Senate Meeting:  September 24, 2009                                             4:00 p.m  Alumni 307

Session: XXVI  Meeting # 4

Present: R. Timko, S. Davis, C. Moulton, S. Gregorich, J. Bosworth, J. Purk, D. Wetzel, K. Verno, R. Dodson-Webster, J. Brown, T. Prothero, C. Hoy, M Schlegel, J. Kirby, C. Smith, G. Carson, D. Mason, N. Werner-Burke, T. Murphy, C. Kopf, W. Evans, J. Rothermel, W. Hardenberg, P. Savoye, N. Rinnert, I. Newman, S. Brown, L. Schankman, R. Keller, Y. Yang, M. Moore, E. Hale

      I.    R. Timko called the meeting to order 4:05

    II.    Announcements: President approved all motions of September 24, 2009 except the motion from the floor re: Drop/Add calendar problem. Rejected because PASSHE trumps us.

SB: can we send a letter to PASSHE re: the Drop/Add problem?

RT: yes, but it probably will not be regarded as a priority.

   III.    Approval of University Senate minutes of September 24, 2009

Correction: Steve Brown was here at last full senate meeting.

Approved with corrections (Evans/Brown)

   IV.    Treasurer’s report (Gregorich): We have a total of $390. 

    V.    Committee / Other Reports

    A.    Executive Committee (Davis): no report

B.    Academic Affairs (Bosworth):

1.       COURSE DELETION: 4460: PRACTICAL LEADERSHIP AND ADMINISTRATION IN MUSIC

Deletion of undergrad cross listing with grad course to comply w/NASM

Approved

2.       PROGRAM CHANGE: MUSIC MINOR

4 to 2 credits for music minor

Approved

3.       COURSE CHANGES: MUSIC (WIND BRASS—33 changes)

4.       COURSE CHANGES: MUSIC (PIANO GUITAR—6 changes)

5.       COURSE CHANGES: MUSIC (APPLIED VOICE—3 changes)

6.       COURSE CHANGES: MUSIC (APPLIED STRINGS—12 changes)

Clarification of requirement that already exists

Approved (items 3 – 6)

7.       COURSE CHANGE: ANH 1103

8.       COURSE CHANGE: ANH 2995

9.       COURSE CHANGE: ANH 3311

Course description updates

       Approved (7 – 9)

C.    Academic Planning (Wetzel):

They discussed GenEd Restructing committee and had an information gathering meeting with SPITS.

    D.    Administrative Affairs/Elections (Verno): Need the committees updated on senate webpage.

E.    Student Affairs/Admissions (Purk): no report

F.    Information Technology (Dodson-Webster): no report

G.    Library Advisory – no report

H.    First Year Experience (Verno): no report

I.      Provost (J Brown): still don’t have a budget. Asking depts. to consider different solutions depending on what happens in Harrisburg. Keeping things as transparent as possible. We may have to think creatively to maximize the resources we have.

J.     Other—Committee for General Education Restructuring - continuation of discussion…

S Davis: reminder of friendly amendment: “No more than one person from any academic program shall serve on the committee.”

Evans: his dept is in favor of the document.

Moore: 

The Department of Education and Special Education strongly supports the periodic review of the General Education Curriculum.  As department faculty previewed the proposal, we arrived at the following considerations for your review:

1) Equal representation of both the general education and professional programs is essential on any committee charged with such a task.

2) With regard to the integration of general education courses across all four years of a student's program, the EDSP faculty agree with what we perceive as the intent to provide students with a strong foundation of liberal studies. However, we have two constraints with regard to mandating a set number of gen ed courses at upperclassmen levels: a) It will greatly restrict the ability for programs to schedule extended field experiences, internships and practicum placements for students and will impinge upon the intensity and quality of those experiences. b) The absence of certain general education courses before the third and fourth years (e.g. science, math, English, social studies/history) will inhibit the students' success in teaching in the content areas in their field experiences.

3) All professional programs on our campus have requirements set by the state and by national accrediting bodies. Increasing the total number of gen ed requirements will significantly and negatively impact the ability of the professional programs to meet these requirements, due to the 120 credit cap.

 4) Finally, and, perhaps most importantly, we would like to request that such a committee be charged with creating a structure that works for all programs at this university, professional and liberal arts alike, and that the committee work closely with all programs toward that end.

SD: this document is geared towards the committee once it is formed.

Motion: To delete “Propose models for restructuring that see the liberal learning process as something which occurs in each semester of undergraduate education and not just in first and second year courses.” (Werner-Burke/Moore):

To mandate every semester is a problem.

TM: Looking for a vision to accommodate professional programs

DW: does not see a conflict with professional studies and liberal learning process. Liberal learning model is not the same as the GenEd blocks.

Motion defeated