Minutes of the September 3, 2002 Meeting

Rebecca Mowrey recommended some additions to the minutes, which Chairperson Piperberg has sent to the Senate by e-mail. The corrections deal with the courses/proposals she introduced at the 9/3 meeting; a few facts were inadvertently left out. The missing information was incorporated into the minutes. The minutes were approved as amended.

Chairperson's Announcements

1. The schedule for Senate elections was made available {see attachment}.

2. Also made available were the University Mission and Vision statements. They were discussed at the Council of Trustees meeting two weeks ago. Some comments from the Middle States Review team suggested that these two statements were inconsistent with each other. These statements have been worked over and rewritten in an attempt to mitigate the inconsistencies. Chairperson Piperberg has been asked to get comments on them. Senators were asked to look them over and send comments to him, and he will collect them and pass them on to the Administration.

3. Chairperson Piperberg suggested a rearrangement of the agenda for the meeting as follows:
   I. Minutes of the September 3, 2002 Meeting
   II. Report of the Faculty Senate Chairperson
   III. Report of the Student Senate President
   IV. Report of the Graduate Student Organization
   V. Report of the Administrative Officers
   VI. Reports of the Faculty Senate Standing Committees
   VII. Reports of the Faculty Senate Special Committees
   VIII. Proposed Courses and Programs
   IX. Faculty Emeritus
   X. Elections
   XI. Academic Policies Committee: Procedure for Approval of Liberal Arts Core Courses & New Incomplete Policy General Education Review Committee.
   XII. Revision of the Attendance Policy
   XIII. Discussion of the Diversity (D) requirement (postponed until Oct. 1 meeting)
   XIV. Discussion of Proposal for Institution of an Award Recognizing Teaching Excellence at Millersville University (postponed until Oct. 1 meeting)
   XV. Changes in Status of International Studies Program and Related Issues (postponed until October 1, 2002 meeting)
   XVI. Other/New Business
   

   Since there was no objection to the proposed changes, the newly suggested agenda was followed.

4. State System Expectations regarding Common Calendar

   Chairperson Piperberg reported on the activities of the Common Calendar Committee. He stated that the start date of each semester, the spring break week, and the holidays noted in red on the distributed copy of the common calendar must be honored. The Committee has recommended the inclusion of the Fall Break and the day before Thanksgiving as vacations during the Fall semester. In reviewing the Fall calendar, it appears that the new fall calendar will be essentially identical in terms of start and ending dates and its general composition. It does, however, appear that the Spring semester will differ significantly from its present form. The Spring semester will have a firm Martin Luther King Day off which will necessitate the addition of a Monday of class at the end of the Spring semester (resembling the situation in the Fall semester). The committee is presently discussing ways to preserve a Saturday commencement following the Spring semester.

   The group has discussed the 4-5-4 configuration for the 3 sessions in Summer Session 2003. This would be a one-time change necessitated by the transition from the present calendar to the common calendar. The Presession (4 weeks) will run from May 19 to June 13. The first Summer Session will extend for 5 weeks from June 16 to July 18. The four-week second Summer Session will run from July 21 to August 15.

   Discussion has also centered on issues related to PACE's need for a 5-week session and that some 4 credit science courses would need a 5-week schedule during the second Summer Session. The Committee has recommended that PACE students should have classes scheduled beginning the last week of Summer Session I and continuing through the 4 weeks of Summer Session II. EDW courses offered during this last week of Summer Session I would be scheduled at new locations to accommodate classroom usage by PACE students. Dean Shane will work with chairs of laboratory science departments and arrange an appropriate schedule of classes during Summer Session II for courses that require a fifth week of class.

Report of the Student Senate President--President Brandon Danz reported:

1. That the Student Senate was planning a Dialogue on Race.
2. He also reported that the Civil War Monument Project, Brick by Brick, is ready to proceed as soon as the bricks arrive from the manufacturer.
3. The winners of the MU Persons of the Year Award will be announced at 7 p.m. on September 26. One student and one university employee have been chosen.

Report of the Administrative Officers--No Report.

Reports of the Faculty Senate Standing Committees--Senator Robert Wismer, Chair of UCPRC, introduced a proposal from the Department of Scoail Work and made a motion to waive the one meeting rule for this proposal. The motion passed without dissent.

Reports of the Faculty Senate Special Committees--No Report.

Proposed Courses and Programs

(1) CHANGE IN COURSES/CURRICULA
NURS 524 - Scholarly Project - change in grading policy to Pas/Fail to align with graduate policy for thesis and scholarly project. Desired effective date is Spring 2003.

(2) CHANGE IN COURSES/CURRICULA
Changes in Required Related courses for the B. A. in Social Work Desired effective date - Spring 2003

Faculty Emeritus

Three emeritus proposals were introduced from the ITEC Department:

1. An emeritus proposal for Dr. Dalton Smart {see attachment} was approved after a D. Anna/S. Luek motion.
2. An emeritus proposal for Dr. Joseph Abromaitis {see attachment} was approved after a D. Anna/G. Stine motion.
3. An emeritus proposal for Dr. LaVerne Hauck {see attachment} was approved after a D. Anna/A. Bvrger-Greco motion.

Elections

Chairperson Piperberg noted that, after elections at the October 1 Senate meeting, any unfilled positions would be declared vacant, but could be reopened if a nominee was brought forward at a later date. A B. Dorman/A. Bvrger-Greco motion passed which closed nominations and directed the Secretary to cast a ballot for the current slate of nominees.

Academic Policies Committee

1. R. France introduced a proposal to change the current Incomplete grade policy so that all "I" grades would automatically become "F" grades after a designated amount of time {see attachment}. Discussion of this proposal was postponed to allow feedback from departments after a B. Dorman/J. Fenwick motion passed without dissent.

2. R. France introduced a proposal to clarify the approval process for General Education Courses {see attachment}. A R. Mowrey/R. Bookmiller motion to table the proposal failed to garner the 2/3 majority vote required, and thus failed. A R. Wismer/A. Bvrger-Greco motion to postpone voting on the proposal to allow feedback from departments passed.

Revision of Attendance Policy

Chairperson Piperberg asked Senate members to take the revised attendance policy {see attachment} back to departments for feedback and suggested that comments be sent to him. He promised to convey these comments to Provost McNairy prior to the October 1, 2002 meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:41 p.m. after a G. Stine/R. Mowrey motion passed without dissent.

Respectfully Submitted,

Paul Studdard
Senate Secretary