Meeting Minutes
ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES
January 11, 2010
Call to Order
The regular meeting of the Academic Senate, held on January 11, 2010 was called to order at 3:03 pm by James A. Anderson, Senate President. The meeting was held in room 115 C. Roland Christensen Center. Jim welcomed everyone back for the new year.
Roll: Elizabeth Adoyo, David Ailion, Peter Alfeld, Bob Allen, Tim Ameel, Richard Barton, Shmuel Barusch, Amanda Barusch, Kuniko Boike, John Bowman, Francis H. Brown, Connie Bullis, Steve Carson, Vincent Cheng, Gwen Latendresse for Margaret Clayton, Tayler Clough, John Conboy, Suzanne Darias, Larry DeVries, Tina Diekmann, Marianna DiPaolo, Nadja Durbach, Eric Eddings, Marlene Egger, Richard Ernst, Richard Forster, Robert Fujinami, Jessica Gilmore, Michael Goodman, Michael Hardman, Sandra Hasstedt, Greg Hatch, Henryk Hecht, Bob Hill, Eric Hinderaker, Vladimir Hlady, Lauren Holland, Randy Jensen, Steve Kern, David Kiefer, Todd Kramer, Stephen Lessnick, Edward M. Levine, Joelle Lien, Laurence Loeb, Brad Lundahl, James Metherall, Joseph Metz, William C. Michel, Alysha Moore Esplin, Courtney Ferrin for Katie Moore, Allyson Mower, Chris Nelson, Maria Newton, Kevin Perry, David Plumlee, Mollie Poynton, Nelson Roy, Donn Schaefer, Antonio Serrato-Combe, James Sibthorp, Paula Smith, Sam Thomas, Jon Leano for Irving Torres, David Viskochil, Margaret Wan, Donna White, Bryce Williams, Lindsay Williams, Seth Welborn, Braden York.
Excused: Harriett Hopf, Peter Martin, A. Lor Randall
Ex-officio: James Anderson, Fred Esplin, Robert Flores, John Francis, Nancy Lines, Paul Mogren, Michael K. Young
Others: Ann Floor, Theresa Ashman, James Keener, Jim Agutter, Pat Eisenman
Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the Academic Senate meeting of December 7, 2009 were unanimously approved following a motion from Larry DeVries which was seconded by Michael Goodman.
Request for New Business
Senate president, Jim Anderson, updated the senators regarding the annual report from the Athletics Advisory Council. Their report to the Academic Senate is merely a courtesy as they report directly to the University president. Any recommendations made by the senate are advisory only but they may have more to report in the spring.
President Anderson also explained the tax recommendation of three percent on endowed chairs noting that it was unsuccessful and was rejected. The University is supportive in helping other areas and is looking at ways to expand endowed chairs to other departments.
Consent Calendar
The resignations, retirements, faculty appointments, auxiliary, and limited term appointments, appearing in the Appendices dated December 21, 2009 and January 11, 2010, as well as the Distinguished Teaching Awards recipients: 1) Marissa Diener (Family & Consumer Studies),
2) Sivaraman Guruswamy (Metallurgical Engineering), 3) Janet Lindsley (Biochemistry) and
4) Elizabeth Tashjian (Finance), received approval to forward to the Board of Trustees for final approval following a motion by Larry DeVries which was seconded by Dean Frank Brown.
Executive Committee Report
Jim Metherall, Executive Committee secretary, summarized his written report of the December 21, 2009 Executive Committee meeting.
Report from Administration
The University’s president, Michael K. Young, clarified a statement regarding tax on endowment contributions stating that he has never proposed a tax on endowment funds rather his predecessor did. Because it was not presented properly and the donors were mildly hostile they backed off. President Young indicated that the tax issue is still not off the table but there is a high priority to expand the number of endowed chairs in every department.
President Young reported on the University’s Community Campaign commending the Deans, Professors, Vice President Esplin and his team and all others involved for their extraordinary work. The 2009 Fiscal Year closed ahead of 2008 and the calendar year is also closing out ahead of last year. Part of the increase was due to the large gifts received at the end of the year.
An announcement will be made this week regarding the graduation speaker. The president urged the faculty to attend and enjoy this special event.
President Young addressed the budget issues indicating the University’s level of State funding is currently a moving target with the legislature. The U is hopeful that the governor and the legislature will understand the centrality of the University to the State. President Young stated that there is talk about what an additional four percent cut would look like. It would be a deep cut with serious consequences, but there seems to be some increased understanding of the importance of the University to the future of the state. He noted that economically speaking, a recent report from the Bureau of Economic Research produced a study suggesting that for every million dollars of research money the University brings into the state 20 jobs are produced, 8 within the University and 12 outside the University, with an average salary of $60K. Last year’s research dollars alone brought in close to 7200 jobs for the state. In addition, the commercialization of research done at the University in many ways is the future of the state. We have been second to MIT in commercializing more companies the past couple of years than any other university and are now four companies ahead of MIT.
He was very pleased with the principal of the Governor’s budget as the principal holds us where we are this year rather than taking additional cuts. However, infrastructure breakdowns are occurring at both lower and upper campus and great caution must be taken to preserve our capital stock.
In conclusion, the president responded to a few questions clarifying some concerns regarding endowment taxes and budget issues.
Report from ASUU
Tayler Clough reported that ASUU has been working on three things which were forwarded to the Trustees today: 1) restructuring of their constitution, 2) reduction in campaign spending, and 3) a new ethical bulletin to prohibit ASUU officers from providing contracts and grants to friends. He also noted that they are continuing to work on the community mentoring program.
Notice of Intent
No items of intent.
Debate Calendar
Susan Olson, associate vice president for academic affairs, commented on the proposed new policy, Policy 9-003 together with Rule 9-003 regarding Endowed Chairs. She reported that this topic has been a largely under-regulated activity and to avoid embarrassment going forward this new policy and rule will provide better protection to the donor and the University in determining who deserves an endowed chair. A suggestion was made to clarify the word “Presidential” whenever it is used in context to qualify is with “Presidential Endowed etc.” which was accepted as a friendly amendment. A motion from Steve Carson, seconded by Seth Welborn, to approve with the accepted friendly amendment and forward to the Board of Trustees for final approval received unanimous approval.
Distinguished Professor Jim Keener from the mathematics department presented an overview of the proposed Center for Quantitative Biology. The purpose of the Center is designed to establish a clearinghouse to encourage interaction between quantitative and empirical researchers and students for collaboration. The roll of the center is to bring in visitors, encourage and establish meetings, have a consulting center being a place where researchers can come and ask their questions and quantify their data to make a theory. It will be located in the Mathematics Department for now but will include a broad variety of backgrounds. A motion was made by David Ailion and seconded by Steve Kern to forward to the Board of Trustees for final approval which was approved unanimously.
Professor Jim Agutter from Architecture + Planning gave a short précis of the proposed Minor in Design. He stated this proposed minor is to create an opportunity for undergraduate students who don’t have experience and want to compete in an increasingly complex work environment and tackle multi-disciplinary problems. He noted the concerns from the Executive Committee concerning its broad title and proposed it be changed to a Minor in Multidisciplinary Design. Larry DeVries made a motion to approve the proposal as amended and forward to the Board of Trustees for final approval which was seconded by Suzanne Darais and unanimously approved.
Information Calendar
The information calendar was accepted with the notation that the proposed Policy3-041 dealing with intellectual property rights was excluded due to the expanded property rights issue.
New Business
No new business.
Adjournment:
The meeting adjourned at 3:55 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Lines