Faculty Senate Minutes, 6 May 1997

MINUTES FACULTY SENATE MEETING 6 May 1997

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, Educational Foundations, Health and Physical Education, and Sociology and Anthropology Departments.

Minutes

Senate approved the 15 April and 22 April 1997 meeting minutes.

Reports

Chairperson's Report

Chairperson D. Eidam said that the last meeting he announced that senate would conduct an election for chairperson of the women's Studies Curriculum Committee. That should appear as item IX on today's agenda. Elections always come before the body of the agenda. Current items IX and X will be moved to X and XI. Item XII concerns plus/minus clarification from the Academic Policies Committee. Senators received information on item XII in the mail.

Previously Eidam gave senators a copy of the updated call for nominees for senate's September elections. Senate needs to elect people for 40 vacant offices. Eidam has nominees for seven. Eidam asked that senate Webmeister M. Warmkessel put the updated call on senate's WEB page. A mailing will go out in mid-August to the faculty calling for nominees.

Annual Reports were due today; Eidam thanked everyone who submitted one. An Email or disk copy was to go to Webmeister M. Warmkessel. A paper copy was to go to Eidam. Eidam asked if senate should continue as in the past to distribute paper copies of the annual reports by attaching them to today's minutes? Alternatively, shall senate not distribute paper copies and instead rely on seante's Webpage? A S. Thompson/W. Dorman motion not to distribute paper copies but to rely on the Webpage passed.

Administrative Officers

President

President J. Caputo said that he received good news a few hours ago and shared it with senate. the state house and senate reached agreement on the state's budget. Caputo has some idea of how the legislative compromise on the budget affects MU. While it is not yet official, there will be a 2 percent increase in our base budget. In addition, there is another one percent increase in our budget as a one time allocation. The Prometheus Project was funded for $2.7 million dollars. The projects mostly center around information technology. There was also a $6 million appropriation for all institutions for instructional equipment. Caputo estimated that MU's share of the Prometheus and equipment items will be about $320,000. It establishes a nice basis for instructional and information technology equipment in addition to more money than MU anticipated.

Vice President for Academic Affairs

Vice President for Academic Affairs, F. McNairy, reminded senators of the Thirty-ninth Annual Honors and Awards Convocation on Saturday, 10 May at 10 o'clock in Pucillo Gymnasium as well as Commencement on 17 May. She said this is the first complete year that departments have been asked to do an analysis of resource implications. while the senate has not addressed this directly, the Provost thinks senate has added more information. She said, "We are pleased with the cooperation with the departments."

Vice President for Advancement

Vice President for Advancement, J. Eckert, said he chairs the Commencement Speaker Committee. The committee was impressed with Carole Simpson. Eckert discussed the Capital Campaign. He said MU started the campaign in January 1993. The objective was to raise $24 million of which $16 million was earmarked for facilities, $5 million for endowment, and $3 million for annual program support. As of this date, MU has crossed the $24 million threshold and that is good news. MU still has individual objectives to reach. We want to reach $5 million each for endowment and facilities. The campaign will keep going through 30 June 1998, the originally announced ending date.

Faculty and staff contributions were an important part of the campaign. Parliamentarian C. Scharnberger headed the faculty component of the campaign. thus far, 270 faculty donors have contributed $338,000 and 200 staff have contributed about $177,000. Overall, faculty and staff have contributed $515,000. Eckert said it was impressive to go out and say to individual donors that those that know MU best contributed to the campaign. The remaining plans of the campaign are to do some groundbreaking ceremonies in September probably in the first two weeks. Most likely Homecoming of 1997 will be the week of 21 October and will include a series of "Victory Celebration." Contributors to the campaign will have an opportunity to contribute until 30 June 1998.

Eckert said last weekend was Reunion Weekend. MU tries to have Homecoming in the Fall for the younger classes and in the Spring have the Reunions center around the mature classes. MU has moved the Reunions from the first week of June to the first week of May so that faculty and students will be here. Friday of last week there was a picnic with alumnae, students, and faculty. Eckert thought that worked out very well. Saturday night the student jazz band played for the Reunion dinner. The band was very good at playing big band sounds.

Finally, Eckert said that MU is looking at the Millersville Review in order to redesign it. Eckert stressed what he told senate last Fall. The Review continues to try to profile those interesting things that students and faculty do because those things receive the most positive feedback from our readership.

Committee Reports

Note from Senate Secretary

The annual reports from all the committees listed below will be available on senate's Webpage.

Undergraduate Course and Program Review Committee

Annual Report

Undergraduate Course and Program Review Committee chairperson, R. Wismer, said the committee has had two meetings since the last senate meeting. He said the committee had 13 proposals for senate:

Programs and Courses Proposed Under the One Meeting Rule

An Academic Minor in Computer Science

A Policy from the Biology Department about Retention in the Major

Actuarial Science and Statistics Options in Mathematics

An Option in Botany

BIOL 424:

BIOL 428:

Wismer asked that the two proposed Biology courses be considered under the one meeting rule since they are part of the proposed Botany Option that senate considers under the one meeting rule. Senate agreed to consider the two courses under the one meeting rule.

Proposed Courses Under The Two Meeting Rule

HNRS/BIOL 266:

HUMN 370:

COMM 217:

COMM 441:

COMM 342:

Wismer thanked his devoted group of committee members who slogged through something like 34 course and program proposals this semester.

Academic Policies Committee

Annual Report

Academic Policies Committee chairperson, K. Bookmiller, said the committee held its final meeting of the 1996-97 year this past Thursday. The committee's annual report will be among those available on senate's Webpage. Bookmiller placed two items on senate's agenda for its summer meeting. the first is a revision of the Governance Manual concerning the plus/minus grading system. Senators received the proposed revision in the mail. The second motion concerns an amendment to the Governance Manual policy with regard to options. The motion applies the 50 percent rule that currently applies to majors and minors but not to options to options. (See Attachment B).

Bookmiller said another item arose at her committee's last meeting that did not involve a formal motion. Bookmiller alerted senate with regard to the Perspective Course waiver. Associate Provost for Academic Administration, J. Stager, had requested advice or a recommendation from the committee. There is a difference in interpretation for students who study abroad. Study abroad students have their courses waived but not their actual credit requirements waived. The committee was asked to recommend whether credits should be waived.

Academic Standards Committee

Annual Report

Academic Standards Committee chairperson, J. Piperberg, said that his committe's annual report was ready for senate's Webpage. The report will be updated after the committee's June meetings. He will have a supplement to the report for senate at that time.

Joint Senate Conference Committee

Annual Report

Joint Senate Conference Committee chairperson, J. Piperberg, said the committee's annual report was ready for senate's Webpage.

University Academic Theme Committee

Annual Report

University Academic Theme Committee chairperson, J. Piperberg, said the committee's annual report was ready for senate's Webpage. The committee has reached a decision about a theme to recommend to senate. There were five suggestions for themes that are listed in the annual report. The selected theme, proposed by Senator M. Houlahan, is Building a Community of pARTnerships: The Role of Arts in Society. Piperberg moved that senate approve the theme Building a Community of pARTnerships: The Role of Arts In Society for the year 2000-2001. The motion passed.

Academic Computing Advisory Committee

Annual Report

Senator D. Hutchens is senate's advisor to the Academic Computing Advisory Committee. Hutchens submitted his annual report. This past year several computer laboratories were upgraded. Next year hopefully other labs will get funded for upgrading. The networking of the dormitories is continuing. the most difficult problem facing academic computing presently is staff and workloads. As MU puts more items online, uses more webpages, and demands more services, the staff is getting stretched thinner and thinner.

Printing costs are rising significantly due in large measure to networking and bringing the Library online. It is now possible to get information online printed out. Presently students print for free although the cost to MU is large. Some solutions involve charging for printing. Hutchens does not personally want to see that solution since it will likely be a cumbersome process.

On the administrative computing side, MU has contracted to use software called Banner for registration, alumni, admissions, etc., computing needs. All systems will be integrated; currently they are all separate systems with update problems. The new software will help faculty with advising, registration, and other issues eventually. It will improve the way MU goes about its computing tasks. MU2 will be retired sometime in the future.

Academic Outcomes Assessment Committee

Annual Report

Academic Outcomes Assessment Committee chairperson, R. Mainzer, said his report would be completed by the end of the week. The outcome assessment newsletter has been resuscitated. The committee has sponsored brown bag lunches on portfolio assessment. The committee applied for and was awarded a grant of $10,000 that helped the committee to bring Dr. Nichols to campus. In the Fall, the committee will provide a supporting role by reviewing the outcomes evaluation plans.

Co-Operative Education Committee

Co-Operative Education Committee chairperson, W. Dorman, submitted the committee's annual report. The committee did a self-evaluation this semester and was visited last week by two outside consultants. Dorman has not seen the consultant's report yet.

General Education Review Committee

General Education Review Committee chairperson, C. Stameshkin, submitted the committee's annual report (See Attachment C). Next year the committee will be sending to department chairpeople a questionnaire about their opinion on general education objectives. The committee is in the process of redefining the general education objectives. Also next year the committee, as it redefines the objectives, will seek additional people to help the committee. Each committee member will form a subcommittee to work on a set of objectives. For example, the person most qualified to do the communications component will be in charge of that subcommittee. The committee will seek members from other departments to form a subcommittee to define the objectives of the group together. The committee is looking for people who have special expertise in outcomes assessment. The committee has several openings and will not get started until after the Fall elections. It has a vacancy in the non-school category presently.

International Selection Committee

For Annual Report see Attachment D

Faculty Emeritus

An A. Lathrop/R. Wismer motion for senate to recommend Professors Russell L. DeSouza and Bernard L. Oostdam for faculty emeritus status as Professor of Meteorlogy and Oceanography respectively passed unanimously (see Attachments E).

Proposed Courses

S. Luek of the Psychology Department proposed after consultation with Dean B. Berhow that the changes for three double major proposals be implemented in the Fall of 1998 rather than the Fall of 1997. The changes are a very small component of the major that senate passed in November of 1995. In the course restructuring, there are many course renumberings that are not on the course listings for this Fall. Senate approved the following double major changes with the new implementation date:

Psychology, Proposal for Credit Increases from 30 to 33 in Psychology-Philosophy; Psychology-Sociology and Psychology-Special Education Double Majors.

Business

Faculty Senate Election

A C. Heintzelman/W. Dorman motion to elect B. Schneller from the English Department as chairperson of the Women's Studies Curriculum Committee passed.

Amendment to Academic Minors Policy

Senate continued discussion on the proposed amendments to the Academic Minors Policy brought by the Academic Policies Committee. Academic Policies Committee chairperson, K. Bookmiller, began the discussion. Bookmiller said that she had a long discussion with senator C. McLeod this morning. The ITEC department faced a major problem with one minor in particular. A one course overlap prevented ITEC students from having a minor even though the remaining courses were different. The committee was also trying to resolve other difficulties related to interdisciplinary minors. The committee tried to devise a new policy that would open the door to allow students to have more major and minor combinations. Nevertheless, the committee wanted to retain the integrity of the policies. Bookmiller said 12c was put in the proposed amendment to prevent a student from majoring and minoring in the same subject.

Senator C. McLeod said that he had problems with the proposed amendments. The policy is attempting to solve too much. The ITEC problem arises because OSHM 120 is required in both the ITEC major and minor. McLeod said there is a simple solution to that problem that does not require the proposed changes. There are more important problems with majors and minors across departments. McLeod has a problem with item 12b. Dropping the word "Department" introduces unecessary complications. MU has never defined the word "major." We do know what a department is. Is an option an intrinsic part of a major?

After considerable discussion, senator C. Stamshkin moved the question. The motion was to replace the current wording with the following new wording: students who choose a minor containing courses from their major may not duplicate more than one course in the completion of both their major and minor. the motion to cease debate and vote on the original motion passed 16 to 4. Senate then passed the original motion. Senator C. McLeod requested that the secretary specifically record his no vote on the original motion.

Report of the Technology Vision Task Force

Senator M. Warmkessel said the Technology Vision Task Force had distributed a vision statement (See Attachment F). The task force has been trying to get input from many groups on campu. The final version of the vision statement will be drafted by the end of this week. The task force is now looking at an implementation plan to present to the President soon.

The task force is looking for input from the faculty regarding not only the vision statement but also what should go into any draft that the task force writes. The vision statement contains the definitions, assumptions, and six questions. The questions should prompt faculty to discuss what they see as the organizational structure, what trends are likely to affect their students, and what will be the ideal teaching environment in the future. Anyone who would like to respond to any of the questions or just generally to the idea of new technology can email: tvtf@marauder.millersville.edu. Faculty can send written comments to B. Hunsberger or give her a call. The task force will meet 20 May to write the final draft.

Senate adjourned at 5:45 PM. The next meeting will be Thursday, June 19, 1997, starting at 3 p.m. in McComsey's Myers Auditorium.

Respectfully submitted,

Marvin Margolis, Secretary
Faculty Senate

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