I. Minutes of previous meetings
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
Associate Provost Burns reported on a Presidential Leadership Council discussion about how to better outline how our EDW courses specifically connect to Pennsylvania Department of Education standards used by teachers who might enroll. He also indicated that the Center for Academic Excellence plans to hold sessions to aid faculty in identifying how to do this for their courses. Dr. Börger-Greco noted that Dean Bray of the School of Education plans to attend the next Faculty Senate meeting.
Dr. Burns also shared that Provost Prabhu regretted missing the meeting but was attending the funeral for Dr. Ramesh Bhatia, Business Administration.
Discussion was held about the new online format for the Governance Manual in relationship to consistency with the CBA. Dr. Burns commented that Carol Phillips has been working on this process as a paid consultant, trying to blend the information into one cohesive University Governance & Policies resource that will no longer be a static document. A question was raised about whether this process blurs the line between governance and policies. Dr. Burns responded that the goal was simply to combine structural governance documents with policy documents into one searchable resource that would be accessible by faculty. Another question was raised about how faculty will know about updates since it is clearly important that faculty stay informed. Dr. Burns indicated that the most likely strategy would be e-mail notifications with links to the new information. Senator Mowrey also commented that, based on work with the Faculty Senate Bylaws, it was clearly important to maintain a history of changes by including revision dates on each document. A question of precedence was raised in the case of disagreement between the Governance & Policy documents and the CBA. Dr. Burns responded that some of these issues are addressed by local agreements and that revisions could be made as needed to maintain continuity.
VI. Reports of the Faculty Senate Standing Committees
Senator West noted a few minor changes made to the W course review document and indicated that it should return to GERC for final approval. She also indicated that the proposed revised guidelines for FYI courses could move forward. A question was raised about why service learning was not required for these courses. Dr. Foster-Clark responded that while this is strongly encouraged, GERC felt it was also important to allow for flexibility for the variety of courses developed by faculty. Another question related to the fact that departments with long-standing 1 or 2 credit-hour freshman seminar courses would not fit into these guidelines. Dr. Foster-Clark indicated that these courses could continue as they are without being an FYI or be converted to match these guidelines. Senator Sikora noted that Earth Sciences had discussed conversion but would encounter teaching load problems that would make it difficult to accommodate the change. Senator Miller noted that the Chemistry department has also discussed conversion, but that since the FYI is not required, their students would fulfill that General Education block with electives. Dr. Burns responded that it is not yet clear how departmental seminars might be adapted and indicated a willingness to participate in related discussions. He also noted that there might be an option for contingency complement to support conversion of these courses.
Senator West introduced a proposal for offering credit to entering students with the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma or Certificate. [see Attachment #1] The proposal recommends accepting a score of five or higher (out of seven) on examinations in higher level IB courses for course credit as approved by the relevant department. She highlighted the similarity to current practice for Advanced Placement (AP) exam scores, acceptance of the IB by other institutions and the fact that McCaskey High School offers this program. She stressed that approval of this policy represents general acceptance by Millersville but that individual departments would review IB material to determine the most appropriate course equivalents. Six departments have already verified the appropriateness of the material for courses in their field. A comment was made about the extensive use of the IB curriculum throughout Europe.
GCPRC
Senator Mowrey reported on the list of graduate faculty identified for 2007-2008, 221 faculty representing 16 departments. [see Attachment #2]
VII. Reports of the Faculty Senate Special Committees
VIII. Proposed Courses and Programs
IX. Faculty Emeritus
X. Committee Elections
XI. Other/New Business
Meeting was adjourned after voting was completed.
Respectfully submitted,
Aimee L. Miller
Secretary of the Senate