Millersville University, Faculty Senate

Attachment C

Faculty Senate Minutes

4 April 1995


TO: FACULTY SENATE
JOINT SENATE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
STUDENT LEADERSHIP TASK FORCE
FROM: Susan Luek, Chair, Joint Senate Conference Committee
SUBJECT: Motions and Recommendations Regarding Student Participation on Faculty Senate Committees
DATE: April 4, 1995

A meeting of the Joint Senate Conference Committee (JSCC) which occurred between 4:00 p.m. and 5:10 p.m. on Tuesday, March 28, 1995 in Room 241 Byerly Hall was attended by Faculty Senate members Dr. William Dorman, Dr. Fritz Erickson, Dr. Susan Luek, and Dr. Joseph Lynch and by Student Senate members Ms. Terri Cawley, Mr. Jeremy Haugh, and Mr. Hy Tang. Ms Marjorie Trout, who chairs the Student Leadership Task Force, also attended and apprised the Committee of the results of leadership opportunity surveys of students and faculty committee chairpersons. (These written surveys were conducted during the Spring Semster of 1994.)

Listed below are the motions and recommendations that evolved from the meeting. On behalf of the Committee, I would request that these motions and recommendations be included on the agenda of the April 18, 1995 meeting of the Faculty Senate.

MOTIONS

1. Student members shall have voting privileges on Faculty Senate committees, and notation of these privileges shall be included in the Governance Manual.
[JSCC Tang/Haugh motion passed unanimously. Rationale: Unless students are given a vote, they do not perceive themselves as bona fide participatns in the committee process.]
2. At least one student alternate shall be added to each Faculty Senate committee.
[JSCC Dorman/Erickson motion passed unanimously. Rationale: Alternate members would attend meetings and would assume the voting privileges of student members who, for various reasons, might not be able to attend meetings. In situations where a regular student member needed to be replaced, the alternate would take over for him/her on the committee.
3. All student terms on Faculty Senate committees shall be extended to two years.
[JSCC Cawley/Dorman motion passed unanimously. Rationale: At present, virtually all student terms on Faculty Senate committees are for the duration of only one year. A second year on committee would allow students to become more familiar with committeee policies and practices. (The Committee also recommended that, when feasible, overlapping terms be implemented.)]
4. The chairperson of each Faculty Senate committee shall submit to the chairperson of the Joint Senate Conference Committee his/her committee's recommendation regarding the optimal number of student members on the committee.
[JSCC Erickson/Haugh motion passed unanimously. Rationale: As different committees have different functions, some more related to students than others, the JSCC felt that the determination of the number of student members could best be made by the individual committees. (Although not part of this motion, it would be advisable for each committee to make this determination prior to the end of the Spring 1995 semester.)]

RECOMMENDTIONS

1. Student terms on Faculty Senate committees will be for the academic calendar year (i.e., the beginning of September through the end of August).
[If this change were implemented, Student Senate committee elections would be held during the last meeting in May. This change would increase consistency between Student Senate committees and Faculty Senate committees. Moreover, Faculty Senate committees occasionally have meetings during the summer months, and, in the past, have often not had student representation at those summer meetings.]
2. At the suggestion of the Student Leadership Task Force, the JSCC discussed and endorsed the concept of student team leaders for Faculty Senate committees.
[The JSCC recommends that the chairperson of each Faculty Senate committee identify a student committee member who would act in the capacity of a team leader. This student would be mentored by the faculty chairperson and would be given specific duties related to the committee and to apprising the Student Senate of the activities of the committee.]
3. Students should be made aware that membership on Faculty Senate committees is not limited to Student Senate members.
[This fact should be publicized to the student body, as many students are currently under the impression that Student Senate membership is a requirement for Faculty Senate committee service.]
4. Descriptive information about Faculty Senate committees should be available to students to facilitate their choosing to serve on Faculty Senate committees that reflect their own personal interests.
[Students should have access to descriptions of Faculty Senate committees' membership, functions, etc. Students should also be encouraged to contact faculty chairpersons and faculty members of Faculty Senate committees to gain fmore specific information about the committees.

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