Present:

Present: C.Burns, J.Murphy, K. Carico, S. Brown, G. Carson, L. Cass, F. Chua, M. Gaballa, A. Gaskievicz, S. Holderby, C. Hoy, V. Jenkins, M. Syrett, M. Jones, P. Junius, W. Keeth, P. Keller, L. Labuski-Brown, T. Madigan, J. Mansfield, T. Murphy, M. Moore, M. Renner, J. Purk, P. Savoye, D. Seigart, R. Stender, S. Stein, R. Dodson (for K.Thorne), N. Werner-Burke.

I.

I. I. C. Burns called the meeting to order at 3:32 pm. Approval of the University Senate minutes of March 23, 2006 (S. Holderby).

APPROVED

II.

Treasurer's Report (D. Dietz)

No report. Donna is on medical leave.

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APPROVED

III.

Announcements

President Werner approved curriculum actions of January 26 and Feb. 9.

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IV.

Committee and Other Reports

Academic Affairs (P. Junius for J. Floyd)

AAC Motions
March 28, 2006

1. Catalog Description: Minors

A minor consists of no less than 15 and no more than 24 related credit hours in an approved program of study. The minor is a clearly defined area of study that is sufficiently distinct from a student’s academic major to qualify for recognition on the transcript. In no case may a student apply more than 6 credits hours overlap between an academic major and an academic minor. Students must attain a minimum 2.0 cumulative quality point average (QPA) in all courses required.

The Bachelor of Arts degree candidate must choose between a minor or second year foreign language proficiency. To earn a Mansfield University minor, students must complete at least 50% of the required minor course work from Mansfield University. Though not a requirement for other degrees, a minor can be used to enhance your academic experience and will appear on your permanent record. Forms for declaring an academic minor are available in the Registrar’s Office. (Strike "in the Registrar’s Office"; add "online at http://records")

Discussion:

• R. Dodson: What is the reason for the limit of a 6-credits overlap. P.Junius: To be more stringent, and the minor must be that much more distinct.
• R. Dodson: Consider Chemistry: A minor is given if they get 22 hours. The policy will mean that biology students will have to take 16 upper-level credits in Chemistry, in addition to the 16 credits of Chemistry that they already take, in order to obtain a minor. MR: There’s a terminology issue. The intent was to include courses within the major discipline.
• J Murphy: Assuming we get wording that clarifies terminology, does that satisfy everyone?
• C. Hoy: Communications is affected by the change. Whether it is media or traditional speech communications, they all have the same COM prefix.
• R. Dodson: 1) If a student completes requirements for a minor, they should get credit for that minor. If we have a problem with unsubstantial minors, let’s address that; we want substantial minors. (M. Renner: At this point there is no guidance in the catalog to address that.) 2) Our students compete for jobs against name-recognized institutions. Why penalize them by withholding legitimately-earned credentials? 3) This policy penalizes interdisciplinary programs. For example, Geography is set up as an interdisciplinary program. Part of the reason is to help them get a minor, but this becomes very difficult with the proposed 6-credit limit. We have very little room for free electives. 4) If you’re going to limit the number of credits one can use, make it at least 8. In sciences we’re dealing with 4-credit courses, not 2 or 3-credit courses.
• J. Purk: Anthropology and social work are in the same bind. We want our students to have a diverse background. If the major is social work, and the course is sociology, that doesn’t deny the minor.
• M. Renner: What is the threshold for completing legitimate coursework toward an additional minor? 36 credit hours: Major in (X discipline); Minor in (Y discipline)?
• J. Murphy: Embedded in the proposal has to be a discussion of the number of the credits in the major.
• M. Renner: I am comfortable with a different approach but am not comfortable with the approach it as is. There is no guidance in the current approach
• T. Murphy: The crucial issue is this: If we consider an English major/Math minor, no trouble—the two are very distinct. The sense of legitimacy comes in w/the distinction of the majors. Conceptual problem is being ignored. How do we define "sufficiently distinct"
• C Hoy: The policy targets departments with a small number of courses because of faculty limitations and need to teach gen ed courses. It limits departmental discretion. Departments have rationales. If there is a problem in the curricular program, it should be addressed in a different way.
• M.Renner: The way decisions get made in the absence of public guidance is capricious. Let’s get the rules on the table so people know what they are. The catalog is riddled with contradictions. This results in a huge flaw in institutional integrity. And let’s work on it until it is intact. It should go back to AAC rather than be passed as is.
• P. Keller: Adding "academic minor in the same major" should reduce it. However, it is risky for Senate to do wordsmithing. Although I think there is a solution before us, we should send it back.

S. Holderby: Move to send the change back to AAC. (T. Murphy seconded). Motion carried.

Catalog Description: Internship

Internships are capstone experiences that allow students to integrate academic and applied learning in many Mansfield programs. They are normally undertaken during the junior or senior year, after the student has a sufficient academic background to prepare for the experience. Students work closely with faculty members to select appropriate placements that provide supervised opportunities to apply knowledge and skills. All internships must have clear goals and objectives that are related to students’ areas of study. Internships are focused on new learning and must be designed to be completed concurrently with enrollment. Faculty supervisors remain in contact with students throughout the experience and normally visit them at the internship site. Students are also required to submit periodic and final reports based on the internship to their faculty supervisors.

Academic programs set criteria that define student eligibility for an internship. When a request to undertake the internship has been approved within an academic program, students submit a formal application to the registrar’s office at least 2 weeks prior to the intended start of the experience. This application identifies the internship site and the site supervisor, starting and ending dates for the experience, and clear goals. The application must be endorsed by a faculty internship supervisor and the appropriate department chairperson and approved by the Dean of the Faculty. Internships are normally taken for 6 to 12 credit hours. In most instances a week of full-time supervised experience, or the equivalent on a part-time basis, would equate to 1 credit hour of academic work. No more than 12 credit hours may count toward the total required for graduation.

Discussion:

C. Hoy: Problem is with limitation of 12 credit hours. COM approves 15-credit internships in places from New York to LA. Students are working more than 40 hours per week and are required to submit substantial documentation.

R. Dodson: Would a 3-credit internship be precluded?

M. Renner: An internship is a long-term immersion, a simulated work experience. It implies a level of immersion and duration. 3 credits implies "practicum."

B. Keeth: Recently, the word "capstone" has been cropping up. There is no definition anywhere that I can see.

M. Gaballa: In business, students take a capstone course when they reach senior standing. They take the course after they satisfy business requirements.

M. Renner: A capstone is an upper level integrated experience that’s based on earlier foundational learning. It is commonly used in the literature. Senior seminar, internship—students have to integrate knowledge from the discipline.

R. Dodson: Regarding the change in policy with internship: We can’t approve two internships unless they are sufficiently distinct. How well known is that policy?

P. Keller : Students can still take two 6-credit internships, but they must be sufficiently distinct.

M. Syrett: Request to call the question.

Vote taken; Motion Carried.

B.

Academic Planning (P. Savoye)

No report.

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C.

Administrative Affairs & Elections (S. Holderby)

Thank everyone who answered her call for nominations. Polls close at 4:00 today. She will get results hopefully tomorrow.

D.

Student Affairs & Admissions (L. Labuski-Brown)

No report.

E.

Information Technology (A. Gaskievicz)

No report.

F.

Library Advisory (A. Gaskievicz)

No report.

Provost (M. Renner)

"I’m very pleased to be back!"

V.

Old Business

1. J. Murphy: Faculty Assembly: 3:30 in the Planetarium. Senate meetings were scheduled for April 20th and May 4th. We will definitely meet on the 20th and cancel May 4th.
2. T. Madigan: We are looking at a gen. ed. assessment change. We put a plan into place in 2002, but have since revised our method for collecting data for assessment purposes. We would like to move away from gen. ed. portfolio that was supposed to be student-driven and move ahead with another idea. We are due for Middle States accreditation; we need to take action on this now. We need to have a plan IN ACTION.
   
   Discussion:
   
   • Question: Why can’t we assess what we have? If we are assessing student performance, why don’t we assess what went wrong? Response: We did evaluate the syllabi, but the assessments in the classes were all exams. If you only have exams, what does the student collect?
   
   • Whatever we do, let’s make a decision that we’re comfortable with, that everyone understands, and that we stick with.
   
   • M. Renner: We have 42 portfolios out of 600 that were supposed to have been done. Core problem: We put requirements in the catalog with no contigencies. There is an integrity issue there. Alternative to changing the process is to put some teeth into the current requirement that says students can’t graduate without it.
   
   • B. Keeth: 1) The syllabi that were sampled do not necessarily represent the syllabi in operation now. 2) If you have just criticized the faculty for failing to change their syllabi, why make them more responsible? 3) Make a distinction between data collecting and the informational value of the data we collect.
   
   • P. Keller: The committee members did a very nice job and looked at several alternatives. The proposal describes it but we do not have it today. It would be to our benefit to have it in front of us.
   
   Decision (C. Burns): We will wait until we get the proposal from AAC and discuss it at the April 20th meeting.

VI.

New Business

1. C. Hoy: The faculty/student basketball game will be broadcast on WNTE and on WNTE.org
2. V. Jenkins: Need a faculty appointee to CCSI committee.
   B. Keeth: Brad Holtman
3. M. Moore: April is Autism Awareness Month. The student chapter of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is doing a walkathon on Sat. April 22 from 10-noon. Please sponsor students.
4. C. Burns: As we move into a new term, my thanks to members of the Executive Committee: Jannis, Joe, Kathleen, Donna, Shawndra, Phil, Andy, Lou Ann —and all of you who have been involved in Senate.

VII.

Adjournment at 4:40 (T. Murphy/M. Syrett).

Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Carico
Interim Senate Secretary