Approved Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting

November 5, 2008

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

________________________________________________________________________

The fifth meeting of the 2008-2009 year was called to order at 12:10 PM.

Members Present: Vu (Art); Maloney (Athletics); Pang (Chemistry); Madlock (Communication); Jirsa (Com Disorders/MFT); DaPonte (Computer Science); Lawler (Counseling); Fopiano (Couns/Sch Psych); Fleming (Earth Science); Mills (Econ/Finance);  Goldberg (Education); Madonia (Ed Leadership); Larocco (English); Shea (English); Johnson (English); Petrie (English); Swartz (Exercise Science); Calahan (Exercise Science);  Pelayo (Foreign Language); Heidkamp (Geography); Paddock (History); Metaxas (History); Dunklee (Journalism); Bielefield (Info & Library Science); Hedreen (Library Services); Toce (Library Services); Prince (Marketing); Scheuermann (Mathematics); Gubitose (Mathematics);  Nelson (Nursing);  Goldblatt (Part Time Faculty); Ciarlone (Part-time Faculty); Pettigrew (Philosophy); Horch (Physics); Buterbaugh (Political Science); Sherman (Psychology); Colwell (Psychology); Faraclas (Public Health); Jan Jones (Recreation/Leisure); Cusato (Science Ed/Env Stud); Cameron (Social Work); Rofuth (Social Work); Bloch (Sociology); Brucker (Special Ed/Reading); Tamura (Special Ed/Reading); Nye (Theatre); Weiss (UCF).

Members Absent:  Emenyonu (Accounting), Rogers (Anthropology), Lavin (Art); Feng (Biology); Diamantis (Education); Olson (Foreign Language); Page (Management); O’Brien (Media Studies); Rebeschi (Nursing);  _______ (Music); ________ (Part-Time Faculty); _______ (Part-Time Faculty); .

The minutes of October 22, 2008, were approved as amended.

Announcements:

ü Senator Shea reminded senators to remind their colleagues about the budget meeting this Friday.

Two new faculty members were introduced:  Jane Ciarlone representing part-time faculty and Todd Rofuth representing social work

At this point, President Johnson asked consent to alter the agenda to allow our guest speaker, Bonnie Farley Lucas an opportunity to address the senate.  This was approved unanimously.

• Professor Lucas asked the senate’s support regarding changes to the membership selection process for two committees:  the Faculty Development Advisory Committee and the Outstanding Teaching Award Committee.   Currently membership to these committees is by appointment.  Professor Lucas requested the senate’s support to change the membership process so that members are elected to both of these committees using the Faculty Senate Election Process.  
• All senators who spoke regarding this issue were supportive of the change and the consensus was that the senate would support this change.

• President’s Report  ~~ President Johnson distributed the report and addressed the following:

• President Johnson met with the Provost to discuss the P&T Guidelines and the budget.  There was a question by the Provost regarding the role of junior faculty in this process.  President Johnson indicated that he supported junior being involved in this process.  This generated some discussion in the senate and senators voice mixed feelings but there was strong support for keeping junior faculty in the process. 
• In discussing the budget, the Provost indicated that all options were on the table and he indicated a need to reduce our dependence on state funding.  This lead into a discussion of the demise of continuing education at SCSU about seven years ago.
• Other discussion regarding the budget centered on the need for a better and more efficient grants office, the elimination of coordinators, and the idea that the administration seems to want faculty to do more with less – especially the reduction in reassigned time.  The question of who is going to set university priorities was also raised noting that much of this is in the Strategic Plan.

Standing Committee Updates:

ü Rules ~~  There was no report

ü Student Policy ~~There was no report

ü Technology ~~ Senator DaPonte reported that all classrooms have some level of technology and the committee is meeting with Joe Brignola and Tom Struble to discuss future investments of equipment, needs for upgrading existing equipment, and possible need to add new parts.

This will include some new carts to extend IT services.  Also, Senator DaPonte noted that printing and paper charges are very high and students might have to be charged for this service.  There was a question regarding the possibility of getting some duplex printers, but the cost is very high.  Also, apparently departments are now responsible for new batteries for lap-top computers rather than IT because of the increased cost.

ü Academic Policy ~~  Senator Bloch indicated that the committee is working on a re-draft of the undergraduate handbook focusing on academic probation.   The committee met with the Provost and VP Joyner on the policy of new grades replacing old grades.  The proposed policy is if the grade is C or less, the student may sign up for a replacement course.  Both the old grade and the new grade will remain on the transcript and there is a limit of 15 credits that can be repeated.  There was discussion regarding the cut-off grade and the number of credits.  The sense of the senate was to keep the grade cut-off, but eliminate the maximum number of credits and make it unlimited.  This will be discussed.  This new policy should be in place by the start of the next academic year.

ü Elections ~~No report.

ü Finance ~~  Senator Brucker reported that 234 TAs have been processed with seven waiting.  Only 24 part-time TAs have been processed.

ü Personnel Policy:  The committee met with President Norton and Provost Williams regarding the renewal document.  They seemed to favor a short document consisting of a CV and FAAR reports       

Workload Ad Hoc committee report ~~   no report at this time.

UCF ~ ~ The committee is about one half of the way through the General Education program.  There will not be a Gen Ed referendum this semester, but may occur in the spring.  Professor Weiss indicated that they have not yet discussed implementation.  There was discussion regarding whether we should combine acceptance of the plan with an implementation plan.

Graduate Council ~ no report

Workload Ad Hoc Committee report

• Senator Madonia presented the draft framework document for guiding and supporting faculty for promotion, tenure, renewal and professional assessment.  The draft report resulted in much discussion and the senate congratulated the committee on a job well done in drafting the initial guidelines.

The Senate adjourned at 2:00 pm.    

Respectfully submitted,

Robert E. Jirsa, Ph.D.

Acting Secretary of the Senate