Faculty Senate Minutes, 3 September 1996

MINUTES

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

3 September 1996

Chairperson D. Eidam called the meeting to order at 4:10 p.m. in Chryst Hall, Room 210. All departmental senators attended except those from the Art, History, Industry and Technology, and Sociology and Anthropology Departments. Student President P. Leahy attended for the Student Senate and J. Milakovic attended for the Snapper.

Minutes

Senate approved the 11 July 1996 meeting minutes with no corrections. Chairperson D. Ediam reported the following changes to today's agenda. Under item VIII, Proposed Courses, add two Computer Science courses to the one meeting to challenge list:

CSCI375:

CSCI385:

Senate will postpone item XIII, Senate Email Reflector on Marauder, until the 17 September 1996 meeting. Senator M. Warmkessel cannot attend today's meeting.

Delete all references to Psychology 256 in the Psychology 336 course proposal.

Reports

Chairperson's Report

Chairperson D. Eidam distributed to senators all the statements of support that he received on behalf of candidates in today's elections. He noted one typographical error in the current senate directory. the email address for senator T. Kruse should be tkruse@marauder. The Library Department has elected a new alternate, S. Anderson. He also introduced new senators, A. Reese, S. Anderson, and T. Kruse.

Eidam has received notification of three vacancies since the mailing of the nomination forms. Senate will fill the three vacancies during the next meeting's voting. D. Harris has retired and senate needs to fill her nonschool position that expires in 1997 on the Noonan Fund. B. Nakhai has resigned as chairperson of the Academic Policies Committee; senate must fill his position that expires in 1997 at the next meeting. F. Erickson has resigned as a member of the University Course and Program Review Committee. Eidam had only advertised one of the two Education School positions on the UCPRC for today's vote.

Senate had to decide whether to proceed by filling the position that was advertised and waiting until the next meeting to fill the new vacancy or to fill both today. There are two nominees today. Senate moved to fill both vacancies at today's meeting.

The Task Force on General Education is going to send senate its report on general education in early October. At that meeting the chairperson will keep a log of who speaks, a queue of who wants to speak, and none will speak twice until anyone else has spoken once. None may speak unless they are recognized. These rules are in the interest of fairness.

Some years ago, the chairperson volunteered to keep the governance manual updated. He is no longer doing so. He has had very little success in getting senators to provide him with disk copies of the changes that go in the governance manual. He advised whoever does keep the governance manual to put in hidden text when a change was made.

The chairperson regrets to tell senators that for the first time, senate ran a $300 deficit over the past year.

Student Senate

Student Senate president P. Leahy announced student senate will meet on Thursday for the first time this semester at 6:30 p.m. in room 161 in the SMAC. Student senate will meet every other thursday. He met with his executive board last week. He has also talked to the students at the Snapper to maintain communications with them. Faculty senators may feel free to give Leahy a call on any matter. Chairperson Eidam said he would call Leahy soon toascertain the student representatives to senate committees.

Administrative Officers

President

President J. Caputo said the new academic year is off to a good start. Faculty chairpersons report that events are going smoothly. the usual problems seem to be getting resolved more quickly this year. Students are complaining as usual but MU is able to solve their complaints fairly quickly.

Two things remain from last year. Immediately at the conclusion of commencement in May, several faculty reported to Caputo that they had had trouble finding parking. MU has become aware that it has not provided reserved parking for faculty attending graduation ceremonies. In the future MU police will provide a special parking sticker for faculty who robe for graduation so they may park in reserved parking spaces.

Second Cputo has received formal notice from the Department of the Army that it intends to close the ROTC program at MU by August 1997. The MU ROTC program has been in a state of decline for a long time in terms of student participation and has not been popular. While Caputo does not like to see MU close any program, he does understand the Army's position.

Caputo introduced MU's new Vice-President for Student Affairs, Robert Thomas. He comes to MU from Westminster College in Western Pennsylvania. He has professional experience with and his doctorate from Indiana University at Bloomington. He wrote his doctoral dissertation in the area of student retention.

Vice-President for Academic Affairs

Vice President for Academic Affairs F. McNairy welcomed senators back to campus. She reminded senators of the Fall Convocation next Thursday at 4:30 PM in Lehr Dining Hall. there will be good food and a chance to meet the president and your colleagues.

Last year academic affairs departments responded to questions from the Provost. Dean's Council has reviewed the answers to the questions and determined some themes that the faculty has identified as major areas of concern or major goals that MU should be addressing. Academic Affairs has a plan that will take MU to the year 2,000. The Provost will return to the respective schools to share the feedback with the faculty.

MU will have its first open house this semester, Saturday, September 28. It is earlier than usual so as not to compete with high school events. MU also does not want to compete with its own events. Departments will receive more information from the Provost.

Vice President for Student Affairs R. Thomas said that he was grateful to be a Millersville. He said he had worked in both public and private institutions and praised the reputation of Millersville. He said that he had completed his fourth week on the job and found the work exciting. He is looking forward to getting to know people better in the future.

Vice President for Advancement

Vice President for Advancement G. Eckert discussed MU publication: MU has distributed this year's Cultural Calendar to the faculty. The calendar includes the dates of lectures, cultural, and theme events. The many events are evidence of the cultural diversity on the campus. Eckert demonstrated a copy of the new Admissions Viewbook.

Eckert said that he was having ongoing discussions about the concept of Student Services with the Sunday News. The paper does not seem to report that the lower courts agree with MU's position on Student Services.

Eckert said he will allow the President to report on the capital campaign progress during the President's convocation talk. However, in the area of new revenue opportunities, MU is getting increasing requests from corporations regarding research, training, and retraining of the workforce. Eckert sees the requests as a great opportunity and market for MU in the future. It is a chance for MU and the community to come together. As revenues decrease from traditional sources, corporation could supply MU with more revenue.

Eckert said that Homecoming will be October 19, 1996. At 10:30 AM, MU will host an open reception in honor of G. Reighard. The May commencement next year will be May 17, 1997.

Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs

Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs J. Stager presented the preliminary Fall enrollment figures. MU is up slightly for full time undergraduates compared with last year. It is down in terms of part time students. Graduate students are up. The total head count is about 75 below last year. MU will freeze the figures in about two to three weeks. At that point Stager will give a final report.

Committee Reports

Undergraduate Course and Program Review Committee

One new course was introduced under the two meeting rule:

PSCI412:

Academic Standards Committee

Academic Standards Committee chairperson J. Piperberg said he did not have the figures in front of him but the results for the recent committee meeting were on par with what happened in the past in terms of the number of students whose appeals have been accepted and denied. MU did have students enter under the academic amnesty rules.

Faculty Emeritus

A J. Lynch/S. Peters motion to recommend Associate Professor of Counseling and Human Development Dorothy Harris for faculty emeritus status passed unanimously (see Attachment A).

Proposed Courses

Senate approved five undergraduate courses:

CSCI330:

CSCI375:

CSCI380:

CSCI385:

PSYC336:

Business

Senate Elections

Senate held its annual elections using the approved voting algorithm. Chairperson Eidam and senate officers posted all nominations for all open committee positions received prior to the meeting on the blackboard. Senators then completed additional nominations from the floor. A D. Hutchens/B. Nakhai motion to elect the candidates for uncontested positions by acclamation passed. The chairperson distributed ballots for senators to use to vote for the remaining contested positions. Senators were to vote for only those candidates that the voter wanted to serve in an open position. Senators then voted for their preferred candidates for each committee opening by ranking candidates on the ballot from most to least preferred. After the meeting, senate officers counted the votes. Attachment B shows the election results.

Proposal for Changes in MU's Class Attendance/Grading Policy

The Academic Policies Committee recommended changes in MU's class attendance/grading policy (see Attachment A, pp 3991-3993, of the 16 April 1996 senate minutes). Senate returned the item to the agenda from the last meeting. After considerable discussion of the motion, a motion to move the previous question passed with a 2/3rd majority. The motion did not pass.

Appropriate Curricular Review Process for Departmental Guidebooks and Handbooks--Returned to the Agenda

Senator R. Benson will move that senate refer to the Academic Policies Committee the question of the appropriate curricular review process for departmental handbooks and guidebooks.

Blue Sheets for Departmental Degree Requirements--Returned to the Agenda

Senator R. Benson will move that senate refer to the Academic Policies Committee the determination of a requirement that a department that offers an undergraduate degree must specify and distribute to students the degree's requirements.

Senate Email Reflector on Marauder--Returned to the Agenda

Senator M. Warmkessel has asked if senate would like to establish an official senate email reflector on Marauder.

Senate adjourned at 5:45 PM. The next meeting will be Tuesday, 17 September 1996, from 4:05-5:45 p.m. in Chryst 210.

Respectfully submitted,

Marvin Margolis, Secretary
Faculty Senate