Academic Senate: MINUTES 01/18/2005

Present: Dr. Susan Baillet, Dr. Linda Birenbaum, Dr. James Connelly, Dr. Michael Connolly, Dr. Carol Dempsey, Dr. Karen Eifler, Dr. Jeff Gauthier, Dr. Rich Gritta, Dr. Greg Hill, Sr. Angela Hoffman, Dr. Jack Kondrasuk, Dr. Larry Lewis, Dr. Lora Looney, Dr. Diane Martin, Dr. Marlene Moore, Dr. Peter Osterberg, Ms. Jennifer Reinhard, Ms. Julie Stillwell, Ms. Diane Sotak, Br. Donald Stabrowski, Dr. Peter Thacker

Absent: Dr. Amelia Ahern-Rindell, Fr. William Beauchamp, Sr. Maria Ciriello, Dr. Louis Masson, Dr. Bart Rylander

Invocation: The invocation was given by Karen Eifler.

It was noted that there was a typo in the spelling of Marlene Moore’s name in the Minutes of October, 2004 meeting.Other than this one typo, the Minutes of October, 2004 was accepted.

Standing Committee Reports

Executive Committee: Angela Hoffman gave the report. The committee held a very productive meeting with Fr. Beauchamp and Br. Donald to discuss faculty welfare recommendations, research budget allocations, visions for the future, etc. It was requested to the committee that if a regularly scheduled Senate meeting is cancelled then the various committee reports should be posted on the Senate website in place of the normal Senate meeting report in order to keep people informed. This will be done from now on.

Committee on Committees: No report was given, as there was no action taken since the last Senate meeting.

Committee on Rank & Tenure: Angela Hoffman gave the report. The committee is awaiting the next set of files to arrive for the next round of review cases for this spring semester.

Committee on Teaching & Scholarship: Carol Dempsey gave the report. The committee met in December and January to plan a timeline for the spring 2005 Butine and faculty teaching and scholarship awards. Carol distributed a memo which described a timeline for these activities to communicate to all faculty. The committee completed the updating of the application and documentation guidelines for the Butine awards and the teaching and scholarship awards which will be given to the executive committee and then presented to the full senate in February for discussion and approval. The committee completed a new standardized form for the faculty Butine recipients which will enable them to more easily document the outcomes of their award. The committee will be working on creating a new webpage where all Butine material can be accessed on-line electronically and allow for easier tracking of both the monetary budgets and the outcomes. The committee will be proposing that starting next year, the previous year’s faculty recipients of the scholarship and teaching awards would do a presentation on Founders Day. For this semester, the committee has $10,250.00 to award. Because the committee will now be able to overlap the fiscal year and the academic year in the monetary award process, faculty who had applied for money for this cycle can also use it through the summer. Therefore, monies requested during this Butine cycle can also be used throughout the summer. Faculty members in need of funding to attend summer conferences that occur in June, July, and August before the new 2005-2006 academic year begins are encouraged to apply for funding during this Butine cycle. Finally, the committee noted that more money is needed in the future to cover expenses for new activities including expanded faculty professional opportunities, curriculum development, and new and emerging interdisciplinary opportunities which may involve faculty groups and national or international travel.

Committee on Faculty and Welfare: Susan Baillet gave the report. The committee had a very productive meeting with Fr. Beauchamp in November. This meeting was in response to a senate recommendation proposed by last year’s faculty welfare committee. Fr. Beauchamp wrote a written response (see attached scanned-in letter in the Attachments section at end of these minutes). Fr. has agreed to meet with the committee regularly and stress communication and respect. If there are issues, Fr. is receptive to participating in the discussions with the caveat that he makes the final decision. The committee has met to discuss a proposal for one or two “no class” reading days before final exams during both the fall and spring semesters. The rationale for these reading days is that they would benefit both the students and the faculty to give everyone a chance for a more relaxed time for reflection and rest before the final exams begin. Br. Donald is receptive to this idea. The faculty will be receiving a survey explaining the rationale for having up to two “no class” reading days before exams. Based on the responses, the committee will meet again with Br. Donald to strategize the next step. Additionally, the committee is now reviewing a procedure for “slowing the tenure clock” for reasons including child birth, family illness, etc. Such a procedure is currently described in the articles of the administration but it would be helpful to also formally include such a specific policy in the handbook.

Committee on Curriculum & Academic Regulations: No report was given, as there was no action taken since the last Senate meeting.

Presidential Advisory Committee Reports

Committee on Student Media: Jeff Gauthier gave the report. The committee held a meeting where initial reports from KDUP, The Beacon, and The Log were given. All three reports were good and no major problems were reported. The committee plans to meet again this semester to begin the process of choosing new people to run these three organizations next year.

Committee on Athletics: Diane Martin gave the report. Title 9 remains a major concern for the Athletic Director because the university is currently significantly out-of-balance with respect to the needs of women athletes in the Chiles Center. One major issue is that the women locker rooms are too small. Also, the low number of participating spaces for women in sports is a concern. The committee discussed two new sports that might be added to solve this problem including skiing and crew. Finally, student athlete nutrition and eating disorders is another concern. The committee will be meeting in late January to address these issues.

Committee on Health & Safety: No report was given, as there was no action taken since the last Senate meeting.

Committee on Computers & Telecommunications: Diane Sotak gave the report. An improved version of the university website is now being worked on and the initial version of this improved website will be launched at the end of January. Beginning in late spring, OCIO will be converting to a new email server called Microsoft Exchange which will replace PINE. Microsoft Exchange training will be offered before this conversion is complete. The Registrar will beta-test Microsoft Exchange before they make the final complete conversion which is tentatively planned towards the end of the summer. The university will be getting a new portal called Campus EAI to replace Campus Pipeline. It is tentatively planned to have this new portal up and running by the fall 2005 semester. OCIO is deploying a wireless network. Franz Hall, the library, the Pilot house and St. Mary’s will be the first campus buildings to receive the wireless network this spring. The plan is to have wireless coverage for the entire campus by the end of the summer. A “computer paper” subcommittee has been formed to review how to handle the number of computer paper print copies each student should be allowed. A course management software subcommittee is currently soliciting bids from different course management software providers with the goal of choosing a single provider for the entire campus rather than having multiple providers.

Committee on the Web: Marlene Moore gave the report. The committee met on January 13. The committee approved a charter and goals. There are seven goals which serve the purpose of providing input and recommendations to improve policies and procedures regarding the university website which would then be sent to the President for approval. The committee will serve as a funnel for concerns and issues regarding the university website and will publish an annual “State of the Web” to the university community starting next year. The committee plans to develop a written job description for the new website super-users. The committee wants: 1) a written description of the university’s internal and the external internet services, 2) a written explanation of the relationship between the OCIO and the PR offices regarding the university website, 3) written guidelines and approval process for the appropriateness of information appearing on the university website and, 4) to perform an annual review of the website. Matt Liston gave a report to the committee describing the new web-based portal called Campus EAI which will replace Campus Pipeline. Similar to what was done with Campus Pipeline, representatives from the university community are being sought who would begin discussing what they want from this new portal.

Student & Faculty Court: Michael Connolly gave the report. The court met once and successfully resolved one student case. The details of this case are confidential.

Other Reports

Deans Report: Br. Donald Stabrowski gave the report. The Deans have met regularly during this academic year. One major concern regarding the this year’s budget is the student work-study job budget which is growing out of control. In order to regain control of this budget, everyone is now asked to go back to a zero-based budget for work-study and to justify all work-study positions. This effort is an attempt to get some common understanding of what works and how work-study funds are distributed across campus. Marlene Moore prepared and distributed a very clear and well-written document on the guidelines for class scheduling which will serve to insure efficient utilization of our class room space as well as to insure that all class time-slots are utilized evenly throughout the entire school week. Jim Lyons presented the status of the present admissions standards for each of the schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. The deans also had a lengthy conversation on standardizing the evaluation process for the endowed chairs. Nora Martin presented an excellent proposal for the honors program. Regina Largent and Karen Nelson reported that this past semester we had fewer-than-usual withdrawals from the freshman class, we had fewer students on probation and we had 1/3 less students dismissed this year as a result of failing classes. Music down-loading by students using the university internet is becoming a big problem. In response, the OCIO is researching the purchase of software to stop people from doing this.

ASUP: Julie Stillwell gave the report. ASUP is now meeting Mondays at 4:30 P.M. in BC 103. ASUP discussed holding an end-of-year sale for the students to sell their unused items from the school year. The proceeds would go to an organization or back to the students. ASUP would like to have a St. John’s night for students where they could tour the area and ask businesses to have some special student events. ASUP discussed 24-hour study space for the students including 24-hour access to computers and printers. ASUP will be having spring elections for President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Campus Program Board Director, some open student ASUP senate positions, a senior-level ASUP position, and some residents hall positions. ASUP is asking for help in recruiting good student candidates for these positions. The ASUP Campus Program Board has been working hard to prepare several student events for this spring semester including movies, comedians, and a hypnotist. ASUP has spent a significant time discussing and planning Tsunami relief fund-raising effort ideas including a bowling tournament, a basketball tournament, and a 24-hour “fast” where students give up their commons points in lieu of cash. ASUP reports that students are very interested in the free anti-virus software available from the OCIO website.

New Business

Angela Hoffman reported on new business. Angela summarized the response from the ad hoc committee to study and review issues and proposed changes with the senate constitution and bylaw documents. There were five issues that were brought to their attention as follows: 1) whether the financial administrator should serve on the Committee on Faculty Welfare, 2) whether associate deans should serve on standing committees, 3) whether committee chair elections should be staggered so that every chair will not be new at the same time, 4) check for internal inconsistencies in the word “Senior” in the documents and, 5) clarify whether the chair of the senate is actually an officer. The response to these five issues from the ad hoc committee was as follows: 1) the response to the first three issues would require a proposal from either the respective committee or the executive committee along with all necessary back-up rationale before it is brought to the attention of the senate, 2) the response to the fourth issue is that all references to “senior” as it relates to faculty should be stated as “senior rank”, and 3) the response to the fifth issue is, yes, the chair of the senate is considered an officer.

Announcements

Jeff Gauthier made an announcement. Jeff handed out copies of a memo entitled “Resolution on Worker Rights”. This resolution will be discussed as a New Business item at the next senate meeting. The resolution is to establish a new ad hoc committee to look into the issues of worker rights and, in particular, the university’s involvement with some groups that monitor manufacturing of clothing and other goods with the university logo.

Angela Hoffman reminded everyone to make sure that their respective units elect (or re-elect) new senate representatives for next year as soon as possible, if they have not already done so.

Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 5:48 P.M.

Respectively submitted,

Dr. Peter Osterberg, Secretary to the Senate