I. Minutes

The minutes of the October 31, 2006 special meeting of the Faculty Senate were approved as written.

The minutes of the November 7, 2006 meeting of the Faculty Senate were approved as written.

II. Report of the Faculty Senate Chairperson

None.

III. Report of the Student Senate President

None.

IV. Report of the Graduate Student Association

None.

V. Report of the Administrative Officers

Associate Provost for Academic Administration

Associate Provost Burns noted that the University Theme Committee has been meeting and that they will present the new theme to Senate soon. They are also discussing the use of The Color of Water by James McBride as part of student orientation.

VI. Reports of Faculty Senate Standing Committees

GERC

Senator Warmkessel stated that GERC is now working to reassemble feedback from faculty on various issues into a composite curriculum proposal. She invited senators and other faculty to join one of several sub-committees of GERC. Each one will work on fleshing out the curriculum and rationale related to a specific topic: Diversity, Explore & More, Writing or Liberal Arts Core. Anyone interested in joining these sub-committees should contact Dr. Warmkessel by November 29. These sub-committees will work from now until the start of the spring semester. A request from GERC to schedule a special Senate meeting for January 30, 2007 to discuss General Education issues was approved without dissent.

Senator Wismer raised two issues he has become aware of related to General Education. The first was that some early-career faculty members may be feeling pressured to develop and offer First Year Seminar courses. He noted that even casual comments from senior faculty and administrators may be perceived as more of a directive. He urged care in adding expectations for faculty members who already have significant requirements to meet for tenure and promotion.

The second concern was about faculty members who teach P courses being asked to offer these courses in DL formats. He noted that P courses are meant to include a significant oral communication component that seems incompatible with a completely Online DL format. Several faculty responded that appropriate strategies could be incorporated, particularly within a Blended course which includes some face-to-face time. Dr. Prabhu echoed the concern that it would be difficult to adequately meet the oral communication goals for P courses in an entirely Online course.

UCPRC

First Readings

(1) CHANGE IN UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM
BS, Computer Science. Proposal to change CSCI 420 to a required course and reduce the number of elective courses from 4 to 3.

AOAC

Senator White reported that AOAC is working on potential assessment options for General Education in 2006-2007. They will be working with the Communication & Theater Department on determining whether or not COMM 100: Fundamentals of Speech can be used to satisfy the Oral Communication assessment. For Critical Reasoning, they are investigating use of the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) testing for freshmen and seniors. A survey will be developed to get departmental input regarding appropriate assessment of Technological Competency. For Scientific Reasoning, they are looking at potentially using a sample of juniors taking the ACT Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) test.

VII. Reports of the Faculty Senate Special Committees

Honor Code Committee

A question was raised about whether we should specify a Senate representative to collect all faculty voting ballots from departments and collate the results to be given to the Honor Code Committee. It was decided that this should be addressed whenever voting arrangements for the Honor Code proposal are made.

VIII. Proposed Courses and Programs

UCPRC

(1) CHANGE IN UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM
BA, BS, and BSE MATH, Actuarial Science option. Proposal to add ECON 102 to the Required Related Courses block was approved without dissent.

(2) CHANGE IN UNDERGRADUTE CURRICULUM
MATH 100. Proposal to change pre-requisite to a C- or better in MATH 090 or appropriate score on the math placement test was approved without dissent.

(3) NEW UNDERGRADUATE COURSE
ENGL 483: Politics, Film and Electronic Media, 3 credits. Proposal to create course exploring the relationships between media, history, politics and people during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries was approved without dissent.

(4) CHANGE IN UNDERGRADUTE CURRICULUM
BA ENGL, Film Studies option; ENGL minor, Film Studies option; ENGL minor. Proposal to add new ENGL 483 course to majors and minors as appropriate was approved without dissent.

IX. Faculty Emeritus

None.

X. Other/New Business

The issue of deadlines for academic proposals was raised. It was noted that proposals should be submitted to curriculum committees by March in order to complete the approval process for next year.

XI. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Aimee L. Miller
Faculty Senate Secretary

Action Summary