Present:

J. Murphy, D. Dietz, T. Doerksen, L. Labuski-Brown, P. Savoye (aka Fido, aka U.P), K. Thorne, P. Keller, M. Ewing, D. Monkiewicz, C. Hoy, V. Jenkins, S. Stein, G. Carson, D. Mason, N. Werner-Burke, B. Barton, W. Keeth, F. Chua, S. Kasperek, L.  Iseri, N. Rinnert, S. Brown, L. Schankman, R. Keller, A. Molla

J. Murphy called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m.

I.

Approval of  University Senate minutes of  March 22, 2007. Accepted (Hoy).

APPROVED

II.

Treasurer's Report (D. Dietz)

New donations of around $100. This brings grand total to around $730.

Question raised about what % of faculty has donated. If every FT faculty donated we would have around $1400.

To Contents

APPROVED

III.

Announcements (J. Murphy)

None.

To Contents

IV.

Committee and Other Reports

Academic Planning (P. Savoye)

Every professional program must be accredited. A consultant has recommended that business eliminate all concentrations within the Business program. APC received the paperwork to eliminate all concentrations except the concentration in travel and tourism. Chair, provost, and dean concur that T&T is a concentration. Tourism does not call for business core, this is a problem… APC sent back proposal to business dept.

Keller: complex matter; State approval letter was confusing. It is not the intention to close another program but to find a solution for business to get accreditation and keep T&T too. There are several stages to go through for accreditation (probably won’t happen until 2014).

B.

Administrative Affairs & Elections (K. Thorne)

• VOTE for committees, including Gen Ed. Go to: MyMansfield…
• Elections: combined WIG committees, in past 1 committee has been elected, the other 2 appointed. She put them all up for election. Gen Ed committee is up for election.
• Ad Affairs: Met  3/1: Continuing smokers problem. Reid – number of campuses are smoke free (problem here may be lack of enforcement. Plenty of faculty members willing to be deputized to give citations). Individual campuses may elect to be smoke free. There is precedent for this on other campuses. She will push for more enforcement of what we currently have.
• Complaints during 2/14 snowstorm: snow removal. We have a much smaller grounds crew. They were overwhelmed and could not keep up. Request to move snow other than parking spaces.
• Walkway plans for around Manser: plans look good. Due in couple years.
• S. Hall: running out of contingency funds. There are design problems.
• Grant Hall: input from everyone should be in.
• Butler: Outside elevator will run about $200,000.
• North Hall: Chillers arrived to address mold problem.
• Get any other issues to Kathy.
• Steve B.: Hemlock – there is only 1 sign re: employee parking. Students are parking illegally. He can never get a spot near his office. No one is enforcing illegal parking. Who sets fines? Severity of fine needs to go up. Peter: we just don’t have enough officers to enforce parking.
• Plenty of faculty willing to be deputies to give citations. Can we deputize students (work study) to give parking citations? 

To Contents

C.

Student Affairs & Admissions (L. Labuski-Brown)

No report.

D.

Information Technology (J. Phillips)

No report.

E.

Library Advisory (H. Pieper)

No report.

F.

Provost (P. Keller)

• Council of trustees – China exchange is in process, allowing China students to get a degree (in 08) from MU and China. A group is going to China this summer to continue negotiations.
• Music Therapy: in moratorium. Students will finish degree, faculty will be hired to finish degrees.
• Institutional Research position: committee co-chaired by C. Beckman & H. Iseri. Hope to have the position appointed by end of year. We can’t always provide data with one person doing the job it used to take 2 to do.
• Dimarco and Syrett presented facts about our library. We have better history of student usage of library; that continues. We are a FAR better used library than other schools. More books are borrowed than any other school and we pay less on students. Very satisfying. The assessment is performed the same way at all schools. A statistician provided data. More service, more satisfaction. This suggests something different is happening in MU classrooms. Same presentation will be given to dept chair meeting.
• New server for Webadvisor and Datatel – much faster, fewer logjams.
• Gen Ed assessment: in Sept. – 2 days of assessment workshops by Mid States will be given. Dates: Labor day week (Thurs & Fri).
• Question: Has administration met w/student rep for board of trustees? PK: don’t know.
• Graduation celebration for seniors: Lee Wright and APSCUF – there will be a celebration brunch (No cookout). Please encourage all seniors to attend. Charge: ONLY $3 (costs $10 per person to put on).

Academic Affairs (T. Doerksen)

Teri: will still operate CAN through end of the semester.   

1. Program Change Proposal– Environmental Studies Minor

Rationale for change:  Courses for the minor have been reorganized and renumbered, courses have been changed or deleted, and relevant new courses have been added.

List all changes:

1.   Added electives to the Social Group:

a.   GEG 1600 Introduction to Watershed Mgt.

b.   HST 3320: History of American Technology and Environment

c.   HST 3294/3295/3296/4496 Topics in History (when offered on an environmental studies topic)

d.   HST 4406 Westward Movement in America

e.   PHL 3316 Environmental Ethics

f.    PHL 3365 Science and Values

2.   Added elective to the Creative Group: ENG 3332 Nature Writing

3.   Added electives to the Science Group

a.   BI 3218 Ornithology

b.   BI 3351 Limnology

c.   BI 3381 Environmental Microbiology

4.   Deleted electives from the Social Group

a.   PHL 2202 Contemporary Moral Issues

b.   PSC 2210 Intro to Int’l Studies

c.   PSC 3330 Public Policy

d.   PSC 333  Mod. Ideologies

PASSED

2. New item: Motion to reduce clock hours in elementary ed class;   meeting times will change. Class is currently listed as 3 c.h. but faculty has been investing 6 hours into the class. AAC voted to reduce it to 3 hours on books. Now students will attend for only 3 hours instead of 6. It could have been changed to a lab, but there is a 120 c.h. restriction (c.h. would have to be trimmed from somewhere else). Maybe could be made into a 4 c.h. course? There are union issues involved as well (6 hours of work for a 3 credit course). The change has already been enacted. It may be reconsidered next year; and a lab may be considered. AAC only put into writing what has already been adjusted.

Discussion: BB: Discussion is irrelevant – it is a done deal. JM: but this really is a LAB not a lecture. NW-B: will look at that next year. It is more complex than just a class just getting lecture load. It is not just lab setting, there is lecture as well. It has been thoroughly discussed and the Ed dept. feels this is the best solution right now, at this time. It can be addressed again at a future time. The Ed department will have many changes next year, Nancy assures the issue will be revisited. This is also a CBA issue. Movement to accept changes: (Dietz/Jenkins)

PASSED. Vote:

For: 11

Abstained: 9

Against: 0

Gen Ed subcommittee has been operating w/out an elected chair. Other members were not elected as well, including voting “members”. Most things that were passed were legitimate, but AAC wants to look more closely at what was passed. Not everything came through AAC and senate. AAC is hot on the paper trail to see how things actually happened. No minutes were taken, so difficult to track. Question raised about Gen Ed assessment document senate vote; the close vote included a non-elected Gen Ed member.

P Keller: There is nothing not legitimate in the catalogue.

V.

Old Business

None.

VI.

New Business

Assembly - April 26^th.  Location TBA

(FYI: Assembly is all tenured & tenure track faculty)

VII.

Meeting adjourned at 5:00 (Jenkins).

Minutes respectfully submitted,

Christine Moulton, Senate Secretary