Meeting Minutes
ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES
November 7, 2011
Call to Order
The regular meeting of the Academic Senate held on November 7, 2011, was called to order at 3:05 p.m. by Patricia Hanna, Senate President. The meeting was held in room 1150 Marriot Library.
Roll:
Senators: Stephen Alder, Bob Allen, Lisa Aspinwall, Alexander M. Balk, Amanda Barusch, Joanna Bettmann, George Cassiday, Tully Cathey, Kathy Chapman, Reaz Chaudhuri, Kuan Chen, Margaret (Mardie) Clayton, Ronald Coleman, Kevin DeLuca, Lee Dibble, Marianna Di Paolo, Richard Dorsky, Richard Ernst, Leslie Francis, Sabine Fuhrmann, Robert Fujinami, Bruce Gale, Michael Gardner, William M. Gershan, Franz Goller, Michael Goodman, Joan Gregory, Gary Grikscheit, Charles “Chuck” Grissom, Thad Hall, Rachel Hayes-Harb, Howard Horwitz, Eric Hutton, Thunder Jalili, William (Bill) Johnson, Bradley J. Katz, Todd Kramer, Sharee Lane, Evert Lawton, Stephen Lessnick, Anthea Letsou, Kim Martinez, Teri J. Mauch, Heather Melton, Duncan Metcalf, Joseph Metz, Allyson Mower, Dragan Milicic, Patricia Murphy, Chris Myers, Rachel Nardo, Arthur C. (Chris) Nelson, Chris Pantelides,
Sean Redmond, Alison Regan, Andrea Rorrer, Gary Rose, Sonia Salari, Janet Shaw, Gregory Smoak, Jeff Stratman, Orest Symko, Brenda Vanderwiel, David Viskochil, Norm Waitzman, Margaret Wan
Student Senators: Emma Atkinson, Elle Barker, Andrew Black, Jackson Chambers, Doug Chan, Alicia De Leon, Will Hoang, Jillian Jensen, Grace Ku, Heather McElroy, Sara Nassof, Cory J. Nelson, Eleni Schenk, Taylor Thompson, Jeffery Van Hulten, Molly Wheeler
Ex-officio: Robert Flores, Robert Fujinami, Patricia Hanna, Paul Mogren, James Metherall, Dave Pershing, Amy Wildermuth, Shawnee Worsley
Others: Ann Floor, Tom Lovridge, Trina Rich
Excused: Neela Pack
Absent without Proxy: Tina Diekmann, Richard Forster, Timothy Garrett, Martin Horvath, Anne Mooney, Lester Partlow, Chris Peterson, Martin Rechsteiner, Taylor Spendlove, Li Wang, Angela Yetman
Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the Academic Senate meeting on October 3, 2011, were approved following a motion from Mardie Clayton which was seconded by Eric Hutton.
Request for New Business
(See new business items below.)
Consent Calendar
The resignations retirements, faculty appointments, auxiliary and limited term appointments, appearing in the Appendices dated November 7, 2011, received approval to forward to the Board of Trustees as moved by Stephen Alder and seconded by Todd Kramer.
Executive Committee Report
Robert Fujinami, Executive Committee Secretary, provided a summary of the Executive Committee meetings held on October 24, 2011
Report from Administration
Vice President Pershing reported to the senators the University will be requesting $50 million for infrastructure upgrades from the Legislature. The funding will be used to rebuild the electrical and hot water infrastructure some of which is 50 years old. The Utah Board of Regents has made the funding for the U its No. 1 priority in requests for new construction projects to the Legislature. Additional support comes from the Utah State Building Board which ranks it the No. 1 request in the state. Also on the priority list is faculty and staff salaries and mission based learning.
Vice President Pershing also spoke on the recent dedication of the new wing of the Huntsman Cancer Hospital. There will be two addition openings on campus; the first phase of the Spencer Fox Eccles Business Building was dedicated on Thursday, Nov. 10; the building will house high tech classrooms not only for the College of Business, but for general use by other disciplines as well. The Natural History Museum of Utah’s new Rio Tinto Center will be dedicated on Nov. 17 at 9 a.m.
Report from ASUU
Corey Nelson, ASUU academic affairs director, reported to the Senate.
Notice of Intent
Kevin Taylor presented the proposed Revision 3 of University Policy 4-004 (U of U Information Security Policy). This proposal makes the policy more specific to implement a sound information security program that will apply to all staff, faculty, students and other affiliated with the U. The revisions reflect changes in information security requirements and the University’s adoption of the Information Technology Council of the ISO 27002 standards. These standards are considered international best practices for information security and have been mapped with U.S. Standards. There are no changes to Rule 4-004A, which was established to comply with federal regulations regarding information security breach notifications and will remain in effect until further notice. This revision will be moved to the debate calendar for next month.
Debate Calendar
Proposal for a Major in Peace and Conflict Studies was presented to the Academic Senate by Leonard Hawes. This major is similar to those at peer universities and enhances the Peace and Conflict minor already in place at the U. The classes will allow students to study peace and conflict at levels ranging from in from the interpersonal to the international. Students will analyze the origins and causes of conflict at local and global levels. Then examine the varied ways individuals and/or groups are affected by conflict and finding the appropriate resolution. A motion from Allison Rorrer to approve the proposal was seconded by Marianna Di Paolo and unanimously passed.
Tom Loveridge and Trina Rich presented the Proposed Human Resources Policies for Faculty & Staff 5-200 and 5-403 Additional Compensation and Overload Policy.
The revisions in proposed Human Resources Policies for Faculty & Staff 5-200 address the health related leaves of absence for staff and bring the U in line with peer institutes. The policy will expand the definition of family from spouse, domestic partner and child age 18 and under; to include grandparents, parents, siblings, grand-children, in-laws and foster children. The hospital and clinics have a separate human resources office and do not affect this policy. A motion from Stephen Alder to approve the proposal was seconded by Thad Hall and passed.
Revised policy 5-403 Additional Compensation and Overload Policy was presented to the senate by Tom Loveridge. The changes to the policy include correcting wording to coincide with current Human Resources management practices 3-111 and removing practices that are no longer applicable. A motion from Rachel Nardo to approve the proposal with the friendly amendment of adding 3-111 was seconded by Patricia Murphy and passed.
Information Calendar
Rule 113A, a drug-free workplace (for staff employees only, not faculty), was approved at the last senate meeting but the related paperwork was inadvertently omitted on last month’s agenda. The vote was unanimous to accept Rule 113A.
New Business
Pat Hanna and Amy Wildermuth reported to the Senate on Building Safety. Because of the concerns about safety and misuse of campus buildings, campus security and administration wanted to clarify that campus buildings are not open 24 hours a day. Signs were posted on most building notifying the public that they are not a public building. However, the U is a public institution and should be open to the public; campus buildings receive public funds and the signs may send the wrong message to outside and inside audiences. The new signs will state each building’s open hours and that off hour use is restricted to those with official business.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 4:41 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Shawnee Worsley