Faculty Senate Minutes, 1 September 1998

Millersville University, Faculty Senate

Minutes

Meeting of the Faculty Senate

September 1, 1998

Chairperson Joel Piperberg called the meeting to order at 4:11 PM in Chryst 210. All department were represented except History and Music. also present were Snapper representatives, David Burkholder and Aaron Babbit. Graduate Student Organization president also attended.

The minutes of the meeting on June 16 were approved.

Reports

Chairperson Piperberg announced that Rich Glenn has been appointed Parliamentaria and that Saulius Suziedelis will be the representative on the Medal Fund Board. Joel Piperberg will serve on the Administrative Computing Advisory Committee.

Joel Piperberg said that he had received some responses to the request for feedback on the risers used for graduation. He asked senators who had any comments to contact him and he would forward their remarks to the Commencement Committee for perusal.

Copies of Parliamentary Procedures at a Glance are to be ordered for new senators.

Graduate Student President

Two well-attended picnics had been held. This Fall the first copy of the newsletter will be distributed. A request for new graduate recruits had resulted in all offices being filled. The organization is currently working on developing information for the bulletin board.

Reports of Administrative Officers

President Caputo said he was not making a formal report becaus ehte Sneate had a lot to do and that at Convocation he would be making a comprehensive report on some very important matters including the Capital Campaign and its implications for Millersville, the master planning process and some other matters. Dr. Caputo said that this year his presentation will be much more visual than it has been in the past.

President Caputo introduced the new Vice President for Information Technology Dr. Susan Komsky who comes to Millersville from Western Washington University.

Vice President Komsky said that she would be contacting faculty persons and meeting with the deans.

Provost McNairy added her wlecome to Dr. Komsky. Provost McNairy reserved announcements to the next meeting.

Associate Provost Stager said that Steve Gilbert of the Teaching and Learning Technology Roundtable (TLTR) has invited Millersville University to host a Catalyst Institute on November 3 and 4, 1998, consisting of six workshops dealing with integrating technology into the instructional process and the associated support issues.

Approximately 250-300 people will attend from other universities including Millersville. (See attachment for information.) If people are interested they should contact Dr. Stager. Millersville has also agreed to become a pilot institution in establishing a Student Technology assistance (STA) program. The program involves students in the support of technology. Student training will begin this fall.

Banner Project Update--Dr. Stager is Chair of the Banner Steering Committee that meets every two weeks to discuss the project. The university started to use Banner for the budget system in June, the alumni module is now on line, and undergraduate admission is putting new recruits for Summer and Fall 1999 into the system via Banner. A major part of the package not yet up is the whole student system. the first time that will come up and be visible will be registration in the Spring (April) of 1999 when students will be registering under the new system. Tests will be conducted in December and February and Dr. Stager will ask the Deans to submit the schedules for Summer and Fall 1999 and Spring 2000 at least one week to ten days earlier than last year.

The Banner system will be implemented as supplied. It will not be customized specifically for the University. when it is first implemented it will take time (perhaps up to a year) to add in programming changes tailored to the University's needs. Consequently, for a time, certain things the present system has allowed us to do may be unavailable for a while. Some academic policies might be affected by this--for example QPA has always been rounded. Banner does not do this; it truncates.

The degree audit system is not part of Banner. An interace between DARS and Banner needs to be worked out. This might make degree audits unavailable for a period of time in 1999.

Banner also has no way to scan grades into the system as does our present application. There is a temporary question about how the grades will be recorded (manually is a possibility). Ultimately, however, in the year 2000, faculty will be able to enter grades directly via the Web. These are some of the matters with which people are presently dealing. They will not impact the faculty until late in the Spring of 1999. Training systems will be developed to make the transition as easy as possible.

In answer to a question, Dr. Stager pointed out that Banner will take care of the Year 2000 problem as well.

Associate Provost Roller announced that Project Acceleration, which is funded by a State System grant and provides resources to bring faculty in from across the country, has been funded again for the coming academic year. The first presenter of the Fall semester is Dr. Craig Nelson, Professor of Biology at the University of Indiana-Bloomington. He will be here on October 30 and will speak on "Fostering Critical Thinking."

Reports of Standing Committees

UCPRC Chair R. wismer referred to earlier Senate minutes that invited persons interested in distance learning to contact him. He reiterated this invitation.

Academic Standards Committee Chair J. Piperberg reported that the committee had met during summer. There have been some developments and the Reigstrar's office is preparing a demographic summary. This will be presented at a future meeting of the Senate.

J. Piperberg deferred discussion on the Agenda Item, General Education Review proposal re. Courses under three cr. hours to the next meeting.

Provost McNairy mentioned Faculty Emeritus and said she will be contacting department chairs with regard to this matter.

The Senate proceeded to Elections and the meeting was adjourned at 5:20 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Jane Alden, Secretary

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