Academic Senate | University of Portland

Academic Senate
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Academic Senate: MINUTES 11/15/2005

Present: Ms. Rebekah Babiarz, Dr. Susan Baillet, Dr. Linda Birenbaum, Sr. Maria Ciriello, Dr. Michael Connolly, Dr. Carol Dempsey, 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. Bart Rylander, Ms. Diane Sotak, Br. Donald Stabrowski, Dr. Peter Thacker, Dr. Zia Yamayee

Absent: Fr. William Beauchamp, Dr. Bruce Drake, Dr. Dann Pierce

Invocation: The invocation was given by Elise Moentmann.

Minutes of the October 11, 2005 meeting were accepted with a minor correction (change Committee on Faculty and Welfare to Committee on Faculty Welfare).

The senate voted to move Bryon Fessler’s presentation to the beginning of the meeting.

Bryon Fessler, Vice President for Information Services Division: Prior to the meeting Senators received a list of accomplishments and upcoming projects for each of the Information Services Division units. Bryon said they have brought several major projects to fruition.
In Administrative Systems they implemented five Banner modules and are in the process of moving Alumni & Development from a different system to Banner. As a result there has been a large increase in Banner use around campus and the system has 540,000 records. This project should be completed by next fiscal year.
Over the past year Technical Support migrated 4500 email accounts to Microsoft Exchange. Wireless networking was put in place in Pilot House, St. Mary’s, and the Library. Recently they have been working on implementing the Print Reduction Initiative software in the library and labs. In the next year they will be tackling a major systems engineering effort including a $1m core upgrade in the summer. There are currently components in communication closets all over campus that are daisy-chained together resulting in variable speed. These hubs will be removed and core switching installed. Lastly, the firewall is five years old and has had no maintenance. This will be upgraded using a system called Clean Access that scans for viruses. This will greatly improve the robustness of the Residential network, which currently operates at 50-60% due to viruses.
In Web Services they implemented the new portal, Learning@UP, and Sherpa. There is a Directorate position and three web application specialists. Departments that have been waiting for years to have a web presence are now online. In the next year they will be shoring up the system. Currently there are over 100 faculty using Moodle and Bryon wants to start a Moodle Users Group. They are planning to pair trained student workers with departments to help departments with web development.
Senators asked about the systems upgrade and the plan for engineering, e-portfolios, print reduction initiative, and double-sided pricing. The upgrade is in the planning stage and systems engineers will have to be brought in to evaluate the situation as part of that stage. The School of Business has been interested in e-portfolios, where students create an electronic portfolio of their work. These can be used in a variety of ways, including for assessment. Issues of permission, copyright, and storage space would have to be resolved. The printing issue was studied for eight years in committee before a proposal went to the officers last year, including what other universities with pay-for-print offered for free printing. UP’s number of 300 is fairly generous when compared to those, but the quota will be reassessed after implementation. The objective is not to profit off of students but to stabilize the budget. (300 pages per student = $50k). Currently there is no discount for printing double-sided in order to keep it simple for accounting purposes. There is one lab coordinator and 20 student lab assistants who will be responsible for crediting student accounts for problem print jobs.

Standing Committee Reports

Executive Committee: Angela Hoffman gave the report. The executive committee met with Father Beauchamp and Brother Donald on November 1 to discuss some of the constitutional changes. The next day the executive committee met without a quorum, so had to email back and forth for the next week to sort out the proposed changes for the constitution and bylaws.

Committee on Committees: Jeff Gauthier gave the report. The committee has not met.

Committee on Rank & Tenure: Louis Masson gave the report. The committee meets weekly and the work continues.

Committee on Teaching & Scholarship: Carol Dempsey gave the report. The committee met twice to discuss Butines and made funding decisions, which have been announced. 78k was awarded. There is 8k in the Supplemental fund. They are establishing a new ad-hoc committee to continue dialogue on revisions to guidelines and they will be meeting with Br. Donald. The committee is happy to answer any questions about Butine awards. Some assistant professor proposals had problems so although they wanted to fund them, they couldn’t using the current guidelines. Proposal weaknesses included unclear methodology and outcomes, unclear dissemination of results, outside commitments were not secured, or research did not fit with long-range plan for faculty development in scholarship. Carol asked that everyone encourage newer faculty to attend workshops and to work with faculty who have experience with submitting proposals.

Committee on Faculty Welfare: Susan Baillet gave the report. The committee met and discussed some issues faculty had raised about the Sexual Harassment policy and agreed that there were places for clarification and improvement. Susan met with Fr. Beauchamp and presented criticisms with suggestions. He might create a committee to look further at procedures. The committee asked that changes be made in time for new faculty orientation. Some suggestions were to include HARAN (the harassment advocacy network on campus) and to have an education component. Jim Kuffner told Susan about a computerized tutorial that UP could subscribe to and she tried it and found it informative. Senators can get an overview of the tutorial by signing in as guests for the Demo at: http://www.newmedialearning.com
The committee also set up a faculty meeting for January 12^th, 1-2:30pm in BC163. Karen Nelson will present faculty survey data results and Jim Kuffner will present on health insurance after retirement.

Committee on Curriculum & Academic Regulations: Karen Eifler gave the report. The committee has not met.

Presidential Advisory Committee Reports

Committee on Student Media: Jeff Gauthier gave the report. The KDUP transmitter is not working and it is not clear why. The broadcast is currently streaming on the web.

Committee on Athletics: Peter Thacker gave the report. The self-study is underway. An area to be addressed is an upgrade to the women’s locker room. The soccer team has a #1 ranking but is last among 321 schools for its locker facility. There is also going to be a new synthetic field. There was a presentation from Christina Vantol reporting that 90% of student athlete issues are related to eating disorders, rather than academics.
Sr. Maria added that there are 60 people involved in the NCAA self-study. They are busy finding data and paperwork buried in paperwork! Next semester there will be forms distributed to the campus community to gather more data. The final report is due May 15^th.

Committee on Health and Safety: Linda Birenbaum gave the report. The committee has not met.

Committee on Information Technology: Diane Sotak gave the report. The committee received the same handouts distributed to the Senators. The Directors for each of the Information Services Division units were present to answer questions. The committee established three subcommittees: Communication Review, Web, and Infrastructure (hardware).

Student-Faculty Court: Dann Pierce reported via email that they have not met.

Other Reports

Fr. William Beauchamp: Fr. was absent, so there was no report.

Deans Report: Br. Donald Stabrowski gave the report. The Deans had an update from Fr. Doyle on changes in university relations. There have been discussions about PACs and their mission/purpose will be reviewed. Fr. Bill held three faculty lunches in Fall term and will have more in Spring. A decision will need to be made soon about whether to establish a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree to replace the Clinical Nurse Leader Masters degree. Between Christmas and New Year’s, the Information Services Division will install Banner 7. Regina Largent reported on freshman workshop evaluations which were very positive. Highest satisfaction was with the session on pre-registration. There were not as many academic warnings this year. Roy Heynderickx did a contribution analysis for programs across the university. In 1994-95 there was a 0% return on investment. In 2004-05 the return was 104%. Summer school enrollment has increased tremendously over past decade and has an improved return.

ASUP: Rebekah Babiarz gave the report. The Executive Board is going to Notre Dame. It turns out that the NYT won’t be provided for free on campus. ASUP and Residence Life have pooled money to buy 600 3^rd round soccer tickets for students. They will do the same for the 4^th round. Waldschmidt will be adding money to send some students to Texas.

New Business

Voting on Bylaws and Constitution: Jeff Gauthier passed out a summary of proposed changes categorized by “Minor changes not affecting policy,” “Relatively minor policy statements,” and “More significant policy changes.” Jeff Gauthier called for a motion to accept the revisions. Angela Hoffman moved that the revisions be accepted. The Senate then discussed the revisions.Most of the discussion focused on the makeup of the Rank and Tenure committee (III.6.1).

Proposed changes to Constitution carried with two abstentions.

Proposed changes to Bylaws carried with all in favor.

The Constitution and Bylaws will be sent to faculty for a vote.

Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 5:32 P.M.

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

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