January 7, 2013


Jan 07 2013
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Meeting Minutes

ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES

January 7, 2013

 

Call to Order

The regular meeting of the Academic Senate, held on January 7, 2013, was called to order at 3:03 p.m. by Robert Fujinami, Senate President. The meeting was held in room 115 C. Roland Christensen Center.

 

Present: David Ailion, Stephen Alder, Lisa Aspinwall, Keith Bartholomew, Barton Blackburn, Tully Cathey, Kathy Chapman, Reaz Chaudhuri, Thomas Cheatham, Kuan Chen, Miguel  Chuaqui, Ronald Coleman, Marianna Di Paolo, Lee Dibble, Richard Dorsky, Kristina Evans, Sabine Fuhrmann, Bruce Gale, Michael Gardner, Timothy Garrett, William Gershan, Franz Goller, James Graves, Joan Gregory, Gary Grikscheit, Thad Hall, Mary Elizabeth Hartnett, Leanne Hawken, Tom Henderson, Howard Horwitz, Thunder Jalili, Christian Johnson, William Johnson, Bradley Katz, Sharee Lane, Anthea Letsou, Karl Lins, John Longino, Kim Martinez, Theresa Martinez, Heather Melton, McKenna Menees, Duncan Metcalf, Harvey Miller, Tatiana Mixco, Alfred Mowdood, Patricia Murphy, Chris Myers, Ingrid E. Nygaard, Patrick Panos, Lester Partlow, M. Pollie Price, Matthew Potolsky, Hannah Pratt, Alison Regan, Stephanie Richardson, Gary Rose, Sonia Salari, Paul Shami, Janet Shaw, Clough Shelton, Orine Shine, Gregory Smoak, Steven Sternfeld, Jeff Stratman, Orest Symko, Geneva Thompson, Taylor Thompson, Norm Waitzman, Molly Wheeler, Wynchester Whetten, Bryce Williams, Joanne Yaffe, Angela Yetman, Aaron Young, Jingyi Zhu

 

Absent: Clayton Beckett, John Conboy, Charlotte Conerly, Alicia De Leon, Kevin DeLuca, Justin Diggle, Aria Flatau, Charles Grissom, Michael Hawkins, L. Eric Huang, Evert Lawton, Melissa Meeks, Dragan Milicic, Anne Mooney, Trevor Myrick, Marlene Plumlee, Martin Rechsteiner, David Rudd, Kristin Smith – Crowe, Li Wang

 

Excused: Vivian Lee

 

Ex-officio:   Robert Flores, Robert Fujinami, Pat Hanna, Paul Mogren, Allyson Mower, David Pershing, Amy Wildermuth, Shawnee Worsley

 

Excused with Proxy: Leslie Francis, Eric Hutton, Gerald Root

 

Others: Martha Bradley, Katarina Felsted, Karin Fladmoe-Lindquist, Maureen Keefe, Cassandra Van Buren, Donna White

 

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the Academic Senate meeting on December 3, 2012 were approved following a motion from Joanne Yaffe which was seconded by Patrick Panos.

 

Request for New Business

No new business to address

 

Consent Calendar

The resignations retirements, faculty appointments, auxiliary and limited term appointments, appearing in the Appendices dated January 7, 2013, received approval to forward to the Board of Trustees on motion by Joanne Yaffe and seconded by Kim Martinez.

 

Executive Committee Report

Allyson Mower, Executive Committee Secretary, provided a summary of the Executive Committee meeting held December 17, 2012.

 

Report from Administration

President David Pershing spoke to the Senate regarding the upcoming legislative session. Today President Pershing attended the inauguration of Governor Herbert. Governor Herbert has worked to improve higher education and he continues to help with the proposed budget. The U employees have been included in the proposed 1% increase in compensation for state employees. Our number one request is compensation; we are trying to get more resources for the faculty and staff. Our state is doing better than others, and there are no proposed cuts this year. The next three months President Pershing will spend working on the legislative session.

 

The Senior VP for Academic Affairs search is ongoing. The recruiter is very positive about the applications that have been received. The applications will be reviewed by the search committee and hope to have the search completed by the end of the semester.

 

The U administration is closely watching the changes that are taking place at the U and other universities with the change in the LDS mission age. If you have friends, family or know students who maybe be affected by this please remind them to apply and be accepted prior to going on their mission. The enrollment for the U is still over 30,000 for spring term.

 

Report from ASUU

Geneva Thompson spoke to the Senate regarding ASUU. Geek Week was a success and will be expanded for spring semester. ASUU Elections are starting and we will have two parties filing. The posters will be displayed starting the end of February, please encourage all students to get involved. Martin Luther King, Jr. week will begin January 19. The big event this year is Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. keynote address that will take place Thursday, Jan. 24 at noon at the Jon M. Huntsman Center. The tickets are free and can be picked up at the ASUU office or online at utahtickets.com.

 

The 2013 Conference on Social Awareness will be held Saturday, January 26th at 12pm to 5 pm in the Spencer Fox Eccles Business Building. The theme this year is Empowering Diversity and the keynote speaker is Julian Bond. The purpose of the Conference on Social Awareness is to create awareness about societal disparities, inequities, and oppression.

 

Debate Calendar

Dean Keefe and Katarina Felsted presented the Proposal for Gerontology Minor. The Gerontology program is a gerontology interdisciplinary program so this is not just for nursing profession, but a very broad based minor. Currently the program offers a Master of Science degree, a graduate certificate and an undergraduate certificate degree. This is proposal is for an 18 credit minor to begin Fall 2013. While this meets the needs of some students within and outside the University, an Undergraduate Minor in Gerontology would provide additional benefits and knowledge in an academic area. This would allow students to obtain important gerontological knowledge to serve themselves, and those they interact with, including patients. In alignment with the President’s renewed emphasis on undergraduate studies, the Gerontology Interdisciplinary Program seeks to support this initiative through the development of a Gerontology Minor. The motion to approve and forward to the Board of Trustees was made by Ron Coleman and seconded by Sonia Salari. Motion passed unanimously.

 

Information Calendar

Donna White presented the Graduate Council Review Follow up report on the Department of Ballet. There was a review done by an outside firm that recommended the department stay in receivership and Linda Smith (the Interim Chair/Receiver) advised this is her recommendation also. Progress has been made in the department and continues to be made. No recommendations were made by senators.

 

The New Information Technology Security Rules 4-004B, 4-004C was presented by Robert Flores. These rules are to ensure that employees involved in managing IT are using best practices and aware of all security policies. The rules also require IT employees to take on-line training yearly. No recommendations were made by senators.

 

The following Emphases were presented: Emphases within the Education Psychology program, Care Management Emphasis, New undergraduate emphases in Political Science. The Senate did make a recommendation to clarify the MEd, MS, and PhD programs on the Emphases within the Education Psychology program.

 

New Business

Robert Fujinami spoke to the senators regarding the Faculty IT Council. At the October 1st meeting of the Senate, Cynthia Furse presented the plans to restructure governance of the University’s Information Technology Systems. This council is a result of that restructure, and starting today senators are asked to vote (by online voting process) upon a panel of candidates of faculty representatives to be members of the new Faculty Council. A lengthy discussion followed and a recommendation was given that two students be included on the Faculty IT Council (selected by the Senate President and ASUU President), and that consideration be given by IT administration to adding student representation on various other committees within the overall governance structure.

 

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 4:25 p.m.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Shawnee Worsley