Faculty Council Meeting Minutes



Faculty Council Meeting Minutes October 25, 200710:30 amMemorial RoomMembers attending: John Champagne (Chair), Greg Filbeck (Vice-Chair and Parliamentarian), Dean Lewis (Secretary), Jack Burke (Chancellor), Bob Light (Senior Associate Dean), David Christiansen (Associate Dean), Zach Irwin (Senate Representative), Jennifer Trich-Kremer (Academic Computing), Terry Blakney (Athletics), Ron McCarty (Curricular Affairs), Ash Deshmukh (Faculty Affairs), Phil Iobst (Library Committee), Cathy Mester (Scholarships & Awards) for Brian Young, Joshua Shaw (Student Life), Mary Connerty (Undergraduate Studies).Student Representatives: noneThe Faculty Council (FC) held its meeting on Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 10:30 am in the Memorial Room. John Champagne called the meeting to order at 10:31 am.RemarksJohn Champagne, ChairThe minutes from the September 18th meeting were approved.Framework to Foster Diversity: A copy of the feedback on the Framework to Foster Diversity document has been distributed to the Faculty Council. It contains the comments by a University committee on Behrend’s progress as well as the college’s response to the comments. This should be reviewed for future discussion. Its purpose is to provide another viewpoint on campus diversity from a non-campus group.EMG Request: A request was made for a report from enrollment management on how minority students are recruited. Dave Christiansen will gather information from the schools on their initiatives and report at the next mon Hour: The idea of a common hour for faculty meetings and governance was brought up. It is difficult to schedule meetings due to busy teaching schedules. It was noted that some schools and departments independently may schedule a time slot for a common time for their faculty. Faculty governance is handled differently in different schools. The recent move to 15-minute breaks between classes resulted in a loss of scheduling time and moving classes later causes problems with lab times and athletics. There is not campus policy for the frequency of school governance meetings.Travel for Academic Events: Transportation for students to off-campus educational events is nearly impossible since the removal of campus vans. It was noted that laws in New York State concerning 15-passenger vans prevent rental companies from renting these if travel in NY will occur. The School of Science has a van that can be borrowed on occasion by other schools.Jack Burke, ChancellorMajor Gifts: A gift is being sought to finance a new building for the Alumni and Admissions offices to be located near the entrance to campus. This will allow the Admissions office to finally move out of their inadequate and inaccessible space.Dobbins Project: Renovations to expand Dobbins Dining Hall are progressing. The project will incorporate elevators for improved access and may add a restaurant/convenience store. The start date for this project is munity College: Jack has talked with some people involved with the regional community college being proposed by the Erie County Council. Plans are still very tentative and fluid. In the past, it was not deemed necessary for workforce training, but is now being reoriented to provide an affordable education option. The county is proposing a model that will provide funds to an education provider, which may include a number of existing educational institutions. This type of organization has been tried and failed in the past. The funding model will be based on a third of the funds coming from the state, another third from the county, and the last third from tuition. The existence of a campus like this will not likely impact Behrend’s enrollment except possibly for summer classes.Apartments: An additional 144 units are being built in the University Gate complex, all of which are already full. This may be a good sign for Junior-class retention next year.David Christiansen, Associate DeanOpen House: The fall open hour was a major success. Over 400 prospects visited campus, many of which were minorities. First-choice applications are up 17% over last year.B.S. in Nursing: The school is moving forward to expand the nursing program beyond the 2-year Associate degree program to allow them to go for a B.S. degree. The current program is going strongly with 40 of the original 41 still in the program. An additional 40 associate-level students will be brought in next year. The B.S. program will include another 20-30 students, many of which will be part-time. This program will have the same curriculum as other campuses in Penn State.Zach Irwin, Senate RepresentativeA change in the Senate Constitution regarding the election of senators was approved, amending the requirement to have twice as many candidates as slots to have 1.5 times as many candidates.An informational report was presented on the best practices involved in the preservation of digital data.Provost Erickson’s report on strategic planning and the operating budget was very interesting and informative. It can be found on-line at the Senate website in Appendix E of the Senate agenda. It included details on tuition adjustments, budgetary requests from the state, a breakdown of expenses, etc. Some senators asked about input to the strategic planning. A Strategic Planning Council nowexists. The University is proposing a series of operating budget cuts to the campuses mainly to cover the increasing costs of employee benefits.Old BusinessReports of Standing Committees:Missing ReportsFaculty Affairs: A one-page report was requested about the work that was completed last year.Reports of Other Committees: NoneUnfinished Business: The reconstitution of the CDC as the EECEC and the charges for the committee will be addressed at the next meeting.New BusinessReports of Standing Committees: John Champagne asked each committee chair to submit a written report on their current progress.Academic Computing: Jennifer Trich-Kremer reported that they will have their first meeting as a committee on November 5th. Lab usage reports are being generated for discussion at this meeting.Athletics: Terry Blakney reported that they will have their first meeting as a committee on November 6th. One member had wanted the committee disbanded since they haven’t met in a few years, but concerns for the student athlete who may need support from someone besides their coach have been raised. Rod Troester, the NCAA representative and a student athletic advisory group currently provide support to student athletes.Curricular Affairs: Ron McCarty reported they haven’t met due to a lack of curricular proposals to review at this time. Faculty have been waiting for the curricular alignment process to be completed and the new ANGEL process to submit the requests electronically to be completed prior to submitting new proposals. As the latter is now completed, they expect more proposals for review soon. A question on approval of program changes that are different from programs at other campuses was brought up. The Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education currently prefers program changes that bring the program closer to other programs. The main reason behind this is to control costs and allow the easy transition of students between campuses.Faculty Affairs: Ash Deshmukh reported that their first meeting addressed the charge to review the proposed changes to the College’s promotion and tenure statement, which has been completed. Their next objective is to address the Faculty tab on the Behrend website.Library Committee: Phil Iobst reported that their first meeting focused on membership and charges. The proposed committee will be an advisory committee rather than a faculty council committee. Suggested membership included one elected representative from each school, one appointed student, the library director and necessary staff to serve in staggered two-year terms with an electedchair. This reduced membership would help free up faculty to serve in other areas. Their proposed charges included supporting the library and the director, serving as conduits between the library and faculty and students, and if necessary, serve as the Library Circulation Appeals Committee. They were unsure if this change would allow them to be included on the faculty council ballot or if this would have to be done through school ballots. Phil would appreciate comments on this and the proposed changes via email: pki1@psu.edu.Research: Bob Light reported that the committee has reviewed five sabbatical proposals and recommended four to go on to the Chancellor. They also discussed the means to ensure the submission of one nomination from each school for the Research Award. They are proposing that program chairs and faculty submit nominations to their school directors, who will then select one nomination to go to the committee. They also discussed how Behrend can support faculty, especially those in schools without significant endowments, in an effort to obtain fellowship funds for faculty through the Institute for the Arts and Humanities. Currently, Behrend significantly supports sabbaticals with the research funds available.Scholarships & Awards: Cathy Mester reported that the committee has met. They will be meeting again soon to review the nominations for Who’s Who. They are engaged in the process of investigating how other institutions obtain nominations for major awards.Student Life: Joshua Shaw reported that the committee is discussing their charges and is working on four items:Academic Integrity issues included lack of awareness of what constitutes academic integrity violation. This information is covered, along with many other topics, during FTCAP. Also, faculty are not aware of the history of A.I. violations of a student and the severity of the sanction can be increased if a history exists. It was also noted that a student’s history should not be revealed prior to a hearing. The committee can work on a proposal for a revised policy for the Dean’s Office. A list of helpful tips for faculty in A.I. issues would be helpful. Also, it was noted that faculty may be concerned about the reflection ofA.I. violations on their SRTE scores, especially if a number of offenders are in a class. It was noted that the school director should not have a problem with a note explaining the situation from the faculty member.The committee is developing a prospectus for Harborcreek officials and business owners to attract businesses, especially food franchises and retail, to the area around campus. This would include a franchise located within Dobbins.They are also looking into the possibility of providing extended food service hours for evening students during summer classes at a café nearest the majority of classes.Many of the committee’s standing charges have been shifted to other committees, so they are investigating other ideas for improving student life.Undergraduate Studies: Mary Connerty reported that have asked SGA’s V.P. of Academic Affairs to serve as an ex-officio member of the committee. Wen-LiWang has agreed to work with Qi Dunsworth on teaching forums. They have also discussed developing ANGEL training modules to help incoming freshmen with preparing for the academic expectations. Modules will include academic integrity, campus civility, academic writing, study skills, research skills, group- work skills, etc. It is hoped these will be used during FTCAP and tested on the small group of incoming students in January.Other New Business60th Anniversary Celebration: Cathy Mester reported that events will be occurring during the 2008-2009 academic year to celebrate Behrend’s 60th anniversary beginning with the Board of Trustees meeting in July. The anniversary committee is soliciting ideas for events to mark this celebration.Degree Audit Issues: Terry Blakney asked about the problems occurring with degree audits after curricular alignment. Many students have courses they have taken appear as untaken in the audits. The software is in the process of being fixed to address this.AdjournmentMeeting was adjourned at 12:03 pm.The next Faculty Council meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 10:30am in the Memorial Room.Respectfully submitted, Dean LewisFC Secretary ................
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