Approved Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting

April 2, 2003

http://www.scsu.ctstateu.edu/organizations/facultysenate

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The twelfth meeting of the 2002-2003 year was called to order at 12:13 PM.

The minutes of March 12, 2003 were approved.

Members Present:

Rogers (Anthropology), Brownell (Art), Lavin (Art), Lerud (Biology), Puerschner (Chemistry), De Barbieri (Couns/Sch Psych), Fullmer (Earth Science), Corbet (Education), Diamantis (Education), Diffley (Ed Leadership), Hood (English), Johnson (English), Mee (Exercise Science), Rinehardt (Exercise Science), Sakalowsky (Geography), Amerman (History), Petto (History), Dunklee (Journalism), Bielefield (Library Science), Klassen (Library Services), Oppedisano (Management), Prince (Marketing), Bennett (Math), Brin (Math), O’Brien (Media Studies), Wagner (Nursing), Young (Part-time), Pettigrew (Philosophy), Broadbridge (Physics), Paulson (Political Science), Sherman (Psychology), Brancazio, (Psychology), Bulmer (Public Health), MacGregor (Recreation/Leisure), Cusato (Science Ed/Env Stud), Dripchak (Social Work), Keenan (Social Work), Bloch (Sociology), Brucker (Special Ed/Reading), Major (Special Ed/Reading), Watts (Theatre)

Members Absent:

(Accounting), Maloney (Athletics), Ullian (Communication), Jirsa (Com Dis/MFT), DaPonte (Computer Science), Lawler (Counseling), Thorson (Econ/Finance), Verplaetse (Foreign Lang), Wu (Library Services), Kuss (Music), Prince (Part-time Faculty), Jack (Part-time faculty)

A motion was made and passed to move the agenda, putting the guest speaker first.

Guest Speaker: John Prokop, University Police Chief

In September of 2000, student government presented a proposal to the cabinet regarding several issues involving the construction projects. A committee met to go over this proposal and to make recommendations to President Adanti. One unresolved issue from this proposal centers on the loss of student parking due to construction projects. Currently, there is a net loss of about 280 student parking spaces due to ongoing construction. The first floor of the parking garage is designated for faculty and is underutilized, being filled to less than 50% of capacity most of the time. Both students and faculty currently use Lot #2, next to Jennings Hall, with 38 spaces designated specifically for faculty. The proposal is to make Lot #2 a student parking lot, and to have the faculty that currently park in Jennings use the first floor of the parking garage. This would start at the end of the Spring 2003 semester. President Adanti approved of this proposal, but asked that it be brought before the Faculty Senate.

Response by members of the Senate:

The first floor of the parking garage is often full. In particular, individual faculty members have had difficulty parking there both in the morning and in the afternoon. The hours of 3-5 p.m. seen to be particularly difficult times to park there.
The 38 spots reserved for faculty in Lot #2 are often full by 8 a.m. The faculty in Jennings sometimes use shopping carts to transport work into Jennings Hall and would have difficulty doing this from the parking garage.
Why not let students use some of the first floor of the parking garage instead of the 38 spaces in Lot #2?
If this proposal is implemented, could the visitor parking area next to facilities be designated as a “spillover” area for faculty when the first floor of the parking garage is full?

Some alternative parking solutions are being considered: building parking areas along Fitch Street, paying St. Raphael’s for use of some of their parking areas, and getting a direct bus line from the New Haven Green to SCSU. All of these require funding. Faculty members are invited to e-mail Chief Prokop with their concerns.

Announcements

Tuesday, April 8 there will be a lecture by Mr. Eric Rouleau on the war in Iraq.

President’s Report (print version attached)

· President Adanti approved a simplified process of rehiring the first year tenure track faculty, and they all received letters of hire. Art Paulson thanked Jeannette Oppedisano for her help with this process.

· Whether or not the searches lost as a result of “rehiring” the first year faculty will be reactivated will depend upon the number of retirements and the size of the block grant.

· According to some of the deans, the 15 student minimum requirement for summer courses to run is a definitive limit. A sense of the Senate was taken as to whether the Senate should oppose a hard 15-student limit. The ayes were unanimous.

· President Adanti has told Senate President Paulson that he will keep him informed as to when searches for cabinet-level administrative positions will commence.

· Maria Diamantis has been appointed to the Academic Advisement Committee by President Paulson.

UCF Update:

The forum passed a resolution calling for the rehiring of the first year tenure track faculty and the continued rehiring of tenure track faculty. The forum will vote on the proposed Writing Program some time this month and plans to sponsor a general education forum before the end of the semester.

Standing Committee Reports:

1. Finance:

· Eight full-time TA’s are pending. People are getting funded as money becomes unencumbered.

· The committee will be drafting a resolution regarding travel funds based upon the discussion held in the Senate a few months ago. E-mail Pam Brucker if you have specific concerns,

· State policy requires documentation of expenditures, so credit card statements are sometimes required if the faculty member does not have receipts (as in the case of e-tickets). One recommendation is to tape over personal information before making copies of credit card receipts.

2. Personnel Policy:

The committee is working on changes to the Sabbatic Leave document and then will look at the Promotion and Tenure document.

3. Rules:

No report.

4. Student Policy:

· Ellen Beatty has become interested in the plagiarism issue and has formed her own committee. The Student Policy committee has passed their work on to this committee, and Sandy Bulmer is representing the Senate on the committee.

5. Technology:

The committee is working on a vision statement for the future of technology at SCSU. E-mail any thoughts to Len Brin.

6. Academic Policy:

A summary of the results of the course withdrawal policy survey were distributed. There were 122 responses from the approximately 400 full-time faculty. The committee will begin work on a resolution based upon these results.

7. Elections

Nomination forms for the all-university committees are due on April 7.

New Business:

· Technology Resolution: Facilities Master Plan

The resolution passed unanimously. (The resolution is attached)

· Academic Policy Resolution: Ethics Commission

· Some disgust was expressed with this process as no maximum or minimum amount of money is designated in the policy.

· An amendment was made to change “required textbook” to “required or recommended textbook”. It was argued that the Ethics Commission only requires the policy for required textbooks. The amendment was defeated.

· An amendment to add a third requirement of “(c) published by a recognized textbook publisher” was withdrawn after discussion.

· An amendment was made to change “the standard in the field” to “a standard in the field”. It was noted that the UConn agreement with the Ethics Commission uses the word “the”, but that each institution is authorized to come up with their own policy. The amendment was approved.

The resolution passed unanimously as amended. (The amended resolution is attached)

· Making SCSU a five-day campus

· The idea of changing SCSU from being a 4 1/2-day campus to a 5-day campus was raised. One option might be to have MWR classes and TF classes so that the people who teach 3-day schedules also get a three-day weekend. This would also alleviate the parking situation and the issue of classroom space on campus.

· Friday would be a good day to offer 2 1/2-hour classes.

· The current schedule evolved partly from the change in community hour several years ago and from the fact that students often did not attend Friday afternoon classes.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:59 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Terri Bennett