Meeting, May 1, 2008
Gallagher Business Building, Room 123

DRAFT

Members Present:	B. Allen, C. Anderson, L. Barnes, R. Bendick-Kier, L. Blank N. Bradley-Browning, K. Canty, J. Carter, B. Cochran, A. Delaney, B. Douma, J. Eglin, D. Erikson L. Frey, J. Glendening, B. Halfpap, L. Hayes, J. Herbold, K. James, S. Justman, L. Knott, M. Kupilik, B. Larson, J. Lopach, J. Luckowski, M. Mayer, S. McCann, D. McCrea, M. McHugh, J. McNulty, S. Miller, C. Nichols, M. Papanek-Miller, M. Patterson, L. Putnam, T. Seekins, D. Shively, P. Silverman R. Skelton, G. Smith, D. Spencer, R. Stubblefield, H. Thompson E. Uchimoto, K. Uhlenbruck, K. Unger, N. Vonessen
New Members Present	A. D. Dalenberg, A. Duwell, D. Freeman, A. Golbeck, J. Halfpap, E. Hines, N. Hinman, D. Hollist, C. Potter
Members Excused	E. Ametsbichler, B. Brown, L. Dybdal, J. Gannon, J. Henry W. Holben, C. Loisel, M. Monsos, M. Pershouse, D. Potts B. Reider, J. Renz, A. Ware
Members Absent	T. Atkins, F. Cardozo-Palaez, J. Crepeau, L. Eagle Heart-Thomas, S. Gordon, S. Greymorning E. Rosenberg D. Six S. Stiff D. Stolle D. Swibold
Ex-Officio Present:	President Dennison, Associate Provost Walker-Andrews, Registrar Micus
Guests:	C. Brewer, T.Brown, J. Hirsten, S. Mills

Chair Hayes called the meeting to order at 3:10 p.m.

Registrar Micus called role.

The 4/10/08 minutes were approved.

Communications:

President Dennison
There has not been much activity in regards to the budget requests or campus initiatives by the Board of Regents. The present law adjustment items will be the same as those used in the last planning process. The ending fund balance projections continue to slope downward as a result of the subprime crises.

Meryl Lynch predicts that the Mansfield Foundation portfolio will likely show a negative for the second and third quarter, but will recover in the fourth quarter. The definition of a recession is a loss in consecutive quarters.

Senator Mayer: Is the subprime crisis impacting student loans?

President Dennison: Loans will not be a problem through fiscal year 2009. In order to stabilize the market, the Department of Education will be the guarantor of loans in the future. This will have the effect of increasing the cost of direct service loans for campuses. The Board of Regents appointed a student loan taskforce to evaluate the Montana student loan industry relationships. It made recommendations related to Montana Higher Education Student Assistance Corporation (MHESAC) bond activity and the Regents passed a resolution.

Senator Unger: Is there credit counseling available to students with regards to non government student loans?

President Dennison: The Students Assistance Foundation provides extensive counseling services for students.

Jim Hirstein, Chair, NWCCU Accreditation Steering Committee
Professor Hirstein outlined the timeline for the committees’ business. The review will need to be completed by December 2009 in preparation for the April 2010 visit. Next academic year the standard subcommittees will work on data collection, drafts, and exhibits. The chairs of the nine standard subcommittees are:

Standard 1: Institutional Mission and Goals, Planning and Effectiveness- Carol Brewer (chair ASP)
Standard 2: Educational Program and its Effectiveness- Arlene Walker-Andrews, Associate Provost
Standard 3: Students- Teresa Branch, VP Student Affairs
Standard 4: Faculty- Jim Burchfield
Standard 5: Library and Information Resources- Bonnie Allen, Dean, Libraries
Standard 6: Governance and Administration- Lou Hayes
Standard 7: Finance- Bill Muse, Director Planning, Budgeting & Analysis
Standard 8: Physical Resources- Bob Duringer, VP Admin & Finance
Standard 9: Institutional Integrity- Betsy Hawkins, HR Director
At-large faculty (Senate appointment): Eijiro Uchimoto
Staff Senate: Shelley Hinicker
Student: Dustin Leftridge

Carol Brewer, Chair, Academic Strategic Planning Committee
Professor Brewer disseminated the first newsletter. The website will be updated with the communication plan next week.

Tina Brown, Student Coordinator, Day of Dialogue
The next Day of Dialogue is scheduled for Thursday October 30^th. Request for proposals were disseminated to senators. Please consider participating.

Chair’s Report:
Online Course Development Policy and Process

The UM Online Director Keith Lynip and Mary Engstrom consulted with ECOS regarding the Online Course Development Policy and Process. The document was available to senators as information.

Evaluation of the administration

The results of the evaluation of the administration will be available for senators to review in late August prior to the first senate meeting. According to the bylaws ECOS must discuss the results with the administrators prior to presenting them to the Senate. ECOS has not had time to do this; therefore, presentation of the results will be delayed until the fall.

The annual report was available for senators to review. The Senate has had a busy year.

Committee Reports:

ASCRC Chair Holly Thompson
The curriculum consent agenda was approved.

ASCRC was asked by ECOS to review the possibility of increasing the number of upper-division credits required for a baccalaureate degree. It looked at data from other universities and how many upper-division credits UM students currently take. It also requested feedback from departments regarding the impact of an increase to 42, 45 or 48 upper-division credits. The report summarized these comments. ASCRC made the following recommendations:

1) The differences between lower and upper division courses should be articulated for students.

2) The upper division requirement should be revisited after the new general education curriculum is established.

President Dennison: The University only allows 60 credits to transfer from community colleges. If mostly lower-division credits are required for a baccalaureate degree than community colleges would offer them.

Senator Uchimoto: It’s common in the sciences to require two years of lower-division pre-requisite course work prior to upper-division courses in the major. There has to be a way to accommodate the differences between the disciplines.

Senator Spencer: The Department of Environmental Studies appreciates that the decision to increase upper-division credits is postponed. The changes to general education seem to be in opposition to increasing the upper-division credit requirements.

Chair Thompson was thanked for her service and given a certificate of appreciation.

Graduate Council Chair David Erickson
The curriculum consent agenda was approved. There were questions regarding the feasibility of an online PhD program in Physical Therapy. There is no longer a master program in Physical Therapy, so there is a need for practitioners to transition to a PhD. These students have already completed their practicum. This program will meet that need.

Chair Erickson was thanked for his service and given a certificate of appreciation.

Faculty Library Committee Chair Scott Mills
The annual report for the Faculty Library Committee was presented by the Committee Chair Scott Mills.

Chair Mills was thanked for his service and given a certificate of appreciation.

Unit Standards Committee Klaus Uhlenbruck
A summary of the committees’ activities was presented by Senator Uhlenbruck. He recommended changes to the form which would allow for acknowledgement of online meetings. The committee will be quite busy for several years working through the back log of outdated unit standards.

Chair Uhlenbruck was thanked for his service and given a certificate of appreciation.

Unfinished Business:

General Education Criteria and Outcomes
ASCRC Chair Thompson outlined the changes made to accommodate the concerns raised at the open forum. The Mathematics Subcommittee revised the description for clarity. In Group III, a learning goal was added for American Sign Language, but it will still be up to the Department of Modern and Classical Languages to determine whether ASL qualifies. The issue of credits for language courses offered outside MCLL still needs to be addressed.

The most significant change was in Group VIII Ethics and Human Values. The revised language allows for a cross cultural as well as professional approach. Students are still required to apply ethical reasoning from a specific ethical tradition.

The document was approved with one senator opposed.

The Chair of the General Education Committee G.G. Weix and the Chair of the Writing Committee Jean Carter were thanked for their service and presented with certificates of appreciation.

Statement of Ethical Principles
The final version of the statement is simple and innocuous. There was debate regarding the need for the statement and where it will appear, the use of the term aspire, and the statement being open for interpretation. It was approved with a vote of 23 in favor and 15 opposed.

Senate Departmental Representation Options
There was concern that the options did not provide enough detail and additional data was needed in terms of number of faculty in departments and voting history. Senators objected to leaving the selection procedures up to departments. Some suggestions were made to keep the current system, but improve the election process. The item was tabled with the suggestion that a committee be established to review the current election process and flush out the options. Some felt that the present system is broken and needs fixing while others are satisfied with the current system.

New Business

New senators were seated.
Nominations for chair-elect were opened. Nancy Hinman was nominated and accepted. There were no other nominations. Senator Hinman’s nomination was approved by the Senate

The College of Arts and Sciences’ Caucus nominated Senator Mayer to serve on ECOS. The Professional Schools’ Caucus nominated Senator Papanek-Miller and Bradley Browning to serve on ECOS. The nominations were approved by the Senate.

The new ECOS consists of:

Andrew Ware, Physics and Astronomy (Chair)
Nancy Hinman, Geosciences (Chair-elect)
John Eglin, History

Michael Mayer, History
Steve McCann, Mansfield Library

Nicole Bradley- Browning, Drama Dance
Mary Ann Papanek-Miller, Art

Good and Welfare:

None

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm.