Senate Meeting:  September 10, 2009                             4:00 p.m  Alumni 307

Session: XXV  Meeting # 2

Present: E. Hale, R. Timko, S. Davis, C. Moulton, S. Gregorich, J. Bosworth, J. Purk, D. Wetzel, K. Verno, R. Dodson-Webster, P. Keller, J. Brown, JP Burke, C. Hoy, L. Clifford, C. Smith, B. King, D. Mason, N. Werner-Burke, T. Murphy, C. Kopf, M. Materese, J. Rothermel, J. Harris, P. Savoye, A. Walters, S. Brown, L. Schankman, R. Keller, Y. Yang, M. Moore 

    I.    Call to order: R Timko called the meeting to order at 4:06

  II.    Announcements: President Loeschke has approved all curricular actions recommended by the Senate at the April 16, 2009 meeting.

III.    Approval of University Senate minutes of April 16, 2009

Corrections:

·         Under ‘Remarks for Good of the Order’: Charlie Seidel’s name was misspelled (not Sidel).

·         Under Provost report: should be NCATE, not NCAT

APPROVED with corrections (Werner-Burke/Purk)

 IV.    Treasurer’s report (Gregorich): Reminder to collect Faculty “dues” used for student scholarship fund: $10. Give to your dept senate rep or send to Gregorich by campus mail. This is tax deductible. Payable to: Mansfield Foundation.

Report approved (Davis/Purk)

   V.    Committee / Other Reports

A.    Executive Committee: no report

B.    Academic Affairs (Bosworth): 2 items coming out on CAN:

1.    Approval that 2202 level of a foreign language (2^nd semester of the 2^nd year) is full year.

2.    12 items for music. Will be in senate soon.

Request: If making any course or program changes please get items to Bosworth as early as possible, to get through the long review process. Deadline is usually the end of this semester or beginning of next semester.

NB: He prefers not to get a ton of stuff right before Thanksgiving.

C.    Academic Planning (Wetzel):

·         Reviewing 3 proposals for music dept. program change, to get in line with NASM. There are added requirements for music tech and BM in music.

·         They approved what is currently on CAN.

·         Please get anything new to APC now.

·         Looking to work with SPIT team to work with their plan.

D.   Administrative Affairs/Elections (Verno): Currently there is 1 election for 1^st Year Experience Committee.

Q: Can temporary faculty have positions on committees?

A:  No

E.    Student Affairs/Admissions (Purk):

·         There has been poor turnout for her committee.

·         There has been an increase in RA staffing.

·         Freshmen dorms very successful.

·         We will be up to 5 fraternities and 4 sororities on campus.

·         No male beds left in dorms.

NWB: can’t we do co-ed floors in dorms? JP: rooms are all filled.

PK: we can’t do co-ed because of the restroom limitability.

F.    Information Technology (Dodson-Webster): First meeting is next week. Will have Bb update soon.

G.   Library Advisory:

·         There is currently no budget! No book, DVD,CD, etc buying until further notice. Consider what journals are most important to your dept. as some on-line journals may be cut!

·         Please have you and your students fill out upcoming library satisfaction questionnaire.

·         Improvements – you can have call #’s texted to your phone.

H.    First Year Experience (Verno): Bok lecture had amazing turnout. Thank you!

I.    Provost (Keller):

·         Introduced new deans. Jim Brown, dean of Arts and Sciences and JP Burke, dean of Education, Professional and Graduate Studies

Web page for academic affairs describes what their duties are.

Encourages them to come to senate to stay informed on topics.

·         FTE is up around 7%. Huge jump for MU. Part of this is new students, part is increase in transfer students, part in student persistence (holding at 74%). Would like to see persistence numbers go up. We all need to work together to make this happen for the university.

·         Budget: we could be facing shortfall around 2 1/2 million dollars. So much is still up in the air. Do not know when and how legislature will work this out. Pres Loeschke is working at the state and local level to raise funds for MU. Still expect significant budget challenges for next year and year after. To secure our financial future, we will have to have fuller classrooms. Provost has been given many creative ideas how to make things work.

·         Stratigic Plan – regarding MU as a public liberal arts institution, they are exploring best practices in NE part of country. How do we fit with the notion of a liberal arts institution?

·         Preparing for Mid States self-study. When committee chair & co-chairs are identified will let you know. We will be allotting a big chunk of time towards this. Assessment interim report is in the works right now.

SB: How do we compare w/sister institution on retention rates?

PK: we are doing well compared to national average of peer institutions. MU doesn’t quite measure up compared with our sister institutions within the PA system.

FTE is based on students actually in seats.

·         Student RA’s are enthusiastic about doing a good job and asked him how they can help improve student persistence. This is welcome enthusiasm we can share!

New Deans briefly introduced themselves:

·         Jim Brown: comes to MU from Bloomsburg University where he was interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Before that, Brown was a professor of English and director of the Honors Program at Charleston Southern University.

·         JP Burke: comes to MU from the University of Central Missouri, where she was professor of Educational Psychology and director of the Midwest Center for Charter Schools and Urban Education. She has extensive experience with national accreditation processes, also directed a doctoral program in school psychology at Arizona State University.

Feel free to call her: X4807

 VI.    Remarks for the Good of the Order:

S Davis: thank you for attending convocation! Great turnout by freshmen and faculty. Good beginning to semester.

VII.    Adjournment: 4:38 (Murphy/Davis) 

Minutes respectfully submitted,

Christine Moulton, Senate Secretary