Unapproved Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting

Approved Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting

November 13, 2003

The fifth meeting of the 2003-2004 year was called to order at 12:15 pm.

The minutes of October 29, 2003 were amended to include the two Senators from the English Department (Corrine Blackman and Mark Heidman) and the name of Senator D’Amour was deleted from the Members Present list. Minutes were approved.

Members Present:

Rogers (Anthropology), Vu (Art), Lavin (Art), Lerud (Biology), Pang (Chemistry), DaPonte (Computer Science), De Barbieri (Couns/Sch Psych), Fullmer (Earth Science), Diamantis (Education), Diffley (Ed Leadership), Johnson (English), Mee (Exercise Science), Rinehardt (Exercise Science), Hernandez (Foreign Language), Sakalowsky (Geography), Amerman (History), Petto (History), Dunklee (Jounalism), Bielefield (Library Science), Klassen (Library Services), Prince (Marketing), D’Amour (Mathematics), Brin (Mathematics), O’Brien (Mass Media), Kuss (Music), Aronson (Nursing), Pettigrew (Philosophy), Paulson (Political Science), Sherman (Psychology), Brancazio (Psychology), Panza (Recreation/Leisure), Cusato (Science Ed/Env Stud), Dripchak (Social Work), Keenan (Social Work), Bloch (Sociology), Brucker (Special Ed/Reading), Alfano (Special Ed/Reading), Braudt (Theatre)

Members Absent:

(Accounting), (Athletics), Ullian (Communication), Jirsa (Com Disorders/MFT), Lawler (Counseling), Xie (Econ/Finance), Corbett (Education), (2 English), Pennisi (Foreign Language), Wu (Library Services), Hopkins (Management), (3 Part-Time Faculty), Young (Part-Time Faculty), Broadbridge (Physics), Bulmer (Public Health)

Announcements: Senator Pettigrew announced that on Monday, November 17^th, the Faculty Scholar Award Ceremony will be held at Connecticut Hall Special Dining Room to honor faculty member Rhodes for his accomplishments. Senator Pettigrew invited all faculty to attend.

President’s Report: Distributed

· President Paulson reminded the Senators that the next meeting will be on December 3 and if necessary the Senate will meet again on December 10, 2003.

· President Paulson highlighted the meeting dates for Spring 2004, as they were approved by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. The following dates are all Wendesdays and the meetings will be at 12:10 pm in Facilities Operations Room 307:

February 4

February 18

March 3

March 17

April 7

April 21

May 5

May 12

· President Paulson reminded the Senators that May 5^th is a very important meeting at which time elections will be held for the President’s and Treasurer’s positions. In addition, the Senate has to determine the travel fund policy for 2004-2005. President Paulson asked Senators to talk to constituents on the issue of how much funding will be appropriate per faculty and on whether any portion of that funding should be attached for presentations on conferences attended.

· The Board of Trustees Resolution – President Metaxas (AAUP) and President Paulson (Faculty Senate) unilaterally agree that the Board of Trustees appear to have extended their authority into the faculty’s contractual authority to design curriculum with their action on such resolution. This issue is before the Academic Policy Committee for further discussion.

· FTE – Vice President Blake visited the Academic Policy Committee – this will be addressed later also.

University Advisory Committee – Senator Bielefield reported that:

During the airport interviews 8 candidates were interviewed by the Advisory Committee, Chancellor Cibes and the Chairman of the Search Committee from the Board of Trustees.
Results of the interviews will determine which candidate(s) will visit SCSU for faculty interviews.
The candidates (5 women and 3 men) were all out of state, highly qualified, with academic background, and all are currently holding positions either as Provost or VP’s.
Their visit to Southern is being planned for December 3^rd and 4^th.
The University Advisory Committee will meet with Chancellor Cibes this Friday and the Board of Trustees will meet on Monday to hear the Committee’s recommendations of how many and who will be visiting Southern for faculty interviews.

UCF – Jim Tait

Senator Petto distributed information on the Writing Across the Curriculum Committee. She requested that the Senators visit the web site, examine the L-course proposals and deadlines and provide their comments to her.

Standing Committees

1. Rules:

§ Senator Rinehardt reported that the committee continues their work and will have their report either by end of this semester or beginning of next semester.

2. Student Policy:

§ Senator Rogers updated the Senate on two issues: a) Banner and registration concerns and b) plagiarism problems. President Paulson reminded the committee that any policy statement must be accompanied by an academic impact statement. Lengthy discussion on the issue of reporting students who plagiarized to the appropriate Deans and the legal implications of such report. The committee was asked to evaluate further and report back in detail.

3. Technology:

Senator Brin reported that the committee:

§ will inquire on technical support during all hours of scheduled classes and for technical support after 5 pm

§ will be drafting a statement on Technology Across the Curriculum

§ continues to work on the Faculty Technology Resource Center

§ wishes to hear of technology problems that the faculty faces and Senator Brin asked that the faculty email him of such problems

4. Academic Policy:

Senator Fullmer reported on the CSU budget formula using FTEs:

§ FTE does not include part time students

§ Full time students have to be matriculated

§ At the Graduate level: SCSU has 3800 part time students and 800 full time students. None of the part time students are included in the formula

§ Similar numbers for the undergraduates

§ Undergraduate level (at least 12 credits; 9 or less is PT):

1 FT unit for 15 credit hours

1.2 FT units for 18 credit hours

0.8 FT unit for 12 credit hours

0.6 FT units for 9 credit hours

§ Graduate level (must register for 9 credits):

1 FT unit for 12 credit hours

0.8 FT unit for 9 credit hours

§ These levels are set at the Board of Trustees level and since SCSU has the highest number of Part Time students, they don’t get counted in the formula

§ In addition, Southern is out-voted when above levels are set during BOT deliberations, as CCSU, ECSU and WCSU do not have such high number of PT

§ It was recommended that the Senate voices our displeasure to BOT on this issues as it affects the funding on the four colleges

§ Since funding among schools within SCSU is decided by VP’s and funding among departments within schools of SCSU is decided by Deans, faculty could seek Deans’ justifications. Past practice on funding continues for present budgets, unless there exist new departments or new programs

§ It was pointed out that Southern has the greatest numbers of PT who are the citizens of CT; in addition Southern has the highest rate of minority and special needs population (with irregular schedule, less than 12 credit hours)

5. Elections: No report

6. Finance: No report

7. Personnel Policy:

§ Senator Bielefield reported that the committee is reviewing the Sabbatical Leave policy.

Old Business: There was no Old Business

New Business:

§ President Paulson opened discussions on the BOT resolution. After lengthy discussions, senators agreed that the BOT had taken steps onto academic issues.

§ There was a motion to waive the 1:45 rule to vote on above issue. Motion carried unanimously.

§ Motion was made to assign the issue of the BOT resolution to the Academic Policy committee. Motion carried unanimously, no abstentions.

Senate was adjourned at 1:50 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Maria Diamantis