Academic Senate: Minutes 10/25/2011

I.     Call to order: 4:03 pm
II.    Announcements: none
III.  Roll call:
Present:  Brian Adams, Jim Baillie, Ray Bard, Genevieve Brassard, Mike Eom, Drew Harrington, Sally Hood, Aziz Inan, Kristin Johnson, Larry Larsen, Laura McLary, Kathleen McManus, Hillary Merk, Nick McRee, Stephanie Michel, Meike Neiderhausen, Dann Pierce, Rev. Stephen Rowan, Br. Donald Stabrowski, CSC, Karen Ward. Absent: Rev. E. William Beauchamp, CSC, Tamar More, Alex Santana, Joanne Warner, Kaye Wilson-Anderson, Teri Woo.
IV.  Invocation (Larry Larsen)
V.   Approval of minutes from meeting from 20 September 2011. 
   a.   Minutes were approved.
VI.  Standing Committee Reports:
   a.   Executive Committee, Dr. Larry Larsen
      1.   Committee met October 4. Meeting covered topics included on this Academic Senate meeting agenda. 
   b.   Committee on Committees, Dr. Genevieve Brassard
      1.   Nothing to report. Committee met in May to make recommendations for committee appointments. 
   c.   Committee on Rank & Tenure, Dr. James Baillie
      1.   Committee’s work continues.
   d.   Committee on Teaching & Scholarship, Dr. Aziz Inan
      1.   Committee met in September.
      2.   Committee will meet November 7 and 14 to discuss Butine proposals. Committee has received Butine proposals and department chairs’ recommendation letters. Committee will receive deans’ recommendation letters by Oct 31. 
      3.   Committee chair will contact deans to request recommendations for candidates for the faculty teaching and research awards. 
   e.   Committee on Faculty Welfare, Dr. Laura McLary
      1.   Committee has not met.
   f.    Committee on Curriculum & Academic Regulations, Dr. Brian Adams
      1.   Committee met to discuss two proposals: 
         a)   Point of information from Social Work: SW/SJP 305 is changing to SW 205, and it will be included in the Core Curriculum. A vote is not necessary because this change does not affect any outside programs. Dr. Anissa Rogers and Dr. Norah Martin were present to answer questions, including a clarification that students could take this course as one of two courses that would fulfill the Social Science core requirement. 
         b)   Proposal from Communication Studies to change course requirements for the Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Communication. This change is due to the recent separation of the School of Business’ Marketing & Management major into two separate majors. The proposal would remove classes that no longer exist, and add newly created classes to the list of course options. The proposal also reduces the number of required business classes from four to three. The proposal will be discussed further under New Business.
VII. Presidential Advisory Committees: 
   a.   Committee on Student Media, Dr. Kaye Wilson-Anderson
      1.   Dr. Wilson-Anderson was not present.
   b.   Committee on Athletics, Dr. Alex Santana
      1.   Dr. Santana was not present.
   c.   Committee on Health and Safety, Dr. Sally Hood
      1.   Committee met October 12. Topics included: 
         a)   The university is in conversations with the city to add lights and an audible device at the crosswalk at Willamette. 
         b)   Fire drills are currently being scheduled for spring semester.
   d.   Committee on Information Technology, Dr. Teri Woo
      1.   Dr. Woo was not present. Stephanie Michel read a report sent by Dr. Woo stating that the committee met for the first time on the morning of October 25 to get organized for the year.
      2.   Dr. Meike Neiderhausen was present at the meeting; she reported:
         a)   Committees were created to address the following issues: 
            (1) Fr. Beauchamp indicated his main priority was planning for the library during its year in an interim location, as well as information technology issues in the new library. 
            (2) Social media
            (3) Faculty outreach
            (4) Online learning
            (5) Mobile computing.
   e.   Committee on Sustainability, Dr. Hillary Merk
      1.   Committee met September 21 to set up tasks for the year.
      2.   Committee will meet again October 26.
VIII.       Other Reports:
   a.   Fr. William Beauchamp
      1.   Fr. Beauchamp was not present.
   b.   Dean’s Meeting (Br. Donald Stabrowski)
      1.   Deans have met sporadically due to other activities this semester.
      2.   Faculty are receiving invitations to serve on new committees.
      3.   Br. Donald thanks everyone for their participation with the recent Northwest Accreditation visit. 
         a)   The Commendations from the accreditors were remarkable – in particular the commendation for assessment of the core curriculum and for information technology.
         b)   Accreditors were impressed with the online report and exhibit room created by Karen Nelson and Tom Greene.  This may have set a new standard for Northwest.
      4.   Deans received visits from:
         a)   Registrar
         b)   Karen Nelson
         c)   Brenda Greiner from the Freshman Resource Center. Brenda Greiner reports that UP has achieved its freshman retention goal; UP achieved 90.7% retention this year. Ten years ago retention was 70%.
      5.   A new program called DegreeWorks is being purchased to replace CAP. DegreeWorks should be easier to use, it works with Banner, and will be available in spring.
      6.   SmartCatalog was purchased to allow the Bulletin to be edited electronically.   
      7.   Workshops about the online evaluation process are taking place this week. This fall is the first time that everyone will use online evaluations. Tailoring of online evaluations needs to take place now.
      8.   Deans will meet next week. During the last week of every month Br. Donald meets with the deans individually.
   c.   ASUP
      1.   ASUP is currently allocating funds to clubs. Club advisors should remind their clubs that budgets are due November 9. $80,000 is allocated to clubs; remind clubs to keep spending their funds.
      2.   On October 24, ASUP proposed special resolution 1107 pertaining to the capital improvement fund. ASUP will meet next week to prepare for the special election.
      3.   During the second weekend in November, ASUP will host a round table for private universities within a two-hour radius. Multiple sessions will discuss how student governments work.
IX.  New Business:
   a.   Proposal from Communication Studies regarding course changes for the Organizational Communication degree
      1.   Courtney Fletcher reviewed the Communication Studies proposal to change course requirements for the Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Communication. This proposal:
         a)   Eliminates two courses that have been dropped from Business curriculum
         b)   Adds new courses
         c)   Changes required number of Business classes from four to three.
         d)   Allows more flexibility within the program.
         e)   Proposal was passed. 
   b.   Point of Information from Social Work
      1.   Discussed under report from Committee on Curriculum & Academic Regulations.
X.   Announcements:
   a.   The Academic Senate Executive Committee will meet on November 1.  
   b.   The next Academic Senate meeting will take place November 15.   
XI.  Adjournment: 4:20pm.

Note: All members of the University community are welcome to attend any meeting of the Academic Senate. The meetings begin promptly at 4:00 pm .