Meeting Minutes
ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES
April 4, 2011
Call to Order
The regular meeting of the Academic Senate, held on April 4, 2011, was called to order at 3:042 p.m. by James E. Metherall, Senate President. The meeting was held in room 115 C. Roland Christensen Center.
Roll:
Stephen Alder, Peter Alfeld, James Anderson, Lisa Aspinwall, Richard Barton, Tami Beck, Joanna Bettmann, David Blair, Kumi Boike, John Bowman, Francis H. Brown, Craig Caldwell, Steve Carson, Doug Cartwright, George Cassiday, Reaz Chaudhuri, Kuan Chen, Michael Chen, Vincent Cheng, Margaret Clayton, Eva Comollo, Suzanne Darais, Larry DeVries, Lee Dibble, Kristina Diekmann, Richard Dorsky, Nadja Durbach, Richard Ernst, Richard Forster, Leslie Francis, Robert Fujinami, Bruce Gale Timothy Garrett, Gwyndolynn Gentry, Michael Goodman, Sandra Hasstedt, Henryk Hecht, Vladimir Hlady, Lauren Holland, Harriet Hopf, Martin Horvath, Howard Horwitz, Tom Huckin, Eric Hutton, Chase Jardine, Douglas Jones, Keith Keddington, Wen Kuo, Sharee Lane, Stephen Lessnick, Anthea Letsou, Joelle Lien, Karl Lins, Kim Martinez, Teri Mauch, John Metcalf, Joseph Metz, William Michel, Ann Mooney, Ryan Morrison, Allyson Mower, Chris Myers, Rachel Nardo, Keith Bartholomew for Chris Nelson, Chad Nielsen, Martin Rechsteiner, Anne Morrow for Alison Regan, Steve Reynolds, Kristina Rodriguez, Andrea Rorrer, Nelson Roy, Sara Schneider, Janet Shaw, James Sibthorp, Joseph Sin, Paula Smith, Sandy Smith, Steward Randall, Jeff Stratman, Orest Symko, Neil Vickers, Norm Waitzman, Bryce Williams, Angela Yetman Excused:
Ex-officio: Robert Flores, John Francis, Pat Hanna, Nancy Lines, Paul Mogren, James Metherall, Susan Olson, David Pershing, Octavio Villalpando, Chuck Wight, Michael Young.
Others: Ann Floor, Beverly Brehl, Neela Pack, Jennifer Allie, Andrea Rorrer, Ed Buendia, Joanne Yaffe, Phyllis Vetter
Excused: Lorris Betz, Chris Nelson, Alison Regan
Excused without Proxy: Ron Coleman, Kathryn Morton
Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the Academic Senate meeting on March 7, 2011, were approved following a motion from Jim Anderson which was seconded by Harriet Hopf.
Request for New Business
Beverly Brehl, director of the Teaching and Learning T.A. Scholars Program, gave a short introduction of the students’ projects that on display. The posters are a culmination of their outstanding work during the year and all are invited to see them in the foyer following the
meeting. She thanked everyone and informed them that applications can be found on-line for next year’s scholars.
Consent Calendar
The resignations, retirements, faculty appointments, auxiliary, and limited term appointments, appearing in the Appendices dated March 14 and April 4, 2011, received approval to forward to the Board of Trustees as proposed by Jim Anderson and seconded by Larry DeVries.
Executive Committee Report
Pat Hanna, Executive Committee Secretary, summarized her written report of the March 14, 2011, Executive Committee meeting.
Report from Administration
President Michael Young gave a recap on the Legislative Session noting that no changes were made for in-state tuition for undocumented students. New reporting requirements and the supervision process for building projects were put in place but are not expected to have any significant impact on current or future projects. There will be a budget cut of 2 percent based on last year’s budget, and a system-wide tuition increase of 7.8 percent which breaks down to a 5 percent for first year tuition and 2.8 percent for second year tuition.
The President reported that searches are well underway for the Senior Vice President for Health Sciences to replace Lorris Betz, the Chief Information Officer to replace Steve Hess, and the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs to replace John Francis. He announced the tentative appointment of Amy Wildermuth as the Associate Vice President replacing Susan Olson, with final approval pending (including formal notice to the Senate).
The President informed the senators of the new accreditation standards and introduced Chuck Wight, Dean of the Graduate School, to explain the new standards. Dean Wight reported that in January 2010, institutions within the region of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities met and voted to change the 10-year review process to a 7-year cycle. This is an important process for the University’s authorization to federal loans and grants for students. Four reports will be due approximately every other year beginning September 1, 2011. Dean Wight invited input to be sent to him before the September meeting.
Another major change was in the Standards themselves. Instead of being a prescriptive nature, i.e. “you must do”, it has been changed to a constructive type as in “you tell us what your mission is and how you are accomplishing it and then prove to us that you are doing it well”. There is no more “one size fits all” and each institution is allowed to design its own mission and goals and it does not interfere with specialized accreditation. As an example, in addition to Utah’s three core standards: teaching, research and public life, we have an additional standard in Health Sciences.
Report from ASUU
Chase Jardine, ASUU president, reported on the Rock the U fund raiser to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Institute. This year they raised over $40,000, which exceeds other years without a corporate sponsor. He introduced the newly elected student body president for the coming year, Neela Pack. He noted that she is the fourth female ASUU president in the history of the University.
Notice of Intent
Susan Olson, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, gave a brief overview of the revision to Policy 6-315 regarding faculty parental benefits. The policy was passed in 2006 and revised in 2007 with a required review after three years. Susan introduced Andrea Rorrer, Director of the Utah Education Policy Center, and Jennifer Allie, a Ph.D. student working with the Center and also Director Of Faculty Administration in the School of Medicine. Professor Rorrer explained the responses from the faculty who were surveyed in February, 2010, to find out what experiences have resulted from those who have taken advantage of the parental leave, and to determine the feelings of those who have not taken the leave but have been in departments where others have. They also wanted to see how the policy was implemented. From the 185 responses, they found that overall the faculty were supportive of the parental leave policy and felt it was fair and just. They determined that the policy was a good tool for recruiting and retaining top faculty as well as leveling the playing field in tenure for women faculty. There were a few other findings but the two of most concern were the lack of communication, as some faculty didn’t realize there was a policy, and the second was the difference in perceptions of leave-taking faculty and department administrators as to how much work the faculty continued to do even while on leave.
Following a lengthy discussion, a straw vote was taken on a proposed question: should taking of a leave of absence automatically be treated as a presumptive request for a tenure-clock extension? The majority voted against that presumption—preferring instead that a faculty member desiring a tenure-clock extension be required to make an affirmative request. Susan Olson requested that any concerns about the proposed revisions, including any specific amendments, be submitted to her prior to the last Academic Senate meeting for the academic year on May 2. Jim Anderson made a recommendation to move on and have any revisions to the document prepared for the Academic Senate meeting on May 2, 2011.
Debate Calendar
Ed Buendia, Director of Ethnic Studies, explained the proposed request for a Major in Ethnic Studies. The interdisciplinary major will prepare students from a wide range of racial and ethnic backgrounds interested in employment with organizations and agencies that work with historically underserved populations. The degree also serves as a strong foundation for students pursuing graduate work in areas of sociology, law, social work, education, psychology, and health sciences. No other higher education institution in the state offers this major while other PAC-10 institutions do. A motion from Jim Anderson to forward to the Board of Trustees for final approval was seconded by Bob Fujinami and approved unanimously.
Susan Olson and Joanne Yaffe, former chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, explained the proposed new policy 6-320 on Part-time Regular Faculty, and Policies 6-300 and 6-314. The new Policy 6-320 would clarify procedures for the existing policy that enables faculty to take a partial leave of absence at partial pay or to reduce permanently to a part-time position. Adoption of the new policy will enable the departments to provide a range of three alternative part-time arrangements. A few changes made since the March Senate meeting were explained. After a lengthy discussion of various aspects, the discussion focused on what role other department faculty might have in considering approval of a request for part-time status. Jim Anderson motioned to table the proposal and bring it back for the May meeting, with clarifications regarding the role of the department faculty, which motion to table was seconded by Vladimir Hlady and approved.
Information Calendar
The information calendar including Emphases for Chemistry, and Emphases for Geology and Geophysics were accepted without opposition. The Undergraduate Council Review of the Behavioral Science and Health Program was accepted.
New Business
There was no new business.
Adjournment:
The meeting adjourned at 5:03 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Lines