Academic Senate: MINUTES 1/17/2006

Present: Ms. Rebekah Babiarz, 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. Mark Eifler (for Moentmann), Dr. Jeff Gauthier, Ms. Ashley Hartmeier, Sr. Angela Hoffman, Dr. Louis Masson, Dr. Marlene Moore, Dr. John Orr, Dr. Peter Osterburg, Dr. Bart Rylander, Ms. Diane Sotak, Br. Donald Stabrowski, Dr. Zia Yamayee

Absent: Dr. Chris Hallstrom, Dr. Jack Kondrasuk, Dr. Lora Looney, Dr. Katie O’Reilly, Dr. Dann Pierce, Dr. Peter Thacker

Invocation: The invocation was given by Sr. Ciriello.

Minutes of the November 15, 2005 meeting were accepted with a minor correction (Committee on Health and Safety did not meet in November due to lack of a quorum).

Standing Committee Reports

Executive Committee: Angela Hoffman gave the report. The executive committee met in December and discussed method for faculty vote on constitution changes. Senate website is at the final review stages and is waiting for approval by the Officers.

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

Committee on Rank & Tenure: Louis Masson gave the report. The committee has not met.

Committee on Teaching & Scholarship: Carol Dempsey gave the report. She passed out a summary of Butine faculty survey results, which will be posted on the T&S website. An ad hoc committee will work with the survey, the original guidelines, and present guidelines that are in place to formulate a revised edition. Br. Donald was asked to bring the survey results forward for discussion at the December Dean’s meeting. They did discuss and sent a letter with some directives for the guidelines and the committee as a whole. Specifics were that copies of faculty reports should be submitted annually to Br. Donald. And the committee should revisit its mandate, which includes faculty development and overseeing faculty evaluations (subcommittees will look at these areas to assess committee workload involved). Also, the website needs to be updated, which Carol is working on via the Sherpa system.Carol also passed out the Spring Timeline for Butine supplemental awards. The call went out in January and they have $8,378 dollars to award.

Committee on Faculty Welfare: Susan Baillet gave the report. The committee has not met, but held a faculty workshop on January 12^th. The workshop was very well attended, so they may try to set up future workshops. For those interested, the faculty survey results Karen Nelson presented at the workshop can be seen at: https://www.up.edu/ir/.

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 committee has not met.

Committee on Athletics: Peter Thacker not present. No report.

Committee on Health and Safety: Linda Birenbaum gave the report. The committee met in December and January and will be meeting monthly. The committee reviewed their bylaws which will go forward to officers. There will be an Oregon OSHA inspection sometime within the next 18 months. The University emergency management plan was reviewed by the officers and is in the final editing stage. They also looked at the OSHA 300 log entries and discussed incident reports. At the February meeting, Health and Safety will review the Key policy.

Committee on Information Technology: Diane Sotak gave the report. The committee met in December and will meet again in February. The three subcommittees (website/sherpa, infrastructure, and communication review) will be meeting in February, so there will be more to report next month.

Student-Faculty Court: Dann Pierce not present. No report.

Other Reports

Fr. William Beauchamp: Fr. held four faculty luncheons in Fall semester, with ten faculty attending each lunch. He thought they were very successful with good exchanges among faculty from across the campus. He will continue these in Spring semester. Currently he is focused on finishing the rank and tenure decisions, which are due by the end of January.
The officers had a two day meeting earlier in January to discuss budget, enrollment, residence life, and funding priorities. They plan to meet more often.
The total number of applications last year was 3,025. So far this year they have received 5,300 applications and expect that to go up to 6,000. One reason for increase is that Admissions is trying some new outreach to prospective students, such as targeted invitations to apply. The academic credentials of the applicant group are also higher. The challenge will be in determining how many to accept to have an incoming class of 725. The university has hired Hardwick Day, a Minnesota-based consulting firm, to conduct a three year study of its financial aid plan. Two primary goals are to reduce the discount rate and redirect aid based on need, rather than strictly on merit.
The university has requested a six month extension to do further studies (required by EPA, DEQ, etc.) on land parcel. They have one year to complete studies before deal closes.
They are currently interviewing Business School Dean candidates.
Fr. attended the NCAA awards ceremony where Christine Sinclair was in the top eight academic students across all of the NCAA sports and also won the Hermann Trophy. The ceremony will air on ESPN2 on January 31^st.

Deans Report: Br. Donald Stabrowski gave the report. The Deans meeting focused on the Teaching and Scholarship Committee’s Butine survey. The Butine is permanently endowed so the purpose of the award cannot be changed and original intent must be followed. It is still important to give preference to young faculty and under funded departments.

ASUP: Rebekah Babiarz gave the report. Mary Boyle will be a guest speaker at the Jan. 30^th ASUP Senate meeting. ASUP elections will be held in February. The 24 hour study space in the Pilot House is open and going well. Furniture that has been added to that space is being adjusted to meet ADA compliance standards. The ASUP Board’s visit to Notre Dame went well and the UND Board may visit UP in the Spring.

New Business

Faculty Vote on Constitution: Angela Hoffman updated the Senators on the online voting process for the faculty vote. She displayed an overhead with text of email that faculty will receive. The voting will end on January 31^st and is anonymous. There was a question about whether faculty vote needed a quorum. The Constitution (Article 8, Section 2) states it “must be approved by a majority vote of the regular faculty.”

Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 4:40 P.M.

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