Approved Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting

October 10, 2007

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

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The third meeting of the 2007-2008 year was called to order at 12:10 PM.

Members Present: Emenyonu (Accounting), Vu (Art), Maloney (Athletics), 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), Johnson (English), Petrie (English), Swartz (Exercise Science), Pelayo (Foreign Language), Olson (Foreign Language), Sakalowsky (Geography), Paddock (History), Metaxas (History), Dunklee (Journalism), Clerc (Library Services), Toce (Library Services), Page (Management), Prince (Marketing), Brin (Mathematics),  Dennis (Mathematics), O’Brien (Media Studies), Strawn (Nursing), Roman (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), Tamura (Special Ed/Reading), Nye (Theatre), Weiss (UCF).

Members Absent: Selvaggio (Anthropology), Laving (Art), Feng (Biology), Lawler (Counseling), Shea (English),  _______ (Exercise Science), Pelayo (Foreign Language), McGinn (Library Science), Kuss (Music), Rebeschi (Nursing), Carrano (Part-Time Faculty), Goldblatt (Part-Time Faculty), Capone (Part-Time Faculty), Cusato (Science Ed/Env Stud).

The minutes of September 12, 2007, were approved.

Announcements:

v President Johnson welcomed Senators Linda Olson and Paul Petrie, since they were not introduced and welcomed in the past.  Senator Olson will be serving on the Elections Committee and Senator Petrie will be serving on the Academic Policy committee.   

President’s Report

v President Johnson distributed his report and requested that all senators read the report and then discuss any issues.

v The discussion was focused on the Senate Bill 1318: its implications to (a) the committees’ members work over summer and appropriate compensation; (b)  the General Education implications; (c) will it be a course by course comparison; (d) should courses then have common content and outcomes.

v In addition the question raised was if the law violates the contract, thus should there be a challenge to the legality of the law.  The question is if the outcome is a report, which is what it is understood to be at this time to include a plan and a time line, or is the outcome the articulation itself.  President Johnson will be addressing this at their next meeting with the other four CSU representatives.

v Brief discussion on the lack of endowed chairs at Southern when the three other CSU’s have such chairs.

v President Norton was made aware of the importance of security for the students’ pin numbers for registration during the Senate’s executive committee breakfast with her.

v President Johnson also requested President Norton to provide a) the number of administrative positions created since 2004 and b) the number and purpose of all administrative committees on campus.  President Norton will provide such information.

v President Johnson also informed the senate that the Chair of the Graduate Council, Ken Florey, will be visiting the senate on October 24 to discuss the Graduate Council Rules of Order.

UCF Update: 

Dr. Weiss updated the senate on UCF issues:

§ The Writing Across the Curriculum Committee (WACC) is still accepting Spring 08 course proposals to convert L to W courses until Tuesday, October 23. The committee is working feverishly to review course proposals and meet deadlines.

§  The Program Review Assessment Committee (PRAC) is very busy as we are moving into assessing undergraduate programs.  Goal date may be fall 2008 to UCF for approval.  No decision is made yet, although a document exists that was send to Dr. Kennedy for review which also needs to be discussed at UCF again before approval.

§ The University Wide Impact Committee (UWIC) is creating an FYE (First Year Experience) charter.  Provost Williams, Dr. Herron, Dean Fredeen, and Dr. Kennedy will be discussing FYE and addressing any questions during UCF’s meeting on Thursday, 10/18 at 10 am at ASC 301 A.

§ The Notifications Management Committee (NMC) is reviewing revisions to programs and new courses and they are requesting that departments provide 12 copies for their review as stated in the directions.   

§ UCF finally has a secretary who will be starting this Friday!

§ There is a review committee to review the UCF By Laws as a whole.

Dr. Weiss entertained questions and senators questioned the status of FYE .  The temporary FYE Committee has been granted an extension until the formation of the permanent FYE Committee.  FYE may eventually be folded into the new General Education Curriculum.  Nicole Henderson and Nikos Chrissidis will be visiting the Senate later in November for further information.  The Undergraduate Assessment is a must process to do for NEASC.

Graduate Council Update:

Senator Brucker (Senate’s observer on the Graduate Council) reported the following:

¨ May 2008 will be the 10^th graduate graduation ceremony.

¨ Discussions on the on-line and off campus programs that need to be NEASC approved

¨ Summer discounted tuition was not publicized last summer but should be advertised more this year

¨ There are three new initiatives:

o Full online electronic application

o Placing all documents on line for easy access

o More resources for full time and part time students

Senator Brucker invited senators to email her any concerns.

FASP Update:

Senator Paddock announced that this Friday at 1-3 pm there will be a “ribbon cutting” ceremony on the University Strategic Plan.  All are invited to attend and participate.  The next step is the formation of the Oversight committee which will have more faculty involvement.  He asked the sense of the senate on the membership of the new committee to have the 2 members appointed by President Norton be elected members instead.  The senate agreed unanimously. 

At this time, President Johnson requested a change in the Agenda Items:  to move New Business after the Standing Committees and before the Old Business.  Hearing no objections, the Senate will follow this order.

Standing Committees

Elections  ~ ~  Senator Swartz had no report. 

Finance ~ ~ Senator Brucker reported that there are 150 Full Time Travel Authorization Requests approved and 17 Part Time faculty TA’s approved.  ¾ of the budget is already spent for this year. 

Personnel Policy  ~ ~  Senator Sherman reported (on the absence of Senator Cusato) that the committee is continuing to work on the revisions of the P and T document.

Rules  ~ ~  Senator O’Brien reported that the committee is waiting for the Graduate Council Rules of Order and is reviewing the University Library Constitution.

Student Policy  ~ ~  Senator Madonia reported that the Chief of Police will visit the committee next week to discuss the safety and lighting issues on campus.  In addition they will be updated on the Emergency and Evacuation plan.

Technology  ~ ~  Senator DaPonte reported that the committee met with Dr. Chai and addressed a few issues.  The committee is invited to attend a Microsoft Exchange workshop on Friday, October 19^th at 1-3 pm in MO 108.

¨ There are also plans to visit WCSU to discuss TK 20.

¨ Senator DaPonte asked senators to call Help Desk if they are experiences technical difficulties in the Hi-tech classrooms and get a Work Order number and follow through with him through email if the issue is not addressed.

¨ Senator Dunklee expressed his appreciation to the Help Desk extending their evening hours which has made a great improvement for evening classes.

Academic Policy   ~ ~ Senator Bloch reported that the committee will be working on a resolution for academic advisement and its abuses.

¨ Senator Bloch distributed a document on Senate Poll: Grade Appeal Process asking all senators to respond at the next Senate meeting.  Maria will also distribute the document electronically prior to the next meeting.

At this time the senate moved to New Business:  P and T Document Addendum

Ø There was a friendly amendment to delete a paragraph, which was accepted.

Ø There was some changes recommended on another paragraph, also accepted.

The question was called, there were no objections, thus, the resolution was passed unanimously.

President Johnson requested the reconstitution of the AdHoc committee on Shared Governance.  The volunteers for this committee are the following senators:  Peter Madonia, John Bloch, Ginny Metaxas, Judith Mills, Rex Gilliland, and Steve Larocco.

President Johnson also requested volunteers for an AdHoc committee on Faculty Workload and charged the committee to brainstorm with the President and Provost creative ways to address the faculty credit load.  The volunteers for this committee are the following senators: Len Brin, Ginny Metaxas, Rob Page, Elliott Horch, Troy Paddock, Linda Olson, and Steve Larocco (in absence).

At this time, Provost Williams arrived to address the Senate:

Provost Williams addressed the following topics:

• The creation of “Academic Times” a newsletter to improve communications from the administration to faculty
• Monthly scheduled meetings with IT and administrative staff to distribute information
• He distributed the Retention/graduation rates handout and highlighted the 37.6% graduation rate and retention rate of 72.1% after the freshmen year
• Distributed the draft membership list of the University Strategic Plan Review Committee and extended an invitation for the Final Preview of the plan on Friday 1-3 pm at EN 120.  The discussion of the faculty representation and process of their appointment or election on the committee.
• Announced that the final draft of the USP is on Southern’s homepage, left side under Strategic Plan.  Urged all faculty to review and familiarize themselves with the plan
• The remodeling of the Wintergreen front area to include a student services area where different trained staff will be able to address 80% of the problems with students.  Just around the corner from that will be “specialists” who can address the problem further.  The target date for this area to open will be January 8, 2008.
• There were 63 new full time faculty hired this year with 13 being one year appointments and 50 being new tenure track positions.  The provost will continue to advocate the conversion of part time positions into full time positions in the future.
• The provost will also continue to support reassigned time for faculty as well as the addition of professional staff the support
• Provost Williams discussed the policy on faculty searches and handed out the advertisement that will be printed on the Higher Education Chronicle.

Old Business

There was a brief discussion on the Strategic Plan:

Ø Suggestion that the faculty survey be created by faculty who are appropriately trained and not to use past surveys. 

Ø Comment that the content of the USP reflects no problem, but the process is what concerns faculty.

Ø Faculty have the right to accept it or not and the absence of a referendum is becoming a shared governance issue.

Question from the floor on why new faculty hires are labeled as Assistant/Associate.  This will be an issue with salary ranges.  Many senators voiced concerns that if we don’t have that flexibility we are not compatible with other universities and we loose good candidates.

The Senate meeting was adjourned at 2:00 pm.    

Respectfully submitted,

Dr. Maria Diamantis

Secretary of the Senate