Academic Senate: MINUTES 3/18/2008

II. Roll call: Present: Fr. William Beauchamp, Br. Donald, Sr. Maria Ciriello, Jovelyn Bonilla, Karen Ward, Jeff Gauthier, Chris Hallstrom, Angela Hoffman, Carol Dempsey, Elise Moentmann, Anna Costa, Sue Decker, Aziz Inan, Fr. Stephen Rowan, Jackie Waggoner, Fr. Mark Ghyselinck, Todd Easton, John Orr, Bret Tobalske, Caroline Mann, Zia Yamayee, Dann Pierce, John Schouten, Mark Utlaut, Diane Vines; Not present: Anissa Rogers,Peter Thacker

III. Invocation: Offered by Dean Zia Yamayee

IV. Approval of minutes from 2/19/08 meeting

V. Standing Committee Reports:

   i. Executive Committee, Dr. Jeff Gauthier: The executive Committee met two weeks ago; meeting pertained to the upcoming resolutions under new business. Some people have expressed interest in running for office; all are encouraged to consider running. Jeff then announced that he will be temporarily resigning the Chair for the discussion and vote of the Rank and Tenure resolution. He also announced that we will be voting on the amendment to the by-laws during the April meeting.

   ii. Committee on Committees, Dr. Todd Easton: No report

   iii. Committee on Rank & Tenure, Dr. Mark Utlaut: The committee continues to meet.

   iv. Committee on Teaching & Scholarship, Dr. Susan Decker: All the Butine funds have been awarded; awards represent a good cross section of faculty across campus; the new Butine proposal gave people some new opportunities. The committee will be forwarding the names for the faculty awards for teaching and scholarship to Brother Donald. The committee is now working on faculty development day—the theme is “Arts and Creativity across the Curriculum”; on that day, there will be a writing workshop in the morning. For faculty development day, the committee is trying to highlight the incorporation of various creative activities and practices into the curriculum.

   v. Committee on Faculty Welfare, Dr. Elise Moentmann: No report.

   vi. Committee on Curriculum & Academic Regulations, Ms. Caroline Mann: The committee has met; 2 new proposals are listed for new business.

VI. Presidential Advisory Committees: 

   i. Committee on Student Media: The committee has broken into sub-committees to interview candidates for editor positions of the Beacon and the Log. The names will be in place by next week.

   ii. Committee on Athletics: The committee is dealing with proportionality of gender between men and women sports. Currently the University is not within our guidelines of Title 9 for gender equity. Two new sports have been proposed, possibility Lacrosse and Crew for gender equity; it looks like a women’s sport will be added, and then the gender equity for the sports offered will be in place. The current GPA for student athletes is 3.2.

   iii. Committee on Health and Safety: The committee has met to talk about potholes, key policies, continued discussion of propped doors open in the Chiles Center, parking spaces, skate boards in classrooms—where to hang them up, whether or not they should be brought to class.

   iv. Committee on Information Technology: The committee has not yet met this month.

   v. Committee on Sustainability: The committee discussed the success of Focus the Nation. The committee also talked about using Site-Lines to assess campus sustainability issues, is looking at green house gas audits, how we use resources on campus. The committee also wants to connect with the students’ sustainability club. The Ecology Club is looking to see how they can reduce paper use on campus. Steve Kolmes talked to the committee about Natural Step.

VII. Other Reports: 

   i. Fr. William Beauchamp: Much time was spent traveling this past month—primarily to alumnae events in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson, and San Francisco. There was a strong event in San Francisco and Seattle—hosted and paid for by Bon Appetit. The President also mentioned that he attended the West Coast Presidents’ Conference where a new conference president was chosen. He will be traveling again to South Bend for meetings and then on to Salzburg where a new lease on the Salzburg building will be signed. Yesterday, on March 17 the University Officers approved the new budget. April 18 Kim Dae Jung, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of South Korea will be on campus and will receive an honorary degree at that time. He will speak on his conversion to Catholicism. Kim Dae Jung is only speaking here and at Harvard.

   ii. Dean’s Meeting: The deans met twice. University Scholars were chosen: Elise Herringa (College of Arts and Sciences); Megan Hoffman (School of Nursing); Brittany Cotterell (Pamplin School of Business); Andrew Smith (School of Engineering); Anne Graner (School of Education). The Valedictorian is Andrew Smith (School of Engineering). The deans also met with Dennis Ransmeyer, the new VP for Finance. The deans also met with the Student Orientation Committee for planning and discussion about the good decision of not separating out the transfer students from the new students. The deans voted to replace Zia Yamayee with Robin Anderson for the senate position.

   iii. ASUP: They had their first online vote, and had the best turn out in years. The current board is now working with the new executive board. There will be a transition retreat in April. The board is working on their resolutions; all resolutions are due in next week for April meeting. A new senate committee on sustainability was approved by the senate, and the chair of that committee will work with the President of ASUP who will assign student members to the committee. That committee will also have a student representative on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Sustainability. The Harlem Gospel Choir is taking place tonight—the major event for CPB.

VIII. New Business:

   1. Proposal for BA in Physics
      · Caroline Mann presented the proposal.
      · The proposal generated no discussion from the senate floor.
      · The proposal passed.

   2. Proposal for BA and BBA in Economics

Caroline Mann presented the proposal.
      · Proposal generated no discussion from the senate floor.
      · Proposal passed.

   3.  Constitutional Amendment on Committee Appointments
      · Jeff Gauthier presented the amendment: “Ordinarily, all faculty committee appointments to standing committees shall last for three years from the date of appointment. Faculty must be appointed for less than three years when they replace a committee member who is on sabbatical, leave, or committee resignation. If a faculty term is interrupted for sabbatical or leave and time remains in the term upon the faculty member’s return to the University, the remainder of the three year term shall be served by the original appointee. If possible, faculty appointed to replace a committee member who is on sabbatical or leave shall serve for an entire academic year.”
      · Discussion involved points of clarification.
      · Amendment passed unanimously.

   4. Constitutional Amendment on the Makeup of the Rank and Tenure Committee
      · Jeff vacated his chair and passed it over to Todd Easton. Todd presented the amendment: “The Committee on Rank and Tenure shall have seven members (including the Chair), all of whom shall be regular faculty with tenure at the associate rank or higher, but not Assistant or Associate Deans of the Schools or the College; and at least four shall be full professors.”
      ·  Discussion: On behalf of his department and on behalf of faculty who have spoken to him about this amendment, Jeff Gauthier spoke against the proposal and outlined all the reasons why. Brother Donald mentioned how the change to the Constitution came about in the first place. Mark Utlaut explained the change further; mentioned that the Committee on Rank and Tenure was not in favor of the proposal; then he expressed his own views that favor having chairs on the committee. John Orr addressed how the senate chooses the Committee on Committees. John Schouten responded and brought the focus back to the issue at hand. Other points related to the amendment were also discussed by other senators.
      · The senate then voted: 15 yes---8 no. The proposal passed with a simple majority and will now go to the university faculty for voting.

   5. Amendment to the By-Laws on Amendments to the By-Laws (first reads only).

IX. Announcements: No announcements.

X. Adjournment: 5:28 PM

Note: All members of the University community are welcome to attend any meeting of the Academic Senate. The meetings begin promptly at 4:00 pm.