Approved Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting
November 28, 2007
http://www.scsu.ctstateu.edu/organizations/facultysenate
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The sixth meeting of the 2007-2008 year was called to order at 12:10 PM.
Members Present: Emenyonu (Accounting), Vu (Art), Lavin (Art), Feng (Biology), Pang (Chemistry), Petroski (Communication), Jirsa (Com Disorders/MFT), DaPonte (Computer Science), Smith (Couns/Sch Psych), Fullmer (Earth Science), Diamantis (Education), Larocco (English), Johnson (English), Petrie (English), Swartz (Exercise Science), Pelayo (Foreign Language), Hetric (Foreign Language), Sakalowsky (Geography), Paddock (History), Metaxas (History), Dunklee (Journalism), Clerc (Library Services), Toce (Library Services), Page (Management), Prince (Marketing), O’Brien (Media Studies), Strawn (Nursing), Rebeschi (Nursing), Capone (Part-Time Faculty), Gilliland (Philosophy), Horch (Physics), Buterbaugh (Political Science), Sherman (Psychology), Colwell (Psychology), Faraclas (Public Health), Smith (Recreation/Leisure), Cameron (Social Work), Keenan (Social Work), Bloch (Sociology), Brucker (Special Ed/Reading), Nye (Theater), Weiss (UCF).
Members Absent: Selvaggio (Anthropology), Maloney (Athletics), Lawler (Counseling), Mills (Econ/Finance), Madonia (Ed Leadership), Shea (English), Davie (Exercise Science), McGinn (Library Science), Brin (Mathematics), Dennis (Mathematics), Kuss (Music), Carrano (Part-Time Faculty), Roman (Part-Time Faculty), Goldblatt (Part-Time Faculty), Cusato (Science Ed/Env Stud), Tamura (Special Ed/Reading).
The minutes of November 7, 2007, were approved as presented.
Announcements:
o Senator Brucker announced that the Chairs’ Institute is sponsoring a workshop on December 3, 8-4, in EN B 121. Lunch will be provided and many necessary issues will be addressed. Please RSVP to Senator Brucker if attending.
o Senator Fullmer distributed Asteroids and Moon samples. They will also be displayed at the Earth Science Department from December 3 through December 12.
o Senator Swartz announced that the SCSU team won the performance competition at the Regional Athletic Competition.
President’s Report
Secretary Diamantis distributed the President’s Report in the absence of President Johnson and any questions will be addressed upon his arrival later on today.
Graduate Council Update
Senator Brucker had no report.
FASP Update
The committee is not meeting at this time as they are awaiting the composition of the
oversight committee.
UCF Update
The UCF’s meeting was dedicated to questions and information on the program review and assessment. Provost Williams and Dr. Kennedy will be attending the meeting to attend and discuss the program review and assessment questions. The committee will request that the authors of the reports receive release time or compensation to write the reports.
Dr. Weiss introduced Dr. Oppedisano, the chair of theWACC committee, to address the reduction of sections of W courses/sections vs the L courses.
Dr. Oppedisano reported that the committee has approved 207 proposals for sections taught by the faculty requesting the approval. There are still 10 courses in process to be approved and this semester alone, the committee approved 100 such proposals. There are 107 such W approved sections in the Spring 2008 schedule. She stated that we should have enough seats for the spring but we are still working through some individual issues. Dr. Oppedisano is going on a sabbatical in the spring 2008 and the new chair of the WACC committee will be Dr. Katherine Marsland (Psychology).
The committee has requested a search for Director for the WACC to take place in January 2008. Kelly Ritter is the current Interim Director until the end of summer 2008.
Questions from the senate floor:
o What happens if a course is approved as a W course at this time? The appropriate Dean and the records office will work together to register students with the priority given to seniors.
o What is the major change from the previous L courses? The W approval is attached to the professor teaching that specific section. This is the only change for this W transition from the L course.
o Should there be a proposal that all students take all (if possible) W courses in their major? That would be ideal but ENG 112 class is the only prerequisite.
Ad-hoc Committees:
1. Workload committee update: the chair/spokesperson for the committee, Senator Troy Paddock, reported that the committee is collecting data and information on teaching load assignments. At the moment one issue has surfaced and that is the programs that have an internship requirement.
2. Shared Governance update: the chair/spokesperson for the committee is Senator Bloch, he will be reporting at the next meeting.
Standing Committee Reports:
Rules ~ ~ Senator O’Brien had no report.
Student Policy ~ ~ Senator Madonia was absent but a committee representative said there is no report.
Technology ~ ~ Senator DaPonte reported that the committee met with Dr. Al Chai and discussed with him all the concerns from faculty on the high technology classrooms. The committee suggested that there exist more micro-computer carts available for classroom use. This will be forthcoming soon. The Personal Response Clickers was also discussed and the acquisition of portable projectors in hand for classrooms.
There was a lengthy discussion from the floor on the different additional concerns, such as:
o back up laptop computers to be delivered to hi-tech classrooms when the installed equipment fails in that classroom.
o ENG C 008 has no internet connection.
o MO 205 has a broken monitor
o Why isn’t the resources/support for the high-tech classrooms increased since we have more such classrooms now than 10 years ago?
o Who will decide the faculty/staff members that will pilot EXCHANGE?
These are all questions/concerns that will be addressed further and discussed at the next meeting.
Academic Policy ~ ~ Senator Bloch announced that the committee has two resolutions for action.
Elections ~ ~ Senator Swartz reported that the nominations are in for the University Committees and there is no need for elections since the positions are filled by the number of nominations. The ballots for the University Strategic Plan referendum, was sent out this morning and we will be reporting the results.
Finance ~ ~ there are 237 full time TA’s approved and 15 pending approval. There are also 38 part-time TA’s approved and 4 pending. There is still some money available.
Personnel Policy ~ ~ Senator Sherman (in the absence of Senator Cusato) reported that the committee is continuing to work together with President Norton, on the revisions of the P and T document.
At this time, President Johnson addressed issues from his report:
o The IT issues and concerns were addressed with President Norton. President Johnson asked for a sense of the senate on: are the concerns an issue of mismanagement or leader effectiveness? The answer could be that it is a combination and many senators expressed their concerns that they have no confidence in IT or its leadership anymore.
o The Associate VP for Academic Student Services will have three departments reporting to him/her: academic advisement, Registrations, Admissions.
o President Norton promised President Johnson that she will distribute a chart for all the administrative positions.
o The graduate faculty designation is one that we need, according to Provost Williams, to satisfy accreditation needs. The graduate faculty designation is important and a university-wide standard for the graduate faculty is just as important. Provost Williams is open to the idea that departments have more significant role in determining graduate faculty status.
o The Forum on Assessment was held on Monday, November 26, from 2-4 pm. Roughly 40 faculty attended with the panel of four, Drs. Kennedy, Mugno, Pettigrew and Madonia, addressed history, value, and limitations of assessment. Their presentations were followed by a wide-ranging audience discussion. Afterwards, the Provost offered to co-sponsor additional forums on areas of faculty concerns.
o The Senate Executive Committee met on Monday with the first of four candidates for the position of Associate VP for Academic Students Services, and will be meeting with the other three candidates in the coming weeks.
Old Business:
The Academic Policy Committee presented the following resolutions:
After a short discussion, the question was called and there was no objection.
The resolution was voted upon and it passed with 33 yes, 1 no and no abstentions.
After lengthy discussion the question was called and there was an objection. There was a vote and the question was approved with 22 yes, 6 nos.
The resolution passed by majority with 1 abstention.
The Rules Committee presented the following resolution:
1. To Ratify the University Library Committee Constitution
There was a short but very positive discussion on the resolution and the question was called. Since there were no objections, the motion to accept the resolution passed with 29 in favor, 4 opposed, no abstentions.
The Senate meeting was adjourned at 2:00 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Maria Diamantis
Secretary of the Senate