Meeting, October 11, 2007
DRAFT
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Members
Present: |
E.
Ametsbichler, T. Atkins, L. Blank, N. Bradley-Browning, K. Canty, J. Carter,
B. Cochran, J. Crepeau, A. Delaney, B. Douma, L. Dybdal, J. Eglin, D.
Erikson, L. Frey, J. Glendening, S. Greymorning, L. Hayes, J. Henry, J.
Herbold, S. Justman. L. Knott, M. Kupilik, , B. Larson, C. Loisel, J. Lopach,
J. Luckowski, M. Mayor, S. McCann, D. McCrea, M. McHugh, S. Miller, C.
Nichols, M. Patterson, M. Pershouse, B. Reider, J. Renz, T. Seekins, P.
Silverman, D. Six, R. Skelton, D. Swibold, H. Thompson, E. Uchimoto, K.
Uhlenbruck, N. Vonessen, A. Ware |
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Members
Excused |
L. Barnes, R. Bendick-Kier, B. Brown, F. Cardozo-Palaez,
L. Eagle Heart-Thomas, J. Gannon, B. Halfpap, J. McNulty, N. Nickerson, M.
Papanek-Miller, D. Potts, L. Putnam, D. Shively, D. Spencer, S. Stiff, D.
Stolle, R. Stubblefield |
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Members
Absent |
B. Allen,
C. Anderson, S. Gordon, W. Holben, K. James M. Monsos, G. Smith, K. Unger |
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Ex-Officio
Present: |
President
Dennison, Registrar Micus, ASUM Vice President Ness |
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Chair Hayes
called the meeting to order at 3:10 p.m.
Communications:
President Dennison
The President
attended the Board of Regents Listening Session. There will be Sessions at approximately 40
different locations around the state. They are held to allow public input regarding
Montana University System priorities. The comments will be used to in
preparation for formulating the budget request for the next biennium. Some people would like to see an expansion of
the two-year education system. There is strong
sentiment that an initiative is needed to address salary levels within all
classifications. It is becoming
increasingly difficult to recruit and retain faculty and staff. This is necessary in order to meet the highest
priority which is the maintenance of quality.
Another issue mentioned is the need to focus on graduate education. The comments will be organized into a report
for the Regents to consider in November when budget discussions start.
Between now
and November each of the universities will be looking at campus
initiatives. These were dropped last
legislative session because of the College Affordability Plan. However, the
Regents now recognize that some tuition increase is necessary.
Senator Frey:
What’s the funding situation for the Speech Language Pathology Program? President Dennison: The University received one-time-only funding
of $700,000 for faculty and start up and $500,000 for equipment to modernize
the lab. There are efforts to add this
to the base.
ASUM is recruiting for two positions, Directors for the Office of
Sustainability and the Off Campus Renter Center. ASUM is working on a “Know Your Rights” card
to foster a sense of students place in the community. There will be a Panel Discussion on the topic
October 23rd.
UFA President Mike Kupilik
The TiaaCref increase takes affect October 1st, so
faculty will notice the increase on the November pay check.
News from the Inter-Unit Benefit Committee is that no money had to come out of
reserves in fiscal year 2007. The
committee is looking at the loss from prescriptions and people opting in and
out of coverage repeatedly. Most systems
do not let members do this. The
University System will be joining a group of health care plans to get drug
costs under control. The Vision program
is working hard to get more providers.
The Wellness Pilot Program’s to manage diabetes and depression will be
extended.
Chair’s Report:
Chair Hayes has a
monthly meeting with President Dennison and encourages any senator to contact
him with issues that would be appropriately discussed in this venue.
ECOS met with the Director of the
Service
Award Nominations should be sent to the Faculty Senate Office by November 26th. Comments on the following centers under
review should also be sent the Faculty Senate Office
Center for Riverine Science and Stream Re-naturalization
Stella Duncan Memorial
Research Institute
Bureau of Business and
Economic Research
ECOS is seeking faculty members to serve on several committees. Please send nominations to the Faculty Senate
Office. The Identity Management
Oversight Committee focuses on employees and students system identity issues.
The
Professional Schools caucused to nominate a member to ECOS. Senator Carter from Pharmacy Practice was
unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
The minutes
were approved with amendments noted to the attendance record.
Old Business:
New Academic Policy – Worklife and Spousal Employment
UFA President
Kupilik noted that the
The benchmark for full-time is 9 months at 1.0 FTE. The form attached to the document should be
revised to include Spouse or Partner language.
The amended language to Spousal/Partner Employment or
Accommodation was approved. (III.c.3. Within Academic
Affairs, the Provost and Deans of Schools or Colleges, and Chairs, and the
majority of the faculty of the involved
departments must concur.)
The policy was approved with two senators opposed.
Sabbatical/Leave Bylaw Amendment
After discussion
and consideration of proposed amendments the language was sent back to
committee.
Committee Reports:
ASCRC
The Curriculum
consent agenda consisting of nursing course changes requested by the State
Board of Nursing was approved.
General Education Framework
Since the
last Faculty Senate meeting ASCRC considered the suggestions made by Provost
Engstrom. 1) Information Literacy: The
Mansfield Library has been working with ENEX to provide information literacy
instruction. The library suggested that
Information Literacy be integrated into the general education writing program
and ASCRC charged the Writing Committee to incorporate information literacy
into the writing skills section of the framework. Some language pertaining to information
literacy was already in the draft writing course guidelines document. 2) Early completion of core competencies:
There is a workgroup looking at the issues, and a CAS Taskforce looking
specifically at mechanisms to assure students complete their mathematics
literacy within their first year or two.
The two groups will work together with Registrar Micus to come up with a
plan.
Provost Engstrom met with ASCRC regarding 3) Interdisciplinary problem solving
experiences and 4) connecting general education to the major. He made it clear that he did not want to
postpone the process to address these issues.
They will likely be resolved in a step-wise fashion involving
initiatives and incentives from Academic Affairs that will not involve a change
to the framework. The Provost has more
ideas and wants to meet with ASCRC again, so there is collaboration taking
place.
Last
Wednesday only 21 faculty attended the open forum, so
it would seem there is little resistance to the general education framework
moving forward. Associate Dean Tompkins
sent a letter recommending that Group VI Historical and Cultural Studies be
folded into Groups IX and X to create 2 categories rather than 3. However, this would limit the possibilities
of Group IX and X perspectives inclusion in the other groups. There was discussion on the titles of Group
IX and X and it was recommended to remove the ‘upper-division course’ language
from the final statement.
After discussion the following
amendment to the last statement was approved.
All General Education courses must be at least 3 credits, must be introductory
and foundational, and have no more than one pre-requisite. ASCRC may allow
exceptions for upper-division courses, courses fewer that three credits, and
for courses with more than one-prerequisite.
Senator
Vonessen: Upper-division writing courses
are not normally introductory or foundational if designed to meet the
upper-division writing requirement for the major.
Senator
Nichols: How do you differentiate between expressive arts and artistic studies?
Senator
Thompson: The next step is to develop
clear criteria. Expressive Arts includes
performance and speech courses (doing) and Literary and Artistic Studies
involves criticism (analytical).
Senator
Skelton: We could be setting up an advising nightmare with courses satisfying
more than one general education group.
How are students going to know which courses meet more than one
requirement without referencing a list?
Registrar
Micus: There is an easy way to do this
behind the scenes with attributes in Banner.
Senator Thompson: The letters designating general education
courses attached to course numbers will continue so students can easily
identify courses that satisfy more than one requirement.
Senator
Nichols: Moved to rename Group IV from ‘Expressive Arts’ to ‘Visual and
Performing Arts’ and Group V from ‘Literary and Artistic Studies’ to ‘Literary
Studies’. The
Senator
Luckowski: There are Communications
courses in Expressive Arts. Many
students fulfill the requirement by taking Public Speaking.
Senator
Canty: Creative writing and poetry
clearly belong in group IV. This would
be an enormous change in the English Department’s undergraduate curriculum.
Senator
Frey: The Groups are not intended to be
limited to one division.
The motion
was then withdrawn. It was then moved to
change the title of Group IV to Creative and Expressive Arts (failed).
Senator
Bradley Browning: A distinction between
Group IV and V is important. She moved
to change the title of Group IV to Expressive and Performance Art. It was not
seconded.
Senator
Ware: The requirements for the groups need to be clearly addressed in the
descriptions. We should not get too
bogged down in the titles.
Senator
Greymorning: There has been some concern about the vagueness of Group X. ‘Global’ could be anything – Global Business
or Economics. At the open faculty
meeting he suggested a title change to Indigenous North American and Indigenous
Global Perspective. He assumed ASCRC
wanted this perspective to address American Indian Education for All.
Senator
Thompson: The perspective could satisfy either indigenous or global but does
not have to satisfy both. The intent was
for this category to include courses that would satisfy American Indian
Education for all, but would not be exclusive.
The
specifics of the groups will be clarified in the descriptions and criteria.
The general
education framework was approved with a vote of 38 to 5.
Good and Welfare: None
The meeting
was adjourned at 4:50pm.