facing in the immediate future, it is imperative that we consider
resource implications for decisions that are made concerning the general
education curriculum.
APSCUF has outlined the composition of the task force in section I of the
handout: four members that the APSCUF president will appoint, four
members that the Faculty Senate will select, and two nonvoting members
serving in an ex-officio capacity appointed by the President. The APSCUF
president will appoint the chairperson of the task force from this group.
The charge to the task force is described in section II of the handout.
The task force will meet and have hearings with individual faculty
members, administrators, the general education committee, and the task
forces that have been appointed by the Provost. It will submit a report
to the faculty senate and let it deliberate and send any recommendations
or revisions back to the task force. The task force will submit a final
report to senate for a senate's yes or no vote. Following the senate's
decision the report will be takn to the full faculty. The report will
include the decision by this body.
The handout calls for a specific timeline. APSCUF did that deliberately
because it does not want to prolong the process. APSCUF does not want
interim curricular measures to be in place indefinitely. Faculty working
on new courses and curricula want to be able to get them off the ground
as soon as possible.
Centola asked for senate's feedback on the handout. He asked that
senators and faculty contact him at the APSCUF office and give him their
reactions and recommendations. APSCUF would like to take its proposal to
the Administration by the first Friday in November Meet and Discuss
meeting.
Senator C. Stameshkin said she had several problems with the proposed
handout. She asked how APSCUF had ended up with the main charge for the
curriculum changes. While she understands that the curriculum affects
work conditions, it was her understanding that faculty senate had always
been the source of curriculum committees. Why are things being done
differently now?
Centola replied that after discussions with the administration, APSCUF,
and senate leaders, his understanding was that we had created a hybrid.
MU has never done this before. We have an administration, APSCUF, and
faculty senate task force considering more than just the curriculum.
This time we are not being told to dream and develop the ideal
curriculum; we must honestly face our limitations. We must attack the
curriculum from the standpoint of what is economically feasible. The
hybrid approach considers resource implications in the development of the
general education curriculum. Centola understands that this is a first
for MU.
Stameshkin commented that the new measures fundamentally change the way
MU does business. She felt that MU had developed extremely positive ways
of doing business in the past. She did not understand why APSCUF needed
to appoint the committee chair.
Centola replied that there are not just faculty senate committees at MU.
There are also APSCUF committees. There are task forces created by the
administration. There are numerous precedents for the selection of
chairpeople for these various committees and task forces. The faculty
senate did not launch this task force. APSCUF took the initiative to try
to prevent the administration from unilaterally changing the curriculum
in pedagogically unsound ways that are not in the students' best
interest. APSCUF was as surprised as the faculty senate when the
administration announced changed last June.
A discussion of these issues continued for over thirty minutes with many
senators and APSCUF officers participating.
Committee Reports
General Education Review Committee
Chairperson R. Wismer said that the committee is in the midst of a five
year general education review somewhat similar to what each department
does every five years. The committee sent a questionnaire to each
department and to each faculty member. The committee would like the
departments to collate the responses and return the package to the
committee. The sooner departments respond, the sooner the committee can
incorporate the responses in the five-year review report. Please return
them before Thanksgiving break.
The committee is polling a randomly selected and statistically valid
group of students. Committee members are questionnairing the students in
class. Committee membvers will contact individual faculty members about
the questionnairings. The committee would appreciate the cooperation of
the departments and faculty members.
Joint Senate Conference Committee
Chairperson J. Piperberg said he was in the process of compiling all the
items he has received from committee chairs concerning how many students
they would like on their committees. He will try to have the compilation
by the next senate meeting. If senators have not made that report yet,
or if they are not familiar with it, please get in touch with Piperberg.
Proposed Courses
Senate agreed to defer action on three graduate courses until the next
meeting.
EDTE590:
Information Literacy: Creating Independent Learners, a three
semester hour graduate course.
SPED578:
Special Education Law for Students with Exceptionalities: New
Challenges for Educators, a three semester hour graduate course.
SPED671:
Behavior Management: Strategy Systems for Special Education, a new
three hour graduate course.
Chairperson D. Eidam said the clock will start ticking for approval as of
this meeting.
Business
Removal of the 9-Hour Graduate Residency
Requirement
Senate debated the removal of the 9-hour graduate residency requirement
(see Attachment C of the 3 October 1995 minutes). Chairperson D. Eidam
ruled that senate needed to approve the Governance Manual changes. Today
Eidam received a note from D. Downey that Eidam read aloud to senate.
Downey wrote that it was physically impossible for many graduate students
to meet the requirement because of their other obligations. Downey also
wrote that MU has not enforced the rule recently. Finally he wrote that
now is the time to bring the policy into line with reasonable
practice.
Ediam said that since the motion came from the committee, a second is not
required. The motion passed.
Senate Elections
At this point Chairperson D. Eidam stepped down as chairperson and
Chairperson pro tempore J. Piperberg assumed the chairpersonship. Senate
continued its annual elections. Piperbergcalled for nominations for a
School of Education representative to the University Course and Program
Review Committee to fill an unexpired term. Senators nominated W.
Schotta, R. Kerper, and S. Luek. By a majority of votes on the first
ballot, senate elected S. Luek. O. Iglesias was nominated for the same
committee from the School of HJumanities. With no other nominees, senate
elected her by acclamation for a term that expires in 1997. There were
no other nominees for positions that are currently vacant.
The following senate committee positions are currently vacant:
Humanities and Fine Arts representative to the Academic Policies
Committee,
Social Sciences representative to the Academic outcomes Assessment
Committee, Academic Policies Committee, and the UCPRC,
non-School representative to the General Education Review Committee, and
an Alternate to the international Selection Committee.
Senate adjourned at 5:10 PM. The next meeting will be Tuesday, 7
November 1995, from 4:05-5:45 p.m. in Chryst 210.
Respectfully submitted,
Marvin Margolis, Secretary
Faculty Senate
Prior Minutes
Reports
...| Chairperson
| Student Senate
| APSCUF President
Committee Reports
...| General Education Review
| Joint Senate Conference
| Proposed Courses
Business
...| Graduate Residency
| Senate Elections
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