Questions:
Sen. Mary Sasso (Academic Affairs) asked will peer evaluation be something that non-faculty would also be involved in. Dr. Horvath responded that yes, that is why I didn't say "teaching" or "non-teaching". I will share what I sometimes do at other institutions with my colleagues here.
[Sen. ???] What about the Academic Master Plan? VP Horvath asked Dr. Melinda Karnes, Associate VP of Academic Affairs, to speak about this, adding that this is part of Dr. Karnes new role as point person for curriculum within Academic Affairs. Dr. Karnes indicated that you all have a copy of the Academic Master Plan as a handout (attached to these minutes as: Horvath hndout Draft Acad Mstr Plan 2007Sept10.pdf). Please look it over, take it back to your departments and review it for accuracy. The Deans have not yet had a chance to review this. If the timelines are not realistic, or there are other problems, please notify your Dean. The program reviews scheduled for this year are highlighted. This is a DRAFT, so do let us know through your Dean of any changes that may need to be made.
Chair Barneva appointed Sen. Richard Reddy as Senate Parliamentarian for this year.
The Chair informed the body that there are currently two web sites that contain Senate business: the regular campus web site (http://www.fredonia.edu/senate/ ) which has been updated thanks to the Governance Officer and our assistant, Tracy Benkelman, and members of the Executive Committee. The Standing Committees are also listed on this site. Our other web presence has been prepared by Dr. Mary Carney, and is still under development. This is using ANGEL. Please check to make sure that all of you have access to this site. If you don't see the Senate's Angel group listed in your groups when you log into ANGEL, please contact Lisa Melohusky (Lisa.Melohusky@fredonia.edu).
There have been some changes in committee membership:
The Chair then asked if there were any other nominations from the floor. There were none. The Chair called for the vote. The motion of the Senate Executive Committee to place Dr. Larry Maheady on the Task Force passed by unanimous voice vote.
The Chair then asked for any other nominations from the floor. There were none. The Chair called for the vote. The motion of the Senate Executive Committee to place Dr. Patricia Corron on the Planning and Budget Committee passed by unanimous voice vote.
Chair Barneva noted that there were still some vacancies in departmental representation in the Senate, and that a College of Education seat in the Faculty and Professional Affairs Committee is currently vacant. She asked that names be forwarded to Dr. Reddy (Richard.Reddy@fredonia.edu) for the Faculty and Professional Affairs seat.
Dr. Barneva then asked Ms. Karen Klose, Associate VP for Information Technology, to address the body. Ms. Klose briefly described the information security program, saying that every educational institution is legally bound to maintain confidentiality of information. She indicated that last year we were fortunate to have a Security steering committee that helped draft a controlling document for Fredonia. We have recommended some team members for the various component teams, but would like to have nominations or self-nominations for two faculty who would be willing to serve on the program team. She can provide much information about the guidelines that SUNY has promulgated. If you have any questions, please contact her directly (Karen.Klose@fredonia.edu) and please consider nominating yourselves and/or others for service on this important group.
Questions:
Sen. Reddy (Governance Officer) asked where the nominations should be sent. Mrs. Klose indicated they should go to the Executive Committee of the Senate (at any of the following addresses: Reneta.Barneva@fredonia.edu ; Richard.Reddy@fredonia.edu ; AnaMaria.Klein@fredonia.edu ; Cheryl.Drout@fredonia.edu ; Vincent.Courtney@fredonia.edu)
CCC COMMITTEE: Dr. Richard Reddy
Dr. Reddy (Governance Officer) indicated that one of the things the Committee will do this year is some assessment; no surprise! Under the guidelines for Strengthened Campus-Based Assessment we did Mathematical Reasoning last year. This year we will be doing Written Communication, using a locally developed rubric, and also Critical Thinking, using a nationally normed test. However, we have yet to find out from SUNY as to when that test will be. We hope it won't be in the fall semester, because we'd like to generate some enthusiasm for our students to participate. We also don't know if it will be conducted on one particular day or at various times. We have heard nothing more. We will also be assessing the three history components of the CCC this year (American History, Western Civilization, and World History or Non-Western Civilizations).
Many of you will remember that last March we had an "idea fest" with respect to the General Education Program. We will be presenting a summary of those ideas in the next few weeks. We will be working to make assessment of the General Education Program more meaningful for us and for our students. We haven't always used the results to improve student learning. We will move forward doing the best job we can to make General Education more meaningful for instructors and the students.
There were no questions.
FACULTY AND PROFESSIONAL AFFAIRS: Dr. Reneta Barneva (for Ms. Maggie Bryan-Peterson)
Dr. Barneva informed the body that Ms. Bryan-Peterson was unable to attend today's meeting, but she did provide a written report (attached to these minutes as: Barneva hndout Fac and Prof Aff Comm 2007Sept10.pdf).
Dr. Barneva continued that the major undertakings for the Committee this year will be continuing discussion of the campus's preparedness for disasters, discussing the issues raised at last year's Spring Forum with appropriate administrator(s), and the Task Force on Personnel Review.
Any questions should be addressed to Mrs. Bryan-Peterson (Maggie.Bryan-Peterson@fredonia.edu)
Dr. Barneva indicated that Dr. Kathleen Gradel had informed her that Dr. Gradel would be late in arriving to this meeting, so without objection we will move the report of the Planning & Budget Committee to later in the meeting.
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Dr. H. Joseph Straight
The Committee has two action items. The first is a name change for the Department of Health, Wellness, and Recreation. Our Committee is recommending approval of the name change to the Department of Sports Management and Exercise Science.
Discussion:
[Sen. ???] What is the rationale? Dr. Straight answered that this is mostly to recognize they have an interdisciplinary program with a similar name currently, and they are expecting to eventually move that into a regular degree program. They want to give it more recognition.
With no further discussion ensuing, the vote was called for. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Dr. Straight then moved on to a proposal to change in the requirements for a Bachelor's Degree. This was brought to the Committee by the College of Arts and Humanities. On page 226 of the current catalog we require that 75 credit hours toward a B.A. degree be outside of the discipline, while for a B.S. degree we expect that only 66 credit hours be earned outside of the discipline. The Committee is recommending that we make the policy uniform at 66 credit hours.
Discussion:
Sen. Reddy (Governance Officer) asked other than uniformity, what was the rationale. Dr. Straight answered that uniformity was the primary rationale. More from the College of Arts and Humanities were getting into problems during degree audit. He asked Nan Bowser, Registrar, to speak about how many such occur. Sen. Bowser (Academic Affairs) responded "about 10 a year." Dr. Straight indicated he felt that was a significant number. The Committee looked at the requirement that SUNY has. Theirs is a totally different way. They express credit hour requirements in the liberal arts and sciences. We wondered if this was very old stuff. In the absence of a strong rationale for different requirements, we decided to go for uniformity.
Sen. Bowser (Academic Affairs) asked if there are programs that would be excluded. Dr. Straight responded that except for certain programs, we didn't change the language. Sen. Bowser then asked what that meant, since there were certain BA programs that had exceptions that had been approved through the Academic Affairs Committee. She would prefer to have the phrase "except for certain programs" eliminated. She couldn't think of a program that would be in such a situation that 66 hours could not be met. Students tend to find loopholes. Dr. Straight indicated that such a change would be fine.
Sen. Bowser (Academic Affairs) then moved to amend the proposed policy by removing the phrase "except for certain programs". Sen. Ted Schwalbe (At Large, Humanities) seconded.
Sen. Leesa Rittlemann (At Large, Arts) asked if Sen. Bowser is referring to the BFA option. [Answer was not heard by the Secretary.]
Sen. Cheryl Drout (SUNY Senator) shared a concern about impact issues related to this change. In psychology nearly all of our course offerings are full. If seniors have the ability to take more psychology credits, they will want to. They might fill up the 200-level seats that our sophomores need. That could be a major impact. Sen. Bowser agreed.
Sen. Ziya Arnavut (At Large, Natural Sciences) indicated he has similar concerns. Students can take too many credits in their disciplines. Why should we change this? If there is impact, what will it be?
There being no further discussion, the vote was taken on the amendment. The amendment passed by voice vote.
Sen. Carmen Rivera (Modern Languages) asked why the concerns about impact in psychology when you already have the 66 credit requirement for your B.S. degree. Dr. Straight responded that psychology has a B.A. degree, another social sciences also have B.A. degrees.
[Sen. ???] said that s/he could certainly see your points. Political Science can't take any more due to the limit. If it were to be reduced, I can assure you that it would take more resources, so your point is very valid.
Dr. Straight then asked what would be wrong with that, except as a resource allocation issue.
Sen. Cody Meyers (Student rep.) indicated that he felt a lot of seniors will automatically want to take advantage of this, and lowerclassmen won't be able to get into sections.
Sen. Schwalbe (Communication) asked why should the B.A. degree be different. I speak in favor of the proposal.
Dr. Straight continued that historically there may have been more differences between the two degrees. Now the foreign language requirement is just about the only difference.
Sen. Drout (SUNY Senator) raised the point that there is often a difference in the size of the programs between the B.S. in natural science disciplines and the B.S. in social science disciplines. She asked of other chairs, are seats set aside for your freshmen and sophomores.
Sen. Julia Wilson (Mathematical Sciences) asked if it might be possible to phase this in, and be more conservative with waivers in some departments. May we say we don't want these waivers until we can staff more sections
Dr. Straight responded that would be making a suggestion about the implementation. Usually when we change something like this, we indicate that it will only be applied to students entering in 2009. But there have been other waivers already. It is up to the Senate.
Sen. Jan McVicker (English) suggested departments might want to examine the way their courses are being offered to their own majors, instead of just opening all the courses up to everyone. Departments can internally talk about how to advise their own majors. A department could protect what it needs to.
Sen. Dani McKinney (At Large, Soc. Sciences) stated that in her department (Psychology), we have areas of categories that are required, so if people are allowed more credit hours and continue to fill those classes which are already filled... we just don't have the resources. Sen. McVicker (English) suggested couldn't you do that internally. Sen. Drout (SUNY Senator) added there are courses that some students never take because they can never get into them.
Sen. Taverna (At Large, Divisional/Admin) suggested that this problem won't really come into effect until about 2012 (assuming we begin this in 2009). There is ample time for planning.
Sen. Meyers (Student rep.) asked wouldn't this affect the upcoming semester for seniors. Sen. Bowser responded, no, there would need to be a fair amount of time to implement this. It will have an impact on resources. She would certainly be in favor, if this is approved, of having this be implemented slowly, with deans making exceptions at final audit time for extreme cases.
Sen. Reddy (Governance Officer) then said because this is an issue that may have significant impact on a number of departments, he would move that we postpone consideration of this policy change until the October meeting, so those departments who may not have considered this may have the opportunity. Sen. Paul Murphy (Music) seconded.
Sen. McVicker (English) spoke to the motion, saying that all of the departments have had a chance to discuss this for a year already.
There being no further discussion the vote was taken. A voice vote was inconclusive, so a show of hands was asked for by the Chair. The motion passed 20 to 10, with 1 abstention.
PLANNING AND BUDGET COMMITTEE: Dr. Kathleen Gradel
Dr. Gradel reported that the Committee had established a subcommittee to oversee the Fredonia Plan. She added that a written report will be provided before the next meeting.
The Committee will have a meeting soon with the VP for Academic Affairs and the Deans to consult about the faculty lines distribution for this year.
There were no questions.
REPORT OF THE SUNY UNIVERSITY SENATOR: Dr. Cheryl Drout
Sen. Drout reported that the Fall Plenary of the SUNY University Senate will be held in early October at SUNY Cortland. She indicated that assessment and accountability issues continue to be on the University-wide Senate's agenda. She asked that all please look at the templates that are available at http://www.nasulgc.org/ , and provide feedback to her, as this will be one of the presentations at the SUNY Senate's meeting.
Regarding the campus visit, she has made a request to be a participant. We had not yet heard that only three faculty would be involved. Many of these visits were conducted over the summer, and had some substance to them. Because the timeframe now seems to be so short, they apparently are being more truncated. She was hearing positive reports over the SUNY Senate listserv until recently.
There were no questions.
Chair Barneva asked if there was any new business. There was none.
Sen. Reddy (Governance Officer) moved adjournment, and Sen. McKinney (At Large, Soc. Sciences) seconded.
There being no discussion, the vote was taken on the motion. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
The meeting adjourned at 5:16 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Vincent Courtney
Faculty Secretary
ATTACHMENTS:
Attendance Sheet
Dick Reddy Handout - Guide to Parliamentary Procedure 2007
Reneta Barneva Handout - Faculty and Professional Affairs Committee
Virginia Horvath Handout - Draft Academic Master Plan
Virginia Horvath Handout - Vacant Academic Tenure-Track Lines for Fall 2008
Virginia Horvath Handout - VPAA Report 2007