Minutes of the meeting of the Faculty Senate
Monday, March 14, 2011
MEMBERS PRESENT: Ahmed, Anderson, Barut, Bennett, olin, Bryant, Celestin, Decker, DeSilva, Dilollo, Hemans, Henry, Hershfield, Horn, Jeffres, Klunder, Lewis, Miller, Moore-Jansen, Mosack, RIlllema, Roskosz, Ross, D. Russell, L.Russell, Skinner, Smith-Campbell, Soles, Taher, Yeager, Yiuldirim
MEMBERS ABSENT: Adler, Baker, Brooks, Carruthers, d'Souza, Kreinath, Matveyeva, Smith, Thompson
MEMBERS EXCUSED: Close, Strattmann
Ex-Officio: Pickus
SUMMARY OF ACTION:
I. Call of the Meeting to Order: President Hemans called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm.
II. Informal Statements and Proposals:
A. President Hemans reminded the faculty of an upcoming meeting of the American Association
of University Professors on campus on 9 April 2011.
B. Senator Miller of Mathematics and Statistics presented a written statement (copy available in the Office of the FacultySenate) concerning the authorization to hire two new faculty members in Engineering to teach
courses in physics. Buma Fridman, Chairperson of Mathematics and Statistics, supported
the statement, and queried why the hires were a priority at this time, and why the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Department of Physics had been excluded
from the decision-making process. Nick Solomey, Chairperson of Physics, also supported
the statement, and informed the senate that a committee of two Engineering and two
Physics professors had already prepared a report proposing ways to increase success
among Engineering students by creating a purpose-made course sequence to be offered
by the Department of Physics. At Senator Miller's recommendation, Senator Rillema
made a motion that the Senate Academic Affairs Committee should review the process
by which the curriculum change had been made, process the proposed curriculum change
as usual, and then report to the senate. Senator Soles seconded the motion, which
the senate then passed.
III. Approval of the Minutes: the minutes of the meeting of Monday, February 28, 2011 were accepted as presented.
IV. President's Report:
A. President Hemans advised the senate that a proposal from the Ad Hoc General Education
Committee would be presented at the next meeting. The proposal would be to accept
an outcomes-based approach to general education, solicit feedback from departments
on an outcomes-based model created by the committee, and form a new committee to gather
said feedback and continue the review process next year.
B. President Hemans advised that it seemed likely that the governor's proposed budget
would pass, in which case there would likely be no cuts to higher education.
C. President Hemans advised the senate that a proposal regarding a transfer credit
appeals process was forthcoming from the KBOR Transfer and Articulation Task Force.
V. Committee Reports: none.
VI. Old Business: none.
VII. New Business:
A. There was discussion of a proposal from the University Tenure and Promotion Committee to clarify the appeals process for tenure and promotion. Amendments to the proposal
were solicited, and a further discussion was to be put on a later agenda.
B. Senator Rillema presented a proposal from the General Education Committee to clarify procedures for the registrar to evaluate transfer courses for general
education credit. Following discussion, Senator Moore-Jansen requested that the committee
present a revised proposal at the next meeting.
VIII. As May Arise: none.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dan Russell, Secretary