I. Minutes of the January 20, 2004 Meeting

The Minutes of the January 20, 2004 meeting were approved as distributed.

II. Report of the Faculty Senate Chairperson

The administrators will again forgo their reports to make up the time given up for the Provost Search. A written report from the administrators will be distributed, if necessary.

Due to the retirement of Dr. Stine, a seat has opened up on the Noonan Committee. Nominations will be accepted to fill this seat for the remainder of the academic year on an At-Large basis.

The Faculty Senate June meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, June 8 at 3:00 p.m. in the Armstrong Auditorium of the Caputo Building.

Faculty Senate needs to vote on making the current Drop/Add policy permanent. When it was passed, we were supposed to revisit the issue in a year after its effectiveness had been assessed. It will placed on the agenda for the February 17 meeting.

III. Report of the Student Senate President

The two guests of the Senate at the Faculty Senate meeting were Charles Garey and Matt Butch. The Student Senate selected Ryan Swoyer to be the newest member of the Student Trustee Selection Committee. We are currently working on our website to make it more colorful and user friendly. We have approved the Senate's allocations packet for our proposed budget for 2004-2005. We will be conducting a Freshmen Retention Survey to gather data for BSGP's issue of the year: Freshmen Year Experience.

IV. Report of the Graduate Student Organization--None.

V. Report of Administrative Officers--None.

VI. Report of the Faculty Senate Standing Committees

GCPRC Senator Mowrey, Chair of the GCPRC presented the proposal for WSS S991 course an elective for the M Ed in Sport Management to be discussed at the next meeting.

VII. Report of the Faculty Senate Special Committees

General Education Task Force
Senator Foster-Clark, Chair of the Task Force, stated that the material to be covered in the focus groups that will soon be meeting again has changed significantly. The focus will be to discuss curriculum changes and propose alternatives to some general education objectives. This will start in February.

VIII. Proposed Courses and Programs

New Undergraduate Courses
Biol 470 - Biology Colloquium, 2 credits - The biology department proposes offering their colloquia as a "for credit" course in a seminar format. The colloquia have always been offered and will continue to be open to anyone who wants to attend. Students who opt to take the colloquium for credit will read articles by the speaker, who is coming to campus, or papers on the topic being discussed before the talk. They will meet afterwards to participate in discussions with the speaker about his/her research. The course could fulfill a senior level seminar requirement in the biology department. Desired effective date - Spring 2005. The course was approved.

IX. Faculty Emeritus--None.

X. Elections (nominees for General Education Task Force and other vacancies)

Dr. John McLarnon was nominated to fill a seat on General Education Task Force. Dr. Debra Kepple-Mamros was nominated for an At-Large seat on the Outcomes Assessment Committee. Dr. Shawn Gallagher was nominated for the At-Large seat on the Noonan Committee to replace Dr. George Stine.

A Luek/Lynch motion to instruct the Secretary to cast a ballot in favor of the nominees passed.

This discussion was postponed until the next meeting (February 17, 2004).

XII. Ad Hoc Honor Code Committee: Honor Code Proposal and Implementation Plan

Kathy Schreiber, former chair of the Ad Hoc Honor Code Committee, led the discussion. The Honor Code System developed by the committee will be voluntary. The faculty may choose to follow the present policy. The proposed Honor Code took into consideration Vice President of Student Affairs Thomas's suggestions. Questions were raised about the voluntary nature of the proposed policy, whether the graduate program was considered, the existence of an Honor Code at other similar universities, how students would be informed and educated about the Code, the level of administrative support, and other topics.

It was determined that more discussion was needed at the departmental and administrative levels before a faculty senate vote. APSCUF has looked at the document already and some students participated in the process. Questions were also raised about a faculty-wide referendum on the Honor Code and the procedure that might be followed to conduct such a vote. Discussion of the Honor Code will continue at the February 17 Faculty Senate meeting.

Senator Schaffer reintroduced back a discussion initiated at an October meeting. It dealt with protection of students in the event of a strike. He brought with him a proposal for Senate to consider. {see attachment} After a lengthy discussion, a Fenwick/Lynch motion for a Senate resolution recommending that all faculty members at the University will respect the students' decisions to cross the picket lines or not was passed. Chairperson Piperberg altered the wording of the resolution in preparation for its distribution. It now reads, "Faculty Senate recommends that all faculty members at the University respect any decisions that students may make about crossing picket lines or not doing so during a strike." The original wording was "Faculty Senate recommends that all faculty members at the University respect the decisions of students to cross the picket lines or not."

Respectfully Submitted by,

Elba I. Rohena
Secretary of the Senate