Meeting Minutes
MINUTES OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING
August 30, 2010
Call to Order
The regular meeting of the Academic Senate on August 30, 2010, was called to order at 3:03 p.m.by James E. Metherall, Senate President. The meeting was held in the Aline Wilmot Skaggs Building in room 220.
Jim Metherall welcomed the new members of the Senate and informed the entire body of the change of location for all future Senate meetings. Beginning October 4, the meetings will be held in the Warnock Engineering Classroom Building in room L105. A map will be provided with the next Senate agenda.
Roll: Stephen Alder, Peter Alfeld Bob Allen, Lisa Aspinwall, Richard Barton, Amanda Barusch, Tami Beck, Joanna Bettmann, David Bjorkman, Francis H. Brown, Connie Bullis, Doug Cartwright, Reaz Chaudhuri, Kuan Chen, Vincent Cheng, Breanne Chipman, Margaret Clayton, Ronald Coleman, Eva Comollo, Larry DeVries, Lee Dibble, Richard Dorsky, Sean Erickson, Richard Ernst, Jaimee, Farrer, Leslie Francis, Robert Fujinami, Bruce Gale, Timothy Garrett, Gwyndolynn Gentry, Michael Goodman, Sandra Hasstedt, Vladimir Hlady, Lauren Holland, Harriet Hopf, Martin Horvath, Howard Horwitz, Eric Hutton, Chase Jardine, Keith Keddington, Sharee Lane, Anthea Letsou, Joelle Lien, Karl Lins, Kim Martinez, Teri Mauch, Chad Metcalf, Joseph Metz, William Michel, Ann Mooney, Ryan Morrison, Kathryn Morton, Allyson Mower, Chris Myers, Rachel Nardo, Chad Nielsen, Bradley Palmer, Lester Partlow, Chris Peterson, Martin Rechsteiner, Sean Redmond, Steve Reynolds, Kristina Rodriguez, Nelson Roy, Sonia Salari, Wilfred Samuels, Sara Schneider, Janet Shaw, James Sibthorp, Joseph Sin, Paul Smith, Sandy Smith, Randall Stewart, Jeff Stratman, Orest Symko, Norm Waitzman, Bryce Williams, Chase Winder, Angela Hetman
Ex-officio: James E. Anderson, Annie Christensen, Robert Flores, John Francis, Pat Hanna, Nancy Lines, James Metherall, Joyce Ogburn, Susan Olson, David Pershing, David Rudd, Octavio Villalpando, Chuck Wight, Michael K. Young
Others: Ed Barbanell, Ann Floor, Ganesh Gopalakrishnan, Kevin Taylor
Excused: Loris Betz, Paul Mogren, Chris Nelson, Alison Regan, Andrea Rorrer, David Viskochill
Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the Academic Senate meeting of May 3, 2010, were unanimously approved following a motion from Jim Anderson which was seconded by Robert Fujinami.
Request for New Business
There was no new business.
Consent Calendar
The Executive Committee forwarded the names of Paul Mogren as Parliamentarian, and Robert Flores as Senate-Institutional Policy Committee Liaison for approval of the Senate. A motion by Larry DeVries to approve both names was seconded by Rachel Nardo and unanimously approved.
The resignations, retirements, faculty appointments, auxiliary and, limited term appointments, and Emeritus appointments appearing in the Appendices dated June 1, 2010 and August 30, 2010, received unanimous approval to forward to the Board of Trustees for final approval following a motion from Larry DeVries and seconded by Robert Fujinami.
Executive Committee Report
Patricia Hanna, Executive Committee Secretary, provided a summary of the Executive Committee meetings held on June 1, 2020, and August 2, 2010.
Report from Administration
President Michael K. Young delivered the “State of the University” immediately following the business portion of the Senate meeting.
Report from ASUU
Chase Jardine, ASUU president gave a summary of ASUU activities over the summer, including the ambassador program which currently has 15 students trained to go out into the schools. They plan to continue working on their goal of 25. ASUU is also creating a Career Guide for freshman students which will be resource specific in various areas. Former student profiles and case studies will be included to assist students interested in internships, service, or research. ASUU would appreciate feedback and advice from the Senate.
Following the ASUU report, Jim Anderson, chair of the Futures Committee, gave a short overview of the function of the Futures Committee and explained their purpose which is to allow faculty and students to bring up possible issues for future senate meetings. The main concern is regarding the direction Higher Education and the environment will be facing during the next 10 years. He invited suggestions be directed to him, james.anderson@utah.edu, or the Academic Senate office.
Notice of Intent
John Francis, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, explained that there were two points considered in the revisions of Policy 6-100 and Policy 6-101, and the creation of the new Rule 6-100A. First, substantive changes in class attendance, and second, several grammatical errors needed to be corrected. Ed Barbanell, associate dean of undergraduate studies, explained the proposed revisions basically clarify everything that is done every day as faculty, i.e. scholastic requirements, classroom attendance requirements, who can modify when final exams are given, course assessment and feedback, language clarification in reporting non-credit courses, academic suspension, discounting courses for previous students. He requested the senators discuss the revisions with their peers forward suggestions and thoughts directly to himself or John Francis so that they can be implemented before the next Senate meeting. He noted that the undergraduate requirements have been moved into another policy.
Debate Calendar
Ed Barbanell explained that the membership of the Undergraduate Council needs to be changed. The proposed changes to Policy 6-001 would remove the College of Pharmacy from the Council as they no longer have an undergraduate program, and would change the status of the Honors College, with an undergraduate program, from non-voting to a voting member. Norm Waitzman suggested that they be voted upon as two separate issues. Norm Waitzman motioned to approve the removal of the College of Pharmacy from membership in the Undergraduate Council which was seconded by Jim Anderson and approved unanimously. Norm Waitzman made a motion to approve the request to change the status of the Honors College from non-voting to voting member which was seconded by Steve Alder and unanimously approved.
Professor Ganesh Gopalakrishnan from the School of Computing summarized his request to establish the Center for Parallel-computing at Utah (CPU). The purpose for this center is to increase the University’s ability to develop high-performance parallel/concurrent programs that compute correctly and deliver correct answers. A motion from Larry DeVries to forward to the Board of Trustees for final approval was seconded by Ron Coleman and approved unanimously.
Kevin Taylor, director of University Information Technology, explained the requested revisions to Rule 4-002 regarding illegal file sharing. The revised rule will bring the University into compliance with the Federal Higher Education Act (HEOA) as it relates to policies regarding downloading copyrighted material and will become effective immediately for all students, faculty and staff who share materials. A motion was made by Jim Anderson to approve the proposed rule which was seconded by Mike Goodman and unanimously approved.
Information Calendar
The information calendar included three items: the revised College of Health Council Charter which was approved by the Executive Committee on August 2, 2010; two Graduate Council Reviews: 1) the Department of Theatre and 2) the Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience which were approved by the Executive Committee during the summer; and the revised Policy 3-215 and new Rule 3-215 regarding University Motor Vehicles which were approved during the summer by the Executive Committee.
New Business
There was no new business.
State of the University Address:
President Young presented the annual State of the University address as part of the Academic Senate meeting. He began by acknowledging the tragic death of one of our Hinckley interns in Washington D.C., Eric Wright, and extended his condolences to the Wright family.
The president commenced his address with acknowledgments for the tremendous leadership team and faculty which are central and important to the future of the University. He provided an overview of the University’s research growth, discoveries, and achievements and noted that research funding is up 27 percent to over $450 million, an increase of over $1 million over the last fiscal year. He notes that such record numbers are due to the extraordinary faculty at the U, competing with the best of the best nationwide for research dollars.
In addition to the strides in research, the President pointed out the successes in commercialization. The Technology Transfer Commercialization Office set another record by bringing in over $3 million in new revenue. Nineteen new technology companies were started bringing the five year total to over 100 while still being ranked #1 (tied with MIT) in the country.
The President mentioned the physical facilities which are necessary to compliment the trajectory and level of growth the University is experiencing. Fifteen major projects have been completed or are either under construction or in design. The collective construction value is over $725 million of which 80 percent is non-state funded with 18 percent funded by State resources. Among the structures he mentioned are: the David Eccles School of Business classroom building, the James L. Sorensen USTAR building, the Utah Museum of Natural History, the Student Life Center, and 4 Honors Housing facilities at the foot of Legacy Bridge. And our Campus Master plan was honored this year by the Society for College and University Planning with the Excellence in Planning Merit Award for Planning for a District or Campus Component.
The Together We Reach campaign for the University of Utah” is doing extraordinarily well with more than $949 million raised and pledged to date or 79 percent of the $1.2 billion goal. That number represents an increase of almost $30 million since last year.
He communicated that the University continues to attract exception students, and also continues to expand the international reach for students from various countries while encouraging our own students to participate in study abroad programs. Our international programs are doing exceptionally well. The College of Humanities was recently selected by the Department of Education to receive a Title VI National Resource Center Consortium grant for its Asia Center. The grant will provide $4.5million over the next 4 years to support students, faculty, research and community outreach.
President Young expounded on sustainability and acknowledged the U has always been at the forefront of responsibility in thoughtful environmental energy usage. He was pleased that our efforts have not gone unnoticed as the U ranks #4 in the nation on the EPA’s list of college and university “green power partners.” He recognized all who were engaged in this campaign and could not go on without mentioning the most important element, the exceptional students for really leading the way. Another personal note he said he was glad to see the U’s Farmer’s Market back in full swing for its third year.
President Young stated that this year the enrollment is up approximately 1500 students for a total enrollment of over 31,000 students. We have 2300 students qualifying for the Honors College and 500 additional students from out of state.
Going forward, the President commented that the University’s inclusion into the Pac 12 is important not only athletically but academically. We are now joining a conference of fellow exceptional, like-minded research universities. This change will present more challenges and opportunities to do more things.
He shared his vision of some far-reaching initiatives like the new U Signature Experience/Early Assurance Program to transform the way students prepare for college life and beyond; a commitment to bring the best and brightest students to the U; enhance communication and collaboration with faculty, students and staff; and provide cutting-edge technology tools to improve the efficiency of the business processes at the U.
In conclusion, the President noted that we are entering a critical time for this University, with change right around the corner. He indicated that the University welcomes and embraces that change and looks to grow and accept the challenges that come with it. He said that “this University is a remarkable academic jewel and our work and commitment to you is to join you in unleashing that sparkle for that jewel in an even more profound capacity.” He closed by stating that the growth and innovation at the U really comes from our faculty and that this sets U up for future greatness–trending upward and outward, further than ever been before.
Adjournment:
The meeting adjourned at 4:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Lines