Present:

Present: J. Murphy, R. Timko, C. Moulton, L. Labuski-Brown, P. Savoye, H. Pieper, J Philips, D. Werner, M. Renner, D. Siegart, R. Stender, L. Cass, J. Jones, C. Hoy, V. Jenkins, S. Stien, M. Gaballa, G. Carson, T. Murphy, W. Keeth, K. Thorne, F. Chua, A. Johnson, P. Junius, S. Brown, M. Moore, T. Madigan, D. McKee, J. Purk, A. McEvoy.

I.

I. J. Murphy called the meeting to order at 3:32. Minutes of April 6, 2006 accepted as corrected (Keeth/Hoy). Corrections: Bill Keeth did not volunteer for CCSI committee, but was suggesting that B. Holtman needs to update the senate web page.
Amber Johnson was not at April 6 meeting, Matt Syrett was here instead..

APPROVED

II.

Treasurer's Report (D. Dietz)

No report.

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APPROVED

III.

Announcements (J. Murphy)

President’s actions on Senate actions from Feb 14 Senate meeting:

President approved Course COM 3306 - Nonverbal Communication.

Other 2 actions he is withholding approval until further information. Those 2 actions are:
TRT 3340 – Meetings, Conventions, Special Events Planning & Management.
Concern: is the 3000 level appropriate for what looks like introductory course with no prerequisites?
Also, new course ELE 5391- Contemporary Issues & Classroom Management.
Concern: course is dual listed with 3391; seems to be no mechanism in place to keep students from receiving credit in both courses that essentially cover the same material.

President’s actions for Senate March 7 meeting: President approved all actions.
1) Course change: ED 5596 Supervision.
2) New course PHY 4440 Physics Practicum approved as Physics Internship (approved as practicum, NOT internship).
3) Course change: Science 3270 Nano-research apprenticeship.
4) BI 3381 Environmental microbiology
5) Minimum academic standards raised from 15 to 16 credits

We are in new senate. Maybe some departments do not have new senators till new year. Please denote on sign in sheet, i.e. sign in but put in “don’t know who will be serving”

Reminder: next week the Executive Committee will meet in AHUB 301.

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IV.

Committee and Other Reports

Academic Affairs (A. McEvoy)

Motion 1: Program Change Proposal for Mathematics and CIS
Purpose and Nature of Change:
AS. IFS students were previously required to take PHL 2230 Introduction to Logic, However the Philosophy program replaced PHL 2230 with two courses: PHL Formal Logic and PHL 2200 Critical Thinking. Consultations with our Philosophy faculty have indicated that either course would be appropriate for the program. Accordingly our AS. IFS students would benefit by being allowed to choose the course that better suits their individual interests.
Change:
We propose that students be required to take PHL 3230 Formal Logic or PHL 2200 Critical Thinking.
Description for Catalog:
Delete PHL 2230 as required course. Include: PHL 3230 Formal Logic OR PHL 2200 Critical Thinking is required.
Motion carried.

Motion 2: Course Change: CIS 4490 Networking II
Purpose and Nature Of Change:
A new course was added (CIS 3390 Networking I) which is a more appropriate prerequisite than CIS 3303(formerly Computer Networks, now titled Web Site Design), so the existing prerequisite CIS 3303 for this course should be changed to CIS 3390. The other existing prerequisite-CIS 3330 is unaffected by this change. Prerequisites: CIS 3390 and CIS 3330
Motion carried.

Motion 3: Revision in the Method of Data Collection for the Assessment of General Education

A. McEvoy: AAC agreed with GES that changes need to be made in the Gen Ed assessment process. A student driven portfolio which is not working both because faculty are not identifying artifacts and because the artifacts identified cannot be assessed and because students are not turning them in.
Proposal is to go to a faculty driven plan.

T. Madigan: brief history - in 2000 the university passed a new Gen Ed program; it was stated that a subcommittee would be formed to be in charge of coming up with measurable goals that could be assessed, then a plan to assess those goals. The GES did this basing the plan around student generated portfolios. After 2002 students who started in fall of 03 were expected to put these portfolios together as stated in the college catalogue, through emails students received, letters, etc. After 3 years, only 47 Gen Ed portfolios have been generated. According to the catalogue, the rest of the students should not be allowed to graduate. Mid states accepted the plan in 2002. When we report again next year, we need to have something to report as well as data to analyze. The revised plan is putting more responsibility on faculty to generate portfolios.

Motion did not pass.

Information Literacy Test: (A. Johnson)
Revision: Use standardized assessment [replace with: assessments] of students’ information literacy skills at the senior level. Implemented through Project SAILS: Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills has been The assessment will be administered to classroom samples of Mansfield University seniors by library faculty. Results are tabulated by the SAILS administrator. GES, Assessment Committee and library faculty interpret the results in terms of relevance to Gen Ed program goals.

Motion: "Request from Associate Provost to have a section on the course approval forms to identify and distinguish how dual listed courses separate requirements for graduate vs. undergraduate students. ... a written syllabus that differentiates the one course/assessments from the other, so it can be clearly distinguished what grads do above and beyond undergrads."
This should not be acted upon today. Hasn’t been on CAN yet. It wasn’t proposed by a department; was written by AAC, so the 10 day CAN is between AAC and Senate. We have to delay and put on CAN.
Motion deferred.

Minors - More time is need for departments to discuss this.
Motion: postpone decision until 1st meeting in fall (K. Thorne)
Motion passed.

B.

Academic Planning (P. Savoye)

Received annual state of the institution report from Brian Barden; there is concern about demographics of the region. There is a decline in the number of people turning 18 in the bi-county region. The decline continues through 2012 (by then a 22-23 percent decline) and doesn’t pick up until a few years after that. Applications are slightly up, paid deposits are slightly down, as compared with the same time last year, but it is too early to make valid predictions.

M. Renner: Provost working with enrollment management to change profile of first year class so there are fewer under prepared students in the mix. Regular (prepared as opposed to under prepared) freshman numbers are up 6-7 percent compared with last year; decline comes from special classes for under prepared students. There are several variables involved and no reason for concern. Careful attention is being paid to the matter.

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C.

Administrative Affairs & Elections

No report.

D.

Student Affairs & Admissions

No report.

E.

Information Technology (J. Philips)

IT met a week ago. Most items come from Connie Beckman who heads IT dept.:

IT is announcing the move of student email to a new service offered by Microsoft beginning in May, live@edu within mansfield.edu domain. Students will have 2 GB of storage. Students can keep email for life; we can keep in touch better. Another benefit: a sharable calendar. Transition will begin with incoming Fall 06 class when they receive accounts at orientation. Current students will transition in summer (stored messages can be transferred to new service). Dec 2005 and May 2006 grads will have opportunity to get one of these accounts as well. Email names for students will change to longer name (names will be cross referenced so name change should not be a problem). State system will manage all email names starting with fall students.

Blackboard will be upgraded in summer and transition to version 7.0; should be ready August 1. For now we will continue with version 6.2. They plan on extensive testing. If they find problems, we will continue with version 6.2 in fall. Tamela Bastion would have more info on this.

The administrative team has begun to transition to release18 of Datatel (will require new hardware platform, etc.) Project will not be complete until summer of 2007. Datatel Terminal will be phased out and replaced by Datatel UI. Tamela Bastion can train.

There may be some changes in web advisor, but should work as expected.

IT Dept. with the Center for Lifelong Learning is hosting Springboard for faculty developers of instructional technology. Tentative dates: May 16 and 17. More info: Tamela Bastion.

Personal long distance service for faculty will require a calling card for personal calls starting July 1st. PIN will no longer work for personal long distance. These pre-paid calling cards will be available at bookstore or Wal-Mart.

Music studio project order is being placed. Fiber optic cables will run on the north side of campus (affects Elliot to Butler). Fiber optic cable will enable live video broadcasts.

IT is helping to upgrade planetarium.

JSTORE database is up and running.

F.

Library Advisory (H. Pieper)

JSTORE added to North Hall. 3 collections they have are Arts and Sciences, Language and Literature, and Music.

Committee looking to bring in major speaker in spring of 07; most likely a well know author. They will work with University Advancement and are looking into humanities grants, etc. They want a speaker who will appeal to community as well as the University.

Provost (M. Renner)

No additional report.

V.

Old Business

None.

VI.

New Business

None.

VII.

Adjournment at 4:48 (T. Murphy).

Respectfully submitted,
Christine Moulton
Secretary of Senate