Faculty Senate Minutes
February 18, 2010 Call to Order: Call to order: 4:16 pm, Riggle Room, ADUC Senators Absent: Jason Applegate, Vincent Cesaro, Donna Everett, Euijin Kim, Gary LaFleur, Stephen Lange, Nathan Nabb, Pam Ryan, Rodney Stanley Visitors: Kyle Yarowsky – President, SGA Minutes: The minutes of February 4, 2010 were approved as submitted. Committee Review: Academic Policies: Working to define what effective teaching is and the conditions that must be addressed for instruction to be effective; Will present a Resolution on the “U” Grade for first reading
Communications: Thanked Senator Baker who will work on archiving Senate records
Evaluation: No Report
Fiscal Affairs: Will forward a recommendation to the Employee Benefits Committee regarding the graduate tuition waiver for spouses and dependents of employees
Governance: Will continue to present parts of proposed revisions to the Senate Constitution
Professional Policies: No Report Reports: Provost’s Report: Deferred report to allow more time to review the revisions to the Constitution Regent’s Report: Regent Morrison provided information from the Board of Regents work session held today regarding:
- Budget
- KTRS
- Tuition
- Baldridge survey of senior administrators
- The BOR Chair will not seek a leadership role on the Board for the coming year. An election for new leadership will be conducted in March, 2010.
Chair’s Report: General Education Update:
- Establishing a timeline for distribution courses and capstone
- Organizing first year seminar
- Reviewing proposals
- Still need a Faculty Assessment Coordinator and a Faculty Courses Coordinator who receive a one course compensation for those positions
- As part of the re-organization on campus, money was saved to hire an Assessment Coordinator who will be primarily responsible for Gen Ed, but will also coordinate with the Office of Assessment and Professional Development
A Senator asked for clarification of new course numbers and issues related to building fall schedules. A clarification is also needed of work load hours/credit hours for freshman seminars. Chair Berglee reported that there is $1,926 in the Senate budget. The budget is used for supplies, copies, etc, for the Senate. Senator Rathbun moved to remove from the table the motion to contribute $500 to the Green Committee. Senator Katz seconded the motion. The Senators discussed the contribution to the Green Committee. Senator Hesterberg suggested the Green Committee look into establishing a line item under the Campus Giving Campaign that employees can designate their contributions to for continued support of the Green Committee. A suggestion was made that the Senators could give individually. Senator Katz called for the question. Chair Berglee asked for a vote on the motion to contribute $500 to the Green Committee. Motion passed by a show of hands.
Senate Actions:
Academic Policies: Presented for a first reading, a Resolution that the grade of U be eliminated from the grading scale at MSU. Governance:
Chair Berglee clarified that review and approval would be conducted section by section, and upon completion of all sections, the entire document would be reviewed and voted on by the Senate before being forwarded. Senator Katz called the question on the motion to discuss and vote on the Constitution section by section. Motion passed.
Senator Rogers indicated that the Senate would begin with the Preamble. Senator McCormick called the question on the Preamble. Point of order – Call the question to end debate requires a vote by the full Senate. Chair Berglee asked for a vote on ending debate. The vote was not to end debate. Debate continued.
Senator Irons moved to change the word “Intelligence” to “knowledge” on line 14. Regent Morrison seconded the motion. After discussion, the motion failed by a show of hands. The Preamble was approved as submitted.
After no debate, Article One: Name was approved.
Debate began on ARTICLE TWO: MEMBERSHIP. Clarification was provided on the number of members from each department. Senator Chatham moved to delete the sentence “If inequities of representation occur, these will be addressed by the Executive Council” in Section 1. Senator Irons seconded the motion. After discussion, motion passed to delete the sentence.
ARTICLE TWO: Section 1. Approved.
ARTICLE TWO: Section 2. Approved.
ARTICLE TWO: Section 3. Senator Irons moved to delete “Tenure is recommended” and return to “One of the two senators from each department must be tenured, unless the department has no eligible tenured faculty when electing a senator.” Senator Stanley seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Senator McCormick moved to suspend the rules and extend the meeting until 6:30 to continue discussion. Senator Klecker seconded the motion. Motion failed.
Adjournment: 6:00 p.m.
