Approved Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting

October 25th, 2006

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

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The fourth meeting of the 2006-2007 year was called to order at 12:10 PM.

Members Present: Emenyonu (Accounting), Manzella (Anthropology), Slomba (Art), Pang (Chemistry), Petroski (Communication), Jirsa (Com Disorders/MFT), DaPonte (Computer Science), Smith  (Couns/Sch Psych), Fullmer (Earth Science), Mills (Econ/Finance), Diamantis (Education), Madonia (Ed Leadership), Larocco (English), Blackmer (English), Johnson (English), Swartz (Exercise Science), Pelayo (Foreign Language), Sakalowsky (Geography), Amerman (History), Madison (History), Dunklee (Journalism), McGinn (Library Science), Clerc (Library Services), Reynaga (Library Services), Stepanovich (Management), Prince (Marketing), Bennett (Mathematics), Brin (Math),  O’Brien (Media Studies), Young (Parti-Time Faculty), Capone (Part-time Faculty), Gilliland (Philosophy), Enjalran (Physics), Buterbaugh (Political Science), Sherman (Psychology), Brancazio (Psychology), Faraclas (Public Health), Smith (Recreation/Leisure), Cusato (Science Ed/Env Stud), Cameron (Social Work), Bloch (Sociology), Brucker (Special Education/Reading), Major (Special Education/Reading), Nye (Theater), Fields (UCF)

Members Absent:

Vu (Art), Maloney (Athletics), Lerud (Biology), Lawler (Counseling), Rinehardt (Exercise Science), Piemontese (Foreign Language), Kuss (Music), Wagner (Nursing), Aaronson (Nursing), Anderson (Part-time faculty), Roman (Part-time faculty), Keenan (Social Work)

The minutes of October 11^th, 2006 were approved.

Announcements:

Ø Senator Gilliland announced that the General Education Task Forums are continuing to receive faculty feedback and suggestions.

Ø Senator Brucker announced that there will be full day presentation of the special education taskforce on federal requirements and issues on Friday, 8:30 am-2:30 pm, at the Adanti Student Center, room 301.   This was made possible from a Faculty Development Grant.  

Ø Senator Dunklee announced that the 23^rd annual journalism event is scheduled for Friday at the Adanti Student Center and 300 high school students are scheduled to attend.

Guest Speakers:  Dr. Tony Rosso and Dr. Mike Shea

Ø Dr. Rosso was the first speaker and he presented a brief lecture on AAUP, principles on academic freedom, and Shared Governance, with specific emphasis on peer review and the P&T process.  During his discussion he cited material from the 1915 Development of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure as well as the 1940 Statement on Principles of Academic Judicial Tenure.

Ø Dr. Rosso discussed two additional documents and their relationship to shared governance at SCSU.  The first document discussed was the AAUP: Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities.  During the discussion, Dr. Rosso called attention to certain sections within the document that would pertain to shared governance in general and SCSU in particular.  The second document discussed was the Statement on Procedural Standards in Faculty Dismissal Proceedings. 

Ø Finally, Dr. Rosso noted that there will be a conference in March, 2007 on Shared governance and the presidential role in governance. 

Ø Following the presentation, Dr. Rosso responded to questions from the senators.

Ø Dr. Shea was the second speaker and he discussed the Student Survey Committee and their efforts to revise/improve the student evaluation of courses.  He urged senators to discuss the proposed student survey with the faculty in their department and forward feedback to the committee.

Ø Following his presentation, there was a brief period for questions from the senators.

President’s Report:

The President’s report was distributed and the following items were highlighted:

• President DaPonte thanked all who attended Chancellor Carter’s Inauguration and noted that SCSU was well represented.  There were three buses that provided transportation for faculty and staff.

• President DaPonte attended the meeting of the administrative faculty senate on October 13^th at which time the topics of discussion were possible collaborations on two areas of mutual interest, such as student retention and enrollment management.
• The Executive Committee met with President Norton and Provost Williams on October 18^th and discussed a variety of topics.  One topic focused on changes to spring registration times and the impact on class attendance.  Another topic focused on the need of more funds for faculty travel.
• President DaPonte has initiated discussions of program review cycles with the chairperson of the graduate council and there will be further updates for the Senate in the future.
• President DaPonte also announced that the next two presidential dialogues are scheduled for Tuesday, November 14 at 12:30 pm and Friday, December 15 at 1 pm.  Both dialogues will be held at the Ballroom of the Adanti Student Center.
• President DaPonte expressed his gratitude to Senator Young for his assistance in updating the list of full time and part time faculty for this semester’s senate elections.
• President DaPonte updated the Senators on the two resolutions presented to President Norton. The first resolution: In Support of Reasonable Assistance for Program Reports was submitted, no final result yet.  The second resolution, presented as for President’s Information, was signed as noted.

At this point, Senator Dunklee made the following motion: that the committee meetings be suspended for next week and the full Senate meets next week to consider the backlog of pending senate resolutions only.  The motion was seconded and passed with one abstention and one nay.   

UCF Update – Joe Fields

• No Report

FASP – Senator Vu was not in senate, but President Daponte indicated that the committee is providing feedback to the University Strategic Planning Steering committee.

Graduate Council Update – Jon Bloch

• The Ad Hoc committee on special projects has been meeting.  The committee is discussing why it is called “special project” and are waiting to get feedback from the surveys.
• There will be a Graduate Open House on Thursday, October 26, 2006, at the Ballroom of the Adanti Student Center.

Standing Committees:

• Personnel Policy Committee:

• Senator Johnson reported that the Renewal Document was scheduled under old business. 
• The committee is now focusing on the P&T document with discussion on uniformity of faculty files.  A primary concern is what should or should not be required in the candidate’s file.  The committee hopes to provide a list of minimum requirements.

• Rules Committee:  Senator O’Brien ~~  no report.

• Student Policy Committee: 

• Senator Madonia noted that Dr. Heron met with the committee and wants to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the senate. 
• The committee is also continuing work on the problem of plagiarism, which is a very complicated issue.     

• Technology Committee: 

¨ Senator Diamantis reported that the committee has two resolutions under old business.  In addition she reported that the committee has met with Patrick Dilger and Ms. Betsy Beacom and noted that there are workshops being offered on assisting academic departments to design their web site. 

¨ Dr. Diamantis also indicated that there is a need for a web master on campus and that there is an apparent effort to find one. 

¨ Senator Bloch requested that the Technology committee examines and discusses Banner problems. 

¨ Senator Young noted that the recent Banner problems stem primarily from problems with the Banner hardware in Hartford.  It is difficult to predict a timeline to fix these problems. 

• Academic Policy Committee: 

v Senator Bloch announced that the committee is working on various issues including reassigned time and the hiring of faculty for administrative offices without compensation back to the department. 

• Election Committee:

Ø Senator Swartz indicated that there will be elections in the next couple of weeks to fill some openings on some all-university committees.

Ø Senator Swartz also indicated he would like to get a sense of the senate on the use of using electronic media for elections. 

Ø Senator Dunklee moved that the Election Committee “study the feasibility of electronic balloting for on campus elections”.  The motion passed.

• Finance Committee:  Senator Brucker announced that there have been 150 TAs processed for full time faculty and that there are 115 in line to be approved.  She noted that there is sufficient funding at this time to fund all outstanding TAs.  For part time faculty, 31 TAs have been processed.

Old Business: Personnel Policy Resolution:  The Renewal Document.

• Since the 2:45 hour was approaching, Senator Johnson just gave the senate an overview of the renewal document.  This item will be acted upon at the next week’s meeting.

The senate adjourned at 2:00 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Jirsa and Maria Diamantis                                 

Secretary and Acting Secretary of the Senate