Academic Senate: MINUTES 9/20/2005

Present: Dr. Susan Baillet, Fr. William Beauchamp, Dr. Linda Birenbaum, Sr. Maria Ciriello, Dr. Michael Connolly, Dr. Carol Dempsey, Dr. Bruce Drake, Dr. Karen Eifler, Dr. Jeff Gauthier, Dr. Chris Hallstrom, Ms. Ashley Hartmeier, Sr. Angela Hoffman, Dr. Lora Looney, Dr. Kenneth Lulay, Dr. Louis Masson, Dr. Elise Moentmann, Dr. Marlene Moore, Dr. Katie O’Reilly, Dr. John Orr, Dr. Dann Pierce, Ms. Diane Sotak, Br. Donald Stabrowski, Dr. Peter Thacker, Dr. Zia Yamayee

Absent: Ms. Rebekah Babiarz, Dr. Jack Kondrasuk, Dr. Bart Rylander

Invocation: The invocation was given by Angela Hoffman.

Minutes of April 19, 2005 meeting were accepted.

Standing Committee Reports

Executive Committee: Angela Hoffman gave the report. The new Senate website will be ready soon and will provide easier access to Senate agendas, minutes, Constitution and Bylaws, as well as other supporting resources. Committees can also have links from the Senate website to their web pages.

Committee on Committees: Jeff Gauthier gave the report. The committee met in June after soliciting volunteers for the committees. They made appointments to Senate standing committees and sent Presidential Advisory Committee recommendations to Fr. Beauchamp. They will be reconvening to appoint committee members for the upcoming Dean searches.

Committee on Rank & Tenure: Louis Masson gave the report. The committee has begun its deliberations.

Committee on Teaching & Scholarship: Carol Dempsey gave the report. The committee has a new Teaching and Scholarship webpage with forms and archival material, including past winners and projects. The call for Butine proposals has gone out. The committee will conduct two faculty workshops (September 23^rd and 27^th) to discuss the Butine and two faculty workshops (October 24^th and 26^th) to discuss the Teaching & Scholarship Faculty Awards. The committee will be meeting on October 7^th. Carol noted that over the past three years Butine funds have decreased while at the same time there has been an increase in faculty members. Br. Donald added that the funds were affected by stock market downturns and the endowment is building up again. Also, last year the Board of Regents slightly lowered the percentage that could be taken on the endowment.

Committee on Faculty and Welfare: Susan Baillet gave the report. She met with Brother Donald to discuss the pilot use of new administrator evaluation forms. The results were positive and the forms will continue to be used. The results of the national faculty survey that UP faculty participated in have been received and the committee has asked Karen Nelson to report on the results at their October meeting. The committee would then like to have a faculty session about the survey in January. The committee was asked about what happens to health insurance after retirement? Susan investigated and Roy Heynderickx said it does become more expensive. The committee plans to hold a faculty session with Roy.

Committee on Curriculum & Academic Regulations: Karen Eifler gave the report. The committee met electronically and approved a proposal to eliminate the Theater Management emphasis from the Drama B.A. program.

Presidential Advisory Committee Reports

None of these committees had met, as they were only just appointed. The Committee on Computing and Telecommunications has been merged with the Committee on Web to form the Committee on Information Technology.

Other Reports

Fr. William Beauchamp: Fr. reported that he used the recommendations from the Committee on Committees to appoint members of the Presidential Advisory Committees. He did not appoint faculty who will be retiring and OSHA has regulations that affect the membership for the Committee on Health and Safety.
The School of Education just had a very good accreditation visit. The other accreditation-like effort is the year-long self-study for NCAA certification. Sr. Ciriello will Chair the steering committee. There will also be committees on academic integrity, governance and compliance, and one on gender, student equity, and welfare. The committees will have broad representation from among faculty, staff, students, athletics, and regents.
Fr. gave a recap of new appointments and summer events. Bryon Fessler is now Vice President for Informational Services. Fr. Doyle is Vice President of University Relations. Last summer 140 Holy Cross attendees from around the world gathered for the Living in Mission conference which examined how students are educated outside of the classroom. Fr. Tyson gave the keynote and Fr. Cleary, the superior general of the order, gave the homily. Text of both is being printed and will be distributed to faculty and staff. This meeting will occur every three years. The Provincial Chapter meeting will be held at UP in the summer of 2006.
Fr. spoke of campus efforts to address Hurricane Katrina. A committee has been created and is being co-chaired by Tom Frieberg and Jeromy Koffler. Four areas of focus were developed by the steering committee:
1) Liturgy and prayer: collections at masses, prayer services, residence hall liturgies.
2) Fundraising for needs of Holy Cross apostolates, high schools, and colleges in the affected areas: donation boxes around campus and some checks have been sent to the Development office. To date they have raised over $4000. Fr. noted a separate effort initiated by the women’s soccer team - GOALS (giving our aid, love, and support) that will raise money by getting pledges for number of goals scored this season.
3) Educational programming: there are many possibilities, for example, seminars, panels, lectures that could use the hurricane disaster to examine the public health crisis, civil engineering aspects, and military involvement in relief.
4) Local response: The UP has a couple of displaced students.
UP was named #1 in preparing students for service by the Washington Monthly. The publication looked at measures which included % of students in ROTC, amount of work-study dollars put into community service programs, and the % of graduates serving in the Peace Corps.
UP is moving ahead on the Zidell land and meeting with various state and local government officials as rezoning and road building will be required.
The 2005-06 enrollment is at an all-time high with 100 more returning students than budgeted. The retention rate is 86% and the goal is to get into the 90s in five years. This freshman class is the strongest with average GPA of 3.7 and SAT of 1190. There are concerns about gender balance and percentage of Catholics in the student body. A greater proportion of this year’s class comes from western states. There are fewer students in ROTC this year.
This summer the officers discussed the Workers Rights Consortium and decided to join. They worked on a licensing code of conduct and created a university code of conduct for manufactured goods. Additionally, the Board created a consensual relationships policy which will be part of the sexual harassment policy.

Deans Report: Br. Donald Stabrowski gave the report. In May the Deans attended an all-day retreat and concluded the tactical plan. The officers reviewed it over the summer. The academic side of the tactical plans included new positions, salary increases, faculty development, work study and mentoring, and architectural and consultant fees. All of these total 2.4 million which would come out of the operating budget. They are now in the process of prioritizing the needs and Roy Heynderickx will be meeting with the Deans.
Announcements of faculty positions are now in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Br. Donald is putting together Dean search committees and will be meeting with faculty and staff of the Clark Memorial Library and Pamplin School of Business to discuss the searches.
Regina Largent gave a report to the Deans about Service Day student evaluations which were very positive. Karen Nelson gave a preview of the national faculty survey results. UP had an 80% response rate. Results will be compared with a 1995 survey. UP also chose 10-12 similar schools for comparing results. UP looks good in outcomes such as values and job satisfaction (over 96% reporting high satisfaction).
The academic Convocation on Founder’s Day will not include the Zahm lecture. Instead the time will be used to give senior and departmental awards and will likely be held in the morning and will not require regalia.

ASUP: Ashley Hartmeier gave the report. Students are currently voting on Resolution 05-02. ASUP is looking into creating a 24 hour study space for students to be open by reading week of this semester. The ASUP budget had a $70k carryover from last year.

Old Business

Status on Resolution on Justice and Manufacture of University Products: Already addressed in Fr. Beauchamp’s report.

Status of previous Senate’s changes to Constitution and Bylaws: Angela Hoffman recapped that in April 2004 the Senate approved wording changes. Senate members should look at current draft. This will be addressed at the next Senate meeting. Faculty will vote, then it goes to Administration, then Board of Regents.

New Business

Proposed elimination of the Theater Management emphasis: The CAR committee presented the proposal to eliminate the Theater Management emphasis. The proposal was voted on and accepted.

Establishing an ad hoc committee for reapportionment of the Senate: The Committee on Committees will handle reapportionment of Senate as needed. This was raised as some departments will be dividing, which may affect Senate structure. Balance is supposed to be 70% faculty to 30% administration.

Proposal to reword constitution with regard to Teaching & Scholarship committee: The proposal was withdrawn.

Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 4:59 P.M.

Respectively submitted, Ms. Diane Sotak, Secretary to the Senate