Faculty Senate Minutes, 15 September 1998

Millersville University, Faculty Senate

Minutes

Meeting of the Faculty Senate

September 15, 1998

Chairperson Joel Piperberg called the meeting to order at 4:08 p.m. in Chryst 210. All departments were represented except Counseling and Human Development, Economics and Special Education. Also present were Pat Hill, Director of the Millersville University Center for Academic Excellence, Snapper Editor David Burkholder and reporter Aaron Babbitt. Graduate Student Organization representative Heidi Vallencourt also attended and Ryan Kunkle represented the Student Senate.

The minutes of the meeting on September 1 were approved after the typo correction 199 to read 1999 (p. 4447) was noted.

Reports

Chairperson Piperberg announced that David Hutchens (Computer Science) has been appointed to the Academic Computer Advisory Committee. He welcomed new senators following the elections. L. Clark-Newman will represent the History Department this semester with Alternate Tom Tirado. Medeleine Darmiento is the new Senator from Music, with Alternate Buddy James. J. McCade (Industry and Technology) who has resigned was replaced by Senator Daniel Anna with R. Johnson serving as Alternate.

Copies of the new committees had been distributed.

J. Piperberg said that when copies of Parliamentary Procedures at a Glance arrive he would distribute these to new senators. He also introduced the new editor of The Snapper.

Snapper Editor David Burkholder, the new Editor at The Snapper, introduced himself to the Senate. He emphasized that The Snapper is the Millersville community newspaper and he asked senators to help the student journalists by providing items of news to The Snapper prior to contacting the commercial media.

Student Senate

Representative R. Kunkle said that freshman elections were about to be held. Dr. Caputo was also scheduled to speak at the Student Senate meeting.

Graduate Student President

Heidi Vallencourt said the Graduate Student Organization had posted the bulletin board at the SMC. Members are currently preparing for GSAT.

Reports of Administrative Officers

Provost McNairy brought some comments from Dr. Caputo about a recent report on the State System universities and State-related institutions that had been summarized in newspapers (the Intelligencer Journal and the New Era) the preceding weekend.

The report sponsored by two organizations (The Commonwealth Foundation and the Pennsylvania Association of Scholars), alleges that students who attend State System universities and State-related institutions (Penn State, Pittsburgh, Lincoln and Temple) are not receiving a quality education and challenges the reader with the question "Are Pennsylvania students receiving an education worthy of the money being spent by the taxpayers?" The report was written without input from any of the institutions and presents case studies of hypothetical students at each of the 18 universities. The report concludes that students can earn a degree while avoiding "essential core courses" that are defined in the report by taking "narrow, trendy" courses that are deficient in coverage of fundamental information. The report is also somewhat critical of the State System's strategic plan ("Imperatives for the Future). Dr. McNairy stated that Lisa, the hypothetical Millersville student, is said to have taken courses to fulfill the General Education requirements that are not even approved for General Education. Furthermore, the General Education mathematics requirement is completely ignored by the report. If a student took the General Education courses outlined by the report, s/he would not graduate.

A response to the report has already been written by the statewide APSCUF President and the State System is looking at 50 randomly selected academic records from each university to prepare its own response. Provost McNairy requested that the Senate Chair appoint some senators to work along with some members of the administration on a Millersville University response to the report. She also asked the Senate to reexamine the General Education curriculum with reference to the report and to determine if, in fact, our General Education program has the support of the faculty. (This process is already under way; discussion of the General Education Curriculum is scheduled for the Senate meeting on October 6, 1998.)

Discussion of and questions about the report followed with comments being offered by B. Dorman, C. Stamshkin, Graduate Student Organization representative H. Vallencourt and C. Desmond.

On a totally unrelated issue, Provost McNairy said the State System Board of Governors is engaged in studying an agenda referred to as Systemic Change. One of the agenda items is to look at our Gneeral Education program and the graduate program. The intention is to see if there are common goals and common themes at the 14 universities. Two consultants will be hired by the Board of Governors to visit campuses in order to assess our goals. Prior to their visit, some information will have to be collected. Dr. McNairy said she had consulted with the Senate Chair and that she had designated C. Stameshkin to meet with consultants. During their campus visit, other Senators/faculty members to be determined by the Senate will meet with the consultants.

Associate Provost Stager presented an update on the Catalyst Institute discussed at the last meeting of the Senate. Brochures were being put together and he had shared these with the chairs of the departments and asked them to go back to the faculty to find out who is interested in attending the institute as part of the Millersville team. It is expected that participants would become leaders in integrating technology into learning. More information will appear on the web site. About 21 teams can be accommodated, including two teams from Millersville. People must be part of the team in order to attend. Dr. Stager has received two responses since the last meeting. It is hoped that persons who are not able to attend will be accommodated by other workshops. Interested parties are invited to contact their department chairs or Dr. Stager.

Associate Provost Roller said that last spring she had received a request for tutoring support for students. Dr. Roller had developed a list of tutoring co-ordinators (see attachment)

Dr. Roller also said that it is not necessary to send General Education exception requests for Earth Science 241. This course used to have G2 labels; the labels were deleted and then reinstituted. The return of the G2 label was made retroactive so that students who took the course while the label was missing will automatically get credit for ESCI 241 as a G2 course.

Reports of Standing Committees

UCPRC Committee Chair R. Wismer said that the committee had met but that there would be no courses until the next meeting of the committee.

Academic Standards Committee J. Piperberg distributed his report (see attachment)

General Education Review Committee J. Piperberg said that a proposal from the committee with regard to courses of less than three credit hours had been postponed from earlier meetings.

Dr. Stager said there were some concerns regarding the ability to implement the proposal within DARS.

Committee Chair C. Stameshkin said that on grounds of principle her committee did not want to make policy that would only concern one department (Music). It also now seems that other departments might be interested in developing 2 credit hour courses.

After discussion, it was agreed to postpone further action until the senate meeting on October 6, at which time it is hoped that the difficulties with the proposal will have been resolved.

General Education Objectives will be placed on the Agenda for the October Meeting (see attachment)

Co-operative Education Committee B. Dorman said the committee would meet in the last week in September. The committee's primary agenda is to revise departmental internship policies. He requested that if departments were doing anything different from their policies to bring these policies up to date.

Faculty Emeritus On a motion presented by W. Wolf (Art Department), seconded by G. Yelagotes, Dr. Ronald E. Sykes was recommended for Professor Emeritus status (see attachment).

Millersville University Center for Academic Excellence Center Director Pat Hill presented a report to the Senate (see attachment)

The Senate proceeded to committee elections and the meeting was adjourned at 5:43 PM. The next meeting will be October 6, 1998.

Respectfully submitted,

Jane Alden, Secretary

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