Faculty Senate Minutes

MINUTES

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

4 February 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 Counseling and Human Development and Sociology and Anthropology Departments. P. Leahy attended for student senate and J. Davis for The Snapper.

Minutes

Senate approved the 3 December 1996 meeting minutes with the following correction: on page 4129, Joint Senate Conference Committee, add the following words to the end of the first sentence: "writing a report on the four year contract proposal."

Reports

Chairperson's Report

Chairperson D. Eidam announced that senator Y. Soong is not available to serve in the senate this semester because he is teaching a class. Also the alternates from the Earth Science Department will not be available because they are covering classes for R. DeSouza. A. Lathrop is now the senator from Earth Sciences. In Psychology, senator T. Woo was called to Korea for an emergency and is on emergency leave. B. Grosh and, on occasion, J. Smedley will represent the Psychology Department.

Eidam represents senate on The Medal Fund Management Board. The Board has written an updated and streamlined constitution. Eidam also represents senate on the Commencement Committee. The Committee recommended that there no longer be an August commencement. Undergraduates graduating in the summer will be allowed to participate in the May graduation ceremonies only. Graduate students planning to graduate in the Summer will participate in December only.

A candidate has come forth for the vacant position on the Academic Policies Committee - Nonschool. Last semester senate declared the position vacant. Senate decided to hold the election at this point. K. Backels was nominated and elected by a unanimous vote to fill the vacant position.

Eidam discussed the rules of debate for today's agenda items: In fairness to senators, no senator may speak n times until other senators who wish to speak have spoken (n - 1) times. Senators are recognized first before nonsenators.

Student Senate President

Student Senate President P. Leahy said student senate had it first meeting 30 January 1997. It will fill two positions at its next meeting. It discussed finding more activities for students on weekends. In an effort to better serve the student body, student senate will survey students this week concerning issues that students want discussed this semester. The next meeting will be February 13.

Administrative Officers

President

President J. Caputo said beginnings of semesters are upbeat times. He thought MU was breathing a collective sigh of relief because the collective bargaining agreement is tentatively settled. Ratification awaits the faculty. Caputo reported some fairly good news. Governor T. Ridge gave his state of the commonwealth address this morning. Ridge proposed a 2 percent increase in our budget. In addition Ridge said nothing negative about public education. MU learned that the Governor's office has as promised released the funds for the Myers Hall renovation. The construction of the new science building and the renovation of Myers will proceed jointly.

At the close of the Fall semester, MU received a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to renovate the old Roddy facilities. The grant is the largest single amount that MU has ever received. The MU Capital Campaign is going very well. MU will probably raise the $13 million that it proposed at the beginning of the campaign earlier than planned. MU may exceed its goals.

Vice President for Academic Affairs

Vice President for Academic Affairs F. McNairy informed senators that President Caputo has appointed a technology vision task force comprised of faculty and administrative members to draft a technology program for MU. They have prepared a vision statement in general language that tells where we hope to be as an institution. That will be presented to SPARC in February or March. They are also working on a plan that incorporates potential costs and how to address the costs. As soon as there is more information on their progress, MU will share the information with senate.

Associate Provost for Academic Administration

Associate Provost for Academic Administration J. Stager said the Spring enrollment is about on target. He will present the final figures at a future senate meeting. Stager asked senate if the plus or minus grades apply to graduate courses. It was never explicitly discussed in senate. There are no D grades for graduate students. The rest of the new grading rules would apply to graduate students.

MU will print the Governance Manual one more time this Fall. It has not printed it since 1994. The WEB governance manual is not ready yet. MU needs to update the manual so that it contain the latest information. All of the C or better rules need to be checked.

Committee Reports

Undergraduate Course and Program Review Committee

Undergraduate Course and Program Review Committee chairperson, R. Wismer, said the committee met last week and approved two four credit Computer Science courses:

CSCI 450:

CSCI 456:

In addition Wismer presented as an agenda item a new program proposal:

Associate of Technology in Industrial Technology

Academic Standards Committee

Academic Standards Committee chairperson, J. Piperberg, said the committee met 21 and 22 January 1997 and summarized the results of the meeting. He will report more details at a future senate meeting. For the Fall semester there were 112 dismissed students. 65 of those students appealed their dismissal. 40 of those appeals were approved, 25 were denied. Students appealed 8 of the denied appeals to higher authority and 5 denied decisions were reversed.

Since Fall 1990 the number of dismissals has been remarkably consistent. The lowest number dismissed during the period has been 105. The highest is 120. The same goes for the number of students appealing their dismissal; about half appeal. Usually about one-third of the appeals are denied. The Spring semester is more erratic.

The committee wants to give each case adequate time. Therefore it normally runs late as presently constituted. Piperberg has spoken with Registrar M. Gonzalez. It would be reasonable to raise the size of the committee given the fact that in recent elections more candidates ran than there were openings. With a larger committee, the work load could be divided in thirds instead of in half. The committee could give students adequate attention for each case and not run late. Piperberg proposed an enlarged Academic Standards Committee as an agenda item for the next meeting. He will suggest how many members to add at the next meeting. Chairperson D. Eidam noted that the committee has seven members serving overlapping three year terms.

Joint Senate Conference Committee

Joint Senate Conference Committee chairperson, J. Piperberg, said the committee is in the process of distributing drafts of the four year contract to relevant people. He can not say more at this time.

University Theme Committee

University Theme Committee chairperson, J. Piperberg, said the committee has received one proposed theme as of today. The faculty will receive in the campus mail a call for a theme. They must reply by February 17, 1997. All proposals must be in written form. If there are any questions, phone Piperberg. After the 17th, the committee will meet, look at the proposals, schedule meetings with the proposers, and at a meeting in April propose a theme.

Academic Policies Committee

Academic Policies Committee chairperson, K. Bookmiller, said that she had trouble arranging a meeting time for the committee. The committee will meet on the first and third Thursdays of the month from 2:30 to 4:30 PM. The first committee meeting will be February 20, 1997. One topic will concern governance manual issues.

Cooperative Education Committee

Cooperative Education Committee chairperson, W. Dorman, said the committee is busy working on its self study program. They are working on their mission statement. At the end of the semester a new handbook will come out.

Proposed Courses

Senate approved two courses:

CSCI 435:

PHIL 327:

Business

Faculty Senate Elections

Senate needed to elect its officers: a chairperson, chairperson pro tempore, and secretary for one year terms (1997-1998) beginning in September 1997. Chairperson D. Eidam relinquished his chair to the chairperson pro tempore for the election of the chairperson. Chairperson pro tempore, J. Piperberg, called for nominations for chairperson. A C. McLeod/W. Dorman motion to reelect D. Eidam passed. With Eidam as chairperson, senate reelected J. Piperberg as chairperson pro tempore.

Senator M. Margolis announced that he was not a candidate for secretary for the 1997-1998 year. Eidam said that the election of a faculty senate secretary would be an agenda item for the next meeting.

Report of the General Education Review Committee

The General Education Review Committee reported to senate on the report of the General Education Task Force of 19 November 1996 (see Attachment A). Senator and committee chairperson C. Stameshkin began the discussion. She said the first paragraph explains what the committee sees as the source of the problem. The final recommendation is a general recommendation. She said to make changes now would be counterproductive because of changes to be made in the future, for example, for Middle States. The curriculum ought to be connected with our goals and objectives in a direct way. If we changed now, it is likely that we would have to change again in a year or two. Stameshkin said she was not making a motion; only telling what the consensus of her committee was.

Senator C. McLeod addressed one issue that is pointed at in the report. It ties in with the English Department memo. From McLeod's point of view as a member of the task force, he was taken aback by the memo from the English Department. He can not recall any time during the discussions of the task force that the task force was recommending any sort of wholesale migration of advanced writing courses in the English Department to anywhere else. He believes that this is a misunderstanding. Language that ended up in the report that the task force submitted to senate was in essence the identical language that is currently in the general education document. There was no hint that anything be done to advanced writing.

After a long discussion with many senators speaking to the issue, a D. Hutchens/B. Nakhai motion to limit debate until 5:30 PM passed. At 5:30 senate agreed to continue the discussion at the next meeting and the agenda.

Program Approvals - Options and Program Changes

Senator B. Nakhai spoke for the BUAD Option in International Business (see the discussion in the 3 December 1996 minutes, page 4131). At the 3 December 1996 meeting, senate postponed action on a motion to amend the option requirements to require students to take at least one course outside the Business Administration Department. After some discussion a motion to move the question passed and forced a vote on the amendment. Senate defeated the motion to amend. Senate was back to the original motion. By unanimous consent senate agree to stay five minutes beyond the 5:45 PM closing time. Senate voted on the original motion and by voice vote defeated the motion. A call for division resulted in a vote of 7 for and 13 against. The motion was defeated.

Senate voted in favor of the Revision of the Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and the Changes in Policies for Majors to Complete a BA in Political Science.

Senate adjourned at 5:50 PM. The next meeting will be Tuesday, 4 March 1997, from 4:05 - 5:45 p.m. in Chryst 210.

Respectfully submitted,

Marvin Margolis, Secretary

Faculty Senate

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