Members Present D. Prasad, M. Dodge, A. Guagliurni, G. Puerschner, B. Wein, R. Jirsa, T. Sherman, T. Seyed, J. Fullmer, R. Eldridge, J. Ensign, S. Larocco, D. Burow, M. Shea, R. Pelayo, S. Judd, C. Schofield-Bodt, P. Holmer, K. Grant, J. Kavanagh, E. Beatty, S. Bochain, D. Pettigrew, C. Rinehardt, R. Luquis, M. Selvaggio, P. Major, F. Hatcher, L. Prince

The minutes of the April 8th meeting were accepted as amended.

Executive Committee Report

The EC discussed the library funding request by Hugh Davis. The Senate President was charged to meet with the Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs to discuss further the status of the Library's funding.

The senior audit was discussed and the EC agreed that the senior audit is not to be used in place of routine advising.

The FACS will be convened once this year.

It was decided to move $11,900 from the Faculty retraining account into the full time travel account.

 
Senate President Report

The disapproved distance learning resolution was given to the Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs for review. We will then know why it was disapproved, in the hopes that the problem can be resolved.

The money for book acquisitions is still at the departmental level. The funds will be swept soon to see how much money is left.

The Interim Vice President for Academic affairs thinks it is too early to know if there will be 1.8 million dollars in the upcoming library budget. The new budgets are due on May 15th.

The Senate President talked to Dr. Smith about advising. Sending a joint letter from the office of the AVP and the Faculty Senate regarding the Faculty's role in advising was considered. The feeling is that a few departments may not be advising correctly.

President Adanti says the final decision regarding any EdD degree is up to the campus. The Board of Trustees will say if and where it will go, then the campus would have to agree.

The Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs was asked to provide the data on faculty reassigned to administrative duties. The data has been collected and is being tabulated. It will be forwarded shortly.

Senate representatives should help ensure their departments address their library book needs.

Standing Committee Reports

Student Policy (Cindy Schofield-Bodt, Chair) The SPC considered comments from the discussion at the last Senate meeting. The two day rule was waived by a voice vote. A resolution was made as follows

Whereas the current community hour does not provide enough time for both necessary and desired community activity within the University; Whereas developing a thriving academic and social community is crucial to advancing the academic mission of the University;

Whereas the Southern Community has become increasingly bereft of sufficient time for important forms of collegial interactions between all of the University's constituencies;

 Be it resolved that the Faculty Senate endorses replacing the present 11:10 Friday academic community hour with an expanded community hour on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 1:10 - 2:00, with the following provisos:

1. that departments which cannot accommodate their academic schedules to the new community hour be allowed to schedule necessary classes during this time.

 2. that the expansion be accomplished in a way that does not reduce course offerings or class sections.

This version includes several friendly amendments that make the times mentioned more consistent with the existing schedule.

An amendment was offered that would have altered the first proviso. After the word "classes" replace "during" with "of 2 hours or more, overlapping". This motion was defeated by a voice vote.

The resolution is seen as endorsing a concept that education is more than seat time and credits.

Community activity is a very important part of the educational process.

The proposal would cause some courses to be moved to a less attractive time. This will make the courses less attractive to some students.

The motion passed by a voice vote. (SR 978-13-1).

Academic Policy Committee: (Jim Fullmer, Chair) no report.

Elections: (Flo Hatcher, Chair) The ballots for all university committees should be in mailboxes now.

Finance: (Robert Eldridge, Chair) The travel expenditure limits will be discussed with committee members via email and a recommendation will be made at the next meeting.

Personnel Policy Committee: (Robert Jirsa, Chair) The Senate discussed one of the PPC's recommendations for changes to the promotion and tenure document. Resolution #1 formalizes the requirement that candidates must submit 15 copies of the candidate information sheet and more specificity regarding the submission of student course evaluations.

The submission of candidate information sheets is already required, this motion would put that requirement in the P&T document.

The discussion included changing "must" to "should" regarding the submission of course evaluations. Some Senators stated that if the applicant omits evaluations it may make the application more difficult to judge but that is only to the detriment of the applicant so why make it required? The inclusion of all course evaluations in all applications would make them-more uniform.

An amendment was passed to include the phrase "Unless a written explanation is provided, as to why the following can not be done," prior to the statement requiring all student course evaluations.

It was also pointed out that not all courses are required to be evaluated.

Concern was expressed as to where the course evaluations are initially sent after being tabulated by the Office of Institutional Research.

Some Senators thought that requiring all of the course evaluations may make the files more uniform, but it is not necessarily fair.

There was a motion to table the proposal and it passed by voice vote.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:50

Respectfully Submitted,

G. Robert Wein, Secretary