Academic Senate: MINUTES 02/18/2003

Present: Dr. George Battistel, Dr. Rich Christen, Rev. James Connelly, Dr. Will Deming, Dr. Thompson Faller, Dr. Laura Genik, Dr. Greg Hill, Dr. Mark Kennedy, Mr. Larry Larsen, Dr. Larry Lewis, Dr. Marlene Moore, Ms. Heidi Senior, Dr. David Sherrer, Dr. Agnes Tenney, Rev. David Tyson, Dr. Anita Lee Wynne, Dr. Zia Yamayee

Absent: Dr. Amelia Ahern-Rindell, Ms. Colleen Bender, Dr. Susan Brown, Mr. Walt Dawson, Dr. Bohn Lattin, Dr. Dakshina Murty, Dr. Steve Royce, Dr. John Schouten, Br. Donald Stabrowski

Guest: Sr. Maria Ciriello

Invocation: Dr. Larry Lewis gave the invocation.

Standing Committee Reports

Executive Committee: Dr. Thompson Faller gave the report. The Registrar will respond at our next meeting to the question about the reason for grades being due at 9:00 a.m. the Monday following exams. The question regarding terms of office for members of the Rank and Tenure Committee will be addressed in the new bylaws currently being reviewed by the Ad hoc Committee appointed for this purpose. This committee will be meeting on the 27th of February. If anyone has anything that needs to be addressed please let Dr. Joanna Kaakinen, the Chair of that committee know.

Committee on Committee: Dr. Steve Royce was ill and could not report. Dr. Faller reported that Father Tyson has selected John Schouten to replace Jack Kondrasuk on the Athletic Committee.

Committee on Rank & Tenure: Dr. Dakshina Murty has a class at this time and was unable to attend the Senate meeting. The tenure review process is underway.

Committee on Teaching & Scholarship: Mr. Larry Larsen reported that the nomination process for the excellence in teaching and excellence in scholarship awards have been completed. There are eight nominees who will now need to complete the rest of the process so that an awardee can be selected.

Committee on Faculty and Welfare: Dr. Agnes Tenney reported on two items discussed at their meeting. (1) Five faculty-parking permits have been received. They are visitor’s permits so that they have more flexibility in where one can park. Faculty that must leave campus in the middle of the day can access one of these. They are currently in the School of Education office. The use is less then anticipated. The Committee will continue to monitor their use. (2) The other issue related to the expectations of faculty who have tenure track appointments but are working less than full time. The next Committee meeting is March 5. The Financial Vice President has agreed to present the University budget for next year at the next Senate meeting.

Committee on Curriculum & Academic Regulations: Dr. Mark Kennedy reported that the Committee has one item on today’s agenda.. The Committee discussed reducing committee size but decided to leave things the way they are.

Presidential Advisory Committee Reports

Committee on Student Media: Dr. Rich Christen stated there was no report.

Committee on Athletics: There was no report. Dr. John Schouten was absent.

Committee on Health & Safety: Dr. Anita Lee Wynne reported the Committee had not met this semester.

Committee on Computers & Telecommunications: Ms. Heidi Senior reported that the committee had not met this semester.

Student & Faculty Court: Dr. Laura Genik reported the Committee had not met.

Other Reports

Deans Report: There was no report. Bro. Donald Stabrowski was absent.

ASUP: Father Tyson reported that ASUP elections would take place next week. ASUP is also considering a proposal to reduce the size of the student government and what the student government should look like. The Constitution and Bylaws of ASUP are also being reviewed to “clean them up”.

New Business

Proposal to reduce credit hours to align the BA in Elementary Education and BS in Secondary Education with the University requirement of 120 hours: Dr. Mark Kennedy, Chair of CAR, presented the proposal. The concern raised in the Committee related to dropping the upper division English class for the Elementary Education teachers. The School of Education acknowledged the concern and stated that they would monitor students writing abilities. With the embedding of writing elements in the core, there will be many opportunities in other courses to write, so it should not be a problem. Sr. Ciriello, Dean of the School of Education, also noted that education majors take two sets of tests in order to receive a license to teach and both test writing.
Senators also raised a question about why the number of hours needs to be reduced since the University has 120 credits as a minimum not a maximum and other programs have more than 120 hours. Sr. Maria Ciriello, Dean of the School of Education, replied that this would facilitate opening up credits beyond the 120 for students who wanted additional electives or a minor. There is also a move in education to have secondary education graduates have a major in their specialty and this would also facilitate that process. Sr. Ciriello was asked why the decision was not to leave the same number of hours in the degree requirements, but simply delineate some as elective. She replied that doing so would require students to take more than 15 hours a semester and 15 semester hours was all a student could manage and still do a good job.

Action: The proposal passed with two Senators in opposition. It will go into effect in the fall semester of 2003.

Fr. David Tyson reported on the Board of Regents retreat where the topic was the planning process. Assumptions about the University were reviewed and discussed. The Board is writing up their response to Father Tyson now. Father Tyson hopes to have an outline of the Strategic Plan at the April meeting and then tweak that over the summer. He also announced that Bryce Strang, was hired as the Associate Vice President of Development. He also reported that we are still celebrating the National Championship earned by the Women’s Soccer Team. Monday the soccer team will meet with President Bush. Nike sponsored a dinner for the team on Sunday night.

Adjournment: 4:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted, Dr. Anita Lee Wynne, Secretary to the Senate